Lily’s Blog

Your Shannon waters tears of joy that flow’

Not sure how much joy there was in Shannon waters recently …

Tears yes.

Denis Allen may have to re-write the lyrics of this Limerick song to reflect climate change.

The water level has almost reached the level of the black bridge.

The water was close to this building which is sand bagged. Interestingly this is a recent-build.

As are these

Denis has got me back running recently. This was the path we ran on beside the river. The stile on the path almost submerged.

That’s a life buoy stand submerged.

No shortage of water for the flower beds.

A view across the river at the Living bridge. The width of the river + flood is huge. The submerged trees give an idea.

The roundabout beside our office. The UL campus is between us and the Shannon.

The level of maintenance activity yesterday (Sunday) on the UL campus was really noticeable . Numerous tankers were there pumping water (to relieve pressure on drains I assume).

When I took these photographs yesterday, some of the flooding had already subsided! I’m listening to the weather forecast while I’m up-loading them. More rain is forecast this week. The land can’t really take any more water.

We’re fine and will be fine because thankfully we are far enough away from the river. But my heart really goes out to the people living in the areas of flooding. People’s homes and possessions being ruined. The plight of some farmers in the West.

This is really an enjoyable book and I easily read it in a few hours, last weekend.

It’s easily read because it’s beautifully written and hard to put down. And because of the awful weather outside.

At least there’s something to be said in favour of unrelenting rain!

The story takes place during the course of a single evening in a Lahore cafe, where a Pakistani man called Changez tells a nervous American stranger about his love affair with, and eventual abandonment of America. It was really a monologue by Changez over the course of that one evening. Reading this book was like reading a play.

Here is the publisher, Penguin’s synopsis of the story:

… Among the brightest and best of his graduating class at Princeton, Changez is snapped up by an elite firm and thrives on New York and the intensity of his work. And his infatuation with fragile Erica promises entree into Manhattan society on the exalted footing his own family once held back in Lahore. For a time, it seems as though nothing will stand in the way of Changez’s meteoric rise to personal and professional success: the fulfilment of the immigrant’s dream. But in the wake of September 11, he finds his position in the city he loves suddenly overturned, and his budding relationship with Erica eclipsed by the reawakened ghosts of her past. And Changez’s own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and perhaps even love.

Interestingly although this book was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007, the Guardian gave it a mixed review here, concluding:
There’s undoubtedly a great novel waiting to be written out of the anguished material of these kinds of east/west encounters. This book may not be it, but its author … certainly has the potential to write it …

While we are waiting for THE book, let me just say, I enjoyed this book immensely and would certainly recommend it!

An original work of art for €50 … yes seriously.

Next weekend the Hunt Museum will be filled with approximately 600 postcard-sized works of art, which have been donated by artists from all over Ireland and further afield. It’s on Saturday (10am to 5pm) and Sunday (2pm to 5pm).

The postcard-sized works of art are by famous and not-yet famous artists. You go along, you pay your €50 and you get a ticket. You go into the gallery and select a postcard from the 600 postcards. Then, when you’ve made your selection and only then is the artist revealed.

YOUR eye is your guide.

What you really like is your guide.

You could select one by
Imogen Stuart
John Behan
Pauline Bewick
or other famous artists.

Or you could select one by Less Known.

The full list of artists taking part is here. My friend Ber has been busy preparing work for this fund-raiser.

If you get a Christmas present of a postcard sized …

More information here.

Definitely a fund-raiser with a difference.

The day I stop learning, please throw me in the box. And you know which box I’m talking about!

I loved doing the Julie & Julia experiment because I learned a lot. I had a lot of fun cooking the recipes. Despite protestations, big, little and visiting guinea-pigs enjoyed the experiment.

A few people have mentioned to me that they are sorry that the Julie & Julia experiment had finished. In some ways I kind of am as well.

Reading Julie Powell’s book, led to my original idea. But it seems I certainly wasn’t the first with the idea!

Helen, one of my blog readers, recently told me of another blog with the same idea. Maggie set herself the challenge of cooking her way through Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries this year, about 200 recipes. She said, ‘… So, from the start of 2009, I shall attempt every recipe in his book, and will chart my progress on the blog, listing successes, failures, also-rans …’

Maggie is still alive and kicking. Last Wednesday, she posted recipe number 182!

