Because there are no big holidays until Easter and Passover, this year I’m mashing up St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th) with World Sleep Day (March 18th.) Translation: I will bake and then demolish a round of Irish soda bread (recipe below) and then hopefully have a good night’s sleep.
It’s funny that World Sleep day comes the week we’ve all had our slumber thrown into disarray thanks to daylight savings time. According to the Canadian Research Chair, up to 25% of Canadians suffer from a sleep disorder. I would argue that by a certain age (ahem) that number hovers around 100%. Does anyone our age sleep through the night unassisted?
Here is the Oldish sleep pack:
Madge and Mercer’s La Calma is a high 50 mg dose of CBD with a micro 2 mg dose of THC for anxiety reduction and sleep assistance. And the subtle ginger and lemongrass flavour handily mask that ‘singular’ pot smell and taste. It cracks me up that so many of us who did not partake when we were younger are all over this stuff now.
The Belif Aqua Bomb sleep mask, $45, Sephora, a cousin to the truly stellar Aqua Bomb moisturizer soothes and hydrates your poor, winter-dried-out face overnight, with anti-oxidant-rich Lady’s Mantle and Scottish heather to calm irritation and redness. So even if you don’t sleep properly (oy), at least the face in the mirror the next morning will look dewy and rested.
A great big, body-wracking O is still the best soporific. Dame Products is a woman-owned company so you get cleverly designed tools that are cringe-factor free, much more aesthetically pleasing than a standard issue vibrator and ‘face meltingly’ (not my words, but such good words) effective. The Aer, $120, doesn’t vibrate, instead using puffs of air to work its magic.
30 minutes before bed, open the window (cold rooms equal better sleep) and lightly spray your pillow with Bleu Lavande’s calming lavender room spray, on sale for only $13.88, Shoppers Drug Mart. When you walk into the gently scented, cold room at bedtime, it will feel like some kind soul (you, a half an hour ago) prepared the room for a good night’s sleep.
Keep Ilia Lip Wrap Hydrating mask, 434, Sephora, on your nightstand as a reminder to use it before bed. Papaya enzyme gently exfoliates while mango butter and a host of nourishing oils bring moisture back to chapped lips. You might argue that a lip product isn’t a sedative, but it’s these bedtime rituals that tell your brain it’s time to sleep.
We’re supposed to turn off our screens and read a book before bed, but that’s difficult when our phones are virtually soldered to our hands. A bath prevents this, unless you are a true cowboy who puts their laptop or iPad on a bath tray, in which case I cannot help you.
My favourite Canadian bath company, Bathorium, has stellar scent blends like Sea Kelp Serenity bath crush, $30, The Detox Market, a Dead Sea salts bath soak with lavender and bergamot that will relax you down to your bones so completely that you’ll have to crawl to your bed.
This stunner of a soda bread is not mine, but with this recipe and a cast iron pan, it can be yours.
And finally, I want to leave you with a recipe for soda bread. It comes together quickly, requires no kneading and by baking it in a cast iron pan you ensure a satisfyingly crunchy crust.
Soda Bread
Makes one round, serves 2-4.
For a savoury version, omit the sugar and add three chopped green onions and a cup of coarsely grated cheddar to the dry ingredients and butter mixture before adding the buttermilk.
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups buttermilk (no substitutions)
1 egg (optional, for added richness. So yeah, do it.)
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour (spooned into a measuring cup to ensure an accurate amount. Dragging the cup through the flour and then levelling it off packs too much flour into each cup.)
3 T granulated sugar
1 t baking soda
1 t kosher salt (Diamond Crystal if possible. It really is the best.)
5 T cold, cubed unsalted butter.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and lightly grease a 10 inch cast iron skillet.
Whisk together the cold buttermilk and the egg.
Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
Add the cold cubes of butter to the flour mixture and incorporate it with a pastry cutter until it all resembles cornmeal (as if you were making a pie crust.)
Pour in the buttermilk/egg mix and stir until combined. When you have a unified (albeit crumbly) mass, turn it onto a floured board and barely knead for only half a minute until the flour is incorporated.
Shape into a round and place in your cast iron pan. Cut a cross into it almost all the way through, as this will help it bake evenly, place on the middle rack and bake for about 40 minutes. (Start checking at the 30 minute mark. You might want to drape it with foil if it browns too quickly.)
Remove when done and cool it on a wire rack and then happily consume it all in one sitting.
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And finally, here’s something to be proud of: the government of Canada reached their $30 million match ceiling for the Red Cross by March fourth, but the Red Cross is still a great place to donate to help Ukraine.