King of the Road

I regret to inform you that my life has been fairly uneventful. Well, that is not completely true. I have been to Scotland, Edinburgh, as well as explored the beauty of Dublin (but on Good Friday, so everything was closed and I only saw the inside of a noodle bar.) Here is a brief summary -

Edinburgh: Beautiful. New Town, Old Town - I love it all. I recommend going with someone with an eye for architecture, that way you will learn oodles of information about Palladian architecture.

Edinburgh University

Quartet of kids playing outside St. Giles Cathedral; two violins, a cello, and a ukulele!

Hamish, the highland cow (pronounced "coo") we met at the rest stop for the highland day trip.

Kaiser - the giant schnauzer I met in Oban!

Alright, I'll admit it, I was taking pictures of old people. But they just look so happy!

WWII memorial. And seagull.

Back in Edinburgh - the Holy Rood House!

Edinburgh Castle

Dublin: I think Dublin would've been a far more exciting trip had we not arrived on Good Friday. The thought that things might not be open would've never occurred to me. I am American...we don't have an official national religion. So trying to see anything in Catholic Dublin on Good Friday was useless. But I saw lots of things from the outside! Dublin Castle, The National Gallery, The National Archaeology Museum, the Library, The Guinness Museum, and a variety of Churches. The noodle bar was perhaps the most exciting building that we actually saw the inside of!

Exploring Trinity College

The anarchists of Trinity College fight back!

Wondering if there is anything open on Good Friday.

The Guinness Museum, closed for the day. (The gentleman to the right is my boyfriend - about time he made an appearance; he was my travelling companion.)

A museum, with its doors open?! Could it be?

No, it was a horrific lie. 

The moral of the story is DON'T go to Dublin on Good Friday. 

But what I really wanted to tell you about was my Saturday. The most exciting portion of my life since Dublin! On Saturday, my housemate Karin and I headed down to the St. Georges Market that takes place in Belfast every Saturday. There you can find various types of food - produce, seafood, and a wide variety of cheeses and pestos, crafts - everything from pottery to home-made clocks, and an tempting array of take-away stands; all of which is accompanied by local music. For lunch I enjoyed a Falafel wrap from a Lebanese stand, and they the wonderful wondering began!

Oh I did mean ALL types of crafts - even doggie bandanas.

Karin and I stopped to check out the eggs and then thought, "What the heck - let's get Duck eggs!" I have not been disappointed in my decision, they are super tasty! He even let us pick which eggs we wanted!

The lovely woman Karin and I bought our desserts from - soooo good. 

I also got a honey milkshake and a box of fresh strawberries. Karin indulged in dome cooked stone crab claws and made me wish I was allowing myself to eat fish - they looked amazing! The music of the day was done by a dear old man and featured many Bob Dylan classics. My favorite part about the market is the variety combined with genuine people and good food! It was a wonderful way to spend the morning, even though I ate way too much food.

There was no reason to take this picture other than the dog is adorable. 

Whiskey in the Jar

St. Patty’s Day. In Belfast. I would follow those statements with “Need I say more?”, but I do actually plan to say more.

It started in the morning with pancakes. I should mention that, in the full spirit of the day, they were green pancakes. I had picked up some green food coloring and applied it to the pancakes which what I thought was a liberal douse. But one of my housemates – who shall remain nameless  to protect his identity – mentioned that they were not green enough. I disagreed, but in an attempt to please his pertinent cries I reached for the green food coloring. Or so I thought. You see, I had also perchased peppermint extract which was encased in green wrapping, which contrasted with the red wrapping covering the green food coloring. I must comment on the epic fail completed by the producers of the brand – covering green food coloring in red. So, as I am sure you may have figured out, I added some peppermint extract to our green pancakes. Oops. Solution: Make more pancake mix!! I can’t say that the final product was completely devoid of peppermint (it sort of snuck up on you at the end), but I was happy with the amount of recovery made.

Making the Green Pancakes

After digesting our green – and somehow minty – pancakes, the house commenced into our ceremonial green for the St. Patty’s Day Festival in the center of Belfast. It was…a bit disappointing. But there was green as far as the eye could see. Then it was off the pub for lunch (and a pint) and watching some games. Good fun was had by all.

Sometime after all this good fun took place, I headed home to cook dinner for the infamous Choir Saturday Event. It all went as planned – but with one exception. The dessert – green for the occasion – went terribly. I was trying to make these chocolate-fudge-mint-brownie concoctions and didn’t have enough powdered sugar to make anything right. But I stubbornly moved forward and continued to try and fix the problem with flour and regular sugar and so on. My efforts were in vain. The idea was to chill the dessert – but it wouldn’t chill properly. So, in haste, I threw it in the freezer. And promptly forgot that I had put it in the freezer. So when I remembered and rushed to remove it, the mint-thing had frozen solid. The melted chocolate layer I had placed on top of the mint had completely solidified, while the mint layer underneath was still gooey. Trying to cut it into squares was, well, frankly impossible. It went everywhere – mint as far as the eye can see. Luckily, my guests were not cuisine experts and were thus overjoyed as the miss-shapen results of my valiant, and slightly drunken, efforts. Of course, the two bottles of wine may have helped turn their opinions favorable.