Arny and Tracy's Kitchen in Galway

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5503946238/" title="ArnyKitchen0404 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="ArnyKitchen0404" height="428" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5299/5503946238_f8f15eebe5_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />The house that Arny and Tracy are renting for this year in Galway has a beautiful kitchen, which gets the slanting late-afternoon winter sun. (The latitude is 53 north, so it <span style="font-style: italic;">really slants!</span>) I helped cook one dinner there for the four of us and four guests. I used a dish towel for an apron, but all other needed objects were available. Tracy worked out a very nice spice shelf and populated it with lots of spice, as shown.<br /><br />While I'm talking about the house, here's a photo of the front.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5503355001/" title="arny-house5394 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="arny-house5394" height="375" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5011/5503355001_08302e8b63.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br />The front of the house is nearly identical to the houses of the neighbors; the gardens are all different, however. Here's the back garden in the very slanty light of a morning. The wall at the back faces a rather busy street, but it requires a mile of driving to get there unless you want to try climbing over. The neighborhood is amazingly protected!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5503355845/" title="arny-house5399 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="arny-house5399" height="375" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5260/5503355845_69d1703ea1.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5503393685/" title="arny-house5398 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="arny-house5398" height="375" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5017/5503393685_50a304d40f.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br />We came back yesterday, but I'll be posting several more times to cover our very busy trip. So far, posts on my other blogs are:<br /><ul class="posts"><li><a href="http://maetravels.blogspot.com/2011/03/irish-politics.html">Irish Politics</a></li><li><a href="http://maetravels.blogspot.com/2011/03/misty-ireland.html">Misty Ireland</a></li><li><a href="http://maetravels.blogspot.com/2011/03/irish-castles.html">Irish Castles</a></li><li><a href="http://maetravels.blogspot.com/2011/03/irish-walls.html">Irish Walls</a></li><li><a href="http://maetravels.blogspot.com/2011/03/ireland.html">Ireland</a></li><li><a href="http://hero-or-antihero.blogspot.com/2011/02/jewish-ireland.html">Jewish Ireland</a></li></ul>

Arny and Tracy's Kitchen in Galway

The house that Arny and Tracy are renting for this year in Galway has a beautiful kitchen, which gets the slanting late-afternoon winter sun...

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Monk's Pub, Ballyvaughn Ireland

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5495585380/" title="monks1 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="monks1" height="375" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5055/5495585380_075d2641e5.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5495585550/" title="monks2 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="monks2" height="500" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5218/5495585550_8b669b6f41.jpg" width="375" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5494993573/" title="monks3 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="monks3" height="458" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5134/5494993573_bb0efa7564_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5495586062/" title="monks5 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="monks5" height="375" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5253/5495586062_786bf8f431.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br />More seafood from Galway Bay: today, crab claws and mussels. And another fire, this time a log fire rather than a peat fire. We weren't as cold: the day was remarkably warm and perfectly sunny for wandering around The Burren.

Monk's Pub, Ballyvaughn Ireland

More seafood from Galway Bay: today, crab claws and mussels. And another fire, this time a log fire rather than a peat fire. We weren't ...

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Coole Oysters

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5491622057/" title="morans0 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="morans0" height="323" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5015/5491622057_041894080e.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br />Moran's Oyster Cottage was a splendid place to eat lunch after a walk in Coole Park. Lady Gregory, owner of Coole 100 years ago, was often host to William Butler Yeats and his circle, and he wrote a book of poems called "The Wild Swans at Coole." (More about Coole elsewhere, later).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5492216348/" title="morans00 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="morans00" height="500" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5059/5492216348_05035df6fc.jpg" width="375" /></a><br /><br />The peat fire was warm, and the oysters so fresh that the Moran family member who opened ours showed us a little sea worm still alive inside one. (I shuddered. A lot.) Other family members have won national and international competitions to see who can open 30 oysters the fastest without damaging them.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5491622693/" title="morans0-1 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="morans0-1" height="375" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5176/5491622693_6ced91e847.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5492215156/" title="morans1 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="morans1" height="480" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5091/5492215156_99b441dab2_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />They were DELICIOUS!<br /><br />After lunch, we watched the swans on the water in front of the restaurant. Yeats saw nine and fifty on Coole Lake, where we saw none at all, so they must have come down here for the day.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5492215656/" title="morans4 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="morans4" height="356" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5252/5492215656_1e367b07f3.jpg" width="500" /></a>

Coole Oysters

Moran's Oyster Cottage was a splendid place to eat lunch after a walk in Coole Park. Lady Gregory, owner of Coole 100 years ago, was oft...

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B&B Breakfast Time in Ireland

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5489708223/" title="KillybgBkfst by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="KillybgBkfst" height="480" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5098/5489708223_df5fb9541e_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />A full Irish breakfast is mostly meat. In the tiny fishing village of Killybegs we were offered a choice of potato waffles with tomato and poached egg instead of the Full Irish. Very nice! In Dublin this morning I had the full Irish breakfast but didn't eat it all. The blood pudding was really too strange for my taste. What really impressed me though was the silver on the sideboard.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5489707237/" title="DublinB&B by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="DublinB&B" height="480" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5060/5489707237_c1da452ab9_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />For the really good parts of the trip, including a visit to the Giant's Causeway and several fantastic Dublin museums, I'll be posting on my other blog.

B&B Breakfast Time in Ireland

A full Irish breakfast is mostly meat. In the tiny fishing village of Killybegs we were offered a choice of potato waffles with tomato and p...

