Spot the Typo - and beat the Pre-Election Moratorium

Today I was in Dungarvan Library at lunchtime, reading and knitting (a cap to match the lovely ballerina cardigan in the photo) my way through a relaxing lunch hour. The library's a little haven of tranquility and I go there fairly often when I don't have to dash around Lidl or if I'm not going to lunch with friends or colleagues. I hasten to add that while I don't quite fit the label of "Ladies who Lunch", I do go to a nice place at least once a week for a great value lunch - the Local in Grattan Square. It deserves a little plug and for those who haven't been, don't miss their wonderful healthy option - Spicy Chicken Pitta - it's the business if you're ever in Dungarvan (or Fungarvan as it's sometimes designated!)

I was finishing off Jonathan Franzen's terrific Freedom, and when that was done, I read the Irish Times, to catch up on the last-minute pre-election news, before the Broadcast Media Moratorium kicked in at 2p.m. this afternoon. I was listening to the news at one on my phone radio, listening to the various Party Leaders' final desperate pleas to the electorate before the news blackout began. I don't know if this is a phenomenon peculiar to Irish Elections, or an internationally  recognised practice, but it is the norm here that there will be a total ban on any Election-related broadcasting on TV or Radio (all stations) from the day before the Election to the close of polling on voting day.

This campaign has been a whirlwind, and we are all rooting for the local Labour Candidates, Ciara Conway and Séamus Ryan, who are both aiming to retain the Labour seat vacated by Brian O'Shea, who held it for 24 years, and even hoping for a second seat. Hubby is Director of Elections for Ciara, and she has run a great campaign, which I've been involved in from the periphery, in that I joined the canvass a couple of days in Tramore and spent four or five evenings canvassing  in Lismore. We got a great reception overall, with the recurrent refrain of "You're the first/only ones to come knocking on the doors" or "the rest of them are just leaflet dropping and running away"! This seems to apply particularly to the outgoing Government Party Fianna Fail who have really banjaxed the country with sellouts to the IMF and ECB, as I've previously ranted about. We are hopeful for a positive change of regime, with a strong Labour presence in a coalition being the most realistic outcome.

Where was I? Oh yes, this was to be about the Terrible (or wonderful!) Typo that jumped out at me from this O2 ad on the front page of the Irish Times. Out with the camera and captured for posterity and a blogpost. I feel an anorak attack coming on, but I'll take the tablets! (I'm guessing you can all spot it - it's a real sore point with an apostrophe nerd like me!)

 We all need a laugh and while I'm at it I'll share the best of the satirical asides from the plethora of Election and Current Affairs programmes on Irish TV at the moment - it's Mario Rosenstock on Tonight with Vincent Browne Show on TV3 - a terrifically animated programme that electrifies audiences nightly from 11:10p.m. to 12:30a.m. The Twitter stream for #vinb is too busy to follow live, such is the reaction it provokes.




Enjoy Mario as Vincent, Willie "Crackshot" O'Dea and Micheál "Choirboy" Martyr (Martin). It may be a bit obscure to those not in the know of Irish politics at present but it's hilarious as a stand-alone. Suffice to say, Vincent takes no prisoners, Willie famously posed with a gun for the media when Minister of Defence, and Micheál is the current Fianna Fail leader after Brian "Biffo" Cowen (was) stood down, and he has gaffed spectacularly last week by doing a bad imitation of a Chinese accent  á la Prince Philip - he's hardly racist but it had a surreal Father Ted feel to it - "should we all be racists now, father? what's the official line the church is takin on this? only, the farm takes up most of the day, and at night i just like a cup of tea, so i might not be able to devote meself full-time to the old racism." That's an episode worth checking out!

Happy Voting tomorrow for all of you in the Constituencies - just remember the old adage - "Vote Early and Often"! 

My First Sock Pattern - Variation on a few Themes

Et voilà - the finished sock!

I've been asked to share the knitting pattern for my latest sock project, and as it's an adapted one and not a straightforward copy, I am going to try to write it as a pattern should be written. This is a new challenge as I have to strive to be accurate, but I might  manage it. I met a lady yesterday who's an avid knitter and she has also bought the lovely pre-patterned wool from Lidl that is specifically (but not solely - hey, unintended pun but I like it so it stays!) for socks.

Having made a half-dozen pairs of socks over recent months, I decided to go for these with variations. I used the stitch numbers as per the pattern with the sock wool (Lidl are great for enclosing patterns and sometimes needles with their knit-kits.)

My Lidl Sock Stash - with first completed sock

I have tried plain stocking stitch (Stockinette in US) and it is just too baggy for socks, unless you've very elasticky yarn, which I'm not sure this wool-mix is (75% pure wool, 25% Polyamide).

So I made it a K2P2 rib throughout, except for the sole and gusset which is in plain stocking stitch, and the heel flap which is nicely textured in a fancy rib.

