As they say in Ireland, Sláinte!

This past summer I went to Ireland for a month with Colgate as part of an Extended Study on Irish literature. It really was incredible and very educational, not only regarding Ireland's history and culture, but also in the ways of adulthood (minus cooking). There is nothing quite like having your debit card eaten by an ATM in a foreign country for bringing you up to speed with modern electronic banking. I eventually did get the card back, but I had to have a lengthy conversation with the bank people while climbing Ben Bulben.

"Professors, why are we climbing this mountain again?"
"Yeats wrote a poem about it."
"Did he climb it?"
"Of course not."

Tonight my Ireland friends and I are having an Ireland-themed reunion. In preparation for the festivities, a few of us got together to make scones, an Irish staple. Seriously, the saddest thing about coming back to America was the general dearth of tea and scones. I do order tea at diners now. The waiters look at me funny and bring me Lipton in chipped coffee mugs.

We made Cream Scones, and they're 1) delicious, and 2) idiot proof. We got the recipe from Honey & Jam, which is an all around great site. We put chocolate chips in one batch (just stirred them in when we put in the heavy cream), and gave the other a cinnamon swirl. This was surprisingly easy -- just dust the dough round with cinnamon, fold the dough in half, repeat. The scones only take about 30 minutes, including baking time.

Mmmm ... I can feel my fake Irish accent coming on.

This seems like a good time to mention that our interests also extend to beverages. Purely in the abstract, of course, since neither of us is twenty-one. However, in Ireland the drinking age is eighteen.

Let me share with you my favorite Irish alcoholic beverage:


MEAD.


Mead is the drink of the gods. It's sweet without being cloying, and delicately fruity. I don't know how widely available it is, but we had it at a "medieval" dinner at Bunratty Castle. How was this medieval feast, you ask? Picture the early bird special at Medieval Times. Add Ireland's most lipsticked and inappropriately hairy geriatrics, and a group of twenty or so confused college students. Yeah, it was like that.