As far as I have read on her blog, she is generally complimentary of Nigel Slater’s recipes. However I read with interest her severe criticism of one recipe in a recent post. Maggie said, ‘ … Why is cheesy bubble and squeak not better known? Because IT DOESN’T WORK, that’s why! Sorry Nigel, after all your recent triumphs, this was a failure, and I think I know why. Firstly, your measurements were imprecise …’

I smiled when I read this post. Nigel Slater too can get it wrong sometimes!

Maggie also referred to another blog, Helen’s blog. Helen completed a similar experiment in 2008 with Nigella Express. 189 recipes.

Helen too is alive and well and still blogging!

So guess where this is leading …

You are right.

I’m thinking of taking on another challenge!

I have lots of cookery books

But at the moment Avoca’s cookery books are the ones that most inspire me. I like their simple to prepare, honest-to-God, (not sure where He comes in), down to earth food.

I’m thinking of cooking my way through the original ‘Avoca Cafe Cookbook’.

While browsing through cookbooks in Easons Limerick, last weekend, one of the girls kindly offered to check their records for me. She told me that the Avoca Cafe Cookbook was their biggest seller after Clodagh Mc Kenna’s book, (which had been on special at €6.99) and two small inexpensive cookbooks, (costing less than €2). The Avoca Cafe Cookbook was first published in 2000. To still be a best-seller nine years later, says something about the book.

However I am open to suggestion if anyone can suggest a better book for the challenge.

I’m not setting a time limit. The challenge will be to complete the project in a reasonable length of time. I have to think of a name for the challenge yet!

I never want to write solely a food blog. As before, I will mix the food posts with other posts.

I’m thinking of cooking a special meal mostly at the weekend for whoever is around, for Denis and youngest mouse and/or whoever is visiting. They can rate the various recipes.

You will be glad to know Denis and youngest mouse have given the idea the thumbs-up. They realise they are guaranteed lots of hot food. And at least they are guaranteed to be well-fed, one day a week!

Plus, because these recipes are much more mobile than salads, I can do things like bring a cake to work or when visiting. There’s more scope.

The 108 recipes in this book for this experiment are as follows:

17 Soups

Green bean and coconut
Courgette and almond
Tomato, celery and apple
Tomato and red pepper
Tomato, lentil and orange
Roasted carrot and red pepper
Petit pois and mint
Baked garlic and onion cream
Cauliflower cheese
White Winter vegetable
Aztec corn
Mixed mushroom
Spiced lentil and lemon
Tuscan bean
Parsnip, rosemary and olive
Sweet potato and lemongrass
Potato and fennel

15 Fish and Chicken

Fish pie
Smoked salmon frittata
Salmon and leek tart
Herb-crusted cod
Asian-style crabcakes with fruit chutney
Salmon and smoked trout terrine
Chicken, asparagus and ratatouille pancake stack
Baked chicken with plums, ginger and soy
Baked chicken with parmesan and wholegrain mustard
Chargrilled breast of chicken with celeriac mash and roasted cherry tomatoes
Nicki’s chicken curry
Thai chicken curry
Eimer’s spinach, chicken and creme fraiche filo parcels
Chicken marinated in honey and mustard
Chicken and broccoli gratin

13 Meat

Beef and Guinness stew
Braised beef in orange sauce
Pepperpot beef
Kilmacanogue meatballs with herb and tomato sauce
Avoca’s shepherd’s pie
Baked lamb with cumin, cardamom and coconut milk
Baked lamb with oven-roasted Mediterranean vegetables
Avoca’s Irish stew
Santa Fe pork stew
Pork and chicken terrine
Normandy pork
Spanish pork
Lakeshore pork

18 Vegetable Main Courses

Potato and celeriac gratin
Leek, blue cheese and rocket frittata
Spinach omelette
Spanish omelette
Tuscan pizza
Open pizza sandwiches
Raised Mediterranean vegetable pie
Mediterranean tart
Sun-dried tomato, olive and ricotta stuffed baked potatoes
Mediterranean lasagne
Lentil and nut loaf
Spinach, roast pepper and tomato roulade
Ricotta and sweetcorn roulade
Piperade tartlets
Aubergine, feta and poppy seed tart
Caramelised onion and three-cheese tart
Spinach, pecan and blue cheese pies
Asparagus, smoked bacon and Gruyere quiche

8 Breads

White yeast bread
Brown bread
Soda bread
Fruit soda
Multiseed brown bread with fruit
Focaccia
Tomato, cheese and black olive bread
Banana bread

