Waterford

FMM: 1 mi

Happy Monday, Everyone,

I hope you enjoyed Thanksgiving. We traveled by train to Waterford for a Thanksgiving dinner with fellow Fulbrighters. I guess they hadn't read the book on what and how much Americans eat for Thanksgiving, but the food was interesting and tasty. However, today I find myself longing for mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin and pecan pie with ice cream AND whipped cream upon it. Never mind, those thoughts probably make you sick by now.. The Waterford Crystal plant officially closed in October. Waterford was bought by a U.S. venture capital company that has moved the production to Czechoslovakia. That has been a huge blow to Waterford, but it is still a lovely historic town which dates back to 900 AD. They have something in the museum that exists no where else in the world: a piece of clothing from Henry VIII. It is a perfectly well-preserved "hat of maintenance" which Henry wore under his crown. We hoped to hear traditional Irish music on Saturday, but we got treated to another night of country western in our hotel. Think of an Irish singer singing "Okie from Muskogee". We were joined by a couple in their 80s. The man had never been out of the Republic of Ireland, not even to northern Ireland. He was a singer, so he got up and sang a few Irish tunes which delighted the crowd... We are having company for dinner -- yes, two people have actually agreed to come here tonight and eat with us before a concert. I got out one of my most precious commodities: a box of Betty Crocker brownie mix for which I paid $4.00. Then I discovered that the directions are in metrics! How dare they do that to me?? Make me pay top dollar (top euro?) and then put the directions in metrics? Since I have no mixing bowls, I used a large pan that I use for cooking vegetables. However, I'm a bit concerned that a slight green bean flavor may seep into my brownies. I then put the brownies into the same pan that I have to use for the lasagna, so I'm also concerned that at brownie flavor may seep into my lasagna....Anyway, I am off to make a third try at locating ricotta cheese lest I revert to Bob Bridwell's old recipe of using dried cottage cheese...Wish me luck. Remember, what people think of me is what they think of YOU as an American! So, I will try to behave myself.

Out doing something cheesy (I hope),

Tizzie/Tiz/Tizmom/Mom/Liz/Elizabeth