There is a monster in the cupboard

Lunch today: Beef Wellington

William thought he'd explore the cupboard today and take inventory of all the pots and pans.

How to blow a toddler's mind

I've got three words for you: Non-Newtonian fluid. A pot full of this gooey stuff kept William busy for 20 minutes. Nothing short of a miracle considering the little man has a cold. To make the mind blowing potion mix corn starch and water. Allow toddler to play and make a huge mess (clean up is easy). Listen for the sound of tiny horizons expanding. 

Urine-soaked eggs a spring taste treat in China city (with video)

Urine-soaked eggs a spring taste treat in China city (with video)

I just read this article in the Vancouver Sun all about a traditional spring snack in an area of China. I think I'll stick to chocolate eggs at Easter time, thanks all the same.

I've been had!

I took Will to the Dublin Zoo today in Pheonix park. We visit the park so regularly that the family annual pass we bought has already paid for itself. When the joys of the zoo finally wore Will out and he decided to take a nap I thought I'd try walking home. Castleknock is at the other end of the largest enclosed park in Europe fyi (http://www.phoenixpark.ie/about/).  The walk home didn't take as long as I thought it would and the sun was lovely. However, walking around the zoo for a few hours and then walking home in the hot sun was pretty exhausting so we stopped at the spar on the way home to get some ice cream. I settled on Neapolitan since it's a real crowd pleaser (something for everyone) and the quickness of rest of the walk home was motivated by getting it (and my poor sunburned hide) out of the sun fast. Little did I know of the base treachery executed by the Hazelbrook Farm people. I opened the box only to discover that I'd been had! Every Canadian knows that Neapolitan ice cream a) comes in 5L tubs and b) consists of vanilla, strawberry and CHOCOLATE. Now I've gotten used to the size food is sold in but seriously who would ever, ever think that substituting lemon ice cream for chocolate would be acceptable? Especially when I turned down the tempting display of cadbury creme eggs thinking "Gee, I don't need that. There's chocolate in the ice cream". The nerve.

PS I'm going to buy an ice cream making machine this weekend...if I can find one. The hunt is on!

The lemon flavour reminded me of those little after dinner, pillow shaped, candies all the restaurants had in the '80s...blargh

What gorgeous weather we had today!! That's right folks: it was so sunny and warm that my excitement merits two exclamation points. Unfortunately I got a sunburn...In Ireland...In March. I regret nothing; soaking up that sunshine felt so good. We even bought ice cream cones. William was so happy. Nothing beats the childhood bliss of an ice cream cone on a hot day.

Christchurch Cathedral

a wall protesting sex abuse in the church

super cool clothes

Alley in Temple Bar area

Doors at Christchurch

Christ Church Cathedral

The River Liffey

"helping" make whipped cream

Sad-lova...can u see it?

We took the train into town today to wander around a little and see what it looks like in full sunshine. I took lots of photos of alleys in the Temple Bar area that were crying out for a little love and I changed some of them in Lightroom. We found a pet store, thank God! (only one exclamation point), as Maple's little doggy claws needed to be snipped and I left the dog toenail clipper at home. I went downstairs to see the fish and other animals while Craig paid for the dog manicure set. The goldfish were 4euro each. Seriously. The same goldfish are $1 back home. It must be really expensive to keep piranha or other large fish here since cheapy goldfish are usually the preferred method of feeding them. The store also had a very interesting assortment of leaf and stick insects and a tortoise. I've always wanted a tortoise but it seems like a silly pet to buy when you are living in a foreign country on a semi permanet basis. Maybe when we buy our little dream house one day.

Hubby and I have invited a co-worker of his over for a learn-to-cook dinner every once in a while.  This fella is newish to self sufficiency and needs a little help in the kitchen. For him a usual lunch is 2 chocolate bars from the vending machine...How I envy that. I was going to teach him to make Drunken Chicken last night but his work got in the way. Damn busy season. Honestly though it's just as well that he didn't come over as dinner was a disaster. I blame the tiny gas stove. I made pavlova for dessert and I baked...er, I meant burnt, the meringue the night before. There are no temperature gauges on the oven only numbers. I know that 7 is hotter than 6 but that's all the guideline I get. So the pavlova was a little sad and more like the meringue topping you'd put on a pie than the crispy, crunchy, chewy, marshmallowy goodness I was looking forward to. Anyways, the sad-lova was fine when I smothered it in strawberries, kiwi and liberal amounts of whipped cream. I had a few problems with the Drunken Chicken too. I didn't think about how much larger the beer cans are here and while they are a lot longer than they are back home the chickens are about the same size. Minor beer can surgery ensued so that it could fit inside the chicken cavity. The beer can had beer (obviously), rosemary, and garlic to steam the chicken from the inside out. Once the chicken had it's tasty basting going on I settled it onto the roasting pan in a very awkward position and started the cooking process. I went to turn the pan and realised that all my kitchen rags were dirty so I had to use socks to turn the pan. And to turn the pan one needs to remove the whole thing from the oven since the oven is so small. During this delicate procedure the rack the pan was resting on also slid out of the oven and the whole thing ended up on the floor. Thankfully the chicken landed in the pan and was popped back into the oven to finish cooking. Let me reiterate that Craig's coworker is lucky he didn't stop by for his cooking lesson...I think I still have a few things to learn.

