Fourth of July: Burning Down the House
It took a while for me to understand the irony of booking a room in the Rostrevor Inn in County Down, Northern Ireland for the 4th of July. It’s a …
Ireland in Lockdown…Again
Ireland is on lockdown again, this time for 6 weeks until early December. The schools are open, but there was no “trick or treating” this year. Sacrificing Halloween to save …
Life As We Know It: Covid Pandemic
Tourism is the dominant industry in the Burren region of Western Ireland. Now the Burren has gone eerily quiet. No bright green “Paddy Wagon” tour busses whizzing along the narrow …
The Summer’s Gone, it’s Fall in Ireland
The days are getting shorter and the temperature rarely breaks 60°F these days. But it was quite a summer. Our 4th of July BBQ was a blow-out. Kelly’s Houston book …
Eire-Mex: Cinco de Mayo
Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Mexican army’s victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. It is a minor holiday in Mexico, dwarfed in importance by Mexican …
In a Bar with Irish Spring at Hand
Irish Winter is the best season for sitting in pubs and complaining about the weather (while eating oysters and drinking Guinness). I can hold my own at this sport. At …
Chili, Oysters and Our Irish Cottage on Pouldoody Bay
As the fall semester begins, our Irish adventure continues. I am writing about cooking in Ireland for Taste.com and getting together with Ten Speed Press for a Chili Cookbook promotion. …
St. John’s Eve: An Old Irish BBQ Tradition
Looks like I got signed up to cook the barbecue at this event at Kelly’s school. I’ll be grilling Irish pork and apple sausages and serving them on buns with …
Starting Over: An East Texan in Western Ireland
Storm Fion, the third named storm of the season is hitting the West Coast of Ireland at the moment. (And we thought we were getting away from Galveston’s tropical storms!) …
Next Chapter: Moving to Ireland
Dear Friends: I’ve been doing a lot of fishing lately. Spent three weekends in November on Galveston Bay, Matagorda Bay and the Lower Laguna Madre. I didn’t catch a lot …