24 Tea Time and Desserts

Avoca scones
Avoca brown scones
Apple streusel biscuits
Italian chocolate fudge biscuits
Bir’s biccies (Bakewell biscuits)
Muesli biscuits
Chocolate hazelnut cookies
Gertie’s shortbread
Baked cheesecake with lemon topping
Karen’s mango and raspberry cheesecake
Carrot cake
Chocolate orange cake
Strawberry meringue roulade
Chocolate roulade
Mixed berry tiramisu
Chocolate and amaretti mousse
Pecan and maple tart
Lemon tart with caramelised strawberries
Caramelised rhubarb and custard tart
Custard
Hazelnut and plum tart
Moll’s Gap apple pie
Mixed berry Normandy tart
Chocolate and raspberry tart

13 Salads (I might wait for warmer weather!)

Carrot and courgette
Beetroot, almond and yoghurt
Cauliflower, broccoli and roasted monkey nuts
Roasted herbed potato with balsamic vinegar
Chickpea, bulgur and wild rice salad with cumin
Chickpea, chilli and coriander with banana and mango
Spinach, sun-dried tomato, Parmesan, pine nuts and pasta
Smoked bacon, blue cheese and pineapple pasta
Tuna, fusilli, mixed pepper
Kilmacanogue curried rice
Triple rice salad with sesame dressing
Red cabbage with bacon and red onion
Butterbean, smoked bacon and garlic

The following 7 salads were also in the Avoca Salads Book, so I wont repeat them.

Carrot with roasted sesame seeds
Broccoli, feta, hazelnut and cherry tomato
Potato and mint
Moroccan couscous
Oriental bean sprout and egg noodle
Avoca three-bean
Summer fruit salad

I’ve left out Relishes and Sundries because it would be hard for my guinea-pigs to rate them. They include recipes for things like lemon curd, french dressing, spiced vinegar and shortcrust pastry. I’ll assume most of them are incorporated in the above recipes.

So this mad-woman here is adding a further 108 recipes to her previous 41, 149 recipes in all.

It appears I am somewhat less mad than Maggie (approx 200 recipes), Helen (189 recipes) and Julie Powell herself (524 recipes).

Only somewhat, though!

When we visited the boys in San Francisco in Summer 2007, a few times we ate at a nearby restaurant. This was a nice restaurant serving good American food.

Except it was a restaurant with a huge difference.

It was also a restaurant that made a huge difference.

It was staffed by former substance abusers, ex-convicts, homeless and others who have hit bottom.

The kitchen staff. The waiting staff. All the staff.

Yet if you didn’t know otherwise, it was a regular restaurant. It was a very good restaurant.

The restaurant was Delancey Street Restaurant

The upstairs of building was their home. The downstairs was their restaurant, their business.

Quoting reviews from their website: We were named one of “San Francisco’s Delicious Dozen” by Jim Wood in Image Magazine’s Dining Issue; we were awarded a “toque” by the prestigious Gault Milleu’s The Best of San Francisco, 2½ stars by San Francisco Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer, and were named “the Friendliest Restaurant in San Francisco” by Zagat when we opened.

The restaurant is just one of the businesses run by the Delancey Street Foundation, often simply referred to as Delancey Street, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco. Other businesses include moving companies, and print shops.

Their website states: All tips are considered donations, and all restaurant proceeds after food costs go directly to house, feed and clothe our residents and teach all skills, values and attitudes needed for a successful drug-free and crime-free life in the mainstream society.

Here in Ireland we could learn a lot from the Delancey Street Foundation.

I think anyhow.

‘The Silence of History’ is an exhibition of work by Irish Sculptor John Behan at the Hunt Museum.

Twenty-six paintings and thirty-six sculptures are included in the exhibition which runs until next Sunday, 22nd November. Admission is free and all works are for sale.

The Hunt Museum’s website gives details of the exhibition here.

I went along on Sunday. I enjoyed watching the documentary of this artist’s work, entitled ‘Famine Ship’. This documentary was first broadcast in 1999. Then I wandered around the exhibition. It was very well laid out.

Paintings and Sculptures shared many common themes:

Famine Family
Famine Ship
Children of the World
Bulls Fighting
Claddagh Fishsellers
Flight of the Earls
Shannon Boat Warriors
Deirdre & the Sons of Uisliu

This picture from Wikipedia is of John Behan’s ‘The Mariner’ which is on Dublin’s North Wall Quay

This exhibition is really worth a visit. Have a cup of coffee and then browse and see the work of a great Irish artist.

