Tuesday, February 24, 2009

HAPPY MARDI GRAS!! (and Pancake Tuesday)

Happy Mardi Gras!!! And Happy Pancake Tuesday to all of my Irish friends. For Mardi Gras, I had a little neighborhood party, which means that I was absolutely required to make a king cake, as Mardi Gras just isn't the same without it. My wonderful mom sent along 2 boxes of mix (in case I completely screwed up the first one) and lots of decorations and beads.

In the case that you are ever living outside of the US and would like to make a king cake, here's how it goes:
1. Ask nicely for someone to send you something like this:


2. Combine cake mix and yeast (first error was me not knowing what yeast looks like and dropping the frosting powder in there - had to scoop out carefully):
3. Combine butter and knead til it disappears. Then add hot water and an egg and knead for 15 MINUTES! (Owwwwwwww)

4. After letting it rise til it doubles in size, roll it out:

5. Then mix the praline filling...mmmmmm:



6. Mmmmmmm......


7. Wrap up and let rise for 30 minutes in a warm oven:

8. Bake for 20 minutes:


9. Ice and sprinkle:



10. Add baby and serve! Important to have it surrounded by loads of alcohol (hurricanes included), pralines, jambalaya, and red beans 'n rice.



HAPPY MARDI GRAS!!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Winter freaking wonderland

Yesterday it was chilly, but sunny and completely free of ice and snow other than first thing in the morning. When I left the gym, the only ice left was under the cars and in the shadows.


Made plans today to head to a few places - go shopping with a friend. I wake up this morning and look out of the window and it's not raining - perfect. But wait, is that snow on the trees??










What the hell happened??? Unbelievable. I watched two cars try to drive up the hill - not happening. The field across the street now has big green circles everywhere, which are snowman making tracks. I saw a kid make a snow angel in the street. Winter wonderland indeed.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Look out Chicago!

It's snowing in Dublin! At the time of this post, the snow has basically gone even though there were a few flurries this morning as I waited on the train. However on Monday, there was snow EVERYWHERE!! I knew that it was snowing in England as I watched if fall during the Liverpool match on Sunday but I still didn't believe that it would head this way. Lucky us! Well, lucky until it started to hinder transportation...

We woke up to find snowflakes:

Covering the driveway:


Look at the poor car!

Yep - it's officially snowing.

My train station from my current client...it snowed all day (as you can tell, I go to work in the dark and leave in the dark - it is getting lighter a little earlier and dark a little later but it's still only light from about 8:30 - 5:00).


In Leixlip it was MUCH snowier than in town. My walk from the train station:


First official snowman - haha!

Drive into the estate from the train station:

And the fun begins...

Much better aim than I thought:

It's thick!
It was so freaking cold that making a snowman was aborted, but there were lots of snowball fights on the field (or pitch as they call it here) - including a few neighbors. That night the transportation issues started. The following 2 days, the snow started to melt and turned the roads into ice. We live at the bottom of a hill, so cars had to be parked at the top as on Monday we were sliding down it to the point where the cars at the bottom of the hill backed up just in case.
A co-worker said that it may start to snow again, so here we go!