It seemed like a good idea at the time

I've this lovely new friend who is working on a project that requires her to research cooking and food. At work. It's her JOB. How lucky is she?!

She's been emailing interesting recipes my way, and she even gave me an Irish-themed cookbook because I was flipping through it and found instructions for making Guinness ice cream, quite possibly one of the best edible things on the planet. (Did anyone besides me buy a gazillion pints of what turned out to be a limited edition of the Ben & Jerry's version, circa 2006? The name -- Black & Tan -- caused a bit of a stink with Irish Nationalists, but boy was it yummy.)

Anyway, knowing that I love to bake and love Guinness, my friend sent me this recipe for Guinness Bread. Looks amazing, doesn't it? And the description of slathering it with butter and cinnamon sugar had me drooling. I decided to whip up a loaf last night, which required 2 bottles of the good stuff, since if I'm not getting it straight from the tap, I prefer the draught version with the widgety thingamajig inside that creates a better head of foam and those bottles are 11.2 ounces.

Thank goodness I got to enjoy the vast majority of that second bottle because that bread was TERRIBLE. The fresh version gave me a stomach ache and was the consistency of library paste. I wanted to believe the hype about the toasted version, but alas, the result was the thinnest of crispy coatings and the same gummy middle. I hate to waste food, and even more, I hate to waste a good bottle of Guinness, but the Boy Scout and I agreed that there was no saving this wreck of a recipe. There's a lovely yeasty starter blobbing away in the kitchen right now. Here's to a better outcome with the ice cream!