And all you have to pay for is the cup of coffee.

That is unless you buy a piece, of course!

To misquote Burns – ‘The best laid plans of mice and men (and women!) often go astray’, that happened me with this post.

You’ll eventually get my drift!

The opening lines of ‘Peig’, the Irish book we did for Leaving Cert, went something like ‘… cos liom san uaigh agus an chos eile ar bhruach’. Translating as ‘… one foot in the grave and the other on the edge’.

Whilst I feel very far from that stage in life, this line really resonates with me. I feel I have one foot in old Ireland, the Ireland of turf fires, butter-making and the other foot in the modern Ireland, the Ireland of the Internet, websites, blogs, Google Analytics, social media etc.

I can relate to both.

I understand bounce rate and absolute unique visitors. But I also can tell you about milk separators and churns.

Many’s the day in my childhood, that I raked down the ashes in the morning and got the fire going at home. In mid-winter if the fires in the various rooms weren’t going, (as well as the always-on ESSE range in the kitchen), then there was no heat in our (drafty, uninsulated) farmhouse. These were the days before central heating had been installed.

Milk was separated daily in the ‘dairy’ on our farm. The ‘dairy’ was a small unheated room where milk was separated, cream was stored for the weekly churning session on Tuesdays. Yes Tuesday was butter-making day when I was growing up. Butter was stored in a ’safe’. No, not a safe for money. Effectively a wire-mesh box on legs, so it was at waist height. Being in Kildare the dairy had ‘St Bridget’ painted in red lettering over the door. Each year the dairy was spring-cleaned. It was completely white-washed inside and out and the red-lettering was gone over with a thin paint brush and the red paint. In those days Spring-cleaning literally meant that, done in Spring!

So I think it was apt that on Saturday when youngest mouse went to BarCamp Cork III, I took myself off to see the Cork Butter Museum.

I wasn’t aware there was such a thing until recently, (3rd November), I read in the Irish Times that Cork has been listed alongside cities in the US, Canada and Italy, in a new Lonely Planet travel guide for the top places to visit in 2010.

Among the ‘Must-sees on the Lee’, the article listed:

Cork City Gaol Heritage Centre/Radio Museum
Church of St Anne, Shandon
St Finbarr’s Cathedral, Sharman Crawford Street
Cork Butter Museum, Shandon
and the
Crawford Municipal Art Gallery.

So I made a note, next time in Cork, must visit the Cork Butter Museum.

So far so good in this post. I had quickly written to here after a lovely cup of coffee in the Crawford Gallery, having dropped youngest mouse.

I then took myself on a walk through narrow streets to the Cork Butter Museum, to find it’s closed until next March.

So please Irish Times when you print an article in November telling me that I ‘must see’ the Cork Butter Museum, will you please also tell me that I ‘must see’ it only between March and October! I’ll come back next year.

I contented myself with reading their website. I hadn’t realised that the Cork Butter Exchange … became the largest butter market in the world.

(Get real Lily. In these days of modern Ireland, you could easily have prevented ‘the best laid plans of mice and men (and women) going astray’, by checking the opening times on their website before-hand.

And not be blaming the poor Irish Times!)

Here are a few pictures

Crawford Municipal Art Gallery. I’ve been here a few times before. Great gallery and cafe.

Walking to the Butter Museum

Saint Ann’s Church, Shandon. The famous Shandon bells. (Could that have been ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’, I heard playing?).

Firkin Crane, the home of dance in Cork

No pictures of our visit to the English Market and lunch at the Farmgate Cafe.

I CAN see what Lonely Planet gets about Cork.

Today Sunday 15th November is World Remembrance Day for Road Traffic Victims.

According to the Road Safety Authority:
‘Tragically up to Friday 13th November 2009 a total of 22,646 lives have been lost on Irish roads since the recording of road deaths began in 1959. That’s equivalent to the total population of Tralee town and its environs being lost on our roads.’

Gay Byrne, Chairman of the Road Safety Authority said the day should serve as a reminder to us all of just how vulnerable we are on the roads and that ‘World Remembrance Day for Road Traffic Victims’ allows us to remember those whose lives have been tragically lost on our roads, and the families who have been devastated by their loss.

I can vouch for that. My mother was killed in a road traffic accident on 19th July 1991.