Ribbed Socks

 Gauge for these socks = 42 rows and 30 stitches over 10x10cm) 
 (Use 4 DPN (Double-Pointed Needles -Size 3mm/     )

Sock as in pattern

Some Abbreviations: 

RS = Right Side; WS = Wrong Side; Sl = Slip (take stitch off left-hand needle without knitting it)
N = Needle K or k = Knit; P or p = Purl; sl1,k1,psso = slip 1, knit 1, pass slip stitch over knit stitch (you can use ssk instead = slip1, slip1, knit 2 tog.)

Socks Pattern
Cast on 60 stitches and divide between 3 needles - 20 per needle (duh!)
K2 P2 rib for desired length - about 6-7 inches is fine for ankle boot socks

Heel Flap

Knit 30 stitches onto one needle and put remaining 30 stitches on Stitch Holder (or a big nappy/safety pin!)
Knit back and forth on heel flap as follows:

Heel & Gusset close-up

• Row 1 (RS) - Slip 1, K1, *P1, K2 Repeat from * to end
• Row 2 (WS) -Slip 1, P1, *K1, P2 Repeat from * to end
• Repeat these 2 rows total of 15 times - you'll have 15 slip stitches along edge of heel flap.

Turning Heel

 (I used stocking stitch, but you could continue the K2 P2 rib of main sock if you prefer - gives a springy sole!)

• R1(RS) – Sl 1, k16, ssk, k1, turn.
• R2(WS) – Sl 1, p5, p2tog, p1, turn.
• R3 – Sl 1, k6, ssk, k1, turn.
• R4 – Sl 1, p7, p2tog, p1, turn.
• R5 – Sl 1, k8, ssk, k1, turn.
• R6 – Sl 1, p9, p2tog, p1, turn.
• R7 – Sl 1, k10, ssk, k1, turn.
• R8 – Sl 1, p11, p2tog, p1, turn.
• R9 – Sl 1, k12, ssk, k1, turn.
• R10 – Sl 1, p13, p2tog, p1, turn.
• R11 – Sl 1, k14, ssk, k1, turn.



Modelling the sock!

• R12 – Sl 1, p15, p2tog, p1, turn. (18 sts. remain)

Slip 1, knit 8 sts (to middle of heel), this will now be the beginning of round.


(I copied and pasted this part from a Ravelry downloaded PDF pattern for SKYP Rib Socks by Adrienne Ku - here is the link)

Heel – gusset
Set-up Round

• Needle 1 - knit remaining 9 stitches from heel turn, pick up and knit 15 stitches along heel edge flap plus 1 extra between flap and instep. (Total = 25 stitches)
• Needle 2 - transfer instep stitches from needle holder to needle and K2 P2 Rib across instep.
• Needle 3 - pick up and knit 1 stitch between instep and heel flap, pick up and knit 15 stitches along heel edge, K 9 from sole. 

There are now 3 needles with 25, 30, and 25 stitches.
You will need to decrease 1 stitch at instep edge of alternate rows until you are back to 15, 30 and 15 stitches.
Do this as follows:

• Round 1 -N1 - K to last 3 stitches, k2 tog., k1. N 2 - Continue K2 P2 rib across instep. N 3 = k1, sl1,k1,psso, k to end 
• Round 2 - Knit N 1 & 3, K2 P2 rib on instep
• Repeat these 2 rounds  until you are left with 15, 30 and 15 stitches on each needle.

Foot

Continue sock foot in rounds until 2 ins/4cm shorter than length of foot (allow for some stretch)

Another angle

Toe shaping

Round 1: Knit
Round 2:
N1: K to last 3 stitches - k2 tog. k1.
N2: k1, sl1,k1,psso, k to last 3 stitches, k2 tog. k1.
N3: k1, sl1,k1,psso, k to end.
Continue these 2 rounds until 16 stitches remain. (4, 8, 4). Put 4+4 on one needle = 2 needles of 8 stitches. Graft toe with Kitchener Stitch. This is a neat seamless finish for a toe.

Here's a video clip of how it's done

Kitchener Stitch Video Clip

Finishing can also be done by casting off two stitches together (One stitch from each needle knitted as one, then knit next stitch from each needle as one and pass the 1st one over the last one. Repeat until all cast off, then weave in cut ends of yarn. I am sure there's a video for that method too but I  haven't found it yet. I'll be back like Arnie when I do!

There are endless variations possible with these socks. You can use the SKYP Rib Socks I referenced above, or a simpler ribby pattern, liek K4 P2 or K2 P1. I hope you see it as a basic pattern, and I might make it a PDF to upload to Ravelry in the future, when the General Election's over and I get my life back to normal - this time next week all will be revealed - let's hope Labour will have a new woman TD from Waterford!

The 2011 Irish Blog Awards: And the Nominees include...me!

2011 Nomination!

I noticed on Twitter the other night that the nominations had been posted for the 2011Irish Blog Awards and I am delighted that I got nominated - in two categories!

I got a nomination in the Best Personal and Best Food//Drink Blogs. Thanks a million to my nominees - you know who you are, even if I'm just guessing! I promise I won't make a cringe-making Oscar/Bafta/Ifta-style acceptance speech - unless I make it to the shortlist or the finalist list!

