Ireland week

Well, we're doing another culture week, and it seemed to be appropriate to study Ireland on the week of Saint Patrick's Day. On Sunday, we had soda bread for breakfast. I'd used the recipe before, and it's a good one. I used whole wheat flour this time, and it was still really tasty. I especially liked it with the pear-ginger conserve I made last summer.

On Tuesday we had Irish stew... sort of. I used fake meat, so it's not particularly authentic, but we all liked it. In fact, Sweetie always swears he hates turnips, but there was a significant amount of turnip in it and he kept raving about it.

Tonight we had colcannon, which is basically mashed potatoes with cabbage. I added onion because I like it, and peas because Sweetie requested them.

I printed out some coloring pages, mostly of Blarney castle and some animals in the style of the Book of Kells. I also did a Selkie (a seal/human), because she has a story about them and is pretty interested in the idea. I stayed away from leprechauns and pots of gold.

She got a Little Travelers video from Mom about the British Isles and has watched that a few times. She also watched and really liked the Secret of Roan Inish, one of my favorite movies. The first time we watched it, she got upset when the baby in the cradle got washed out to sea, so I had to pause it to reassure her that he was okay. I was surprised a little that she never commented on the accents. Either she can totally understand them or totally can't and isn't saying anything.

Finally, we bought two new books, Fiona's Luck and Finn McCool and the Great Fish. I really like them both, and so does she. Fiona's Luck is really about using your wits instead of relying on luck, and features a strong, smart female main character. Finn McCool is a charming book that is ostensibly about the mythic Irish hero, although he's a badass fighting King Arthur type, really, and this book portrays him, literally, as a gentle giant. Full disclosure -- Finn is Zadie's middle name, and I did choose it in honor of Finn McCool.

That's about all, besides a few listenings of "When Irish Eyes are Smiling," "Danny Boy," a Chieftans album and once, when she wasn't paying much attention, a few Boiled in Lead songs.

I've made traditional Irish desserts in the past, but one's a tooth-endangering toffee and the other involves potatoes*, so I skipped it this time. Sweetie and I did, however, have this conversation:

Me: Oh, say... I ran into our friends Ben and Jerry at the store.
Sweetie: Oh yeah? How are they?
Me: Good, except for the news they had about Dublin.
Sweetie: What's that?
Me: There was a terrible mudslide.
Sweetie: Hmmm, I'll have to investigate that later.

Yeah, now that we can't spell stuff anymore, we're going to have to be sneakier.



*I'm not kidding, and it's not as bad as that sounds. You make mashed potatoes, add flour until it's a dough, and use the dough to make a sort of calzone-shaped apple pie. It tasted good, although the consistency was a little off to me.