Bill just got an email from his dentist informing him that their Black Friday sale begins on Monday. One can apparently 'give the gift of a sparkling smile' or something like that. Is this really a good idea? Maybe if Santa sparkles up his smile it'll be so dazzling that Rudolph can take this year off. But I can see this going horribly wrong. Imagine the happy moment on Christmas morning when someone opens an eagerly awaited gift from someone special only to discover a teeth whitening kit or a voucher for dental work and wondering if they're trying to send a message. That could end the festive mood in a hurry. I'm not a Black Friday fan anyway, but I think some businesses are less suited to it than others.
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
More Muffins
Yesterday I updated my post to include a link to the recipe I use for cranberry orange muffins. This is one of several adaptations I've come up with based on a plain muffin recipe I found in The New Laurel's Kitchen Cookbook almost 40 years ago! How can it be that I've been riffing on this for almost 4 decades!? I like the original recipe, but I usually make one of my adaptations. When I make muffins, it's almost always one of these. I thought it might be useful to put links to the various adaptations in one place. We love all of them and since they're pretty healthy, they're good to have around for breakfast, snacks, or even dessert. When I was in grad school, I often took one for lunch. I'd split it open, top with yogurt, and add fresh fruit. I'll link again to the cranberry orange muffins, just so they're all in one place. I'm sure there are many, many other variations that others can come up with--the recipe is easily adapted to suit your taste. I should say that these are not the kind of muffins that one gets in supermarkets, warehouse stores, and bakeries. They're not extremely sweet, although you can add more sugar if you want; they're not greasy, and they're not overly fluffy.
Several years ago, a friend who ate a plant based diet, made these vegan by leaving out the egg and using plant milk. I wasn't able to try these as we didn't live near one another, but she loved them and made them a lot, she said.
All links will open in a new window.
Muffins
Cranberry Orange I'll add that for these, adding a teaspoon or so of vanilla or almond extract is nice. Also, you can use blueberries, fresh or frozen, instead of cranberries.
It appears that when I originally posted this, I just linked back to the recipe above and mentioned adjustments and substitutions. To save clicks, I'll just put the entire recipe here:
Chocolate Chunk Raspberry Muffins
Place two cups of jumbo porridge oats/old fashioned rolled oats into a container and cover with 1 1/2 cups of milk. Place in fridge for several hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 180 C (fan oven)/400 F. Place soaked oats in a bowl and add 1 to 3 tablespoons of (granulated, brown, or demerera) sugar (according to your taste) and one egg. Add a teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract, if desired. Mix in.
Add 1 cup of wholemeal/whole wheat flour and 1 teaspoon each bread/baking soda and salt. Stir in until incorporated.
Fold in about a cup of raspberries (fresh or frozen) and some chocolate chips, or a mix of chocolate chips and nuts.
Spoon into greased or lined muffin tins and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown--timing depends a lot on the oven, so I just keep an eye on them.
As you can tell, in cooking as in life, I'm very much an improv kind of gal, creating out of whatever I have around. Sometimes I'm happy with the result and sometimes I'm not, but it's worked for me so far. Hope your day is filled with good things.
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Impeccable Timing!
Yesterday we went over to our small local grocery store to pick up a few things in case the ice cometh and we found ourselves unable to safely walk on icy sidewalks. It's a very small store with a limited selection of items, but they're convenient for basics and they are one of only two stores (the other being Aldi, sometimes) where we can buy what are called jumbo oats here. These are like old-fashioned rolled oats in the US. What they call porridge oats are like what we knew as quick-cooking oats before we moved here. These range from sort of medium flakes to dust and we prefer the jumbo oats for porridge. Also, I make muffins with them (I think they'd be called buns here) and for that, the regular porridge oats do not work well. Since we'd started our last bag of jumbo oats and I wanted to make muffins with some of the fresh cranberries I got from veg man on Thursday, I put the jumbo oats on my list. We were bummed when we got to the shelf and saw only empty space.
