St Paddy's Countdown: Day 2- The Irish Car Bomb Situation

Day Two! That means... Tomorrow is St. Paddy's! I've been thinking more and more about how to make this year different from past years, and I've come to the conclusion that I need to change up the Baileys+Guinness combination.

Most people have at least heard the term "Irish Car Bomb". This is a drink that's been around since the late 70's and actually evolved from a couple other versions titled "The Grandfather" and "The IRA". All three of these drinks were coined by Charles Burke Cronin Oat, current instructor at Connecticut School of Bartending, and former owner and bartender of Wilson's Saloon. The Grandfather" was originally a 50/50 shot of Bailey's and Kahlua. Apparently Oat thought the shot needed an extra kick, though- so he added some Jameson whiskey to the top of the shot. The reaction of the hard liquor on the creamy liqueur created an immediate foaming and bubbling action to occur, and the resemblance to a bomb caused Oat to remark, "the IRA just showed up!" (bombs being the weapon of choice for the IRA at the time). Hence, the second generation of the drink.

St. Paddy's Countdown: Day 3- Irish Colcannon

I'm so very excited, because not only will I be in sunny, beautiful Arizona with all my favorite people in less than 48 hours, but also because the same day I get there is St Patrick's Day! This is my second favorite holiday of all time, falling only slightly behind Halloween... But of course, whenever March 17th comes around I always feel like this is really my favorite holiday.

Why, you might ask, is this, one of the most unrecognized holidays of them all, my second favorite? Well, how could it NOT be?! I'm partly Irish- I'm not entirely sure how Irish, exactly, but quite a good amount. That right there is reason enough to get decked out in green and orange and celebrate, but of course there is so much more about this holiday to take advantage of. Any culture that is best known for potatoes, drinking, and general merriment is one I'm happy to be a part of. So, the next three days I will be having a St Paddy's Countdown, posting recipes and such in preparation for the actual holiday.

10 of My Favorite Things on the Web

This has been a very busy time, because I'm filling out a leave of absence form (I'm going to be spending next fall going to school in Arizona), managing classes (it's midterm time!), working for my school's phonathon, and getting ready to head back to the desert for spring break this Wednesday (my flight leaves at 6:30 in the morning!). Somehow in the middle of all that I still find time to slack off and spend hours upon end on the internet watching dumb videos, writing blogs, and clicking the stumble button on my browser hundreds of times. I would consider myself a pretty well seasoned stumbler, and I've found some pretty cool things on the internet that I can resort to when my laziness reaches the point where I can't do any "real" work. Below are some of my favorite net finds. Some of them are strange and you might not like them unless you are also an easily-amused college girl with far too much time on her hands. However, a lot of them will probably be useful or amusing to a wide demographic- so check 'em out and see if there are any you've never seen before.

Microwave Brownies

I said before that my "kitchen" consists of nothing more than a mini fridge and a microwave in a dorm room. This isn't entirely true- my residence hall has one small kitchen on the first floor that anyone can use. I've used it twice, and both times vowed never to use it again. The first time was the first weekend of the fall semester, when my roommate K and I made vegan ginger-molasses cookies. Many months passed before the second time I ventured back down there, which was this year's Superbowl Sunday. It wasn't to make vegan hot wings or pizza (although those are both awesome), but to make Smitten Kitchen's Homemade Oreos to send to my boyfriend S in Arizona for Valentine's Day. It was out of pure fondness for this hallmark holiday and adoration for S that I sucked it up and carried my heaping pile of ingredients, mixing bowl, and single cookie sheet down into that dingy kitchen for the afternoon. The experience could only be described as catastrophic.

Stocking a Vegan Kitchen

True, I am a mere dorm-residing college student, bound to a required meal plan and without much more than a mini-fridge and a microwave for a kitchen. The microwave doubles as a table for my printer, and the mini-fridge is usually stocked with fruit I "liberate" from the dining hall and really not a whole lot else. However, in my dream world I would have a big kitchen and it would be full of all the wonderful wholesome necessities of a vegan diet.

Luckily, the caterers for my school take vegan-ism into account, so I don't have to scrounge very hard to find decent things to eat. I still keep a few of my favorite things on hand though, for those times when I can't stomach another cube of poorly roasted tofu or slice of gelatinous berry pie. Following is a list of not only my favorites, but also pretty much everything else that is essential for a vegan or vegetarian kitchen- for all you who have to go grocery shopping on a regular basis.

Here We Go...

So! I've decided at long last to jump on this whole blog bandwagon thing before it gets so popular EVERYONE has one, and then fizzles out (ahem, myspace...). I've thought blogs are a pretty interesting new outlet for information and creativity for a while now, and being a communications major/art minor, I figure I should fit right in.