Kiss Me I'm Irish!

Experiencing St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin seemed to a group of us to be the only way to spend such a big holiday while in Ireland.  Nowhere else in the world is there a bigger celebration for this Irish holiday than the capital of Ireland!  Six of my friends and I packed overnight bags and headed to Dublin dressed in green.  When we arrived to the city centre it was the calm before the storm.  It was only around 10:30 and the parade did not start till 12.  The Garda was in full force setting up for the event.  The streets were blocked off and they were putting up metal gates that you would see for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, to hold back the huge crowd that would appear in just hours.  Even though it was very early we knew it was St. Patrick’s Day, so our first goal was to get our first beer of the day and something to eat.  We went to the most famous part of Dublin, Temple Bar, to look for a place to start.  As we walked, the crowd around us started to multiply with every passing minute.  After stopping at a few restaurants we found out quickly that until 12 nobody was allowed to serve alcohol, which changed our plan slightly.   We found a place to eat and waited patiently with all the others dressed in green waiting for their first drink also.   After eating it was a few minutes away from noon so we walked to the pub that we wanted to have our first drink at.  Outside the bar were groups of people waiting just like us.  It felt like New Years Eve in Time Square, everyone counting down until 12 so we could start to celebrate!  Finally we were inside with our first pint on St. Patrick’s Day and we knew it was going to be a great day.  Looking around the pub I realized I was in a sea of green; everyone was happy to be celebrating.  We spent the rest of the day going from pub to pub and watching the parade.  The whole city was in good spirits and it was sunny and warm making the day great.  March 17, 2011 will definitely be the best St. Patrick’s Day I’ll ever celebrate!! 

Iron Chef Ireland

I have a passion for cooking and baking and love watching the Food Network and Top Chef.  This is why my most recent experience in Cork is my favorite to date and worthy of its own blog post.  Our program director here at UCC planned a private cookery class for our group at the Ballymaloe Cookery School. The school is located on a huge organic farm in Cork County. The school gets just about all of its ingredients from the farms fruit and vegetable gardens and many animals.  The recipe to our trip goes as follows:

Ingredients:

1 reservation at Ballymaloe Cookery School

10-20 food-loving friends

Many good attitudes ready to get their hands dirty

Step One:

The groundwork before we began learning how to cook was to learn where the food came from.  We took a tour of the gardens and saw where the ingredients we would be working with came from.  The Gardens were beautiful; we passed apple and olive trees and gardens full off fresh herbs.  After the gardens we saw the pigs and chickens they keep for eggs and poultry.  Don’t worry, they didn’t show us the slaughterhouse, but it was clear that these animals would eventually be the days fresh dinner!

Step Two:

The preparation before getting in the kitchen involved an instructional session from the well-known Irish chef Rory O’Connell.  Rory showed us a variety of different recipes with a number of different difficulty levels.  He also taught us the very basics all chefs should know such as how to dice onions, mince garlic, and cook rice.  During this session the room filled with an aroma that could make anyone instantly hungry!  The combination of fresh bread baking, homemade sauce bubbling on the stove, and rhubarb pie in the oven made me more and more excited to get in the kitchen and start cooking!

Step Three:

Finally cooking! The kitchen was the combination of a restaurant kitchen and classroom.  The tables were combinations of desks and stove tops giving plenty of room to cook.  We spent the next two and half hours cooking delicious chicken, homemade bread, rice, and homemade pie.  Working with the food was fun and very hands on.  The teachers were only there to assist, other than that we were in charge of everything that went into our food. 

Step Four:

Finally it was time to eat the fruits of our labors.  A dining room was lavishly set up and we dined on a delicious homemade menu.

Loyola Cookery School Menu:

Appetizer:

Potato Leek Soup

Homemade Soda Bread

Main Dish:

Chicken & Mushroom

Tomato Fondue & Pasta

Sides:

Salad

Baked Potato

Rice

Dessert:

Rhubarb Pie

Apple Pie

Homemade cream

Drinks:

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice 

If you love cooking and find yourself in Cork, plan a day at Ballymaloe Cookery School!