Irish Soda Bread

On St. Patrick’s Day my friend, Mary made Irish Soda Bread and brought it to the clinic where we volunteer. Needless to say, I made several trips to the kitchen that day to grab a piece of Irish Soda Bread. It was that addicting. My first mistake was tasting it, my second mistake was brining a piece home for Jim to try. He liked it as much as I did and we both craved more!

That afternoon Jim and I were reading the sale ads for the local Publix and much to our delight, they had Irish Soda Bread on sale. They had two different kinds, one with and one without, caraway seeds. Mary’s had caraway seeds, so we wanted that kind. Since it was late in the afternoon, I figured Publix would be sold out of Irish Soda Bread. I looked up their phone number, called the store and spoke with a real sweet gal in the bakery department. She found one loaf that had caraway seeds. I asked her to put it on hold and told her Jim would be there shortly to pick it up. I made a quick grocery list and sent Jim out the door to pick up our treat.

In this particular Publix, our cell phones will not work in their store. You have to go outside to make a call. It becomes really frustrating if you need to call home and ask a question when you’re at the store. Fifteen minutes after leaving the house, an annoyed Jim was standing in front of Publix, on his cell phone, with me. “Didn’t you call and put a loaf of bread on hold? There is a little oriental lady working in the bakery that doesn’t speak or understand English very well. She seems confused about the caraway seeds and isn’t sure which loaves have them. And, she can’t find the loaf that you put on hold.” Hmmm, I wondered, “Is it that she has a problem with the English language, or that she has a problem with a frustrated redneck???”

I insisted he go back and tell her I had just called the store, and there WAS a loaf of bread on hold. In the meantime I called the bakery department and a young man answered. I explained the situation and he found the loaf of bread behind the counter. I told him to be on the lookout for a big guy with a beard, wearing a cowboy hat, who was very grumpy.

Jim went back to the bakery. The little oriental lady had started passing out samples of Irish Soda Bread and offerend him one. He told her a sample wouldn't help figure out which loaves had caraway seeds. As he grabbed a loaf off the counter, she looked at him and said, “You don’t like, you bring back.” He informed her that he didn’t want a loaf he might have to bring back, he wanted a loaf to eat.

Twenty minutes passed and I called Jim’s cell phone. He was on his way to the house with a loaf of Irish Soda Bread. He didn’t see “caraway seeds” on the label, so it was probably not the kind of bread he went in search of, in the first place. Now I was getting annoyed and told him I was calling the store and complain.

I called the store and the same little gal I had spoken with the first time, answered. I told her that Jim had been to the store and the little oriental lady could not find our loaf of bread, nor could she figure out which loaves had caraway seeds in them. “What oriental lady?” she asked. Uh oh, I didn’t like where this was going at all. “We don’t have an oriental lady working in our bakery. Did you mean to call the Publix on Hwy 17, or the one on 220?” I told her I wanted the store on Hwy 17 and thought that’s the one I called.

“Oh, people get us confused all the time. Our store is the one at 220 and 17, but the address is listed as Hwy 17. The other one is on Hwy 17, but the address is listed as Hibernia Road. You called the wrong store.”

One mystery solved and one mistake I won’t be repeating. When Jim came home, I told him about my big blunder and we both laughed. All the aggravation, back and forth phone calls and we had the wrong store the entire time! Jim said he sure was glad that he didn’t get irate with the little oriental lady and show his butt. Wonders of all wonders on that one! He was actually proud of himself for not speaking his mind to the innocent little lady. He thought for a minute and then said, “I bet I win the lottery tonight, since I was so nice.” Sorry Jim, I don’t think it works that way. If it did, I’m sure we would stand a good chance of hitting the big one!