News, Olds & and Dead Rat

NOTE: Hi all! It has been a few weeks since you have seen a post from me. Sorry! I have had a lot of life happen within the past couple of weeks- some great things and some not great things; therefore, I have been rather distracted. However, I set a goal to finish these posts out so we are going to attempt to accomplish that goal. Thanks for sticking around! Enjoy this week:

Dublin bound we are. Have you ever had that experience where you do a lot of planning on a trip and you just go into the assumption that everyone is going to hate what you have planned and also hate you by proxy? No? Just my mental illness? Cool. Well, I booked what looked like a lovely hostel for us in the center of Dublin to hopefully cut costs but man oh man was I worried that I booked us a 200 euro dungeon. Thankfully, that was not the case. It wasn’t extravagant, but it was a private room with 6 beds and a bathroom (towels cost extra). After settling into our very chic not-dungeon, we hit the town, starting with the Guinness Storehouse. This was my second time visiting the beer-themed Wonka factory. Virtually nothing had changed since I was here solo in 2016, but it was still a fun time. That evening, we had phenomenal Indian food at a place called Pickle. After dinner, we practiced the very Irish tradition of bar hopping. At one, we were cornered by drunk Irish dudes who wouldn’t leave us alone- a bust. But after a few other lame bars we found ourselves at a club further down the road that was playing Shania Twain- home at last

Dublin day two had a lot more eating and walking. Started the morning at a charming cafe on the river called Copper and Straw. Then we walked through Trinity College to get to a bakery called Bread 41 that came highly recommended to us. I branched off and went to the National Gallery art museum which was a fun place to walk around and ponder life's mysteries like, “am I sure my friends don’t hate me for booking us a hostel?” After the art museum and a quick afternoon nap, we began the night at Devitte’s pub, featuring fab live music and three dudes aggressively crop dusting the whole bar*. After this we sated our downtrodden appetites at Hang Dai, a Chinese fusion place with a very nice tasting course menu. I woke up early the final morning and strolled along the river and later rejoined my friends who most certainly despise me for booking us a shitty little hostel. A quaint long weekend.

Tuesday

Happy Halloween! You may be wondering “Matt, how do you decide what to cook on any given day?” To that I say, “good question, reader. Thanks for asking.”

Each week, we are paired with another student. Each duo is given a starter, a main dish, a side dish or two, and a dessert. The duo divides up the dishes amongst themselves et voila- that is what you are cooking. Today, for example, we were assigned a roast veggie salad, a steak, and a plum tart. “But Matt, that is only three things.” Gold star, reader. That IS only three things. The fourth thing confused even me: Ballymaloe Spiced Beef. Atop the recipe it said, “prep time: 3-7 days.” Surely most of the prep is done for me and I just have to worry about plating it, right? WRONG. Early this morning I was delivered a slab of beef the size of a toaster oven delivered to my workspace and was given the, shall we say, laissez faire instruction of “trim off the fat and remove the bones. You guys… I spent 2 whole hours of my life trying to complete this task. Did it work, you ask? I don’t f*cking know. Since it must MARINADE for 3-7 DAYS, I won’t have any semblance of an idea whether I did a good job until next week. Happy Monday Tuesday <3

Wednesday

This morning I had the zoomies. Woke up at like 4 am and could not go back to sleep. Around 6am I peeled myself from my bed and went on a walk around the gardens. My normal footpath to school is on a road that perimeters the garden. While it is a lovely stroll, it is rather muddy, so I threw on my wellies (rain boots) and hit the trail. There is a maze in the center of the gardens that I assumed would be easy. Twenty minutes later, I was panicking.. But baby, we survived and thrived and made it out of the labyrinth just in time for class. After lecture, I took the garden path home again and saw a dead rat. It reminded me of sweet home Chicago <3

Thursday

Puff pastry is a vehicle to get butter into your body. To make this tasty treat, whack the hell out of a block of butter until it is about half an inch thick, then wrap the butter in a dough of water and flour. Next, fold and roll out the dough-wrapped butter long rectangle. Repeat until the butter has disappeared into the dough with hundreds of layers of butter. Let rest overnight to cool the butter. The next day, use it for your pie or tart. Bake, and observe the dough puff up due to the moisture in the butter releasing steam, creating a pillowy pastry. Making puff pastry was my task today and while tedious, it was really fun.

Friday

I had visitors today. My Aunt Mary and her husband Mike came all the way from Italy (not Italian, just living there) to visit little ol’ me down by the southern coast of Ireland. While it has been a joy to write about my life here for all of you, it was extra special to get to show people around this charming corner of the world. They joined us for lunch after our morning cooking and stayed for a demonstration in the afternoon. One member of this duo (not saying who) did nap during the demo but he looked very well rested.

That evening we had a light five course meal at the Ballymaloe House restaurant. We started with a pre-dinner bottle and a half of wine. Then we sat for our first course of a miso broth, followed by an hors d'oeuvre buffet. Next we had our main course. I had monkfish in a buttery sauce. Next was a cheese course which consisted of three tasty cheeses. Finally the dessert cart rolled on by and I had a slice of the passion fruit swiss roll. We topped off the night with another bottle of wine to round out the two we had with dinner and then I strolled home with all the ingredients for a divine hangover. A lot of my life has been filled with brand new things recently– new school, new country, new friends. But today I got to introduce some of the new to my olds. This sounds like it is a dig on their age and it only half is. Onward to the weekend! See you next time

*Crop dusting is where one passes gas and then exits the room, leaving a trail of stank.

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