Buttermilk Surplus and Irish Soda Bread

Buttermilk shopping irks me almost every time! Usually I buy it only for a specific recipe, so don’t need too much.  Occasionally, you can find a pint container, but mostly it comes quart-sized or larger.  Isn't a quart is way too much for any one recipe?  I know they sell it in that quantity so they can charge more and make more money and that’s what really irritates me, not to mention potential waste!  (You don't want to know how long I have kept this clabbered stuff in the fridge past it's use-by date, hoping to use it up.) 

Turning a sour situation into a sweeter one, I just decided to make another loaf of the Irish Soda Bread, for which I had originally bought the buttermilk.

London, not Ireland, was where I had my first bite of this tasty loaf; it was love at first flavor!  As the name implies, it is not a yeast bread, but uses only soda and sometimes egg for leavening.  In England, you could buy it in a traditional loaf shape, but any recipe I have seen calls for making it round and scoring deeply in the middle.  It's a very rustic loaf; mine is a little wilder than usual looking, maybe because I scored it too deeply, or maybe because I forgot to preheat the oven and the bread sat out and rose for a bit before going in the oven.  I do kind of like the shape of the Celtic cross in the middle though.  Anyway, it was quite tasty warm with butter and strawberry jam!