There are a multitude of great blogs in the numerous categories - Humour, Newcomer, Political, Politician, Best Post, Personal, Food/Drink, Youth, Irish Language (eat your heart out Fine Gael!) and  so I am delighted to get to the longlist.

Last year I was lucky enough to make the shortlist and while I didn't win, it was great to follow the progress of the awards and to read so many new (for me) blogs. So I hope you enjoy them as much as I do - life's too short to be reading them all (and do other stuff as well, like work and knit and read!) but there are plenty of good ones out there.

I already recognise a lot of the names in the various categories, some that I follow and some who follow me - and there is a great camaraderie in the blogosphere that makes everyone happy for their fellow-bloggers when they appear on the list. At least that's how I see it; maybe I'm hopelessly out of tune and everyone's really gritting their teeth to see their nemesis nominated! Well, I'll keep up my Pollyanna-ish faith in human nature and believe in my theory - there's plenty of room in the Twittersphere for acerbic wit and cutting-edge scathing commentary!

If nothing else, it's great to see the increased traffic to my blog in the past few days - for a while there I felt I was blogging for myself as there seemed to be a decline in visitor numbers, but it's turned around since the list went up, so it definitely has an impact.

I've mused before on blogging and its appeal - and while I do it mainly because I enjoy writing and sharing recipes and reviews and ideas on issues that interest me, I'd be disingenuous if I said I didn't get a buzz from having new followers and seeing comments - so keep up the ego-massage, people!

Keep on visiting, commenting and following - and I'll keep on posting Dispatches from a cold and damp Déise!

I'm a Stylish Blogger - or so the Award says!

I was chuffed when I got this award recently - it's been a couple of weeks ago but better late than never, Stylish Blogger no less! - from Laura in California who blogs at Our Scented Cottage, well worth a visit. Thanks a lot Laura!

I will now tell you what the Award sharing entails, for those of you who will receive it from me - if you wish to share with your fellow-bloggers just follow the guidelines below. I don't think this one is too onerous; I have refused to pass on Awards in the past that were too difficult or intrusive, so it's entirely up to you what to do. It's all a bit of fun, not something to agonise over accuracy or factual verification thereof - even if you're using a bit of poetic/artistic licence to embellish it's not a hanging offence!

To Accept The Award Requirements: Thank and Link Back to the Blogger Who Awarded You With The Award and Share 7 Things About Yourself. Award 15 Recently Discovered Great Bloggers and contact the bloggers, inform them of the award.

Right - here goes - Seven things about me (that you were afraid to ask?!)

1. I love reading - I am in a real-world book club and an online Bloggers' Book Club - which is worth checking out and much thanks to Lily for setting it up. I am not always great at reading the required books as I am always short on time - but I try. I enjoy sharing the reviews and seeing other people's opinions on a favourite read.  Our house is full of books - hubby keeps wondering where we're going to fit any more and yet there's a certain elasticity in our bookshelves! I am always reading some book or other, usually multitasking it with something else like knitting (see 2 below!)

My latest socks project - ribbed wool socks

2. My current favourite hobby is knitting - small projects like socks (See photo) which can be done anywhere - in the car, the coffee shop, watching TV, waiting around for people, hospital appointments - it makes the wait tolerable and combined with No. 1 above is the perfect relaxation. I do enjoy crochet but I am not as good at it as I once was so I defer to my daughter-in-law-to-be who has become a whiz at it since I showed her how to make a pot-holder a few short months ago - now she's teaching me her wonderful projects! Check out her Facebook Group (Jany's Cozy Crochets) for her work. Also the advent of YouTube tutorials on knitting and crochet make it accessible to the masses and the plethora of wonderful crafty books now available have reawakened interest in these terrific pastimes.

Sofia's No. 1 Cake!

3. I have always loved baking since learning the craft from my late mother as a child - I also had a friend whose grandfather had a bakery and she taught me how to make yeast bread, something not very common in Ireland - home of the Soda Bread (brown bread made with buttermilk and with Bread Soda (Soda Bicarbonate) as the raising agent. No waiting around for proving or rising and knocking down, it's a simple fast mixing method - can be wet or dry as wished, depending on whether you want to bake in a loaf tin or shaped round or whatever you fancy. Now I mostly bake cakes, buns (cupcakes) and tarts and pies. And I have a Facebook Group (Cakes, Bakes and Tasty Treats) which showcases some of my favourite recipes, all of which I've blogged about. My most recent was Sofia's First Birthday Cake which you can see here - we celebrated the big day yesterday!

4. I never travelled outside of Ireland until I was 17, when I went overland on a youth pilgrimage to Lourdes in southern France, the famous Marian shrine. I was a helper to a disabled girl, as were a a number of classmates who'd signed up for a bit of adventure, which was in short supply in the Black and White TV days of the early 70s! We had a blast - something not usually associated with pilgrimages, but perhaps there's a clue if I say the pilgrimage  was led by that notorious party animal Bishop Eamon Casey. He was quite the man-about-town then, little did we know then what we knew twenty years later - that he was a father in more than the religious title, which was disclosed by the mother of his then 17 yr old son, a handsome American lad, whose mother had fallen for the popular Bishop's charms all those years earlier. Sadly, he was vilified by the church and sent into exile in the South American missions, in contrast to all those paedophile priests whose crimes came to light years later which were covered up by the institution all the way to the Vatican. If ever there was a case for married priest and an end to compulsory celibacy, Bishop Casey epitomised it. He was a coward of course, in that he ditched Annie Murphy and embezzled diocesan funds to pay maintenance for the kid, and he never acknowledged him until Annie Murphy went public. But theirs was a consenting adult relationship, and as such should have been acknowledged by the hierarchy. 

