Eating in Ireland

I've been lucky to be able to visit Ireland twice (so far). The first time I went with my Mom and we took an organized motorcoach tour that turned out to be wonderful. We didn't really know what to expect but it was very cool - there was only a couple of times we wanted to stay someplace longer than the tour allowed, or stop at a place we drove by. But we stayed in wonderful B & B's and had traditional breakfasts that were incredible, visited pubs and local restaurants.

A few years later we returned with Megan and felt brave enough to handle the island on our own. We flew into Shannon, rented a car and made our way around the south of Ireland, ending in Dublin. We had a blast -- it was adventurous and so unlike us to travel without set plans or an itinerary (I make an itinerary when we take day trips to Orlando!). We ate in small waterfront restaurants, famous tourist spots, and got snacks at local bakeries and grocery stores. We walked the cities we visited looking for traditional Irish music at night. We played with a schnauzer in an abandoned church yard and we veered off the motorway at the last minute to find a monument of some sort.

I know this is a food blog and not a travel blog so let me get to the point -- THEY DO NOT SERVE CORNED BEEF IN IRELAND!! I never saw it on a menu! It never touched my lips. Here's what they do have that we will never forget and never be able to re-create or find at home:

• Butter
• Beef Stew at Greta's
• Roasted Potatoes to put in the Beef Stew
• Breakfast Sausage
• Butter
• Cheese
• Brown Bread for Breakfast
• Shepherds Pie
• Butter
• Toasted Special's!!
• Club Orange
• Bulmers Irish Cider, and finally,
• Butter

I did see Bacon and Cabbage on a few menus, but bacon in Ireland is not like our bacon. It's more like our country ham.

Regardless, I love Corned Beef. I buy them primarily around St. Patricks Day because they're on sale. And....here is my second use of the slow cooker this week.

Corned Beef

1 Corn Beef (I use the flat cut)

1 Bottle of Guinness

1/4 cup of Spicy Brown Mustard

Water

Mix the beer and mustard and that funky flavor packet that comes with the meat. Pour over the meat in the slow cooker. Add enough water to cover the meat. I cook on low ALL DAY LONG until the beef is cooked through and passes the slice/crumble test. I kind of want it to fall apart like pulled pork. That's just me though.

An Irish Girl Cooks Italian

On Saturday morning Megan texted me asking for a good Baked Ziti recipe. She was having some friends over for dinner and they wanted pasta (and I'm sure lots of wine)! I heard through the grapevine (Mike, her twin, is our family Rona Barrett) that it was pretty darn good. Meg sent me a picture but it got deleted so I'm posting one from http://www.allrecipes.com/ where the basic recipe came from with some adaptation from Megan.






Here's the recipe I gave her.


Ingredients:
1 (16 ounce) package dry ziti pasta
1 pound mild Italian sausage
1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 large yellow onion, minced
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce, divided
2 cups shredded Italian cheese blend


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Cook the pasta about 8 minutes in boiling salted water until almost cooked through. Drain.

While pasta is cooking, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage, and cook and stir until brown, about 10 minutes. Drain sausage and set aside. Stir together the ricotta, egg, onion, garlic, and oregano in a large bowl until well combined. Stir in the drained pasta, the drained sausage, salt, pepper, and 1/2 jar of the spaghetti sauce; mix well.

In the prepared baking dish, cover the bottom with 1/3 jar of spaghetti sauce. Layer 1/2 of the pasta mixture, 1/3 jar of spaghetti sauce, and 1/2 of the shredded cheese. Then layer the remaining 1/2 of the pasta, 1/3 of the sauce, and 1/2 of the cheese. Sprinkle with basil. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil.


Bake until heated through, about 20 minutes. Uncover; return to the oven and bake until cheese is melted, 5 to 10 more minutes.

Guest Photographer

Megan sent me a picture of her breakfast this morning. Megan is working with a personal trainer who has her working out intensely (BEFORE she goes to work in the morning) and eating low fat, low carb, high fiber, low calorie, and whatever else he feels like....the tyrant that he is! I do know that she is eating a LOT of veg and fruit these days.

Don't these strawberries look good?

Moments and Memories

Mark asked me the other night what the best meal I'd ever eaten. I told him that I didn't have ONE favorite meal of all times, but, I had moments or days or events that were favorites in my memory. Were they gourmet meals? No. But they're the events that have helped define my life, my relationships, my weight issues....

Not in any particular order and certainly just a sampling -

1. Potato Puffs at Two Friends in Key West during Mark's and my first trip together.

2. Cold meatloaf sandwich from a deli on Pike Street (Seattle) with my mom. We had a picnic at Chateau Sts. Michele in Seattle and watched a Mary Chapin Carpenter concert.

3. Shrimp Fajitas in Cozumel at Casa Denis with our friends Mary and Dennis.

4. The antipasta platter at Amicci's in Baltimore's Little Italy.

5. Eating dungeness crab with my friend Maureen on the waterfront in Seattle. The best I've ever eaten.

6. NEW YORK PIZZA!! At Big Nicks on Broadway in NYC. Sitting at a sidewalk table.

7. After driving all over Los Angeles looking at the sites, Valerie and I stopped at Gladstones in Malibu late afternoon, got some appetizers, and watched the sunset while sitting on their deck.

8. Sitting in the Italian Restaurant at Snowshoe with Mom and the twins and it began to snow. Through the twinkly lights outside. It was a magical moment for me -- can't even remember what I ate. Oh who are we kidding -- chances are it was spaghetti and meatballs.

