Me in Place

Today’s post comes flying across the waters from my favorite guest blogger, Carey. Carey and her family currently live in Cork, Ireland. 

Hi, All! I’ve really had quite the adventure while living in Ireland over the past few years. The latest discovery is more about myself and how Ireland has affected me. Here is my discovery/confession- I am a butter snob! Yes I said it;  Butter Snob! It is official. Butter Snob Butter Snob Butter Snob!

I didn’t grow up eating butter, it was a rare treat. It was, after all, the age of margarine. I’ve been able to travel home to the States a few times and have tasted butter now that I am grown. Wow! There is no comparison! I was first taken aback by the color of American butter- it’s almost white, while Irish butter is a lovely warm yellow. Then there is the texture- American is a bit… well, I couldn’t eat it. So let me tell you about the Irish butter, its texture is smooth and creamy. It’s not heavy but nice like Big Bird’s feathers would be if you hugged him.  The taste… oh really, just gloriously buttery. It’s what butter should taste like.

I think part of the reason is they are grass fed cows and the grass is always -and I mean always- a shade of green. In some areas the cows outnumber the people 4 to 1.

Here is another confession- my 1st year of living here on the Emerald Isle, I ate my weight in butter! The fantastic bread here was just a tool and an excuse to eat butter. The way the Dad on A Christmas Story felt about his leg lamp? That’s how I feel about Irish butter, oh glorious butter!

Now don’t think I am slagging all things American. I love America! I am American and proud of it but this tiny green island has us beat in the butter catagory.

Just a side note: one pound of store brand butter is about 3.25 but I was so excited I got the butter pictured for 1euro! that is about $1.50. Best deal in Ireland I have found so far.

From our friend and guest blogger in Ireland, Carey!

This year we discovered the traditional European Christmas Market. It was a really fun day out. Cork isn’t as big as some of the other european cities that have markets but we enjoyed it! There are gifty type booths that have soaps, jewelry, handmade toys, and all sorts of little trinkets. The food booths are amazing with pizza, fancy cupcakes, crepes filled with nutella, mince pies, mulled wine, coffee, hot chocolatey cocoa and don’t forget hot roasted chestnuts! Christmas was truly in the air! Merry Christmas from Cork! Love, Carey

Here’s installment three, from our reporter from Ireland, Carey!

We like macaroni and cheese as much as the next person. Actually, we discovered we loved it when we moved to Ireland and couldn’t get it.

We are not even picky about the brand – however, I personally think the shapes, for some reason, have a richer, cheesier taste. But the kids don’t care at all.

Over here, they do not have the boxed mac and cheese – it only comes in cans. And, as you can see, they call it “macaroni cheese” (but, hey, it’s made by a reputable company…shouldn’t they know better than to serve it in a can?)

But what is inside is not macaroni and cheese as we know it.

My Superhero son was brave enough to try and -while it is not the greatest shot- his face says it all ~YUCK!

I have even tried my hand at homemade mac n cheese and while we really do love it, nothing compares to that yellowy-orange powder! So when you are feeling low, be thankful you live in the land of readily available macaroni and cheese! Make a box and enjoy for me!

Here’s post two from our friendly tour guide to Ireland, Carey!

One thing that I have discovered about Ireland is that the time is takes to get someplace is changing all the time. Three years ago it took 4 to 5 hours to get from Cork to Dublin. It is only about 156 miles or 250 kilometers. For those who are landmark drivers, it is really about the distance from Chicago to Grand Rapids. About a year ago, with improvements, it took about 3 and a half hours.

In the past year since we have lived on the Emerald Isle, the motorway has constantly been improving – or should I say come into existence in some places – and they have shaved off 45 minutes from Dublin to Cork! We can now make it in 2 hours and 45 minutes.

In the past, it would be a bit frustrating to me to be going along and then the motorway just stops. (I wish I had a picture of the expressway that we passed that just literally stopped.) Everyone has to get off and drive through the town which can add considerable time to your route depending on the time of day. Nothing moves quickly here; they started the motorways 50 years ago! In some ways it is like traveling through Indiana with the construction that never ends. If you ever visit, allow lots of time. The destination may not be far away but the roads… ahh I will leave that for you to discover on your adventure.

A photo of a skinny Irish road!

My friend, Carey, lives in Ireland and has kindly agreed to do some posts about things you might not know about her beautiful country!

Me?? Guest Blogger?? Ok, well let me think about it? Um yes! I’d love too! What to talk about?  How about things people don’t know about Ireland?

I’ve discovered lots that I didn’t know about Ireland and feel that others just need to know… Actually, we have been very blessed to have traveled to a few different countries besides Ireland. Just this morning my son says “Hey Mom, can you make the kind of eggs we loved in Switzerland?” Well of course I can…Translation – hardboiled eggs! Has this child been absent for the past few years of Easter?? We always color and eat eggs but nope, he associates hardboiled eggs with Switzerland. Well, that led me to thinking that many people may not be aware of how many foods are imported to Ireland and the interesting places that they are imported from! Ireland became part of the European Union in 1973 but in recent years the EU has tightened things up and has required the countries to import and export with each other. This has had good and bad effects but we will focus on the positive. In Ireland we get grapes from Greece, pears from Belgium (not pictured),  red chilies and yellow peppers from Holland, apples from France, garlic from Spain, and bananas from the Ivory Coast. It is amazing! We are eating so internationally!

I stuck some green onions in the picture that were grown right here in Ireland and notice that the tag has the picture of the grower! The Irish are so proud of their products and are able to almost trace anything back to the farm it came from.

Look what showed up in our mail on Monday! The word “Chocolate” on a customs label?

Thanks to our friends in Ireland, we enjoyed some delicious chocolate:

Guess which one was for me? Yep – the Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted – a delicious chocolate bar filled with that ooey gooey orange/white stuff.

