when in ireland - part three

It's not yet been a year since my adventures 'round the Emerald Isle, but I find myself becoming nostalgic about that journey lately. The other night some friends and I enjoyed a warm evening (something I can't say I had the pleasure of experiencing in Ireland, I must admit...) over a few drinks outside the pub, swapping memories of our voyages across the pond. The conversation's catalyst? A quite-close-to-authentic snake bite - authentic, that is, to the Irish snake bites I love. 


I discovered this drink one night at Stoney's Bar, a hole-in-the-wall on Hill Street in the north side of Dublin (check out the street view; you'll see what I mean). Definitely one of those local venues, Stoney's was small, laid-back and not crowded with tourists. The perfect sort of place to actually talk to the bartender. Not quite sure what I wanted, I indecisively asked for a Bulmers - no - a beer perhaps - well, but cider did sound tasty...

to market, to market - 26 may

This past weekend, for the first time since moving here, I finally made it to the famous Downtown Farmers Market!

yet another reason to cook [healthy] at home...

courtesy of makinghealtheasier.org

i hate fluffy dumplings.

this is what chicken & dumplings should look like!!

I'll never forget the first time I tried to make homemade chicken and dumplings. I was maybe 12 years old, just starting to peruse cookbooks on my own and imagining myself the budding chef de cuisine of our household. Looking back on those days, I'm sure I was a disaster and a half in the kitchen, but I had an awesome mom who was willing to take a step back and let me exercise my independent nature, and even compliment my efforts - which were surely dubious sometimes. (Thanks, Mom!)


Anyway, I decided one day that I wanted chicken and dumplings. It was my favourite thing to get at Cracker Barrel whenever we were on a road trip. Alas, there were no Cracker Barrels anywhere near Waterloo, so I hit the books in search of a recipe. I think I picked the first one I came to, in a church cookbook from Frederika or Sumner, and carefully followed every step. Though slightly confused as to why one would spoon the dumpling mixture into the boiling broth almost like drop biscuits, I faithfully adhered to the directions and covered the simmering pot.

pain perdu

french toast, bacon, and cabbage...
a rather international breakfast

I'm writing this about a week later than intended thanks to a complete failure of internet at the new apartment. Ah, well... several hours spent on the phone with the internet people and one new modem later, we're back in business! 

Last Monday, after a long weekend of moving and unpacking, breakfast for dinner was in order. Because let's be honest - breakfast, in the proper sense of the word (i.e. bacon must be included) doesn't happen all that often during, well, breakfast hours. But who doesn't love bacon and french toast? 

Funny story about this dinner, too...

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Well, I can't say the past week has been particularly great. A steadfast cold, an emergency room visit, ongoing problems of home-ownership, a missing cat, and hurry-up-and-wait-to-NOT-be-selected job interviews have started to coalesce into a feeling of general dismay. But you know what? It's Friday. We got the keys to our new apartment. A care package is on its way. I'm dressed up to go out for dinner. And there's a bottle of wine waiting for me to finish it when we get back. Life sucks sometimes. But it's not all bad.


So... to Fridays.

Cheers!

some days...

Some days I kind of miss being a kid. Especially when I've been trying to kick a cold for a solid week and I'm still going through a box of Kleenex about every three hours and have to take aspirin constantly so that my throat doesn't swell completely shut. I miss lying in bed, reading Calvin & Hobbes and having lovely nourishing and comforting things brought to me by my mother. 

Hot honey lemonade was one of those things. Not only is it delicious, but it's actually a good cold remedy. The lemon juice is full of vitamin C, and honey is both antibacterial and an expectorant. Local honey is the best, containing the pollen you're regularly exposed to and helping build your resistance to allergic reactions. 

hawaiian poke

The first time I had poke (pronounced poh-kee) was seven years ago in Pueblo, Colorado. My mom, brother, grandparents and I were visiting my grandma's brother and his family. Uncle Bob and Aunt Rickii live in Colorado Springs, but one night we all took a short road trip to visit their daughter Roni in Pueblo and go out for sushi with her family. They ordered Hawaiian poke, a sashimi dish of marinated tuna. First thing we did when we got back home was tell our local sushi chef, Le, that he had to make us poke (even though it wasn't on the menu). 

shrimp and spice and jasmine rice

(...that's what a lovely dinner is made of.)

pepper duo

Well, it was definitely a cold that had me feeling under the weather on Monday. A really nasty bug that had me feverish, achy, congested and otherwise miserable for a good three days. I tried to maintain a somewhat normal schedule and at least put dinner on the table, but I was too wiped out for anything too fancy. So I turned to an old standby - easy étouffée. Thanks to canned soup, frozen shrimp and my ever-handy rice cooker, this dinner was something even a sniffling, shivering me could muster.