This morning I realized that since the muffins use 2 cups of oats, and we only had the one already-opened bag, I'd better not make them. We decided to keep an eye on the sidewalk and maybe pop over to see if they'd restocked. By afternoon the sidewalk looked dry and people were walking and running normally. We both got into our books, though, so spent time drinking tea and reading. Just after 4, it was starting to get dark and I suggested we might want to go, since tomorrow will be around freezing with sleet/freezing rain/possible snow--or so they say. Off we went. Happy days! There were many bags of jumbo oats. As we got to the till and started chatting with Breda, the nice lady who works there, I said, 'You're restocked!' She laughed and said, 'I restocked this literally 5 minutes ago. The van is still out back. This is the time every week--Tuesday at 4.' So now we know. Had we gone any earlier, we would have found empty space again, so clearly it was best to sit and read for a while 😄😉😏 Too late to make the muffins today, since the oats need to soak for a while, but tomorrow is another day. Orange cranberry muffins with a hot beverage and books on a beautifully cold day? Sounds good to me!
Updated to add the link to the muffin recipe, which is here To the recipe as written, you can add a teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract if you want, along with the sugar and egg.
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Maybe Forget the Boiling Water
It's been unseasonably warm here for weeks. For most of the past week, it's been very still--no wind at all. There's been a lot of fog, so the air felt heavy, damp, stuffy, and not at all autumnal. This meant several nights of not sleeping well, so as the week went on, I was feeling more tired and sluggish, both mentally and physically. Last night, it all caught up to me and after supper I was feeling like I just couldn't do anything. I couldn't fall asleep, either. I really don't like it when those two things combine. So I got myself into my bed early and sat there in the dark listening to podcasts, booktube, and part of an audiobook. By the time I was listening to the latter, it was around midnight and I had situated myself to be ready for sleep. An hour later, I turned off my mp3 player, turned over, and fell asleep, a little earlier than usual, but that's OK. There was a breeze and it was cooler, so I was able to sleep to a time that is reasonable for me. I'm feeling better today.
I expect things to become even more conducive to sleep as an 'Arctic maritime regime' settles over us and brings wintry weather, although this will not be good for going from place to place. It's supposed to be cold for a week, with various episodes of frozen precipitation. That means ice will coat sidewalks and roads. They will send gritters out on the roads, but no one will do anything about the sidewalks. Those will just get worse each day until it's warm enough to cause melting and evaporation. People here will say that they're not used to the ice and that's why they don't deal with it well, but let's be real. Most winters there are at least a few days where ice is a problem. It's not hard to figure out how to deal with it. I would have thought that businesses and homeowners would want to avoid possible legal liability for any falls on the sidewalks in front of their premises, so, out of curiosity, I looked it up. Turns out that if the ice occurs naturally--as a result of freezing rain, for instance--no one is responsible for any injury resulting from it. However, if the owner does something to melt the ice and it then refreezes, like pouring boiling water onto a sidewalk to melt the ice, then that is not naturally occurring ice and the owner bears responsibility. So they have an incentive to just leave the ice there. This seems kind of weird, as does the boiling water example, which I found on a law firm's website. Then again, they seem to be fond of boiling water as a remedy. The first winter we were in the country, we heard a reminder on the radio that it wasn't a good idea to throw boiling water on your windshield to get any frost or ice off it. We laughed and wondered aloud who would do that, even as we assumed plenty of people do, or they wouldn't have said anything. A short time later, we were looking out the window and saw our neighbor toss some hot water on her windshield. We had another laugh.
In any case, we'll see what Monday is like. Hopefully, we'll be able to do a couple of errands in town before the ice arrives (if it does--plenty of time for the forecast to change). After those are done, I am happily anticipating a cozy stretch of hibernation with plenty of time to read, sip hot beverages, and sleep, sleep, sleep! I rely on this time to catch up on the sleep that is so elusive during the summer months and because of the weird weather, I am 6 weeks behind on that already. It's nice to wake up feeling rested. I look forward to it.