Gay Byrne added ‘… the most poignant point is that these deaths, the devastation and trauma could have been prevented. To those who have not yet changed their behaviour and taken responsibility for their actions on the roads I make a personal plea to you, to reflect on the risks you take and the risk you force on others.’

The Remains of the Day was published in 1989 by Japanese-British author Kazuo Ishiguro. I wrote a post on another of his books here.

The Remains of the Day won the Booker Prize in 1989 for Best Fiction.

It was adapted into an Academy-Award nominated film, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. I haven’t seen the film.

The book tells the story of Stevens, an English butler who has dedicated his life to the loyal service of Lord Darlington at Darlington Hall. The book begins with the butler receiving a letter from Miss Kenton, (now Mrs. Benn), an ex-employee of Darlington Hall. In the letter she describes her married life, and Stevens feels she hints at an unhappy marriage.

Darlington Hall has recently been sold to a new American Mr. Faraday. Stevens has difficulty adjusting to his new American employer. His efforts at bantering are touching.

Miss Kenton’s letter prompts Stevens to think about her possible re-employment at Darlington Hall, as they are now short-staffed.

Mr Farraday, encourages Stevens to take his car and go on a ‘motoring trip’, while he (Mr. Farraday) is away. Stevens decides to do this and go and visit Miss Kenton.

As the book progresses, Stevens ponders on various themes. On his loyalty to Lord Darlington, on the meaning of the term ‘dignity’, on his relationship with his father and on his relationship with Miss Kenton. The recollected conversations between Stevens and Miss Kenton show a professional friendship, which came close, but never dared, to cross the line to romance.

When they meet, Miss Kenton, now married for over 20 years, admits to occasionally wondering what her life with Stevens might have been like. But she admits that she has come to love her husband, and is looking forward to the birth of their first grandchild.

The question of her re-employment does not arise.

At the end of the book, Stevens focuses on the ‘remains of (his) day’ i.e., his future service with Mr Farraday.

The book is beautifully written and is hard to put down. (I’m getting a good few of these type of books recently!) It shines a wonderful light on a past life of English duty and service. One can’t but feel for Stevens and the missed opportunities his life of loyal service, has cost him personally.

Denis also loved this book and recommended it in his guest post. Thanks Patrick for introducing me/us to Ishiguro.

This was a very enjoyable and interesting read. Kati, a Hungarian friend gave me this book when I was in Budapest. It’s an English translation of the Hungarian novel, A gyertyak conkig egnek, originally published in 1942.

Márai was born in Hungary in 1900 and by the age of thirty was one of Hungary’s leading novelists. He was driven into exile in 1948 when the Communists came to power and banned his books. He lived first in Italy and then in America. Sadly he committed suicide at the age of eighty-nine.

In the novel, two old men, once the best of friends, meet for the first time in forty-one years. They dine together, sitting in the exact same places as at their last meeting, all those years ago. Later they sit in front of a dying fire, one of them nearly silent, the other, the host, slowly speaking. At their last meeting, in the company of a beautiful woman, an unspoken act of betrayal left all three lives shattered – and each of them alone. Tonight they talk of old passions and that last, fateful meeting.

I felt this book was beautifully written and found it difficult to put down. It gives a great glimpse of life in the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The book was described by the Times as ‘Magnificent. A spellbinding story driven by intense passion.’ and the Observer, ‘Extraordinary. Elegaic, sombre, musical and gripping. An immensely wise book.’

There is a Sándor Márai blog, written by Erik Ketzan, a first-generation Hungarian-American. There I read that Jeremy Irons had starred in a stage adaptation of the book in 2005 and that a Hungarian film adaptation premiered in Hungary in 2006 at the 37th Hungarian Film Festival.

Márai wrote forty-six books in all. To date, five have been translated into English. They include: Memoir of Hungary, Casanova in Bolzano, The Rebels and Esther’s Inheritance. I am interested in all of them particularly Memoir of Hungary as it apparently provides an interesting glimpse of post World War Two Hungary under Soviet occupation. It was first published in the West, because it could not be published in the Hungary of the post-1956 era. One gets a sense of this period of Hungarian history when talking with Hungarian people.

A point of interest is that the Hungarian form of the author’s name is Márai (surname) Sándor (first name). The Hungarian style is always to write the surname first. I have got used to this with our Hungarian friends. I notice that the English translation of this book uses our convention however.