Irish Soda Bread (TWD) and Vitacost Deal on Coconut Oil

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia was hosted by Carla of Chocolate Moosey and Cathleen of my culinary mission.  The chosen recipe was Irish Soda Bread.  So named because instead of yeast, baking soda is used as the leavening agent in this bread.

It's pretty similar to most quick bread recipes (or biscuits), in that you mix all the dry ingredients together in one bowl, then pour the liquid ingredients in and mix it all together.  This recipe does call for a quick kneading, however, and I found the dough to be way too wet to knead.  I had to add quite a bit of extra flour before I could handle it.  Otherwise, this was a super easy recipe and it came together in just a matter of minutes!  I added dried cranberries and chopped dried apricots to mine, which gave it a slightly sweet but not overwhelmingly sweet flavor.  I saw that a few other bakers added cheese to theirs and I think that will be my next rendition of this recipe :)

Thanks to Carla and Cathleen for hosting; you can find the recipe on their blogs here and here.  Make sure you check here, too, to see all the other variations on this classic Irish bread.

Also, if you missed the last Vitacost deal I posted about, their free shipping promotion has been extended through 3/26 at 9am EST.

Right now, Vitacost.com is offering FREE shipping on orders that contain over $20 in Vitacost brand products.  (Normally their shipping fee is $4.95 for orders under $49 and free shipping for orders $49+)  Pair this free shipping offer with their $10 off $10 promo (for new customers) and you can get $20 worth of products for just $10.

You can get the 54oz Vitacost Coconut Oil for just $11.95 after the discount.  It's normally $18.89 on Amazon, so this is quite a savings.

Here's how:
1) Use this link to sign up and get a $10 promo code sent to your email.  After you register for an account with Vitacost.com (it must be through the link provided) you will receive an email with the subject line "Here's your $10 coupon for Vitacost.com" (this may take an hour)

2) Then add the Vitacost Coconut Oil to your cart for $19.95 (used to be $20.99 so it would qualify for free shipping alone).  Add the apple cider vinegar ($2) as a filler to bring your total to $20+.  Then use the $10 off code sent to your email, bringing your order total to $11.95 for both the coconut oil and the apple cider vinegar!

Of course, feel free to look around their website for other items.  You can view all Vitacost brand items that qualify for this free shipping offer here. 

Also, don't forget to add 2 free samples to your cart before checking out (they've got a few different teas and other samples available).  Happy shopping!