5. I never flew until I was 22, when I went to Tenerife on my first and only package holiday after I'd finished my midwifery. Nine of us went, all girls, all just-qualified midwives, and we were ready to party. I remember being more excited by the flight than the holiday destination - until I arrived. I had little experience of sub-tropical climes to then, and revelled in two weeks of glorious sunshine in a then largely unspoilt island just discovering its tourist potential. We climbed Mount Tiede, the highest volcano/peak in Europe (not the mainland of course, but the Canary Islands are part of Spain so they are European even though they lie off the coast of Morocco, near the Western Sahara end.

6. I lived without electricity or running water for over a year - in the African bush in the mid-80s when we worked withTutsi refugees from Rwanda near Lake Burigi, the most beautiful place between Lake Victoria and Rwanda. We drew water from the river and in the rainy season collected rainwater in a tank. That was our most basic living ever - we had a small generator which would run a light bulb or two but if you put on the cooker it would dim the lights. I cooked on charcoal and got very creative - anyone who knows those little charcoal jikos or stoves knows they're slow to fire up and can be temperamental, but I ended up baking bread with two African cooking pots - like a bastable oven, one had the bread, the other sat on top with more hot coals in it, and that baked perfect bread. Murder on the tin pots though, as the heat of the charcoal on a dry pot burnt it away after a couple of uses. Happy days, the kids were small and it was pretty idyllic for them, aged 4 and 1, and I was 8 months pregnant with no. 3 when we left for the relative civilisation of Wales and a study break.

7.  I was taught Irish for 13 years in school and I still don't speak it comfortably or anywhere near fluency. This is probably a damning indictment of the school system in how it teaches Irish as a compulsory subject which was foisted on us, as it still is. In fact, it was so forced that if you failed Irish in the Leaving Cert you failed the whole exam, regardless of the rest of the exam - straight As or not. That requirement is now gone, but the baggage it carries for my generation is irreparable. I work in an Irish-speaking area and did a conversation course a few years ago which showed  me how  much I could recall and it was a fun way to learn. I see kids going to Gaelscoileanna where they're taught everything through Irish and they seem fine with it, and there's a resurgence outside Gaeltacht areas. I think future generations will be okay with the language but the teaching has to change and be relevant to everyday life. I speak near-fluent Dutch, am very comfortable in Kiswahili after years in Tanzania, and could even cope with some Lao, a tortuously difficult script and tonal language (like Thai)e that would make Serbo-Croat look like a walk in the park! 

So that's some random things to share - I tried to get a different perspective than in a previous  list for the Versatile Blogger Award I got from Mimi last year, so I hope I achieved that. I will now forward it to the following bloggers I enjoy and who won't mind being tagged with an award - I will not send it to any award-free zone! 

It's been fun to do and I hope you enjoy it too, pass it on and hopefully bring a lot more readers and followers to your blog - which is always nice. Though I write this because I enjoy the process of writing an open diary - as I see a blog - and it documents my life in a way I'm happy to share in the blogosphere. 

And the Award goes to.....

1. Mimi @ MimiinDublin 
2. Rudee @ A Knitting Nurse
3. Ann @ Inkpots n'Quills
4. Alycia @ The Curious Pug
5. Susan @ Joyous Flowers
6. Brownieville Girl @ Brownieville Girl
7. Corry & Heleen @ Dutch Sisters
8. Michelle @ MichelleTeacress
9. Peggy @ Organic Growing Pains
10. ShannonAnn @ One Size Knits All
11. Lilly @ Stuff I make, bake and love
12. Barbara @ Tanzania 5.0
13. Maeve @ The Delights of Tea and Other Things 
14. Kitty Cat @ Red Lemonade
15. Barbara @ From my Kitchen Table 

Irish Blog Awards 2011 - Nomination Time again.

Hard to believe it's a year since the Irish Blog Awards and they have rolled around again. I was lucky last year to get nominated and shortlisted to the last 25 which was a great morale boost for this blogger. I was nominated in two categories, Personal Blog and Food Blog. It was great fun browsing the nominations and seeing the quality of the blogs was a humbling experience.

As far as I know I haven't been nominated thus far, so I will be delighted if any readers see fit to put my blog forward in any category they think it fits. It will be a great honour and very exciting if I do get nominated onto a category, and I will be looking through the blogs I follow to nominate some of them, as they are surely deserving.

It's fun to follow the progress of the blogs through to the finals, and to see who the ultimate winners are.The finals are in Belfast on March 19th and the only criteria for entry is to have been actively blogging between March and December 2010.


