After a bit of a lie in, Bill gets up around 10:00 to watch Saturday Kitchen. I usually wander into the living room by 11:00. Saturday Kitchen is a bit of an institution, which is evident by the number of mentions in the twitterstream during the broadcast. The show features in-studio cooking demonstrations by visiting chefs, as well as dishes prepared by the host James Martin. James is a polarizing force in the world of television hosting, with distinct pro and anti camps. We're both pro. I think he's an excellent host, very adept at describing what he's cooking and chatting up the celebrity guest* at the same time. Saturday Kitchen also includes clips from a variety of other BBC cookery** shows by the likes of Rick Stein, Keith Floyd, the Hairy Bikers and sometimes even our old Fat Lady friends, Clarrissa and Jennifer. The Omlette Challenge which pits guest chefs in a timed egg match is surprisingly entertaining. One benefit of watching Saturday Kitchen is that we're now familiar with many of the British chefs of the moment.
After watching 90 minutes of food being prepared, Bill makes his way to the kitchen to produce some kind of amazing brunch. Recent creations are pictured below.
French Toast with Orange Zest and Cinnamon.
Baked Eggs with Spinach.
Breakfast Tacos with M&S British, Outdoor-Bred, Dry-Cured, Smoked,
Streaky Bacon. Tastes like real bacon!
Most Saturdays Bill pays a visit to the Red Stables Market*** in St. Anne's park. I frequently accompany him. The market is one of the reasons we love our proximity to St. Anne's. It's a small market, but contains all the major tasty groups: organic meats, cheeses from Sheridan's, various ethnic foods, tempting breads from Soul bakery, and organic fruit and veg from Duncan at Organic Delights. Sometimes Duncan has amazing surprises like tomatillos or white onions.
Bill comes back from the market inspired to cook wonderful things. For example, the cavolo nero in this photo (above) was featured in pasta along with garlic, pancetta, and cherry tomatoes.
Recently Bill has been keeping an eye on the wild garlic growing by the river.
I guess it makes sense that our Saturdays, like our holidays, revolve around food. Happy Saturday everyone!
Hey, Bill just came back from the Market with Scallops! Yum.
* Guests are of some noteriety in Britain, which means we often have no idea who they are. My favorite guest: Len Goodman.
** They say cookery here.
*** If you have four minutes, watch this video I found with scenes of Red Stables market, with a few misspellings, set to a slightly annoying soundtrack.
Well, I'll start with a wee bit of November. This year we enjoyed our first Thanksgiving meal in Ireland hosted by fellow American Amanda and her Dub husband Hagi. Amanda did most of work, preparing all the classic dishes and her first Turkey! We brought a pan of cornbread dressing. Amanda is from Georgia, so the dressing was much appreciated. We also watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Hadn't seen it in ages, so awesome! I should keep a copy of the show handy for all the people who ask me what Thanksgiving is all about.
Below, our friend Graham demonstrates the proper way to eat a mince pie, following a night of caroling with our church. I think my personal mince pie tally for the holiday season is around three dozen.
And a few scenes of Dublin in its Christmas finery.
We were let out of work a bit early on Christmas Eve, so I was able to catch the sunset over St. Anne's. We spend the evening with the Barnes Family. Caragh prepared a lovely ham, and the kids had helped make homemade mince pies. We also sampled Yarg, a regional specialty cheese from Caragh's homeplace, Cornwall. Yarg is a cow milk cheese based on a 13th-century recipe. It's typically wrapped in nettle leaves, but this wheel was covered with wild garlic leaves, which infused the semi-hard cheese with lovely garlic aroma. We also enjoyed some 2-year aged Gouda (which people in the know pronounce how-da). Cheese, Grommit!
On Christmas morning, we had a bit of a lie in, followed by the Opening of Presents. Bill then set to work preparing his dishes for the Christmas feast to come.
On Christmas we loved being Kingstons for a day. Hilary, Anna and Bill put together an amazing Christmas dinner of cranberry-stuffed pork, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts with pancetta, savory bread pudding with leeks and gruyere, and ginger-glazed sweet potatoes, followed by a dizzying collection of desserts. Those cranberry cocktails were pretty nice too!
On Stephen's Day we visited Colin (and his dogs!) in Laytown for dinner. Bill and I worked the three days between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Snow started falling on New Year's Eve. It was the beginning of The Big Freeze.
I went for a walk yesterday on the coast road and in St. Anne's to take some pictures. It was a lovely day and loads of people were taking advantage of the break in the weather.
