A year and a half ago I found myself in one of the greenest countries I’ve ever visited. And, this week is all about the Irish and their patron Saint: St. Patrick.

Being someone who pays quite a lot of attention to food, while in Ireland I noticed that food in Ireland is predominantly NOT green. Rich browns, oranges, and yellows adorn most plates nation-wide. And, especially in pubs, the leafy green salads that many of us are used to are few and far between – and sometimes non-existent.

So, what does a typical Irish meal consist of? Potatoes, meat, cooked vegetables such as carrots, mushrooms, broccoli, and cauliflower, and more potatoes…they sure do like their potatoes. I remember once when we stopped for lunch at a cantina and my husband was served two types of potatoes with his spaghetti!

Bread is also an integral part of daily life on the Emerald Isle. They have everything from scones to brown bread to soda bread. While we were staying at Stanley House in Schull, we fell in love with Mrs. Brosnan’s fabulous homemade brown bread. So much so that I asked for the recipe and have been waiting for a while now to try it out. But, since all my baking supplies are backed away in boxes, it may just have to wait for next St. Patrick’s day.

And, it’s no exaggeration that the Irish love their beer, and rightfully so. Guinness is still brewed in the heart of Dublin to this day. It is a rich flavorful beer that tastes best cold. For those of you unfamiliar with Guinness, or for those of you who find it bitter, the trick to enjoying a good Guinness is letting it sit for a few minutes. Right after being poured you can see the beer still swirling around in the glass – which makes the beer have a slight brow color. Once you let it sit for a while, the swirling around will stop, the beer will turn it’s beautiful black color, and it will taste fantastic. And, remember, don’t drink the foam left over in the bottom of your glass….it’s really bitter.

Image credits: A30_Tsitika/Flickr

Guinness is not the only beer brewed in Ireland. Ireland has many delicious locally brewed beers. And, possibly less known outside of Europe, Ireland has delicious hard ciders.

So, I hope you all find yourselves in a cheerfully green mood on Wednesday for St. Patrick’s day. And, should you be lucky enough to be in Ireland for this holiday, here are some great facts and travel tips for you!

Cheers!

Before I left on my trip to the US, my in-laws visited us here in Germany and we took a 3 days trip to the Czech Republic. We spent 2 days in Prague and a day in Pilsen – the birth place of the pilsner beer.

I really really enjoy Prague every time I go, it’s just so very beautiful. And, I recommend if you ever have the chance to go that you take it.

Bellow I will share with you some of the many pictures that I took while in Prague and on our tour of the Pilsner Urquell brewery. Enjoy!

The tour starts in a HUGE elevator.

Then, there is a video about the brewing process.

A cool beer-cap “road” in the bottling plant.

There are kilometers of Beer Cellars.

Have a taste of unfiltered Beer – quite bitter!

Brewing kettles.

Once the tour ends, enjoy a game of extra large beer chess.

Prague:

Enjoy a “Beer Spa” at home.

They love their ketchup!

There are many beautiful sites for a foodie!  We actually missed their anual food festival by a day…

At one of my favorite candy stores in town you can find all these exciting treats:

Flavored chocolates.

They will chocolate-dip fruit for you on the spot.

Why everyone comes to this candy store – to watch them make these delicious little hard candies:

candy dough

It’s rolled and then hand cut.

Passion fruit hard candies.

Banana, watermelon, and cherry flavor candies.

This hard candy can be found in the Chocolate Story Museum in the heart of downtown Prague.  Next trip I plan on visiting the chocolate museum…seem interesting!

Well, I am back into a normal sleeping/waking pattern – finally! I actually have been for a few days now, but being at the end stages of pregnancy makes it hard to sit at a computer and do anything – because it makes my feet swell.

Anyways, I want to start sharing some pictures with you from my vacation, and I’m going to start backwards. The last leg of our vacation took us on a 15 hour car ride from south-central Texas to just south of Denver, Colorado. So, why would I subject myself to a 15 hour car ride with 5 other family members (including a 2-year-old)?? For my brother-in-law’s wedding, of course!