Have a look at the website and nominations page and perhaps you will find a category that fits some of the Irish blogs you follow, and you'll have a friend for life if you nominate that blog.




Happy browsing and keep in touch with the awards site as it updates through the heats. I will continue blogging my heart out for the foreseeable future as it is a nice outlet for writing about everything day-to-day in life - from the sublime to the ridiculous.

This is especially relevant now that it's open season on venting and rants with the 2011 General Election about three weeks away. Happy days will be here again, as we all hope for change, echoing Labour leader Eamon "Happy" Gilmore, the persistent poll-topper for Taoiseach. Let's see if the polls' accuracy stands up to scrutiny after the election. Watch this space!

A Labour of Love in the General Election 2011

Lismore Labour Women with Ciara the Candidate!

Today has  been a  historic one for Ireland - the 30th Dáil (Parliament) has just been dissolved and the road to the General Election 2011 Campaign is open. Until the dissolution of the Dáil the campaign posters couldn't go up in public places - not that that stopped some of them stealing a march on their opponents - I saw posters for another candidate (not Labour!) this afternoon in Waterford City - about 3 hours too early!

The Labour Selection Convention 25th January 2011 Waterford

Since two Labour Party Candidates for Waterford Constituency were selected last week I've hardly seen hubby Jan - he's been appointed Director of Elections for Ciara Conway's campaign. Seamus Ryan is the other candidate for Labour. He's based in Waterford City and Ciara in Dungarvan, so there's good countywide representation. Hopefully they'll both get plenty of canvassing done across the county in the coming four weeks leading up to the General Election which will take place on Feburary 25th. If you like you can scan the Labour Party policies which they will bring into government should they be in that position in a few weeks time - which looks like a distinct possibility, if they can negotiate a coalition deal with Fine Gael.

Labour Waterford Women supporting Ciara for the Dáil

 The ruling junta party Fianna Fail (take as read - there should be a fada (á accent) over the "a" in Fail but I prefer it without - more appropriate!) has just bit the dust after being in power for 61 of the last 79 years. For the past 14 years they have brought the country to its knees with their self-serving economic stroke politics of favouring jobs for the boys, propping up dynastic political families with no claim to serve other than taking over the seat of a father or uncle, and creating a housing and property bubble that made millionaires out of developers while crippling people with mortgages for inflated house prices that will never recoup their original value, leaving thousands in negative equity and with job losses, at risk of repossession.

Ciara's campaign launch - Director of Elections Jan speaking

 It's probably a good idea to comfort eat our way through this recession. My previous post is a good example of this, with the recipe for a slow-cooker casserole. Cheap cuts of meat do well in slow-cookers too, so that's another plus! Since the start of the year I am down about €150 a month nett with the new USC - an nice innocuous-sounding acronym for the most inequitable charge we've seen since the pension levies of 2009. This Universal Social Charge is hitting poorer lower-paid workers far more than higher earners, as it draws into its net people previously exempt, because they were deemed too poor to pay levies like health and income levies if they had a medical card.

Ciara speaking at campaign launch

Ciara and her Director of Elections Jan

The charge is now levied on all earning above €4000 p.a. - in other words, everyone in work. So while I might be hit with €150 per month less take-home pay, someone on half my salary could be disproportionately hit and lose €100 - €150. By the way, under the Croke Park deal the public sector didn't get any wage cut - our gross pay stays the same. Just what's in our pocket at the end of the month is down. So it's like a pay cut of about €2000p.a. for  me, and I would bet if I was being means-tested for anything like a grant for college it's my gross pay that'd count!

I wanted to mark this historic day as I hope we're on the cusp of a new age in Irish politics, with Labour at the forefront, even in coalition, where they'll bring in their key policies of Jobs, Reform and Fairness. These aren't mere waffle, as their modus operandi is clearly outlined in the Policy document.

We had Ciara's launch last night in Dungarvan and there will be canvassing and campaigning ad infinitum and ad nauseum for the next three weeks. Fianna Fail canvassers will get a rough time on the campaign trail so even though they go into the campaign with a new leader after Biffo/Brian Cowen bowed to the inevitable opprobrium heaped on him by his own fellow party members, Micheál Martin, his successor, is tainted with being in the cabinet and Minister of key portfolios during the years of excess and waste otherwise known as the Celtic Tiger.

Surely the words of former Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy will come back to haunt the Soldiers of Destiny (a.k.a. Fianna Fail) - If I have it, I'll spend it, was his style during his giveaway budgets during the boom years. Trouble was, we didn't actually have it, it was all built on the bubble of property and development that was totally unsustainable and has come crashing down around us in the past two years, leading us to the arms of the IMF and the ECB, our new taskmasters. It looks like we'll be indentured to them for many years to come. Time for Bono to start a Drop the Debt campaign, as I suggested in another post. Little chance of that!

Slow Cooker Crockpot Casserole - Comfort Food for those January Blues

The 30-year old Tower bible!

Today I made a nice beef casserole in my Slow Cooker which is fantastic. I love it, and it is great when I'm going out for the day.I went to Cork to visit son Shayne, fiancée Jany and granddaughter Sofia who's almost a year. Where did the time go?