Even the inlet behind Bull Island was partially frozen over.
Ducks standing on the frozen duck pond in St. Anne's Park.
A footbridge over the Naniken River in St. Anne's.
This hill is perfect for sledding. I heard the screams and laughter from the river and had to check it out. The kids were having a ball.
The only snowmen I saw in the park. The carrot nose and bough toupee are great.
The weekend of April 18 & 19 brought lots of sun to Dublin. The bright days beckoned us to leave the apartment. Saturday we headed into City Centre to S. Great Georges Street. Georges Street is home to many popular restaurants--Havana, Cafe Bar Deli, Brasserie 66, Odessa. We lunched at a pleasant Japanese place called Yamamori. After a sushi fix, we strolled through the shopping arcade and visited an instrument shop to buy a music stand and guitar stand for Bill. [Note: was recently chastised (friendlily, mostly) for saying store instead of shop.] We wound up in the green and lay upon the grass. We then visited the Asian market to stock up on dumplings, and a surprising and happy find--Paprika Pringles (our favorite)!
On Sunday afternoon we took a picnic to our neighborhood park, St. Anne's. The sun was warm, but the breeze was cool, so we had keep rotating to stay comfortable.
The next Saturday, April 25, started out rainy, but turned nice by late afternoon. We visited the park again for a some duck watching, and also saw a heron.
We so enjoy having St. Anne's right next door.
On Sunday we attended church at the central location on Gardiner Street. The North and Central congregations met in the main auditorium. It's not quite finished, but it was exciting to get a glimpse of what is to come when all three congregations combine for the monthly celebration Sundays. Afterwords we brunched at The Mermaid Cafe on Dame Street. I had Eggs Norwegian--Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon instead of ham. Bill also had poached eggs with fish, smoked haddock. For dessert we had pecan pie, which was unlike the pecan pie we know, but instead a lovely pecan tart served with maple ice cream.
The weather here has been quite atrocious lately. It's been raining almost incessantly for weeks and many areas have experienced bad flooding.
The last weekend of July, however, was quite pleasant and we enjoyed a lovely afternoon in St. Anne's Park playing boules and smelling the roses. Our plan was to walk through the park to the rose garden, but we were pleasantly surprised to find our friends Caragh and Jasper also enjoying the afternoon with some other friends of theirs playing boules. They invited us to join them and we happily accepted.
After a couple rousing rounds we took our leave and continued our journey to the rose garden. St. Anne's has a lovely garden with a huge variety of roses. The park also has some wonderful hidden glades with spectacular trees. Another recent weekend was spent in art appreciation. The National Gallery had an exhibition of impressionist interiors we'd really been wanting to see, so after church we took the DART to city center. A new friend at church, Andrea, wanted to join us, so we met her at the Gallery for lunch before seeing the exhibition. Several paintings by Degas, a favorite artist of mine, were included. We really enjoyed it, though Andrea prefers landscapes. Afterward we parted company with Andrea to do some shopping. Here I am outside Hodges Figgis, a very cool bookstore on Dawson St. near St. Stephen's Green and the largest bookstore in Ireland. Sharon picked up a few books on the discount cart. Next to the bookstore is Lemon, and we couldn't resist crepes and lattes. The simplest crepes with fresh lemon juice and caster sugar are the best, and they make some pretty mean lattes, too. Our final destination was our favorite Chinese market on Abbey St. where we bought some frozen dumplings and stir-fried veggies with fish balls. We like to keep an assortment of dumplings around for quick dim-sum dinners, and we enjoyed some that evening with our stir-fry.
Bill's at the other end of the DART at a church men's retreat in Greystones this weekend. It was sunny when I woke up (11:30), so I eventually decided to walk to the Saturday food market for a nutella and banana crepe.
Some scenes along the way:
Based on the shadows in the picture below, guess what time it is.
Did you guess 1:45PM? That's right!
It was windy today with temps in the mid-40s. By the time I got home it was raining lightly.
A vacation can be ruined from pressure to maximize every moment. Thankfully, Mom and Dad are not burdened by that mindset. Not on this trip anyway. Dad may have such inclinations, but he's taking a while to adjust to GMT, so we've been taking it easy.