We had a really great time – especially escaping the intense Texas heat and getting to visiting with the extended family that flew in from all over the US and world. Of all the people who enjoyed going to Colorado the most, I believe it was my son. He fell in love with his new aunt and still talks about her all the time. Many evenings he will come to me while I’m in the kitchen preparing dinner and tell me “goodbye mommy – going Jessica home”. Then he puts on his helmet, gets on his bike, and rides down the end of the hallway and tries to open the door to no avail. It is quite cute, ut makes me sad that we live too far away for a quick visit. Maybe that will change in a few years….

First, let’s talk wedding location:

The wedding was held in a beautiful private garden that can be booked for events or you can pay admission to enter to just walk around.  They have a few little alcoves that are meant for ceremonies and the one that they chose was nice and intimate.

This place is impeccable.  I just couldn’t get over the perfectly manicured lawn.  And, much to my surprise and content it was a turf lawn – as in fake grass.  It looked and felt so real that I had to go to an edge and try to pull out a piece of grass…and it just lifted up like a carpet…it really was fake.  If I ever have a home with grass, I want the fake stuff – no mowing, no watering, no fertilizing.

Right at the entrance to the alcove where the wedding was held was a table with cups and lemonade.  I thought this was a fantastic idea because many of us had to be there hours before for pictures, etc.  I do have to add, though, that I am not a fan of drinking from plastic cups and find them very environmentally unfriendly, but the over all ideas was a good one.

Second, the photography:

So, as I said earlier, we were there a few hours ahead of time taking pictures.  I have tons of great pictures, but I’ll only share a few with you…no need to over do it.  There were 3 photographers at the wedding and I had a few conversations with the head photographer who was admiring my camera lens.  We traded some tips (her sister is a big fan of food photography) and I got to pick her brain on what types of lenses she used for the different shots.

Third, the wedding ceremony:

Then, we headed off to the wedding – my son was extra excited that he was going to get to see his new aunt.  Luckily, she likes him just as much as he likes her.  He was 1 of two children there (the other being only 3 months old), and he got quite a lot of attention.  Now that we are back in Germany, he is having a hard time adjusting to the lack of being the center of attention 100% of the time.

She’s coming – can you see the excitement in his face??

The ceremony was nice and short and simple, much to my liking.  Then, we all headed off for more photos and then to the reception which was held in an air-conditioned tent on the garden grounds.

There was a nice BBQ buffet, an awesome Mario & Princess cake, and lots of dancing.

So, as you are reading this, I am in the air on my way home to Texas!

I hope to have some great posts for you depicting my favorite Tex-Mex foods…oh, I can’t wait for some chips and salsa!!

What are your favorite food-memories from home??

I just wanted to share something really cool with you guys.

The other day when my mom was in town we decided to take a day trip to see Regensburg – a city in central Bavaria. We basically just had lunch there – at a brewery – and walked around a bit.

In the brewery where we ate there was a sort of locker called a Bierkrugtressor which translates exactly to Beer Krug Treasury. It’s for the “regulars” who have their own beer mugs at the brewery. They keep them locked up for them so that their mugs are always there to use when they come for a drink.

Cool huh?

Happy 2009 everyone!

I decided to analyze my blog from January 2008 – December 2008 to see what you like.

Why?
I want to see more of you around my blog more often. And, that means finding out what you like.

How?
I looked at all my posts and saw what you commented most on and I learned quite a lot.

What?

Of the 47 posts that you commented the most on:
39 have recipes in them or linked to in them
like in : sweet potato fries, black bean tostadas, turkish haydari
29 had the color(s) red, orange, pink, or yellow in them
like in: tomatoes, sorbet, bacon, corn
18 had the color green in them
like in: lettuce, popsicles, guacamole, kiwi, and cocktails
17 had the color beige in them
like in: cookies, fried rice, tortillas, pork chops, and fried onions
23 had bright colors in them
like in: salsa, tomatoes, smoked salmon, strawberries
24 had some sort of produce in them
like in: churrasco, ketchup, fruit tart, pizza
16 are sweet in some way
like in: papaya sushi, cookies, sweet potato fries, sorbet
20 are generally considered as “healthy”
like in: churrasco, salsa, sushi, sorbet, salad
25 are savory
like in: BLT, chick toast, bacon, salad
3 were about travel
like in my trips to: Ireland, Christmas Markets, Southern Bavaria
4 were about some part of my home
like in: Thanksgiving, kitchen tour, new spice containers
2 were about Food Styling
like in: bacon
1 was about my son

May was the most interesting month to you.