9. The smell walking into the Pancake House in Gatlinburg with Mom and Mark -- smelled like my Grandmother's house when I was little. Coffee. Strong, rich coffee intermingling with the smell of pancakes and bacon cooking....OMG!

10. The best salsa and freshly fried tortilla chips I've ever eaten at this motor inn right outside the entrance to the Grand Canyon. I even put it on my eggs the next morning.

Cheesecake Factory

Cheesecake Factory takes a lot of heat from food critics. I don't really know why. It's almost like it's chic to hate Cheesecake Factory. Being on the outside (of chic) looking in most of my life -- gotta say....I love it. I love everything about it. I love how it looks, I love how my water glass is immediately refilled, I love the value for what you get, and I love the diversity of the menu.

I loved, until yesterday, the sliders. They're on the appetizer menu and are amazing. Four mini burgers with fried onion slivers and 'secret sauce.' Yesterday, though, I needed to find an alternative.

Why?

Sliders for Lunch + Diet = Nothing To Eat for Dinner That Night Because All Your Calories and Carbs are Used Up YOU FAT PIG!

We literally spent 30 minutes going through the menu and all of our options. Meg and I decided on the Baja Chicken Tacos (hold the rice...extra black beans, please). And Mark got the Wasabi Crusted Ahi Tuna with extra veggies instead of the rice.

I now have a new favorite. I would get the Baja Chicken Tacos even if I wasn't dieting! The homemade guacomole and the avocado cream were delicious. The black beans addicting!

Mark's ahi tuna was good (he says) and was a big piece. We're thinking between 6 and 8 ounces! He insisted on spreading more wasabi on it and we found it very entertaining watching his eyes burn and nose hairs sizzle.

The Kids Will Be Proud

....That I reached so far back in my memory (the memory that fails me every day) and remembered one of their favorite meals. At least I think this was! Sometimes they tell me (now that they're adults) that they just didn't want to hurt my feelings but if they saw ONE MORE quiche they were going to find alternative living arrangements.

Here's what I made Mark for lunch today!!

There's Something About Megan --

This has nothing to do with food. Well sorta because I love this girl more than a big plate of spaghetti and meatballs!! And everyone knows how much I love spaghetti and meatballs!

I'm really proud of my daughter. She's a good person and has a big heart. Even though she can be a bit (ahem) opinionated and hard-headed, here's (just a partial) list of things I love about her--

1. She is really good with children.

2. Which is good because she's a 3rd Grade Teacher!!

3. She has some weird way to do math... but it worked and you could say what's 338 x 476?? And she would contort her face and her eyes would roll in the back of her head and she'd give you the damn answer!

4. She likes shoes. Has ever since she was a baby. She would get dressed to go out to play and pick out a pair of pajamas and black patent leather shoes.

5. She makes really good baked asparagus.

6. And grilled chicken (she claims...I've not had it).

7. And beer-cheese dip.

8. She knows everything about football, I swear! Every rule, every player, every team, division, etc.

9. She can't drive without talking on the phone.

10. She will only have one drink per hour when out with friends.

11. She's the Beer-Pong Champ of Tallahassee! That's my girl!

12. She's an expert at driving round-abouts.

13. She's good even driving round-abouts the wrong way (don't freak out....in Ireland, I mean).

14. She's is very shy and people don't realize that about her. They instead mistake it for being a snob.

15. She makes a point to talk to her best friend from high school and college every Tuesday.

16. She recently made a plan to rescue Mike from a potential hurricane evacuation because she thought no one would remember to.

17. She cheats at Monopoly. Actually she cheats at any game she isn't winning at the time.

18. She will only camp in a tent. However, she does come in to our trailer when she needs to use the bathroom or heat something up in the microwave! Go figure.

19. She is very loyal to her friends but has learned to play work-place politics, too.

20. Is probably screaming at the tv right now since the Bucs just intercepted the ball!

Love you Megan!!

"There's lemon shrimp, bbq shrimp, boiled shrimp..."

Gotta say..... I love Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. Mark and I have eaten at the one in Chicago, Gatlinburgh, TN and now the one at Universal Studios in Orlando. Each time I leave there wanting MORE! We always start (because I insist upon it) with the Shrimp Net Catch appetizer with cajun seasoning. It's hot (temperature) steamed peel and eat shrimp with the most amazing flavor and seasonings. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

This last time we went with Megan and Mike. Meg had a pass to Universal that she got for Teacher Appreciation Week (hey! how about a raise instead for those poor teachers!!) and Mark, Mike and I had only a month left on our annual passes so we picked Meg up in Tampa and Mike met us there. Our plan was to get through Islands of Adventure, eat lunch, and then Mike would have to leave to go to work, but then we would go to Universal Studios.

We began of course with our usual appetizer but added the hush puppies with the chunks of mahi-mahi in them. I didn't have any but the other three said they were delish (and they were gone so I believe them). Megan and I decided to order the Shrimp Platter -- I'm sure there is a cute name to it, I just don't know what it is.... we got a sampling of fried shrimp, boiled shrimp, coconut shrimp, and shrimp tempura (in my head, I'm saying this in Bubba's voice...ha). Mike got a BBQ pork sandwich that he took half of it home with him, and Mark had the shrimp po' boy with the best remoulade sauce ever.

It was good fun. The waiter came by with some trivia questions about Forrest Gump. I told him you better make them hard because the twins have seen the movie about 50 times (seriously...at least!). They answered things I never would have known the answer to! Only one or two that they didn't know! Very impressive. In fact, I didn't think the waiter would ever leave. I think he was determined to stump us!

And of course you can't leave without having your picture taken on the bench with the candy and Forrests' shoes.....