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Donegal Dash Day
We did the Donegal dash today. Took the bus to Donegal town to return and pick up library books and do some other errands. If the bus is on time, we have 70 minutes on the ground to do what we need to do. Today, the bus was late due to numerous roadworks going on, but we had enough time to do most of what we wanted to get done and got back to the bus stop just as our bus home was coming around the Diamond, which is the town square and is actually triangular in shape.
A few weeks ago, a friend sent me this link to an article and Fresh Air interview the author did about this book:
After the library, it was off to the Animals in Need charity shop. I made a beeline for the books and found a couple.
Finally, while I was standing at the bookshelves, Bill walked over to the kitchenware shelf and found a short fairytale on a mug. I glanced over at him and he beckoned me over. 'Look at that mug,' he said. 'It's coming home with me,' I replied. 'I thought it might,' he answered.
Monday, November 11, 2024
Some Beauty
As this new week begins, it feels like a good day to share some beauty as respite from the ugly. A friend sent me this the other day, knowing that I love celosia. I used to have a small one in a pot, but haven't seen one of this size. I think it looks spectacular against the bare branches and blue sky. It brings me joy. May it do the same for you.
Sunday, November 10, 2024
Um, Maybe I Should Just Move Along Now
A couple of decades ago, we lived in a neighborhood with many residents that were either immigrants from Mexico or of Mexican descent. There was a school that was maybe a block away from our house. This lone male lived directly across the street from the school and several houses down from us. The location of his dwelling became a concern once I had the experience described below. We never saw the guy except from a distance, because every time he would be outside and someone was walking down the street, he'd scurry back inside his house, which was interesting in itself--at least from the outside.
There wasn't much of a front yard, but there were a few plants growing there, with a very tall flagpole planted among them. This was always flying the 'don't tread on me' flag. In the windows were 'no trespassing' signs and statues of the Virgin Mary. So in spite of the fact that we never saw or talked to him, we felt we knew something about him and didn't really care to make his acquaintance anyway.
One day, I was walking home from work. I came around the corner onto our street and saw him washing his car. I had the fleeting thought that he'd be hurrying inside at any moment to avoid having to interact with me. As I got closer, I realized with surprise that he was staying outside, so I prepared to say a polite hello as I walked by. I adjusted my face accordingly. However, my surprise grew when I reached the spot in the sidewalk where he was and he began to speak to me. The conversation was pretty much as weird as I would have expected it to be. He didn't greet me in any way. He didn't say hello. Didn't ask how I was. Wasn't commenting on the weather. No. He opened his mouth to speak and out tumbled, 'You know what is the best thing about this country?' 'OK,' I thought, 'This is going to be interesting.' I replied, 'No, what is the best thing about this country?' His answer wasn't funny, but it was so ridiculous that I burst out laughing. 'The best thing about this country is that we can all own guns.' I don't remember exactly what I said then, but I think it was something about how that's not exactly a good thing. That and my laughter were not what he wanted to hear and he got slightly agitated. He went on and on with the typical argument about defending himself against the government. For those not familiar with US gun culture, this is a typical justification people use for why they need guns. They have the nonsensical idea that somehow they can fight off the US military with their personal arsenals😆 Anyway, I said to Mr Gun Nut that I was quite sure that no matter how many guns he had, the US government had access to bigger guns and more of them. He got more agitated.
I know, you're probably thinking that I should have just walked away right then. I don't know why I didn't, except that I was tired and the guy was so ridiculous as to be almost amusing in a sick sort of way, so things went on. He asked me if I thought people shouldn't have guns and I replied that they didn't need weapons of war and that there should be some regulations. He talked about shooting people who break into his house. I mentioned that the facts are, most of the shootings that occur are not people defending themselves against intruders, but people shooting family members or friends. He said that that never happened to him and he grew up with guns. I laughed a bit more and said sarcastically, 'Oh, well, if that's YOUR experience then it must be true for everyone.' He was angry now and with a raised voice, he asked, 'So you want immigrants to come here and shoot up kids in school?' I responded with, 'Every school shooting has been perpetrated by one of the home grown white boys you were describing.' As I was saying this, I finally had the wise thought that I should stop the conversation. He was yelling at me, but I just shook my head, kept laughing, and walked away--past my house and down the street. At some point, I looked back and he was gone, so I went home.
