Swedish and Easter Egg Braid Bread

My Grandmother passed down a tradition in our family of making Swedish Braid Bread, a delicious sweet bread flavored with mildly spicy cardamom and braided into a glistening golden loaf of goodness.  It's a tradition I like to continue to this day, and I've recently learned how to combine this Swedish tradition with the Italian tradition of tucking eggs into the bread for a really special treat.

Two things to note:  1) You can follow this tutorial to braid any kind of bread recipe, and 2) there are various ways you can shape and size the loaves of braided bread.

Irish Soda Bread in time for St. Patrick's Day

Irish Soda Bread isn't just for the Irish.  In fact, Native Americans were making soda bread before the European settlers arrived. It became known as Irish Soda Bread because it was considered a poor man's bread; it was the easiest and least expensive bread to put on the table during the great potato famine in Ireland.  It has become a common tradition to buy or make soda bread for St. Patrick's Day.