St Patrick's Day 2023

All of the team made a great effort in the hotel with their green!

I worethis green dress for the second time. It literally hangs in the wardrobe all year round waiting for March 17th

Quiet enough St Patrick's Day with both of us working.  We just had a nice dinner of steak and butcher sausage with wine to mark the occasion.

Happy St Patrick's Day, friends!  I hope you had a wonderful day, particularly those of you in Ireland who had the day off work!

 

St Patrick's Day 2022

I woke up to a photo of Enid on my phone.  She was again taking part in the parade as part of the Dublin Cycling Campaign group - if you do a search on my blog for "parade" you will see a few posts from past years when Enid and I have partook together.  She is dressed for the theme of Joycean/Bloomsday, and I am glad she is getting use out of my nice Peter O'Brien coat lol!

So I immediately rushed outside and took a photo outside my front door to send her.  We are nerdy like that, we like replicating each other's photos for fun.

I had only bought this dress the night before would you believe.  I got panicked that I should be wearing green to work, as I would in Ireland,and Ross Dress for Less came up with the goods in the shape of this Calvin Klein dress in a nice bright green.  I think it almost has a 1940's shape to it would you agree?  I also think all these photos show the difference in pictures when you move angles and stand up straighter etc etc!!

Represent! Here I am standing on the front steps of my workplace.  A few of these photos were posted on our social media pages and got good traction and reaction, so the trip to Ross ended up being worth it!

Yep! Definitely some angles better than others.  But I really just want to show you this dress and preserve it in a few different photos.

Later on, after work I met up with a visting friend from Ireland. Svetlana and her husband and friend had a little stopover in Key West before departing from Miami on a cruise ship.

Some of Enid's bike group crew.  Note the sunflowers and blue ribbon for Ukraine

Happy St Patrick's Day 2022!

Pigsy in Efffusion Gallery, Duval Street

 Today was an unbelievably cold day in Key West - record lows of temperature in the 50's.  On a day like that, it calls for a nice alcoholic beverage to warm you up.  

In advance of going for said alcoholic drink, I stopped by Effusion Gallery to check out the (decreasing) Irish artist, Pigsy's collection.  I say decreasing, or ever dwindling, because pieces from the collection keep getting sold!

Today I was saying goodbye to the painting "S.E.B." before it headed off to its new home.  It's a great piece and I was glad to see it one more time in situ in Key West.

From there, I headed on to Alonzos to meet with my friend Lara and her friend Tracy.  I met Lara 8 or 9 years ago when I was in Cancun, meeting the first day of the vacation and spending the rest of the time together. The abiding memory from that holiday is playing a lot of volleyball - in the mornings, and then a lot of drinks in the pool in the afternoon.  She is from Texas and was in town for the Mile Marker Zero festival. We had the loveliest of time together, Lara being as fabulous and fun as ever.  It's just lovely staying in touch with people who you click with.

All of that made for a great day and warmed me up no doubt.  But now, I am back home and it is cold again - I am posting this from bed, drowning under a million blankets and a cat. Thoughts and prayers please!

Adorable blog post!

My twin sister Enid (of RenovatingLPA blog) was recently a guest blogger for Pigsy.  I think she wrote the most adorable and helpful post.  Enid as you might know is a librarian.  Her post is all about suggestions of things to do to introduce your child to art.  A bonus is she also gives her Top 10 suggestions of books for children.  It is a practical blog post - with helpful ideas for you and your little one(s) - to help keep them entertained, and learning, at the same time.  Enid is a an awesome librarian, I used to love visiting her in all the libraries she has worked in over the years and see her interact with people and talking books. Particularly with young people and children.  I do hope you enjoy her guest blog!

**Read her post here!**

Just a perfect day....