And guess which one was for SuperBoy?

Yes, of course… The Yorkie bar! It’s not for girls! (We couldn’t exactly figure out why it wasn’t for girls. It was just pure chocolate. And you can bet he enjoyed keeping it from his sisters.)

You’ll be thankful to know we’ve reached the end of the trip! Here are just a few random photos to wrap it all up.

For the first few days we were there, Steve worked with Roger and others at the radio station. One specific job he had was coming up with new jingles for the station. They had a brainstorming session one night. Travel Buddy and I went along and it was fun to watch.

(Note the traditional Irish didgeridoo.) (That was a joke. )

Ah, here’s a traditional bodhran. Yes, we came home with one. They’re so cool.

Steve tries out the bouzouki (traditional to Greek music and similar to the mandolin).

Two parts to the next story:

1. In our rental car, we had a gps system and, as always, we picked our British friend, Jane. You know her?

2. There were no four-way stop signs – everything was a roundabout. So you came up to the roundabout, yielded to the person on your right, then went when there was nobody coming…and tried frantically to find the right exit off the roundabout.

Now combine the Brit Jane and the roundabouts, and you’ll get our  most oft-repeated thing from Ireland: “Take the second exit at the roundabout.” Or, our personal favorite: “Turn left and board ferry.” A ferry, Jane? No other warning but that? (It was a little five minute ferry across the river.)

Just for you:

And, the most often asked question we get: “Did it rain a lot?” Nope. Not a drop. Nada. Nothing. It’s a lie. Like leprechauns! It rained the very last day we were there. That was it.The night before we left, I went outside the hotel and stood in the Irish rain, just to soak up the memories. And we took a picture just to prove that we did see drops:

And that was that. The end. I’ll skip the details of the three hour flight delay that extended our layover to seven hours long. I’ll skip the Travel Buddy throwing up thing, I’ll skip the fact that the in-flight entertainment system broke, so everybody talked the entire flight home and the little kids sitting beside us screaming… Yep. I figured it was our punishment for having such a great trip!

Again, if you have extra money laying about and want to help support the work at the station, consider giving a one-time (or on-going) gift to Roger Basick, care of HCJB:

HCJB Global
PO Box 39800
Colorado Springs, CO 80949-9800. They are moving over there in June and could use your support.

Edited to Add: Mike got it! (And I’m sure you did, too, Tammy!) So – down at the bottom of this post, I’ve posted the clip from the movie we all know and love. “I don’t think him is who we think him is.”

On Tuesday, we got in our cute little bug of a rental car and drove up to the Cliffs of Moher. Beautiful site – but it was freezing and windy, so I can’t say we stayed outside long before we ran back in and got yet another cuppa hot tea.

If you can see it, there is a little castle in the picture below. Back in the 1800′s, the man who owned that land built the castle so he could charge tourists to climb up and view the cliffs. Yep, tourism was alive and kicking back then, too.

They had creepy signs about people falling off these cliffs and, indeed, people do fall (either by accident or on purpose). This sent Steve and I straight into acting like little old worrywart ladies. “I can’t believe those people are getting so close to the edge!” We stared in horror as a normal, middle-aged pudgy dad explained to his family how he had laid on his stomach and reached his camera over the edge of the cliffs to get a great picture. What??!? I can’t even explain how funny our behavior was – we were so horrified by stupid tourists and we couldn’t shut up about it! Maybe you had to be there. Anyway, we did not climb around and over the signs. We stayed right where we were supposed to be – in the tourist center having our cuppa.

And, the Bonus Round! Can you name the movie these cliffs take a prominent part in? You all know it!! Don’t Google it. Just guess.

To go along with the post below:

Listen to Rachel Allen’s beautiful accent as she cooks:



My new favoritest magazine ever:
BBC Good Cooking Magazine (I found it at Barnes & Noble in Geneva the other day). Their site is great and filled with new recipes to try! Go HERE

After our picnic, we drove to the Ballymaloe Cookery School where there is a cooking school, a hotel and a cafe. We just visited the shop, because I knew that’s where I was going to find my souvenir of Ireland! I hope I have the facts right, as I tell you that this school was started by a lady back in the ’80′s, which is when Slow Cooking (or natural/organic cooking) started to gain popularity in Ireland – we had Alice Waters in the ’70′s here in America, doncha know? Then she had a son who married a student who came to the school and she became quite popular, Darina Allen (I was told she was like Martha Stewart there), and then she had a son who married a student who came to the school and has become quite popular as a cook on tv. The granddaughter’s name is Rachel Allen and you can find a couple of her cookbooks on Amazon.com if you’re interested.

Place at which I bought my souvenir…er, um, three souvenir cookbooks.

We all started yelling at Steve when we saw these lambs: “Take a picture! You have to stop! Take a picture, Steve!” I don’t know why. But hey, here’s the picture.

From there, we left our friends and drove to Kinsale. Outside of Kinsale is the Old Head of Kinsale, which is actually the point off of which the Lusitania sunk. There is another little memorial to the Lusitania. You can’t go all the way to the tip of the Old Head, because there is a super fancy elite golf course there (I heard Tiger had played there.)

We then drove back into Kinsale and hunted for a restaurant and finally, nigh unto starvation, found a little cafe that was open. It was a delightful little meal and I remember it as the only meal at which the server was actually friendly. That’s because he obviously wasn’t from around there, he’d come from Spain (ooh, sensing a little hidden undercurrent of frustration here?). Here’s me and Travel Buddy – the Weary Travelers:

View of Kinsale for Sue – who has a cousin who lives there. Maybe if you look closely enough, you can see her?

Ahhhh….. retreating to my comfort zone.