The most popular posts are:
Homemade Ketchup with 13 comments
Homemade Sweet Potato Fries (small ones) with 15 comments
Inter-Cultural Thanksgiving – Foodbuzz 24,24,24 with 15 comments
Papaya Shikai Maki with 24 comments
Help Me Name This Drink Contest with 38 comments

What do these most popular posts have in common?
The first 3 posts cover homemade comfort foods that are popular, but are not generally reproduced in the home kitchen.

The second to last post mentioned, and second to most popular one, showed you how to make something step-by-step that looks complicated, but is easy.

The last post mentioned, and most popular for the year 2008 was a contest where commenters could win something – namely being featured on my blog for naming a drink.

So, this gives me more ideas for next year. What I will come up with, I don’t know yet. But, I foresee many recipes with fresh, delicious, healthy and have a lot of the shade of red!

What attracts you to this blog? I’d love to know how to keep you coming back for more.

Your favorite For the Love of Food posts linked here:

January:
Gyros : 5 comments

February:
Churrasco with Chimichurri Sauce :  6 comments

Mascarpone Brownie Petite Fours with Strawberry Swiss Merengue Butter Cream : 7 comments

March:
Quick Homemade Salsa : 4 comments
Black Bean Stacked Salad : 9 comments
French Chili Oil : 5 comments
Stacked Mexican Pizza : 9 comments

April:
Papaya Shikai Maki & How to Roll Them :  24 comments
Lox & Roasted Asparagus Inside-Out Maki Sushi : 9 comments
Sweet Potato Fries : 9 comments
Szechuan Pork Chops : 7 comments
Homemade Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza : 7 comments

May:
Beer Cookies : 5 comments
Homemade Ketchup McDonald’s Style : 13 comments
Chili Lime Butter : 5 comments
Marjoram & How Does Your Garden Grow : 5 comments
Homemade Angel Food Cake Lolly Pops : 7 comments
Shrimp Fried Rice : 5 comments
Homemade Sweet Potato Fries : 15 comments
Homemade Fresh Fruit Tart : 8 comments

June:
Back Home : 5 comments
Black Bean Tostadas : 6 comments

July:
Homemade Frozen Jello Pops : 8 comments
Snickerdoodles : 9 comments
My 36 Hour Chocolate Chip Cookie Studio : 6 comments
36 Hours of Chocolate Chip Cookies : 5 comments
The Best Guacamole I’ve Ever Made : 6 comments

August:
Pizza Roll Pizza : 7 comments
Tear Tomatoes : 6 comments
Caprese Chicken Sandwich : 9 comments
Homemade Mango Sorbet : 5 comments
Homemade Onion Strings : 5 comments
Turkish Haydari : 6 comments

September:
Citrus Salted Salmon Trout : 5 comments
Help Me Name This Drink Contest : 38 comments
The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie : 6 comments
BLT Steak Minis : 5 comments

October:
11 Interesting Facts About Ireland : 7 comments

November:
Inter-Cultural Thanksgiving – Foodbuzz 24,24,24 : 15 comments
Homemade Falaffel : 8 comments
Baked Potato Chowder & Bacon For Food Styling : 7 comments
My *new* Kitchen : 11 comments
New Spice Containers : 5 comments
Chick Toast In A Hole : 7 comments

December:
Sunday Morning Breakfast – Food Styling : 3 comments
Christmas Market In Fuerth Germany : 7 comments
Fall Salad : 5 comments

Last Thursday our local Christmas Market opened its doors. It always gives me such a nice warm and fuzzy feeling to walk through in the evening and enjoy the dimmed lights and people chatting over a cup of warm spiced wine.

I know many of you, my readers in the US especially, do not have Christmas Markets in your area and have never been to Germany to see one. So, I am sharing mine with you.