Spring

I'm celebrating the arrival of spring this week by 1) refusing to wear my jacket even though it's just as cold as it was last week and 2) putting strawberries on everything.... Hopefully the strawberries will ward off the spring cold I've probably earned by being stubborn about the coat. Someone today asked if I forgot my coat at home to which I replied "I'm Canadian, by all rights I should be wearing shorts today" and earned myself a laugh and one of those patented Irish looks. You know, the ones that say "Oh you're grand" to your face but on the inside say "crazy cow".

I've a feeling I also get looks like that for having a trained dog. Maple will do anything for her squeaky ball. In fact if you just stand there holding the ball she'll perform every trick that has ever earned her the ball. The dog culture here is a little different than back home. In Ireland dogs are allowed to be more doggy. Dogs are picked up after if they poop in the park, well sometimes anyways, but if they poop on the sidewalk no one picks up after them. It's gross. Oh and kids under 16 can't walk the following breeds:

• American pit bull terrier
• English bull terrier
• Staffordshire bull terrier
• Bull mastiff
• Dobermann pinscher
• German shepherd (Alsatian)
• Rhodesian ridgeback
• Rottweiler
• Japanese akita
• Japanese tosa
• Bandog....? A what? Here I looked it up for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandog

And all of those breeds have to walk on a short leash with a muzzle in public places. And I thought Ontario was tough on breed specific legislation.

Note: baby has fork...daddy doesn't

Anyways back to strawberries. I made a killer wannabe strawberry shortcake dessert tonight with *gasp* frozen puff pastry (oh the shame!) and loads of cream and berries. It was messily devoured in short order.

Ireland pay attention! this is what a cheese burger looks like

Just in case you were wondering....Cheeseburgers look like this:

How can a country famed for the quality of its cheese, bread, and beef fail so miserable at putting them together? I can teach you Ireland. Cheeseymeatburger heaven shall be yours.

Feeling more at home

It has come as a bit of a shock to me but I seem to have recovered from my homesickness. The loneliness and has reached a tolerable level and I've become more able to deal with it as we settle in to daily life in Ireland. My expat friends all said that homesickness would peak at around the 6 week mark but none of them mentioned how long it would last. Moving here was a big change and it happened pretty quickly too so I may have taken a little longer than usual. I think this first year away will be the hardest because I will be thinking of all the seasonal activities we'd be doing back home: spring gardening, summer road trips and holidays with family. Our lifestyle is very different here than it was in Victoria as we are renting a house (instead of owning) have decided not to get a car so we will have to make new traditions. It bothers me SO MUCH that I can't paint or fix anything in this house. Our last house was a project we had only just finished before we moved and I now I have fixer-upper withdrawal. Don't even get me started on the curtains (who picks orange and navy patterned drapes anyways?). Some traditions will be carried on though. When I was a little girl I remember having these lovely homemade yoghurt popsicles crunchy and creamy at the same time. Yum. I couldn't find any popsicle molds at Tesco (maybe I've got a vocabulary problem?) so I improvised...and added Cheerios. William loved it. He ran around with it, making surprisingly little mess, for about an hour. 

Very simple idea: Remove yoghurt lid, add Cheerios (or whatever else you want) and insert popsicle stick (or baby spoon) into a cut you make in the lid, replace lid and freeze overnight. My lid wouldn't accommodate a hold large enough for the spoon to go through so I used parchment paper. Big hit.

This is what's on the menu tonight people:

http://www.marthastewart.com/335974/beef-stew#slide_2

It will make up for last night's appaling dinner of taco meat with cheese. Only Craig was man enough to east some. Will was man enough to feed some to the dog though. 

St. Patricks Day in Dublin

Even the lights were green today

The General Post Office, site of the Easter Rising

These statues have bullet holes in them from the 1916 Easter Rising

Up Connolly Street, towards the spire

The weather was really stormy today. While we were in town Castleknock had 1inch of hail

At the Irish Craft Beer festival. Lots of great beer....not much food. Advertised as free but they charged 10euro for each of us and we didn't get our souvenir glass. Jerks. 

The advertising made reference to "artisan food"...apparently in Dublin that means burgers, hot dogs and candy...

choices

The crowd having the craic

William's first beer garden

The music...I've got the "The Fields of Athenry" stuck in my head

http://www.visitdublin.com/event/irish_craft_beer_festival

Now, if I pull this ring the awning will collapse and I can steal all the candy! Brilliant!