Saturday we planned to visit the Red Stables Market in our park and then Malahide Castle. When I woke up I found a weary Dad on the couch saying that he had not slept a wink. Since we had the ghost tour that night I really thought Dad needed sleep, so we decided to visit the market and then hang out at the apartment. (I'll let Bill fill you in on his whereabouts.) We enjoyed crepes at the market and bought some baked goods, lamb and goat cheese. Mom and I had no trouble napping that afternoon, but Dad did not get any real sleep. We headed out around 6:00 for downtown. We looked around for a place to eat, and wound up at La Paloma, a Spanish restaurant Bill and I ate at on our first visit to Dublin.
The Ghost Tour was fun. It's a super nice bus, first of all. Our guide was quite the story teller. We heard about the scary tales Bram Stoker's mom used to tell, some famous ghosts including the Lady from the Water and the Lady in White, grave robbers and leper colonies. My favorite part was visiting some sites at night--St. Kevin's graveyard and the ancient Gates of Dublin.
After 36 hours awake, Dad slept Saturday night! Sunday we went to church and then had a carvery lunch. We talked ourselves out of any sightseeing, except for a drive to Howth and back. Bill made us Irish Stew for dinner, and then we decided we had the strength to make it to a movie (Death at a Funeral--Farce!).
Today the parents and I headed out after lunch to see The Book of Kells at Trinity University. Quite interesting and amazing. I told Bill I want one.
We walked from Trinity back up to O'Connell and wandered Henry and Talbot streets. We caught the bus around 6:20 and were so glad to have dinner waiting for us when we arrived home! Bill made tasty Irish pork sausages with lentils and spinach. We had a couple newkies in the fridge that finished the meal out just right.
Tomorrow we're riding the tour bus around Dublin.
Cool tree in St. Anne's Park
Carvery Lunch on Sunday. Dad had roast beef and we three had chicken and mushroom pie. That's my plate with no carrots!
Dad is ready to give up his seat to any elderly person in the coffee shop at Trinity U (make sure to enlarge to read sign).
The weekend of April 18 & 19 brought lots of sun to Dublin. The bright days beckoned us to leave the apartment. Saturday we headed into City Centre to S. Great Georges Street. Georges Street is home to many popular restaurants--Havana, Cafe Bar Deli, Brasserie 66, Odessa. We lunched at a pleasant Japanese place called Yamamori. After a sushi fix, we strolled through the shopping arcade and visited an instrument shop to buy a music stand and guitar stand for Bill. [Note: was recently chastised (friendlily, mostly) for saying store instead of shop.] We wound up in the green and lay upon the grass. We then visited the Asian market to stock up on dumplings, and a surprising and happy find--Paprika Pringles (our favorite)!
The next Saturday, April 25, started out rainy, but turned nice by late afternoon
. We visited the park again for a some duck watching, and also saw a heron.
We so enjoy having St. Anne's right next door.
glimpse of what is to come when all three congregations combine for the monthly celebration Sundays. Afterwords we brunched at The Mermaid Cafe on Dame Street. I had Eggs Norwegian--Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon instead of ham. Bill also had poached eggs with fish, smoked haddock. For dessert we had pecan pie, which was unlike the pecan pie we know, but instead a lovely pecan tart served with maple ice cream.
The last weekend of July, however, was quite pleasant and we enjoyed a lovely afternoon in 
St. Anne's Park playing boules and smelling the roses. Our plan was to walk through the park to the rose garden, but we were pleasantly surprised to find our friends Caragh and Jasper also enjoying the afternoon with some other friends of theirs playing boules. They invited us to join them and we happily accepted.
took our leave and continued our journey to the rose garden. St. Anne's has a lovely garden with a huge variety of roses. The park also has some wonderful hidden glades with spectacular trees.
some shopping. Here I am outside Hodges Figgis, a very cool bookstore on Dawson St. near St. Stephen's Green and the largest bookstore in Ireland. Sharon picked up a few books on the discount cart. Next to the bookstore is Lemon, and we couldn't resist crepes and lattes. The simplest crepes with fresh lemon juice and caster sugar are the best, and they make some pretty mean lattes, too. Our final destination was our favorite Chinese market on Abbey St. where we bought some frozen dumplings and stir-fried veggies with fish balls. We like to keep an assortment of dumplings around for quick dim-sum dinners, and we enjoyed some that evening with our stir-fry.
Did you guess 1:45PM? That's right!
Cool tree in St. Anne's Park
Carvery Lunch on Sunday. Dad had roast beef and we three had chicken and mushroom pie. That's my plate with no carrots!
Dad is ready to give up his seat to any elderly person in the coffee shop at Trinity U (make sure to enlarge to read sign).