There are plenty of places to have a nice warm drink with friends.

Some more busy than others…

There are stars in the air…

And candy everywhere…

And wooden ornaments

And lights

And tea

And tall tables made from trees

If I haven’t been clear enough in my previous blog posts: Ireland is EXPENSIVE.

Accommodations, while pricey, can still be found at decent prices – especially in the off season (Fall/Winter).  But, food is another story.  Food is expensive.  Fancy a salad for your main meal?  Be ready to fork out up to €15 at a local pub.  Want some Irish Stew?  The same type of simple meal can run you anywhere from €9-€25 depending on what town you’re in and how touristy it is.  And, unlike many other countries, in Ireland (usually) the smaller the location the more touristy it is – aka – more expensive.

After many days of eating in restaurants, we soon got tired of this, and moved on to more hostels and “self-catered” meals.  And, we also learned that eating a meal in our (parked) car was much more relaxing than eating in any restaurant with our 20 month old son.  After sitting in the car for most of the day, he just wanted to run around like crazy during meal time.

But, don’t be foold, grocery stores are much more expensive than what you are used to at home – in the US or main-land Western Europe.  Once you collect enough food for a meal you may just be out €9 for salad items and some bread.  But, it is all worth the peace.

What we did for a meal of salad:

Take 1 empty 5-liter bottle of water (which we drank in the first few days of our trip)

carefully push in a bag salad, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices

pour in some dressing

twist on the lid

and shake

Then, cut open the bottle, pull out some plastic forks, and dig in.

However, if you are in Dublin, please please go visit the Guinness Storehouse and have a wonderful tour (which includes a complementary beer – or soda) at the end.  Then, take some time and have a meal in their restaurant where everything has a little Guinness in it.  My husband had the Irish Stew, and I had a hamburger – which came without bread – and was the best meal I had while on vacation.  And, it was no more or less expensive than any other Irish eatery we visited on our 2 week vacation.

If you ever find yourself in Northern Ireland – in the town of Enniskillen – visit Mrs. O’Malley’s.

It’s a traditional-looking ice cream parlor with jars of candy lining the walls and cookies and other sweets in every corner.  You can sit down or take away.

So, if you ever find yourself in Ireland, and in need of a more cost-effective meal, just get creative.  Check out a local grocery store, put something together, and enjoy.

We all have to have the fact that sometimes we only think of ourselves when we plan our vacations and forget to account the little ones in our planning. who would think that they would get bored spending 14 days in a car traveling around a huge Island?? – any logically thinking parent.

I have to say that I, as most parents probably are who are booking their next get-away, are only thinking about their extreme need to get away from the daily routine that is stressing us out.

It wasn’t until my son kept asking to go “ome” (home) every single day that I realized how terribly board he was. That is when we started to plan our vacation more around him and less around all the “cool” places we could see that we just couldn’t enjoy because we felt we had to rush.

A castle is just a big boring rock you can’t pick up and throw to a little kid.

To top it off, many hotels or bed and breakfasts and even some hostels are not young-child friendly.

So, for those of you parents with young children planning your next trip to Ireland, I have some great tips for you. For those of you planning on going somewhere else on your next vacation, I have some good tips for you as well.

1. Stop as often as you can to look at animals – especially when they’re doing silly things like chewing on a sign.

2. “Moo” and “baah” are great sounds of distraction with unhappy children in a car.

3. Stop at as many play grounds as you can find – seriously. They need their exercise and love to play with other children.

4. If there is a beach, and it’s not raining, stop and go for a walk and discover new things…like what sand feels like in between your toes for the first time!

5. Go to the zoo. The Fota Wildlife Park just outside of Cork was the highlight of our Irish vacation for our son. Getting really close to the animals was so invigorating for him, and it was worth every cent we paid to get in (€13/adult)!

In many areas you can, literally, get up close and personal to the animals as they freely roam around the park.

6. Visit an aquarium. We were very impressed by the Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium which only takes 30-45 minutes to go through.

7.  Take a horse-drawn carriage.  We took one through the Killarney National Park where no motorized vehicles are allowed.  Our son was thrilled by the “or-ee” (horsey) ride, and we got a great tour from the old Irish man who was driving us around.

