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"  Corned beef and cabbage have their place, but as I was reminded at a bountiful breakfast Tuesday morning, there&amp;#039;s more to Irish food than those two St. Patrick&amp;#039;s Day staples. Chef Neven Maquire (TV personality and chef/proprietor of the MacNean House in Blacklion, Ireland) showed our group some of that varied cuisine, which showcases the produce and dairy made rich by the country&amp;#039;s lush growing conditions. Ireland has the longest grass-growing season in the world, so that makes for a lot of very well fed cows! The breakfast, sponsored by Kerrygold (aka the Irish Dairy Board), featured the cheeses and super rich cultured butter for which Ireland is justly famous. Among other goodies, we feasted on creamy porridge, herbed pancakes with smoked Irish salmon and cr\u00E8me fra\u00EEche, sausages with red-onion chutney, brioche with mushrooms and asparagus . . . (I cried uncle when they brought out the cheese plate.)  But I think my favorite was the brown bread, especially slathered with generous lashings of salted butter. Lucky for me, they sent us home with gifts of cheese, butter, and the next best thing to a homemade loaf: a soda bread mix. Even luckier, my boss Susan whipped up a raisin-studded round (that&amp;#039;s it, above, and yes, it was as delicious as it looks).  I still plan to have some corned beef and cabbage in honor of St. Patrick&amp;#039;s Day (check out Sherry&amp;#039;s blog entry from last year if you have the time and want to do the same), but there&amp;#039;s also another fresh-from-the-oven Irish soda bread in my future, bathed in lovely, tangy, creamy butter from happy Irish cows. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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