Pasta Party

Last Thursday night Andrew and I decided to throw a big pasta party!  We have been so busy the past few weeks, that we have not had a chance to see many of our friends.  So we invited a whole bunch of friends from church and work to come over on Saturday evening.  Being Italian, and also loving anything Italian (obsessed is probably the better word), means I always revert back to Italian cooking when I am in a bind. Since this party idea was so last minute, it seemed only normal to make it pasta themed.
Something that I have really come to love over the past few years, is making any sort or carb from scratch.  Pasta, flatbread, loaf breads... you name it! One in particular, from the pasta category, is gnocchi.  Yep, potato pasta.  It is one of the delightful Italian dishes that I enjoy most in life.  Well since I love it so, I decided to make some for the party! I bet right now you are thinking to yourself, what else was on your menu this weekend Meghan?  Well let me tell you....

Sauces:
-Red sauce (I guess this would be marinara sauce, but for some reason I call it red sauce)
-Pesto sauce
-Meatballs and red sauce
Pastas:
-Gnocchi (not truly a pasta, more like an Italian dumpling)
-Bowtie
-Spaghetti

We made the party somewhat of a buffet style.  I made all the pastas separate from the sauces and let people mix and match.  It actually turned out pretty well and feed about 20 people...I guess nothing compared to Jesus feeding 5,000, but it will do. With all these delicious Italian components and great friends, we certainly had a wonderful time at the pasta party.

Gnocchi

Cutting gnocchi...

Rolling out more gnocchi...

Dan, Agound and baby Anniah. Some of my co-workers

More co-workers. Janine and Tyson

Close up of baby Anniah

Boone acting as bouncer for the night

Brother and sister, Justin and Gloria

Honeycrisp Apples

This short post is dedicated to my second favorite food, the honeycrisp apple.  You may be wondering what my favorite food is, well its a chocolate chip cookie, but I'll post about that later.

The most wonderful thing happened to me yesterday.  Some background first.  I love apple season.  And when I say love, I mean lovvvvvvvve.  Nothing makes me happier knowing that I have an in-season, glossy, sweet apple waiting for me in the fridge for a snack. On the contrary, nothing makes me more unhappy than biting into an apple and having that nasty mealy texture all in my mouth (click the link, this is how I feel).  Ew.  Actually I can think of one thing worse than a mealy apple...Andrew eating my honeycrisp apples!  How terrible of a wife am I, I can't even share an apple with my husband?  Ahh tangents! Anyway, I used to go apple picking every year in Ohio when I was little and started going again while living in North Carolina. It is a tradition that I love, but have not been able to do the past few years from living in Memphis, we just don't have apples like the NC mountains. 

For any apple lovers out there, and I mean seasonal apple lovers (there is a difference), you will know that honeycrisps are in season now, and maybe even started selling late August since most crops have been coming early this year from the heat.  Knowing this, I have been going to four different groceries the past two weeks on a hunt for honeycrisp!  Well I finally found some yesterday and spent way too much money on them.  For the next three months, you will rarely see me without an apple.

Beautiful apples waiting for me in the fridge

Ireland: part 2

Were you on the edge of your seat just waiting for my next post??  Good, well here's what happened on the second part of our trip...

We arrived in Dublin late Thursday afternoon and went straight to The FitzWilliam Hotel to check in.  Our room was incredible.  The decorations were trendy and modern, but very comfortable. We overlooked Saint Stephen's Green and could walk ten steps and be on Graften St., a convenient location.  That evening we went to dinner and headed to The Duke, a local pub, which was the starting point of the literary pub crawl we were scheduled for.  The pub crawl was hilarious.  Two local actors facilitated and told stories of Irish poets and other authors (such as James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift) who walked the streets on Dublin daily.  The stories were fascinating and comical, but sitting in pubs where these Irish authors went regularly was truly and experience.

On Friday morning Andrew and I woke up early, grabbed a coffee and walked around the city together.  Normally the city is bursting with people, but in the morning, it was calm and relaxing. In the early afternoon we met up with the rest of my family for a historial walking tour of Dublin. We started at Trinity college and walked through the city, hitting most political and historical buildings.  Honestly, I felt overwhelmed after the tour.  Ireland has such a new and current history, and a great deal of it was sad.  Learning about the Irish revolution that took place in the early 1900's, it was Irishmen fighting other Irishmen.  In American history, I have never been alive to experience any real political confrontation, and in Ireland, so many people see daily reminders of their family's past struggles.  Knowing that my family, two and three generations back, where very much affected by everything going on in Ireland was somewhat emotional.

Sorry for the historical blurb.  After the tour, we went to lunch and then the boys and girls split up.  The guys went to the Guinness factory, while the ladies headed to tea at the Shelbourne Hotel.  Because I love tea so much, and the Irish love tea so much, my sweet mother thought it would be fitting for us to experience a proper tea.  I tasted the most delicious teas in my life, partnered with delicate tea sandwiches, scones and desserts.  If only we had not just eaten a huge lunch, I would have enjoyed it more.  Once we felt like true Irish women, my mother and I went back to the hotel to rest before dinner. As usual, all my family does on vacation is eat.  Continuing with that trend, we met up with one of my father's friends and his family at the famous Shanahan's steak house. Since I'm not a big steak eater, I had the seabass which was excellent.  The food was incredible, and the company as well.