I had been to Dublin yesterday for a meeting and visiting friends and middle son Martin afterwards, and travelled up and down with another friend who was meeting her daughter in Dublin, so it's been quite a weekend.  When I came home tonight - dinner was ready. I just had to do the spuds (for teen daughter and me) and heat some rice for hubby, and that was that. No pressure.

Lovely colourful warm stew

Pre-fry everything if you have time - no worries if not!

I made my own combo of about three different recipes and it turned out lovely - I used a beef stew base but as I had some pork I added that, with seasoning from another recipe in a Slow Cooker book I have. It's great comfort food for the January blues.

We got our Slow Cooker as a wedding present nearly 30 years ago - it's a Tower and has a 2-litre capacity, so it's not enormous - but it's more than adequate for four-six people if they've got average appetites! I resurrected it in the past few months after years of not using it or only occasionally taking it down to see if it still worked, as a friend had been raving about hers. So I have enjoyed making some great comfort food with it. Today was great as I put on the dinner before going to Cork and when I came home about six hours later the dinner was done to perfection.

Beef and Pork Casserole with Mixed Vegetables

Ingredients

Finished dish

• 500g/1lb stewing beef - cubed
• 300g/12ozs pork chops/steak - cubed
• 500ml/1pint beef stock (use a quality stock cube if no home made stock about)
• 250ml/glass red wine
• 6 chopped tomatoes
• 3tbsp tomato puree/paste
• 1 teasp. sweet paprika 
• 1 teasp. hot paprika (optional - I use delicious smoked paprika from Spain, wonderful!)
• 1 teasp. Allspice
• 1 teasp. ground coriander
• 1 teasp. mixed herbs
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
• 3 carrots - sliced
• 3 peeled potatoes - diced
• small turnip/swede - diced
• 150g/6 oz button mushrooms - halved if big 
• 2 onions - chopped
• 2 cloves garlic - chopped
• 2 Bay leaves.

  

  At the start of cooking

(These spices and herbs give it a lovely North African exotic flavour but it's still non-threatening to traditionalists who love their casseroles tasty but not fiery!)

Method

• Preheat the Slow Cooker on High for about 30 mins. 
• If you have time, brown the  meat and onions and garlic in a little oil in a pan. This gives a bit of extra flavour to the dish. 
• Add all the other ingredients and mix well.
• Transfer to the warmed Slow Cooker and mix well.
• Cover and cook for 4 hours on High, or if leaving all day turn it down to Low after a half-hour or so, and cook for around 7 hours.
• If you leave it longer don't worry as you can't burn the food or do too much damage as it doesn't really overcook. 

Handy Hint: 

Cut root vegetables smaller than you might for a stovetop dish as they take longer than the meat to cook to soft. Nothing worse than hard potatoes in a casserole! So ensure you leave enough time to thoroughly cook them. I assure you 4-5 hours on High was enough to cook them through for me.

Enjoy with boiled Basmati Rice or for the ultimate in comfort food - mashed potatotes. I used Rooster spuds with lots of butter, a little milk, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Hard to beat it, worth a try. Hope you enjoy it and don't be put off by the long list of stuff you need. It's mostly in your kitchen cupboards.

Nearly gone!

Ready to go!

Winter Woollies - StayingToasty in Turbulent Times

Cap and Scarf in Super-Chunky wool

I have been busy knitting warm woollies to help me cope with our winter of discontent. Not alone has the weather been unseasonably cold for Ireland and we've had to cope with frozen pipes and a waterless Christmas, it's now clear that this was but a portend of the disastrous political turmoil of the past week.


Today the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen resigned as the main government coalition party leader but decided to stay on as Taoiseach. This brings us back to GUBU days - no, not Glory Days, but Grotesque, Unbelievable, Bizarre and Unprecedented. This famous acronym dates back to 1982 when a double murderer was found to be hiding out in the apartment of the Attorney General, and the term was coined by Conor Cruise O'Brien apropos of the controversy in which the then Taoiseach Charlie Haughey found himelf embroiled.  We wonder now if the planned General Election - announced last week for March 11th - will be brought forward again as the confidence in the government plummets to new depths.



They say that a week is a long time in politics -well here's a timeline to what went on in the past week and as the week wore on it became apparent that an hour is a long time in Irish politics - the farce could have been written by any one of our wonderful playwrights - though John B. Keane would probably have done it fair justice, what with his acute eye for morality in the human condition, not to mention political shenanigans. The Field, one of his most famous plays, is now showing in Dublin and the radio ad for it is prescient - the voiceover of the Bull McCabe asks - "would we rather have our principles or be millionaires?"

Well, it's evident that the political rulers of the past 14 years veered spectacularly towards the latter, and in the words of Charlie McCreevy, then Minister for Finance in one of the giveaway budgets of the boom years - "when we have it, we spend it". Quite. And now we're left holding the baby the IMF has given us - a debt of billions that will be a legacy for future generations and is going into the black hole of the banks that went under due to the lack of proper regulation.

