Ruins from the 12th Century

 

After we had returned to Ireland from Turkey, we picked up our rental car at Dublin airport and went to Portlaoise where we had booked a B&B for one night. It was already late when we arrived, so we started out early the following morning.

County Laois (pronounced Leesh) is off the beaten path, "undiscovered" by Rick Steves and therefore probably not worth it in his opinion - and blissfully lacking crowds of tourists. We had almost all of the places we visited that day to ourselves.

Many of the roads we took in Ireland were narrow country roads - and I mean narrow! At least you didn't have to think of driving on the left side (except when there was oncoming traffic which thankfully didn't happen too often).

Our first stop was the Rock of Dunamase (Irish Dún Másc) which rises 46 meters (151 ft) above a plain. The castle ruins on top of the rock date back to the 12th century. You have to "climb" a short way to get to the gate.

We had fun exploring the ruins and taking silly photos.

You can probably guess that these faces are for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

This is a favorite photo that I took of Kaefer.

The bigger picture looked like this:

That summer was an exceptionally dry year for Ireland, and the "Emerald Isle" was more yellow and beige than green. Not quite California dry though. Despite the dryness, the vistas from the castle ruins were beautiful.

I enjoyed taking photos through the castle "windows", it gives the photos a nice frame.

The yellow wildflowers on the grounds were pretty as well. Of course I took pictures of flowers - these thistles I thought quite charming.

We explored the ruins for quite some time during which we saw two other people who didn't stay long. Then we made our way back down again.

There was an old church and cemetery. I love old cemeteries, so we spend some time exploring here as well.

Eventually we left the rock and moved on to our next destination. Before we got there, though, the Geek had to stop because I wanted to take photos of the fields with hay bales. 

Then we were off again - more about that next time.

Did I mention that the roads were really narrow?

Since this is a "dinner post" for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date, here's the only picture I took of the food we ate in a lovely pub in Cork that evening - fish & chips, of course, accompanied by freshly draught Guinness (I don't drink Guinness from a bottle or can) and a Baby Guinness Shot.

Sláinte!

T Stands for Tag

 

The lovely Valerie is hosting the current challenge over at Tag Tuesday, and her theme is recycle and re-use. It took me a while to get my creative juices flowing on this one which is not because of the theme but because I was pre-occupied with other things, mainly with the beginning of the school year at the German School. The last time I was standing in a classroom is 18 months ago and I was quite nervous before the first day (which was last Saturday). I really needn't be - it was wonderful to be teaching in the classroom again, to see my students and talk with them in person. There was a completely different energy in the classroom that simply beats online teaching. I have a big class this semester, all returning students, some of whom had been in my class several years ago and decided to come back.

But back to the tag - this is what I created:

I cut a tag shape from a Kleenex tissue box and tried to "distress" it with Tim Holtz Distress Ink, only to discover that the surface is too smooth for the ink to stick on it. So I covered the tag with clear gesso to give it more tooth and then roughly painted it with bright aqua green and light blue permanent acrylic paint (Liquitex). I stamped the cabins and the lovely bathing lady (Crafty Individuals) onto watercolor paper and filled them with color using my Winsor and Newton travel watercolor set. The net you can see in the lower part of the tag is from a bag that once held Dutch baby potatoes. After gluing down the cabins and the lady on top of it I attached the piece of driftwood and the shells I had found on the beach several years ago. Lastly, I took some leftover yarn from a couple knitting projects and tied them to the tag. Done.

Yes, I know, since this is Elizabeth's T for Tuesday you want to see a drink. After last week's pineapple-hibiscus cooler I thought I kind of stay with the theme, but add some alcohol to it - here is a hibiscus bellini, that I had in a seafood restaurant in Eureka on our way back from Oregon two months ago. It was delicious, albeit a little bit too sweet.

I love my Tuesdays with the T-gang! You can find them here.

T Tuesday with Art Journal

 

Tomorrow is Tuesday which means the past week just flew by and it's time for Elizabeth's T Tuesday post. Didn't I just write last week's post?

