(no subject)

 I have experimented with a whole-wheat recipe for Irish soda bread, which uses a little steel-cut oatmeal as well as white and wheat flours. It looks excellent, but I can't try some until the potluck lunch at noon. Meanwhile, my office smells like delicious.
Interestingly enough, the recipe is credited to Diane Duane. I don't know if she's the author or not.
http://www.europeancuisines.com/Peters-Mums-Soda-Bread-Recipe

misc notes

 Bisteeya with chicken was a wild success; I used a recipe from Epicurious and added extra spice blend. It took 4 hours to make, though. Part of that was prepping the ras el hanout spice mix, and part of it was cooking the chicken (in homemade turkey stock) for an hour. Filo isn't hard to work with, but it is slow.

Lauren made macaroni and cheese pie with a cheese topping; there was bacon to crumble on top for the not-vegetarians around. We decided bacon would be better mixed in, and there was some discussion of gourmet cheese in addition to sharp cheddar.