Yesterday (Saturday) was a day, that will make my heart sing for many days and weeks to come

- We were on the boat at 9.15am and I ate a breakfast of English muffin and coffee on the water.  Is there anything better
- Patrick had an amazing morning of fishing.  Including the fish monster pictured below!
- We enjoyed a really lovely early afternoon in the back yard and the house.  We had a fab cold lunch of Norwegian smoked salmon, Italian prosciutto, Spanish sausage and Irish cheese.
- I may or may not have had a vodka screwdriver with my lunch (of course I did). And we had some squares of key lime pie chocolate for dessert.
- Patrick went grocery shopping and came back with 4 bottles of our favourite Cabernet Sauvignon that were on special
- We faffed around and had fun in the house and yard for the afternoon
- I had an outdoor shower.  Yes, I know, an every day occurrence.  And one, that will never not be, an awesome novelty experience
- Back we headed to the boat at around 4pm.  We went for a massive spin all around the island and I had my famous "goofy [aka really happy]" smile on my face the whole way
- We went for dinner in Dante's and it was fabulous - had the seafood sampler of oysters, shrimp and crab claws
- Went back out on the boat and did some evening fishing.  Patrick caught another fish monster.  Saw a beautiful sunset
- Home and chilled for the evening.
- Ate some key lime pie for a late night treat
- Went to bed absolutely exhausted but so happy.  Slept amazing!

Letter from Key West, April 14 2020

Yesterday I had to go to the bank for some essential business.  Town was deserted, and while wearing my mask, I took the opportunity to take some photos of some of the Closed signs on shop doors. Apologies for the quality - it was difficult to capture with the shine from the windows - but I think you can see most of them ok.



It sure is sad seeing the optimism of the unknown, and some of the proposed re-opening dates which we have gone well passed now at this stage.

I re-read my last blog and realized how whiney and first-world problemy I sounded "it's so boring" For the record, just in case it is not apparent, boring aside, I totally understand the importance of flattening the curve and why this quarantine is so vital and needed.  I totally support it. 

Where is Barbara Curran now??

I ventured in to the local pawn shop today.  My, was that quite the cornucopia of all things I like i.e. JUNK! What can I say?  I do love whiling away an hour or two looking through JUNK for TREASURE.

And then I saw THIS.

I may, or may not, have bought it.

Ha! Do you know me, or what?! Of course I bought it.  Barbara lives with me now :)

Ps. Anyone want to venture a guess how much I paid for this little gem?!
Comment below!

Hook, line and sinker

We had such a phenomenal day yesterday with our friends Garrett and Katrina out on their boat.

The picked us up at noon and while on the way to the marina we stopped at Sandy's café and picked up some Cuban sandwiches for on the boat.  Next stop was Jolly's liquor store in Stock Island and we were set!

We all had a great day, reeling in fish after fish, after fish.  All throwbacks in the main.  Aside from two that the lady anglers in our party caught :)

First up (top left) was a sheepshead fish that I baited.  No I did not make that name up!  See here. It fought such a hard battle that at one point I thought my reel was broken - I could not move it - and Katrina hopped in to check and took over it reeling it in.  So it was a joint catch!

And then!  Near the end of the day (look at that sunset) I landed a beautiful yellow tail snapper which we broke out the measuring tape for.  It was 11 inches! One inch shy of the 12 inch limit for keeping.  Nice note to end on!

Ps.  Hook, line, and sinker.  It's that simple.  That's all you need.

A boat is handy too :)

Boat day!

Yesterday was an awesome day.  Friends G&K kindly invited us for a day of chilling out on their lovely boat.  We set off from the marina and went to Stock Island, where we pulled up at the Perry Hotel, and docked for a spot of lunch.  I had fish tacos which were lovely.

Once we had some sustenance in us we set off towards Woman Key where we pulled up on a sand bar and chilled out in 3ft of water chatting and having a few drinks.  The time flew and without us knowing it suddenly was 7pm - we had all guessed/estimated it was 5.45pm approx. so it was a big surprise to realize the actual time.  Time flies when you are having fun.  We zipped on home with the sun setting behind us.  A few photos below. Yes the water was that clear!

Barbecue Tales part 10 - Pork Chops

Even though El Siboneys was calling out to me I decided I would do another day of cooking at home.  I love the novelty, and the difference of cooking outdoors on a barbecue compared to cooking at home in Ireland. And it always tastes good so absolutely no regrets.  Although I must say the lure of El Siboneys is so strong!!! Particularly because I live so near it, and omg the smell that emanates from their building as you pass...holy hell it's good!

