Cooking with Barbara
Cheese and Onion Sandwiches from Ireland

Several people have asked me if I had any Irish recipes. Ireland has always been one of my favorite countries. Once we stayed on a working farm on a visit to Ireland. The people in Ireland live very simply and as they did many years ago. The countryside is so unspoiled and remotely beautiful. The people are so "down to earth," friendly and happy. So many of the young people have left the country for work elsewhere so they encouraged more middle age and elderly to work hard on the farms to make a living. We loved visiting the "Ring of Kerry," which is a narrow winding road way above the Irish Sea and steep cliffs. Mrs. McDowall on one of the farms served us Irish Soda Bread and gave me the recipe. I have never gotten it to turn out very well, in fact it was Horrible! Not anything like hers. Maybe the flour and soda measurements were different, so I will not print this recipe. However, we just LOVED the Cheese and Onion sandwiches we had in a pub. It is similar to the Cheese and Onion I printed last year from an English friend. Try it for lunch one day. It is really good and better than the regular toasted cheese sandwich.

Cut onion into thin slices, saute in 1 Tablespoon butter.

Cook until done, remove onions, slice cheese on one half a slice of bread. Cover with onion. Place other slice of bread on top and saute or toast in the pan where the onions were cooked. Brown on both sides. Can be eaten with a fork or picked up as a sandwich but have a napkin ready.

Many of the pubs in Ireland serve this, it is different and very tasty.