I know and ole spider who swallowed a fly...

... he dragged him in between the tiny space between the window frame and the wall, and he didn’t give a damn who was looking at him, mind you I hear they can’t see beyond one foot, so I guess that explains it.

Did you know that spider webs are so strong that some native peoples twist the webs to make fishing nets. Others use the web for bandaging wounds or for reducing fevers, now you know what to do next time you can’t find a band aid.

Jelly Fish & Beetle Juice

So what I have been meaning to say is, the day after watching Caramel, which I think I may have given 8/10, I headed to Cork to hang out with my foxy sister Ann Marie, on the occasion of my birthday. Table booked in the Ivory Tower. I was very excited indeed and thought, what a great entry I will have tomorrow in my food blog, and must remember to take photos.

Well first course was a surprise dish, ‘Jelly Fish and cucumber salad’. As with many children, I was bitten by jellyfish many times, and it was very nice to be the one biting IT this time.

It was surprisingly un-jellylike. We were so hungry and excited about the next 4 courses that I forgot to take a photo of it. Mind you, I did take a photo of the next course, all be it rather out of focus.

When I return ‘Beetle- Juice’, to the Ivory Tower, his Boss might give me the jellyfish recipe. Though the chances are slim, seeing as ‘Beetle Juice’ has been on vacation around Ireland for the last 5 months, and is off to The French Alps next week, after I bring him back from Roscommon, which is where he ended up, after he was left on his own at the campfire at Flatlakes Festival. Which I felt very guilty about indeed, seeing as we took him away from one hot restaurant, as he seemed so burnt out. Although we did hear about some guy feeding everyone at the campfire with a basin full of amazing chocolate brownie, which I am sure Beetle Juice was very happy about indeed, having been locked up in a restaurant with the best of culinary delights, for so long, surely he missed the odd extravagant dessert.

Beetle Juice had been used as an ashtray for the past 20 years according to Seamus. Our hearts went out to him, we had to sneak him into the bag when the Boss turned his back to open another bottle of wine. He has had his wings lifted with human hands (most likely yellow fingered), countless times, so that they can butt their fags, inside his body. Poor thing. Beetle-Juice’s elytra (that is the front pair of wings which protects the soft body underneath), are looking much better these days.

I am not sure about the culinary skills over in Roscommon where he is being looked after at the moment. Well, if they are not up to scratch, we will make it up to him with some French Cuisine in the mountains next week.

Here are the photos we DID remember to take, Partridge starter, and a selection of Sashimi. Now I’m going to bed hungry thinking of that, damn.

the race is back on

I have just returned to the blogsphere after a months absence, and was gutted that jammy dodger has been rather active, emmmm. I had better get my racehorse legs back in gear. It has been a rather crazy month, so I do have a lot to be on about. Between loosing my apetite with all the excitement and the stress, tightening the belt, literally - I used my pencil pointing surgeons scalpel to gorge an extra hole in my belt - to just getting it back, my apeTITE that is. Id say the size 26 jeans that fitted last week may be too TITE by next week.

Well for now a wonderful lebanese film is on, 'Caramel', and I am signing off to watch it, I am having difficulty typing and reading the subtitles.

I'd love a caramel bar now.

Red Cabbage Coleslaw

Well today I had brunch in Odessa, it has been a long time but I still had the old reliable Vegetarian breakfast with bacon on the side, oh and a dash of hollandaise. Mind you I didn't get through much of the bacon, it was not crispy enough, more steamed than fried if you got my drift, God love the pigs.

Anyway it was the most delightful afternoon, with my good friends Donny and Emma, just passing through Dublin on their way back to Stockholm. I should also add that they both looked exceedingly beautiful as always, but more clean cut in a way, I believe this is the Sweedish way - no knobby jumpers or holes in the shoes.

Meanwhile Emma has been following my blog, she found it before I had even sent it to anyone, she is a bit of a web nerd, by the way, if you ever need an expert researcher for any random sort a thing she is your woman, I can put you through to her.