Even though that story illustrates some of the absurd things people believe about gun culture, it also highlights the problem of disinformation and flight from fact, which has only gotten worse in the decades since I had this conversation. At the time, there was right wing hate radio and Fox 'News.' By the time this happened, I'd already had years of experience interacting with people in a disinformation bubble and I understood that even then, there were many people inhabiting a fact-free universe. They would hear something on one of these platforms and repeat it, like the gun guy, without even a pause to consider if it made sense. It was a problem even back then that people I knew who lived in the real world didn't want to accept or acknowledge. The disinformation universe has exploded in the years since. Some people in the 'U'S talk about involvement in foreign wars, seemingly not understanding that there's a war being waged against them in their own homes and hands and it's one that they're losing--or maybe have already lost. Early evidence seems to indicate that the election results Tuesday were what they were in large part because people believed things that are not true. There are many dividing lines in politics and people get divided into categories by level of education, class, race, gender, etc. Now it appears that there has to be a category of those living in the real world and those living elsewhere. This explains a great deal. For example, while the winning campaign expressly said that they planned to create hardship for people, those who said they don't like the economy now voted for that campaign. A significant number of people across the country voted for contradictory things--for abortion rights and for the candidates who want to remove them; in favor of strengthening unions and for the candidate who will weaken them among the examples. It didn't take long for people to learn that they voted for things that will harm them. I expect that will continue.
But this isn't just a 'U'S problem. The disinformation is everywhere. We see the impact of it here as well. I'm confident that leaders and others in countries around the world are analyzing the results of the disinformation warfare being waged by Russia and others as well as by those within each country. Some will try to use it for their own personal gain, as in the 'U'S, and some will hopefully be able to learn lessons about how to better protect their citizens from a similar fate. People are people everywhere, but people everywhere can learn from the example of how disinformation can harm or destroy democracy as they witness it happening in real time. I don't know how one combats a problem like this, but I know good people are out there working on it. At some point, reality will remind those that have tried to flee from it that there is no escape. The real world still exists and it will have the final say.
Saturday, November 9, 2024
Just in Case
We arrived here well before the orange toddler rode down his tacky escalator and started spewing filth. We didn't want to live in an urban area, so ended up in a small town. People would often ask us, 'Why did you move here?' I'd usually say something positive about Ireland and add that since things were going to become pretty ugly in the US, we decided that it was time. A few people sort of beamed proudly and said that it was nice to see things moving in the other direction for once. They meant that instead of Irish people leaving, people were leaving other places to come here. Others smiled and asked if we liked it here. fast forward a few years to 2016 and it didn't take me long to realize that the question was no longer being asked. It hasn't been asked since. No one has wondered why. We have been asked where we're from and I always wanted to lie and say Canada, but I didn't. I told the truth. And then I watched the sympathetic expression that always comes over their faces and heard the reply, 'I'm sorry. But you're European now, so it's OK.' I still find this fascinating. No one has ever said, 'You're Irish now.' To them, I can be European, but not Irish. To be clear, I am not either one. I don't feel Irish and I never will. I am someone who lives in Ireland. I don't feel European and I never will. I am someone who lives in Europe. I don't feel like an 'American,' (and never have) although technically and bureaucratically I am.
It's a weird thing they've got going on here. While nice people were excluding us from 'Irishness,'--and again, I take no offense at this, I just find it interesting--the reason we're here is because Bill was able to become an Irish citizen by descent before we'd ever stepped foot in the country. I offer this information just in case it's useful to anyone.