Last week I found another challenge called Try it on Tuesday. Every other week a new challenge is posted. The current one is "use book pages" and we can use any medium we wish as long as we follow the challenge theme. I love to include book pages when I create and I decided to make a spread in my art journal. I tore up pages from books in different languages and fonts and glued them dowm randomly. A watercolor wash of burnt sienna followed. The two women and the image of the door are from a catalog of my favorite clothes company. Finally, I added some stamps and stenciled patterns. (She remained true to herself by Unity Stamp; vine flourish by Scrappy Cat; scalloped border by Fiskars; Tim Holtz stencil by Stampers Anonymous)

I hadn't worked in my art journal for a way too long time, but through a short class (more about that in a later post) and a couple challenges I rediscovered my creativity. One of those challenges beside the one above was through colorcrushcreative on Instagram. Every week a different color was the theme of the challenge. Unfortunately I found this challenge only a couple weeks ago when most of the colors were already done. I started out with violet, which is not a color I include in my work a lot, but thanks to this challenge it has made more appearances. I don't think I was particularly creative with that color, just playing around with watercolor, scrapbook paper scraps, stencils, stamps and an attempt to paint a nondescript flower. Drawing/painting is not my strong suit. However, I loved using these Inktense Pens by Derwent, they have such a brilliant color when you activate them with water. (Art text stamp by Stampers Anonymous; Divinata Seasons by Stampington; swirly stamp unknown; stencil by Stencil Girl)

Magenta was the chosen color the following week. Now, this color is much easier for me. I love to include magenta in its boldness. A color that makes a statement all on its own. Everything on this page is re-used - the book pages are from a Greek encyclopedia, the flowers and radishes from seed packages, a tag on a piece of clothing from the clothing company I mentioned above, a piece of wrapping paper, a Métro ticket from Paris, an index card I made. All covered with watercolor magenta that I mixed myself and finished with a stencil by The Crafters Workshop. Creating this spread was pure fun.

The current color is pink and I decided to keep it simple. I took the photo of the Black-crowned night heron several years ago while I was at the lake early in the morning. The fog was still hovering over the lake, it was very peaceful. It is still one of my favorite photos. A soft pink, I thought, would fit this particular mood. I mainly used scrapbook paper (for the background, and the poppies are cut from one as well and then painted with water-soluble wax pastels by Caran-d'Ache), the letter stamps are by Creative Imaginations. Somehow I love this page.

Even this week's drink - a pineapple-hibiscus cooler that I ordered at a lunch with a friend - sticks to the color scheme!

Summer Eats

 

Linguine with Bruschetta, Mozzarella and fresh basil

Before I give you a taste of my summer kitchen, I want to thank you for your comments on my last post. It was reassuring to read how many of you understand, have empathy, feel the same and know exactly what I was trying to say. To those who felt the need to criticize, preach and even lecture me, thus adding insult to injury, I can only say, please move on.

So, on to something that many of us spent a lot of time and care with during the summer of our pandemic: food. Have you noticed how often we made a trip to the refrigerator during the shelter-in-place? Even when we were able to move around more, food still remained one of the main attractions and a highlight of each day.

Spring mix with avocado, cherry tomatoes and sunflower seeds

Spring mix with avocado, sungold tomatoes and pumpkin seeds

Summer of course asks for lighter food. Fresh produce is readily available at farmers markets and even with a mask and social distance shopping in fresh air is a joy. Here in Sonoma County we are blessed and spoiled with the wonderful offerings of our local farmers. There is more than tasty organic produce - there are eggs from chicken spending their life in a pasture, bread baked with ancient grains, fresh seafood and the most delicious salmon/seaweed spread I ever had.

Chicken Shawarma

Summer is the perfect time for trying food from the Middle East like Chicken Shawarma, one of our favorites. It is easy to make since you prepare the marinade the day before and let the chicken marinate in it overnight. Your refrigerator will smell of cumin and garlic and a blast of it will reach your nostrils every time you open it - and make you very hungry. I usually make it in the oven and serve it on flatbread with lettuce, tomatoes and a spicy yogurt sauce. It is delicious. 

Sweet balls of fire

We finally asked a couple we're friends with over for a social distanced early dinner on the patio. We had set up two tables apart from each other, but still close enough that we didn't have to yell! They brought wine and appetizer and I served meatballs in a chilli sauce with focaccia I had baked in the afternoon and a salad. It was a simple meal, but just the right thing for this lovely summer evening. Even more important than the food was the conversation and the laughter - we laughed hard and often! 

