Julia Child, Move Over

Well, I just finished with the biggest and most time-consuming meal of my entire life. On Monday, Ivan and Anto (Anthony) made us the quintissential Irish meal-cabbage and bacon, along with baby potatoes. It was really good, and the bacon wasn't like strips of bacon, it was a big hunk i guess you could say like a roast of bacon? maybe? Alex gave me that word. Anyway, to return the favor, tonight we made them a full-blown American/Southern meal: fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn on the cob, rolls from scratch, and homemade apple pie. At Ivan's request we also bought some port wine, lemons, and cloves, and he made us hot port with it, which was very tasty. You boil water, make it 1/4 port and 3/4 water, get a half slice of lemon and stick cloves in it, add a spoonful of sugar, and there you go! But back to the slaving Alex and I did-we apparently spent like 2 hours at the grocery store, although I don't know what the hell we were doing-mostly wandering around looking for everything, probably. We were cooking for 6 people, including us, so we had to get a lot of crap. Alex made her grandmother's famous apple pie in a big tall bowl after I dropped and shattered the closest thing we could find to a pie-sized dish in the apartment. This is only one of the numerous dishes and glasses we've broken in the past weeks, actually. where are plastic cups and paper plates when you need them?? The chicken took freaking forever and i got three small grease burns in the process, which didn't hurt until i had stopped cooking. I literally cooked a ton of chicken. But they loved it, so of course it was worth it. And I made the rolls, too, but i had REALLY wanted to make hush puppies. Apparently there is no such thing as cornmeal in Ireland. The depth of my frusteration at this is just unspeakable. But I pushed on through. The other two who came for dinner were Sally and Erin, the two other beloit girls who live right below us. Afterwards, we showed them all the pictures on our facebook, because they don't have their own computers or internet at home, and they'd never been over to our place. They were highly entertained, and in awe when I showed them a map of texas online, showing the counties along with the states, and how Ireland fits into the panhandle. They hadn't really grasped the concept of states plus counties, since the only separations IN Ireland are counties. Yeah, pretty goofy. Plus, apparently Alex has met several people who think Chicago is a state. hehehe.

Ever heard of a song called "Show Me the Way to Amarillo"?? Neither have I, but you won't remotely believe what I'm about to tell you. Apparently it was a HUGE hit in Ireland about six months ago, and its not even a country song. Like big bigtime hit. wtf? So not only so I get a ton of shit when I meet people and they ask where i'm from and i say Texas, but NOW when they ask what town and i tell them, they sing that line from that song EVERY TIME. Without fail. A guy I met last night, who I ended up talking to for approx. four hours, mostly about Texas and politics and Bush (again, wtf??), could not get over the fact that he'd just met someone from Texas, let alone from Amarillo. And one of his roommates said to me, "So thats a big place to go, eh?" (as in a tourist attraction). HAHAHAHAHA. If only they knew. And the song is terrible. But I guess I am getting a little kick out of it all.

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