The lady questioned my post on the coleslaw reciepe - the thing is I forgot to actually post the recipe. She thought I led you to believe, and I guess I did, that the receipe was solely red cabbage and mustard. There I go again, thinking ya'll are telepathic.

Ingredients

* a 1-pound red cabbage, quartered, cored, and sliced very thin (about 6 cups)
* 1 small red onion, halved lengthwise and sliced very thin
* 1/3 cup sour cream
* 1/3 cup mayonnaise
* 2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
* 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Preparation

In a large bowl combine cabbage and onion. In a small bowl stir together remaining ingredients and add to cabbage mixture, tossing well. Season coleslaw with salt and pepper and chill, covered, 1 hour.(Coleslaw may be made 1 day ahead.)

Serve coleslaw chilled or at room temperature.



Well lads do enjoy and remember Red Cabbage Colaslaw is best server in a ceramic Jug, and according to Jammy Dodger, tastes better after sliding down the stairs a few times on a goose down duvet.

I don't have a picture but as soon as Jammy Dodger forwards me on one I shall post it here.

Figure Skating along the canal

What a lovely walk home from Portobello I've just had, the canal frozen with a layer of snow, and footprints from the swans all over the surface, God my heart went out to those poor swans, I might go down tomorrow and throw them a few grasses or some underwater vegetation if I can get my hands on any.
Some brave ice walker took a shortcut across, maybe if the freeze stays we could rent out a pair of skates from Smithfield and head on over for a spot of figure skating.

Emm I did help eat 2 turkeys over Christmas.....

....So I guess my very first post may as well be let go altogether, I suppose I was getting notions of vegeterianism, some day maybe. But until then I shall talk no more about it and tell you about why I began this blog in the first place.

Well it is in response to the lovely Natalie Colemans' blog 'Jammy Dodger'. I shall from here on in refer to Miss Natalie as Jammy Dodger, and why not - it being the prettiest biscuit of all, and if biscuits could talk, Jammie Dodger (correct spelling, but we will go with Natalies spelling) would be among the funniest ones around.

So Jammy Dodger didn't like my jug of red cabbage mustard, a receipe I learned from the lovely Emma Houlihan - well I was rather upset at Jammy Dodgers comments and I suppose this resulted in my rant about the poor chickens. Let me explain, I have known Jammy Dodger now for ten years and had the pleasure of living with her last year, and I was treated to her wonderful roasts, and it didn't have to be a Sunday at all for a Jammy Dodger Roast. The funny thing about these delicious roast is that they were ALWAYS chicken, and also chickens from a farm in Monaghan. These chickens were according to Jammy Dodger, 'the best chickens in Ireland'.

There is also a very amusing story, told to me by Jammy Dodger herself, about a roast chicken dinner that she was preparing for a dinner party a while before I knew her. She woke up very late on the afternoon, of the dinner party, hungover and had forgotten to take the Monaghan chicken from the freezer. She took it by one of its legs and headed up her road looking for a neighbor who owned a microwave with a defrost setting. You know what I don't think Jammy Dodger will ever invite me for roast Monaghan chicken again if I tell the rest of the story.

Never Let Me Go

I don't know why but lately I have been giving more thought to chickens and I think I'm not going to eat them anymore, unless I raise them myself and give them a name and a carefree range of my fathers sprawling fields, with the mist from the Lake on a windy day moistening their feathers. A lovely happy life before being killed in a humAne way, just like the clones in Kazuo Ishiguros lovely book, except quicker.

The image above is of Ian Wilmot and Dolly; "the world's most famous sheep". If you don't feel like the book, the film adaptation will be released in September, directed by Mark Romanek, and it is sure to be thrilling, his first feature since 'One Hour Photo', after he bailed on 'Wolfman', which I am sure wouldn't have been such a FLOP if he had finished directing it.