 Creamy gnocchi with sun-dried tomatoes and basil

One of my pleasures is to read the New York Times morning briefings. They always come with a recipe of the day and some of these are very tempting. While I would like to eat a whole lot of these dishes, I at least tried a few, among them these creamy gnocchi with sun-dried tomatoes and basil. Before I cooked this dish I wasn't a big fan of sun-dried tomatoes, maybe because most of them are oil packed. However, I found some at Trader Joe's that are not packed in oil and julienne cut. I just added them to the sauce and let them cook for a little while. It has become a favorite dish in my family.

Summer veggies with fussili in creamy tomato sauce

But I don't always follow recipes. Quite often I just see what I have and then put something together. Summer has so much to offer - here I took some zucchini and eggplant, sliced them and sautéed them in my cast iron skillet, then made a creamy tomato sauce to go with it and finally added fussili to the pan. Easy, simple, tasty.

And sometimes I make Poké. It's not as good as in Hawai'i, but it's still delicious.

Of course the food needs to be accompanied by something to drink - in the summer I enjoy more white wine and especially rosé wine. In the past decade or so the rosés in the area have become really good wines and not that sweet stuff it used to be.

But we also enjoyed other drinks, especially during our Happy Hour with our neighbors out in the street - Mai Tais, Campari O, Hard Cider, Bellinis and our traditional "drunk strawberries" (Erdbeerbowle).

What kind of food did you have in the summer? What were your favorites?

Quarantine Kitchen

In my last food related post I promised that there will be a part 2 to the food that we ate during the shelter-in-place. This is more of a look back now since the county has re-opened and it seems that people are getting out more. Restaurants are open for dine-in - most of them using patio space and dining outside which here in Northern California is a no-brainer, really. But I do wonder whether is has been such a smart idea to open up while still being in the middle of a pandemic. Ignoring it doesn't make it go away. No surprise that the number of newly infected cases is going up almost everywhere in the country.

But - back to food. Very often I cook without any recipe, like the dish in the photo on top. Seafood mix, red bell pepper, edamame and chow mein noodles all thrown in a wok with some good spices make a satisfying dinner. My secret ingredient for this is sesame oil, and apart from that any food you can find in your kitchen. Just use your imagination and experiment with different spices.

One of our favorite dishes from Italy is pesto. I don't make my own pesto since I found a wonderful pesto from Italy that always reminds me of Tuscany and the wonderful time we had there. Of course it's accompanied by a glass of California red wine.

When we had pesto we usually have some spaghetti left over that easily makes another meal. Again, I just use what I have - spinach and Bavarian bratwurst, broccoli and Bavarian bratwurst, eggplant and pancetta. There is no limit to your imagination.

Or you can make fritata with a salad on the side. Just make sure not to burn it like I did!

We do love that Bavarian bratwurst. I find this one at Trader Joe's, it comes right from Munich and is a true German bratwurst. We eat it with a broccoli-cauliflower gratin on the side and sometimes I eat it as a curry wurst just like in Germany.

Trader Joe's Instagram page also inspired me to try some of their ideas, like the "sweet balls of fire" - meatballs cooked in a sauce made from their sweet chili sauce and raspberry jam - so good! Even better with focaccia - this was my second try and it already was a big improvement from my first one.

I do love to cook seafood, so I made puff pastry shells with shrimp and a creamy sauce with cremini mushrooms, zucchini and red bell pepper (my own creation) as well as a lovely lemon baked cod (I found the recipe on Pinterest here). I'm always happy when I find a fish recipe that everybody likes and doesn't amount to a ton of work.

Have you heard of Shakshuka eggs? While it is a breakfast dish I made it for dinner once, first time I tried it because I wanted to bring a Middle Eastern dish to the table. While it wasn't a favorite, it was certainly very flavorful and delicious.

Let's not forget about desserts. While usually we just have a piece of chocolate to round out our dinner I sometimes make the effort to make a special dessert like Tiramisu which has been a favorite since I brought the recipe from Italy 25 years ago or so. Here is the recipe.

In our paper (or the New York Times, I can't remember) I found a recipe for a crumb cake that sounded easy enough. It doesn't look like much, but the taste was okay. I think I would like to add some fresh fruit on the side - strawberries or peaches - and some whipped cream.

And just to make this pandemic time a bit easier to endure, a good drink is never wasted - be it a maitai on a Sunday afternoon, white wine with the fish or a traditional German Erdbeerbowle.

Now go in the kitchen and make something beautiful!