Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Christmas in Dublin

On Saturday, December 20, we did nothing.

December 20th was the first weekend day that we were in Dublin with no house guests since October 18th. Not that our travels and visitors weren't fabulous, but it was nice to have a day of nothing.

On December 21, we went to a Christmas Market at the Docklands in Dublin. We attended this market last year on a gorgeous, sunny day. This year was soggier, but still a nice time with lots of crafts and a brass band playing carols. We ate bratwurst and drank Erdinger Weissbier.

On Christmas we attended a service in the 19th Century building our church is renovating in downtown Dublin. That afternoon we opened presents and I took a Christmas nap. We had a delicious Christmas dinner with some friends, Graham and Margaret and their family. Bill provided the starter--tamales! Not traditional for Irish Christmas, but they were well received (for the most part). For dinner we had ham, turkey and goose! Veggie accompaniment included Brussels sprouts with rashers and cranberries, roasted root veg, and stuffing. Our friends were house sitting and Margaret was a bit stressed over cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen, but she created a wonderful meal. Her daughter made our dessert, mince pies and gingerbread sandwich cookies with lemon cream. After dinner and Christmas crackers we watched the Dr. Who Christmas special and the new Wallace and Grommet.

On St. Stephen's day we ate tamales and huevos rancheros for breakfast. For dinner we had Cork Beef and Stout stew, made with mushrooms and Beamish stout. A tasty day.

4 comments:

Heather said...

Definitly sounds like a delicious holiday! I know how you love those root vegtables, Sharon :)

Sharon said...

I did pick around the parsnips, but the sweet potatoes were great!

mom Gunter said...

Thought I'd try again to post comment on this post. Maybe the third time will be the charm. What is that on top of the tamales? It looks likr fried potatoes and beef roast. Also what goes into huevos rancheros besides eggs? It all looks delicious. Also please explain the picture of you two where Bill is wearing a hat or cap or crown?

BillG said...

The tamales were made with pork and on top of them is a chile sauce. There are also a few roast potatoes on the plate. Huevos rancheros are fried eggs on a corn tortilla with a sauce of some kind, in this case the same sauce as the tamales. You can also smear the tortilla with refried black beans and top with a fried egg in which case you'd have huevos motulenos.