Anyway! Pork it was!
First I prepped the pork by putting a generous lather of olive oil on it and then a lovely garlic meat rub.  At this point I also prepped the vegetables - garlic, tomato, carrots and broccoli and butter into a little tinfoil tent.  I decided to try grilling green pepper separate rather to all the other veg.

I then immediately put the wild rice on to cook.  The base for wild rice is brown rice - it is brown rice, seasoning and some veg (tomato etc) - and because of this it does need a good amount of cooking time.  A lot longer than if it was white rice.  It takes approx. 25 minutes and 5 minutes sitting time to cook according to the directions on the box which I don't really follow.

And yes I know my stove looks like it comes from 1982.  Kind of embarrassing I know.  Cousin Kasey has suggested to me that I do a blog post about the difference between Irish kitchen appliances and US appliances and all of my appliances are soooooo much better/nicer/bigger here in the US...except for this awful stove (or cooker as we would call it in Ireland)

So there we have the pork chops cooking away on the grill, plus the tinfoil tent of veg on the right.

It was very hot today and as I cooked, the sun was beating down on the back of my legs and I could feel perspiration rolling down my back.  Lol! Nice, Amy, real nice. Bet you're enjoying hearing this.  On one hand, totally gross I know but on the other hand, I have to say - I relished it.  Again so different to Ireland!

I apologise, this food/plate does not really look the best.  In real life it (a) looked so much more attractive than this and (b) most importantly, tasted amazing!  Really really tasty.  I had not cooked pork before as you will know if you have been following my "Barbecue Tales"  blog posts and it was nice that this went so well.  Pork can sometimes be difficult to cook, in a matter of seconds it can go from tender, tasty and moist to tough as leather  But this tasted so nice that pork will definitely be going on to the home cooking rotation/grocery shopping list.

Another great day out on the Salty Goat fishing boat

I wish I could report to you that this is a fish that I caught.  Alas no, this was Dan's (pictured) haul.  Isn't that amazing. It's a mutton snapper and I estimate it was around 25lbs.  What a beauty.  Well done Dan!

I am happy to report though that I had an incredibly enjoyable, and successful day.  I caught 35 fish! 35!!!  And lucky I did because including myself I had 4 people scheduled to call for dinner that night.  Imagine the embarrassment if I hadn't been able to serve fish that I had caught myself after inviting and promising a seafood supper!!

It was a most enjoyable evening of succulent fresh fish, with key lime pie for dessert, washed down with a  lovely bottle of sparkling Spanish cava.  

And a beautiful sunset of pink and blue hues to finish it all off perfectly.  Life is good.

Brunch at home - Kedgeree

Today I cooked something I have never cooked before in my life! I made kedgeree!  

And even better, I am happy to report it was a terrific success!

Not pictured are the eggs, fish and rice (I used wild rice, some recipes say basmati). I set the eggs and rice cooking while I chopped and prepped everything else. The fish was left over in the fridge from the previous eve's barbecuing so I just needed to flake by lightly forking and we were good to go.

I melted the butter in a pan, Kerrygold of course.  I then added the onions and cooked them down until they were soft and succulent, and nicely browned.  To this, I added the cherry tomatoes and allowed them to cook down a little too.  Next I added the ginger and garlic, and then the all important CURRY POWDER.

Curry Powder is a vital component.  Kedgeree is a British Indian dish which originated in Britain from the time that India was part of the British Empire.  While eating it, I felt the eggs made it breakfasty, while the curry felt like lunch.  Hence  it is a great brunch dish in my opinion!

To the lovely flavoursome mix of veg etc I added the rice, eggs and flaked fish.  And that was it!  How simple was that.  And satisfying - almost therapeutic - while cooking.  All  that chopping, adding, stirring felt great!

Et Voila!

You guys!!! I made kedgeree!!

It tasted amazing.  I was so happy with how it turned out.