Years ago, an acquaintance told Bill that if someone has a parent or grandparent who was born in Ireland, they could apply for citizenship by descent. Bill's grandparents were born here, so he looked into it and discovered that this was something we could do. We began the process. He got the necessary information and paperwork from the nearest Irish embassy. There was a bit of confusion at the beginning because of the way something was worded, so we were a little unsure about his late father's situation. The parent had to be a citizen as well as the grandparent, but his father was born in the US. Bill contacted the embassy for clarification and was told that his dad was automatically a citizen because his dad's parents were citizens. From there it was quite straightforward. He gathered all of the necessary certificates--birth, death, marriage--from the proper authorities in the US. Then it was time to get one of the birth certs for a grandparent. We got the request form from Ireland and discovered that we had to pick a year. They would search that year, the one previous, and the year after. Then we had to guess, because it was unclear exactly what year they were born and his grandmother had apparently fibbed on her marriage certificate because she was older than her groom. In any case, we filled out a form for each grandparent, sent it off, and hoped. They couldn't find anything for his grandfather, but we got grandma's birth certificate and that was all we needed--other than a check, of course. We sent everything off and began our wait. We were told to expect a wait of 18-24 months. One day, about 8 or 9 months later, there was a knock at the door. I found the FedEx guy standing on the porch needing a signature. I was puzzled--I wasn't expecting anything and Bill wasn't home, so I couldn't ask him. I glanced down at the envelope and saw it was from the Irish Consulate. I went inside, opened the envelope and pulled out a letter that began, 'Congratulations, you are an Irish citizen' and going on to explain that Bill's details would be entered into the book of foreign births. It all seemed a bit strange. I was standing there, alone in the quiet house, thinking, 'Shouldn't there be confetti and noisemakers or something?' 😏😆 I called Bill to give him the good news.
Getting the Irish passport was a different process, much like getting a US passport, but with specific Irish requirements as to photo size, etc. We did that later. We didn't come here immediately after that, but when we knew the time was right, all of that was already taken care of, so we were able to move pretty quickly. We'd never been to Ireland before, but we'd gotten rid of almost all of our possessions and arrived with a few suitcases and backpacks.
For those without Irish citizenship, US passport holders can come to Ireland and get a 90-day tourist visa at the airport upon arrival.
Friday, November 8, 2024
Classic Swedish Stories
A Book for Christmas
by Selma Lagerlöf (translated by Sarah Death, Peter Graves, and Linda Schenk)
Published by Penguin Press UK – Allen Lane, Particular, Pelican, Penguin Classics | Penguin Classics
ISBN 9780241715062
This is a collection of stories, originally published between 1904 and 1933, written by a well-known Swedish author. It's the first time these stories have been translated into English. Having grown up in the US, I was familiar with certain kinds of Christmas stories. As I got older, I became interested in the seasonal stories of other cultures, but hadn't read any from Sweden, so I didn't hesitate when I saw this book. It did not disappoint! I particularly enjoyed the first story, which was based on a memory from when the author was 10. Her excitement about the fact that on Christmas Eve she would be able to burn the candle and read as long as she wanted was so charming and relatable. I think this story explains the book title. Not all of the stories are set at Christmastime, but it does say a book FOR Christmas, not a book of Christmas. I admit that I started the book expecting it to be full of Swedish Christmas stories, but after reading the first story, I interpreted the title differently so my expectations changed. In spite of the fact that not all the stories involved Christmas, I quite enjoyed this book. I liked reading about what Christmas was like in Sweden over a century ago. The folktale style stories were interesting, if sometimes somewhat disturbing, as folktales often are. In short, the book gave me a window into a time and place I had no knowledge of before and I really like that. I'm very glad I had an opportunity to read this book.
I thank NetGalley and the publisher for a digital review copy of this book.
Thursday, November 7, 2024
A New Chapter...
begins soon.