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Galway Ireland, Markets

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5479420900/" title="moycullen1 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="moycullen1" height="428" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5300/5479420900_e3d13f71bc_o.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />Yesterday we visited the market in a very small town, Moycullen, a few miles from Galway where Arny and Tracy live. Irish potatoes, turnips, carrots, farmhouse cheese, honey, and a few other items are available now, though it's pretty bleak weather for farming. These are not farmers markets -- most of the fruit, vegetables, and other products are imported and are clearly so labeled.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5479421308/" title="moycullen2 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="moycullen2" height="480" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5135/5479421308_eb3dc6b3e5_o.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />The crepe maker used a big round griddle and a roller to make thin French-style crepes filled with a variety of choices including nutella.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5479421384/" title="moycullen3 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="moycullen3" height="480" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5100/5479421384_464f63c1e0_o.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />Real Irish turnips.<br /><br />The following photos are of the Galway market where we shopped this morning. Same sort of thing: many resellers of local and international foods, clothing, pottery, and many market goods.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5478820301/" title="galwaymkt1 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="galwaymkt1" height="394" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5055/5478820301_6ce97a26ba_o.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5478820371/" title="galwaymkt2 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="galwaymkt2" height="394" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5017/5478820371_7d8c23f262.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br />In the foreground, a donut seller. Second stall: a bagel seller whose bagels Tracy loves -- you can just make out Tracy buying bagels. I reminded her that her mother once said "they shouldn't have fruit," but she did buy some with raisins. We enjoyed them for lunch.<br /><br />The fish stall included a wide variety of fish and lots of local oysters that mainly come from a bit south of here, a town we passed on our way from Shannon Airport yesterday.<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5478820509/" title="galwaymkt4 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="galwaymkt4" height="428" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5217/5478820509_91d8447ee8_o.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><br />Next: carrots and parsnips with bits of the Old Sod clinging to them.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5479421154/" title="galwaymkt3 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="galwaymkt3" height="356" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5096/5479421154_16a395d4e7.jpg" width="500" /></a>

Galway Ireland, Markets

Yesterday we visited the market in a very small town, Moycullen, a few miles from Galway where Arny and Tracy live. Irish potatoes, turnips,...

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Ireland

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3z3mu61JZMRTarmjXtdJsUO1ASOHr8-WTDqRnqhHO-Q5z9AObZX_ZhMoKtSyBnASUBjpZUKt6XLkCdYTfCD4STxgveos9uv6lJx7InIrqZdWB1J3SrqDjAMNwvNqO65GAUkWHrlwdpFiV/s1600/airlinemeal.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577687303225869730" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3z3mu61JZMRTarmjXtdJsUO1ASOHr8-WTDqRnqhHO-Q5z9AObZX_ZhMoKtSyBnASUBjpZUKt6XLkCdYTfCD4STxgveos9uv6lJx7InIrqZdWB1J3SrqDjAMNwvNqO65GAUkWHrlwdpFiV/s400/airlinemeal.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" /></a>Here's something we haven't seen in a while: a hot airline meal from a still-functioning airplane kitchen. Just the same as the meals in the past when you saw them on every flight. Strange puree (potato? applesauce? a mixture?) and orangish gravy over a small slice of rubbery chicken breast, off-green beans (canned?), salad, small cello-covered brownie, cheese, crackers. But Delta did include it in the price of the ticket. Since they woke me up to give it to me, I ate some of it. Then we were wakened again by a woman whose mother couldn't wake up -- we heard increasingly urgent and loud calls, "Mom, Mom, Help, Help." No doctor responded to the subsequent call, but the stewardess nobly gave the woman oxygen and got her to wake up and the drama was over. Then we were wakened an hour later for breakfast and landing at Shannon airport. Not much sleep.<br /><br />Ireland looks beautiful and green, with strange slanting winter sunlight. We walked along Galway Bay in a very stiff wind. I hope to post much more beautiful photos than this!

Ireland

Here's something we haven't seen in a while: a hot airline meal from a still-functioning airplane kitchen. Just the same as the meal...

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The Empty Tureen

"Murder by Death" is a fantastic spoof of detective fiction, especially the detective movie and the country house genre. We watched it last night through the brand-new amazon.com streaming video offering. (See "<a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/02/amazon-adds-streaming-video-to-prime-subscriptions-in-a-bid-to-rival-netflix-hulu-.html">Amazon adds streaming video to Prime subscriptions in a bid to rival Netflix, Hulu</a>" for details on the new service.)<br /><br />In "Murder by Death" Peter Sellers sends up Charlie Chan (made me laugh out loud over and over). Elsa Lanchester parodies Miss Marple. Peter Falk plays an amalgam of Humphry Bogart roles, especially Sam Spade, making you realize where Colombo got some of his mannerisms. David Niven and Maggie Smith play the Charlstons, Dick and Dora, who have a dog just like Asta in "The Thin Man." Truman Capote is the madman who invites them all to his strange mansion, reached via a bridge that's falling down, etc. I loved every minute.<br /><br />Now what do you do to parody the constant use of food in murder mysteries? Well, the blind butler, played by Alec Guinness, hires a new maid, who is deaf and dumb. No communication. No dinner. She sits idly in the kitchen while he gives her instructions that she doesn't hear. He brings in an empty tureen and pantomimes serving soup. Perfect!<br /><br />Great movie. Great idea from amazon.com.

The Empty Tureen

"Murder by Death" is a fantastic spoof of detective fiction, especially the detective movie and the country house genre. We watche...

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