So, after all the driving, walking, and chasing after your little ones, you are going to want to stay someplace over night where you can truley relax.  I do have to say that we did not find as many of these places as we would have hoped on our trip, but the 3 that we did find are really worth mentioning.  Please do keep in mind that we traveld to Ireland in the Fall, and Spring and Summer times may be more chaotic and less relaxing.  Most places close around the end of October, so in the Winter it will take some more hunting to find a place to sleep.

(sorry, no picture!)

1.  The first child-friendly place we stayed was a hostel in Leenane called “Sleepzone Connemara“.  They have a layed-back, but very organized staff as well as excellent cooking facilities, a relaxed dining area, and a nice TV lounge with plenty of board games to choose from.  Most importantly, for those of us with really young children, the main living areas are all on the ground floor and there any stairs leading up/down are off to the side.  I was really able to just let go here and not have to be on the constant look-out for my son going up and down and up and down and up and down the stairs….you know what I mean moms and dads!

2.  The second child-friendly place, and best place we stayed on our entire vacation, was Stanley House in the small sea-side town of Schull.  It was like going home to mom’s house.  Nancy, the owner, is a beautiful and young-looking grandmother who gives such a warm welcome to all her guests that we decided to stay an extra day just because. She was even kind enough to get out some toys for our sone to play with.  We were all really sad to have to go.

There are always beautiful candles lit at all hours of the day, and her home is kept in pristine condition.

And, she makes the most amazing breakfasts.  There is a menu to choose from, and in one meal you can eat anything from cereal, to fruit, homemade bread (to which I have been promised the recipe) traditional Irish breakfast – or have it all.

3.  The third child-friendly, and last place, we stayed on our vacation was Finnegan’s Holiday Hostel in Tralee.  The Town of Tralee is just as close to the Kerry Airport as Kilarney is, but the accomodations in Tralee, as well as the town, we far more pleasant.  Don’t be fooled by the “B&B” sign outside – it’s a hostel and the only breakfast served in tea/coffee and toast with an assortment of jams.  The rooms here were adequate, the price was nice, the kitchen was fabulous, and the living room was cozy with a nice big fire place.  Not to mention that the architecture was just really facinating.

And, do remember some general rules when you take your little ones on trips away from home over night:

1.  Feed them their meals at the same times they would usually get them at home

2.  Keep their sleeping/napping scheduals in tact

3.  Bring a comfort toy for each of them so every new place has something familiar in it.

I thought I’d share some really interesting things with you about Ireland. Some of these things were obvious to us before we arrived there, but many were surprising.

1. It’s really really green there. There is green grass and shamrocks in every corner of the country and the name Emerald Isle is no exaggeration.

2. The Republic of Ireland has a lot of coast line, but much of it is made up of really steep cliffs.  These are the Cliffs of Moher.

3. The northern coast of Northern Ireland has a lot of nice sandy beaches.  This is the view from the Mussenden Temple in the town of Castelrock, Northern Ireland.

4. Street signs in the Republic of Ireland are all in English and Irish (Gaelic – the Irish call it “Irish”). In Northern Ireland the signs are only in English.

5. Apparently in some areas of the coast people are in danger of driving off cliffs right into the ocean….you’d think it’d be obvious, right?

6. There are sheep everywhere. They graze the entire country – no one has to mow their lawn.

7. Many school buses are double deckers.

8. There are stone walls EVERYWHERE. The Irish really love their stone walls. They make it really nerve wrecking.

9. They have fascinating geological and geographical features. The Giant’s Causeway can be found in Portrush, Northern Ireland.

10. Guinness tastes better in Ireland – really. Guinness has quality control teams that go out to all the pubs, at no extra charge, to make sure all the lines from the kegs to the tap are clean and their beer tastes right. (Please no drinking and driving).

11. They drive on the left side oft he road in Ireland. The first 2 days were really stressful to get used to it, and after 1 week we were completely used to it. We were surprised that it was a bit confusing when we came back home to being on the right side of the road.

More interesting facts about Ireland tomorrow!