For those of you who did not choose this path, I know your pain is real, it is justified, it is terrifying, and it is so, so hard. Anger, fear, grief, and sadness are appropriate emotions. It's important to care for yourself and your loved ones. For anyone who wants to learn more about what's coming, I can highly recommend Ruth Ben Ghiat's book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, as well as her Substack, Lucid. Of course, the authoritarian regime that's coming in the US will look different than those in places like Italy, Germany, Russia--these things always have to be culturally appropriate or they won't work--but Ben-Ghiat does an excellent job of explaining what's happening and putting things in context. For myself, being informed about what is going on and why helps me navigate.
For some of the people who voted for MAGA fascism, the resulting pain and suffering is exactly what they wanted because the cruelty always was, and will remain, the point. This isn't the majority of them, though. For the rest, the pain will come--and probably fairly soon. To those people, remember, you chose this.
You've been promised--clearly and unambiguously--by the MAGA fascist party themselves, that things will be nasty and economic hardship is to be expected. When that hardship arrives and you don't like it, remember, you chose this.
When prices go up due to tariffs and other bad economic policies and you don't like it, remember, you chose this.
When you watch a woman or girl you love suffer and die, remember, you chose this.
When your health care options are few and your insurance is more inadequate than it is now, remember, you chose this.
When workers businesses rely on to do the work no one else would do, some of whom may be your friends, are rounded up and taken away, remember, you chose this.
When civil and human rights, including yours, are removed one by one, remember, you chose this.
When health care policy is dictated by a lunatic conspiracy theorist with a worm-eaten brain and public and individual health suffers as a result, remember, you chose this.
When vaccines are no longer available and disease spreads, remember, you chose this.
When the air you breath and the water you drink becomes more toxic as corporations are invited to destroy the natural environment in your neighborhood and beyond, remember, you chose this.
When you're forced to live under laws dictated by the religious beliefs of a small minority of extreme christian nationalists, and you don't like them, remember, you chose this.
When you want to read a book but you can't because it has been banned, remember, you chose this.
When everyone in the US is less safe because the sane people from other governments don't dare to share intelligence information with the administration of an unstable, incoherent puppet in DC, remember, you chose this.
When the failing, cognitively impaired POTUS is completely incapacitated, which by the looks of things won't be long now, and you're stuck with the VP-elect, remember, you chose this.
When the constitution is a hollow shell that no longer has any real meaning, remember, you chose this.
As the 'experiment' in US democracy comes to an end, remember, you chose this.
In the words of Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, 'May you be happy in the life you have chosen.'
Saturday, November 2, 2024
Good Day for a Warm Loaf
I made some wholemeal jalapeno cheese bread this afternoon. It's been a while, but it was nice to get my hands into some dough and to smell the aroma of baking bread. I had some whey from a recent batch of ricotta I made, so I used that, heated until warm, as the liquid--it works really well for bread. I dumped everything into my food processor with the dough blade, whizzed it up until it was nicely mixed, turned the dough out onto a floured surface, and kneaded for a few minutes.
Then into the slow cooker, which had a piece of parchment paper in it, large enough to use to lift out the bread when it was time to turn the loaf. After a little more than 2 hours on high, I turned it over and let it bake for another hour or so, still on high. Then out it came and the impatient wait for it to cool down enough to slice began. I love the end piece, still hot from the slow cooker, with some butter.
I'd never thought about using my slow cooker to bake bread until my bread machine conked out. I'd gotten it 4 or 5 years previously for €5 at a charity shop, so I definitely got my money's worth from it. I didn't really want to get a new one and as it was during the pandemic, we weren't going to any charity shops. The ovens I've had in this country are all crap and other than muffins or flatbreads, I wouldn't try to bake bread in one, because I know the loaves would be burnt on the outside and uncooked on the inside. Besides, they are very energy inefficient. So I was looking for an alternative to bread makers and my oven. The slow cooker works perfectly and I am no longer looking for a bread machine. Even if I saw another one for €5 in a charity shop, I wouldn't buy it. When Bill got me my food processor, the whole process was made even easier and the combination of both appliances works better and is easier than using a bread machine, so in the end, I'm not sorry mine conked out.
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