The woolly gloves

That it coincided with week after proverbial Blue Monday just added to the irony, and it is proving hard for all us political junkies to keep up with the daily upheavals. I won't even go into the detail, suffice to say for those living on Mars for the past few weeks that the country is now being misled by a government with a rudderless party.

Today the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen resigned as the main government coalition party leader but decided to stay on as Taoiseach. This brings us back to GUBU days - no, not Glory Days, but Grotesque, Unbelievable, Bizarre and Unprecedented. This famous acronym dates back to 1982 when a double murderer was found to be hiding out in the apartment of the Attorney General, and the term was coined by Conor Cruise O'Brien apropos of the controversy in which the then Taoiseach Charlie Haughey found himelf embroiled.


So you can understand why I immerse myself in reading and knitting or crochet. Of late I have been mostly
knitting scarves, hats and gloves - and in warm winter russet tones. You can see the fruits of my January labours in these photos - even the self-consciously self-timed one gives an idea of the hat and scarf set, which was made with James C. Brett's super-chunky Marble yarn, which I got in the lovely Lismore Design Workshop from Angela - she has only been open for a few months but already has inspired a lot of knitters to get their needles out and she has also got a knitting circle up and running on Tuesdays - morning and evening! I went last week and it was a lovely few hours, spent sitting by an open fire chatting away to fellow-knitters. The gloves are pure wool, which have to be hand-washed, a slight drawback offset by their cosy warmth.

Mary, Paul and Catherine - the Knitting Circle Table Quiz team (& me!)

We even got a team together for the Table Quiz last night in Ballyrafter House Hotel - a fundraiser for our Travel Writing Festival, Immrama, which happens in June each year. I have blogged about it frequently. We came 5th overall, not bad with a score of 61 out of a possible 72.

Coincidentally, today's Irish Times had two articles about Lismore and its environs - both by Immrama speakers. One was by Manchán Magan, on the joys of staying in Lismore in rhododendron or any season, and the other by Thomas McCarthy, a poet of international renown from nearby Cappoquin, who name-checks Lismore in his writings on the downfall of Fianna Fail, the current political pariah party

This post has just touched on the events of the past week - the Labour Party is coasting towards the General Election and we have a Selection Convention on Monday night in Waterford to formally nominate two candidates - a man and a woman - to contest for the four-seat Waterford Constituency. We hope they will double the representation by securing a second seat this time - watch this space for updates!

Book Tokens and Reviews - from Knitting to Nemesis

I got these books - the Knitting and Crochet one was in the bargain bin, but Nemesis was full whack - with my the last of my book tokens which I won in the Terrible Typos competition in the Irish Times a few months back. The Knitting and Crochet book has some great patterns and I look forward to idling away the dark winter evenings with some cool and colourful projects which will be shared and blogged about in due course.

Nemesis was a nice treat as I rarely buy new hardback novels, preferring to wait for the paperback or go to the library. The cheapskate in me rails against such extravagance, but I'm always prepared to make an exception and Philip Roth is one of my favourite authors, in the same league as Updike, Ford and Franzen in my humble opinion. I read Portnoy's Complaint back in the '70s for the salaciousness of it being a widely-banned book, but since then I've returned for the literary merit and not the smut!

Nemesis is a deceptive book. It's written in an understated narrative style, with a structured formality - the story is told by a student of the protagonist, Bucky Cantor, a phys ed teacher who worked as a playground director during the summer of 1944 when polio ravaged Newark and beyond in a relentless epidemic.

Bucky is a young man old before his time after being dealt a number of short straws in life - his mother died giving birth to him, his father was a jailbird and he grew up never knowing parents but with loving grandparents in the Jewish Weequahic suburb of Newark. He is in love with a girl Marcia, from a wealthy family, who's also a teacher and spending the summer working in a summer camp in the Poconos mountains, Indian Hill. The contrast between the two locations couldn't be starker - the urban one full of disease, fear and helplessness, and the rural idyll with clean air, sure to keep polio at bay. The reality is very different.

The story focuses on Bucky's struggles with his demons. Marcia urges him to join her in the  summer camp and escape the city with all its danger. He is torn between going as he feels honour-bound to staying with the playground kids, yet he succumbs to the lure of the lovely Marcia.

Soon after he leaves, the playground closes when the epidemic gets out of control, and he realises he wouldn't have had to resign and incur the wrath of his boss who castigates him as a coward, had he stayed on a few more days.

Developments at Indian Hill take a sinister but predictable turn, and Bucky's guilt comes back to haunt him. The relationship with Marcia is intense and she is an uncomplicated sincere woman while Bucky is decent and honest but has low self-esteem which makes him feel unworthy of her love.

The ending was unexpected but understandable when the character of Bucky was considered, and it is very poignant and sad to see how a life can be shaped by events completely outside someone's control, and when one's sense of responsibility can be so extreme as to be hubristic, as I think it was in this case - Bucky blames himself for everything and when logic dictates otherwise he doesn't want to know.


I loved the way Roth writes; he has a lyrical descriptive style which draws the reader to the time and place, and is a great analyst of the human spirit and condition. In recent years I've read Exit Ghost and The Human Stain and other Zuckerman novels, and while this was not a Zuckerman book it was riveting in its simplicity and beauty. It was more like a novella than a full-length novel as it was such a page-turner, despite its 269 pages.