Saturday, the big game.  The Notre Dame game was starting at 2pm, and my father and brothers wanted to go to the pep rally and watch the Notre Dame band play, so again we split up.  Andrew, my mother and I decided to explore the historical side of the city a bit more.  We started by taking a picture in front of the Newman House, which is part of the University College of Dublin.  Then we walked over to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells.  Once we gained some more Dublin intelligence,  we met up with the dad and brothers, only to find that they had lost theirs due to the early morning Guinness drinking at the tailgate.

So my mother and I sneak away to eat a healthy lunch, as we so ofter do, while the boys grabbed a burger, then together headed to the game.  Well we almost missed the kick-off, but luckily we made it to Aviva Stadium maybe two minutes before the game began.  The game was fun, we had awesome seats and Notre Dame won which put all the men in my family in a great mood!  After the game, Andrew and I packed since we had to get up early for a flight out the next day.  And we were off to one final family dinner at Fallon and Byrne.  As always, my mother picked another outstanding location for dinner.  After dinner we headed back to the hotel so that we could get a good nights rest before traveling.  We said goodnight to my family and good bye to Ireland, the beautiful country that we had fallen in love with.

Trinity College

I think this was the old parliament building...

Guinness factory

Getting their pints on the Guinness tour

View from the top of the Guinness factory

Greg looking very pensive before dinner at Shanahans

At the Newman House

Being artistic

Waiting in line at the Book of Kells

Greg playing drums at the tailgate in Temple Bar

So Irish

Aviva Stadium from the outside

from the inside

Notre Dame band

Ireland: part one

We just returned from Ireland this Monday morning...woohoo, we were certainly tired of traveling!  I'm just going to jump right in and tell you what we did for the first half of the trip.  I know, the suspense is KILLING you!

Last Sunday Andrew and I flew from Memphis to LaGuradia airport in NY.  Unfortunately, our flight to Ireland was out of JFK, so we needed to find some form of transportation to get us to JFK.  Fortunately, my Uncle Paul and Aunt Margaret live in Queens, so they picked us up and drove us to JFK, it was such a treat to see them!

The flight from JFK to Shannon, Ireland was not the most pleasant I have ever experienced.  It wasn't terrible, in fact, I watched The 5 Year Engagement, which was quite funny. The only problem with the flight was that I did not sleep, and continued to not sleep for 24 hours straight, it made the first day a bit long.

After six hours, we land in Shannon and picked up the car.  Yes we rented a car, although this car was actually a nine-seater van.  The whole family talked about how we looked like a 6-piece church choir in our van.  The only problem was that our van was a depressing shade of blue instead of white.  We headed, in the church van, to the Cliffs of Moher, then headed to Knappogue Castle built by the McNamara family, and finally jumped back in the van and drove to Dingle.  We stayed at a lovely B&B in Dingle, The Heaton House, where we lodged for two nights.  While in Dingle we walked around, went on a tour of the penninsula (did you know Ryan's Daughter was filmed there, we heard loadsssss about it.  I guess it's Dingle's claim to fame.) and ate at two delicious restaurants, The Chart House and Out of the Blue.  

Once we left Dingle, we headed to Cobh (pronounced Cove) and checked into The Knockeven House B&B.  We drove into town, with the good' ole church van, and visited the Immigration Museum and walked to one of the beautiful churches in town.  Pam, the lovely lady who ran the B&B, made us a delightful dinner and then sent us on our way to the Roaring Donkey, a local pub that has traditional Irish music every Wednesday night.  Lucky for us, we were staying in Cobh on a Wednesday night! Oh and while Andrew, my Mom and I were having a casual conversation with two local women, my Dad, and two brothers made it on the Roaring Donkey facebook page....can we say celebrities! 

On Thursday we left our dear Cobh and headed to Cork to catch a train to Dublin.  One of Cork's main sites to see is their English Market, a big market with lots of delicious local food.  Well, since I loveee markets, I HAD to go to the English Market, even though we only had an hour from the time we arrived to the time our train left.  So my sweet, sweet husband speed walked with me all the way to the market, which took about 25 minutes, where I preceded to take pictures for about 5 minutes and then left.  Oh yes, and on our way back we got slightly lost and I started freaking out that we would miss our train, but of course we made it back in time...after I forced us to get a taxi after walking half-way back.  A five minute visit, an 8 euro taxi ride and a stressed out husband and wife...I have to say, I don't think the English Market was worth it.

We arrive just in time to board our train, and make the three hour journey to Dublin.  I will end my post with this incredibly riveting cliff hanger in hopes that you will visit my blog again in a few days...

To start of the trip...the McNamara itinerary 

Everyone at lunch before the flight, including Uncle Paul and Aunt Margaret

Shannon airport. After traveling for 20 hours and no sleep

So excited for the Cliffs of Moher

Artistic shot

McNamara Coat of Arms from the Knappogue Castle

Knappougue Castle

On the ferry

Picturesque spot on our tour of Dingle

The parents

More from the Dingle tour

Finally arrived in Cobh

The English Market in Cork

A very large fish