The topic of polio is an emotive one, and it has touched our family - my mother's father had polio as a child in the 1880s and it shaped his life - he became a master tailor as it was a skill for which he didn't need two good legs, instead of the farm labourer which would have been his destiny. Yet this was the first novel I'd read on the subject.

I've read The Cutter Incident which looked at the epidemics of the 1950s in the USA when a batch of polio vaccine was tainted with live virus that infected numerous children, killing some. Patrick Cockburn's The Broken Boy looks at a personal journey through polio in the Irish epidemic of the 50s and how it ravaged Cork in particular. These are all worth reading as much for social commentary of the day as well as human interest. Most of us will never experience the horrors of polio and the fear of the unknown legacy - iron lungs and calipers defined it for so many, and I am old enough to remember schoolmates who had polio and were permanently affected.

The tragedy is now the number of post-polio syndrome victims who are affected, 50 or more years after their original infection, with a debilitating malaise.

To all anti-vaccine campaigners out there, this book should be required reading.

From Hairshirts to Hippie Hats and Headbands - Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year to all the blog-readers and loyal followers of Dispatches from the Deise from my first post in 2011 - I've been blogging just over two years now since I started just after Christmas 2008, and it's been a great journey as I've catalogued various events in my life and numerous random ramblings. I've enjoyed reading other blogs, following many, commenting on some (not enough!) and having over a hundred followers of my dispatches. It's an interesting and diverse community, and without any literary or journalistic pretensions, blogging's a great creative outlet for any aspiring writers - at every level.

Family photo - Christmas Day 2010

I hope you like the family photo taken on Christmas day on the patio - we were all wrapped up for a walk before the turkey dinner, and it was absolutely freezing. The next day it was about 8 degrees Centigrade (above freezing) - and the thaw has persisted but more frosty Arctic weather is forecast - just in case we get comfortable and complacent. The water's back by day, and down to a dribble at night; the pumps are turned off to fill the reservoirs as there are more leaks in the Irish water supply than Julian Assange could dream of in a lifetime - the County Councils here would give Wikileaks a right run for its money.

I wish everyone a wonderful 2011 despite the state of the nation and the economy and the dread and dismay we'll all find in out payslips in about a fortnight or so when the first haircuts of the hairiest hairshirt budget in history kicks in.

Cloche crochet hat with flower - on me.

I am trying all the positive mantras - lucky to have a job, many worse off than me, and amn't I lucky to be a vilified public servant - albeit frontline so maybe my job won't be one of those targeted for the chop if Fine Gael get into government after the General Election - probably March now. I just hope their expected partners in government, Labour, (my party affiliation) will be able to rein them in - Eamon(Gilmore) better make sure his charm offensive knocks the socks off Inda (Kenny) enough to stall the Blueshirts' proposal to slash and burn the public sector as they promised in their recent budget alternative. 

Jany and me with her creation - New Year's Eve 2010

 A question for 2011 - will Bono ask the IMF and the World Bank to Drop the Debt for his own country as he has so eloquently advocated for so-called Third World Countries? That would be a supreme irony as he has lost a lot of street cred since U2 headed off on a tax break of their own to The Netherlands when they moved their assets offshore for higher tax exemption savings - all strictly legal but morally very questionable given his holier-than-thou banging on about helping poor countries - surely the best way to do so would be to pay taxes in your own country?

Random-dyed pink flower detail on headband - crochet

Purple flower detail on headband - crochet

Crochet flower headbands

My thinking is that it can only be uphill from here as we can't get any worse than 2010 from an economic and national morale standpoint - it was a new low for our collective national psyche when the IMF rode into town, and we are still reeling from the shock of losing financial sovereignty with the bailout of €85 billion.

But enough misery - this Christmas and New Year I have been mostly crocheting new projects for myself and teen daughter and her pals - there's a resurgence in Hippie nostalgia and retro headbands and hats have become de rigueur -  at least around here.

Jany, d-i-l in-waiting, has been instrumental in reawakening this fashion fad as she has been busy with scarves, hats and headbands for little Sofia and her work colleagues. So when she showed me how to make 3-D flowers with the help of a wonderful YouTube tutorial from the wonderful Art of Crochet by Teresa, I was hooked ( I know, I used that pun in a recent post - guilty as charged!). You can see how wonderful it is in the link above or the video clip below.

I want to share some finished projects with you too, and maybe inspire you in the potential for a new cottage industry in the lean days ahead - a stall at the local Farmers' Market would be a terrific outlet for the crafty among you. You could do worse for in this age of austerity! 

Jany never crocheted till a few months ago and now she's teaching me techniques and new skills every week - so it's no excuse not to get down to it if you're motivated enough.If I can do it anyone can.

self-timer pic - scarf and hairband/headband with flower

Headband with flower - self-timed pic.

a bit too-close-up! flower cap with brim

 The Art of Crochet by Teresa - amazing tutorials on everything you need to know to crochet.