Rachel and Taylor: America's next top Chefs!

The next day Rachel and I made it to our classes even though we went to bed near half three in the morning. But I did it, I got up for my 10am class and then we went to Lidls and did some light (healthy) grocery shopping. Terrence, an Asian Canadian studying at UL heard us talking and immediately pin-pointed us as Americans (kind of like that woman who had Stephani's wallet), we were discussing what we wanted to make for dinner and throwing out so many ideas. He offered to give us a ride back to campus since he had a car. We figured he was harmless and after about 30 minutes of getting our stir fry ingredients we went back with Terrence. Bless his heart. I think he was nervous to be taking two girls in a car with him. He almost hit someone in the parking lot, then could not figure out how to get out of the parking lot. He was very apologetic for everything. Sorry the car was too small, or sorry if it smells like cleaner, and sorry I swear I am not a crazy driver... it was entertaining, but Rachel and I kind of got nervous for a sec. It was a manual and since they drive on opposite side of car it was weird to see him shifting with his left hand...he obviously thought so too because he stalled, and also completely forgot to shift at one point going through the roundabout, he also went to fifth instead of 3rd at one point I think...not like I am a pro, but dang "sorry, you must think I am totally dumb, I forgot to shift back there"

It was amusing either way, and we made it back safely!

Rach and I made some amazing stir fry that night and were very proud of ourselves (even though Scott says "stirfry is easy though!") We had some peppers, mushrooms, steak, rice, soy sauce, onions and carrots. We are definitely learning as we go when we cook, we decided to cook the rice first next time, and the meat last. But besides that it was really good!

Yesterday we went to the milk market. It was such a gorgeous day in town. I brought my camera again to get pictures, and of course I left my memory card in my computer, so that was all for nothing. But, we bought stuff to make crab soup :] We bought some crab legs (5euro for the bag!) we opted against purchasing the live crab because 1) we didn't want to kill it and 2) didn't want to carry a live crab around for the rest of the day; we also bought organic Irish potatoes, this amazing garlic leaf thing (it's awesome), some farm fresh peppers, wine, bread and some other veggies to add to our "support the local farms" shopping spree...we went into some stores tried on some fun clothes, until we realized the crab was kind of starting to smell/leak...

As we were leaving we heard someone singing, come to find out there was a little st. patricks day concert kind of thing down town, and wouldn't ya know she was singing Martina McBride's "Independence Day"...I swear we cannot escape America here, Rachel and I couldn't help but laugh.

We hit up Dunnes and Guineys in search for a wine glass and candles.

We made it back and realized we hadnt eaten all day so we wanted to make our crab soup right away!

After looking up recipes, which we never found, and asking Mom and Grandma for tips, we concocted the BEST crab soup ever! You would be shocked with what we put in it, how good it tasted, and how it was completely off of what we had in our heads and on my page of notes from mom's help. It was amazing, We probably could not make it again though unfortunately.

We carmelized onions and garlic together, added some white wine and then added that to some potatoes, carrots, more wine, some water, some milk, those garlic leaves, some red peppers (yeah really), some cinnamon (yup, you read that right), some basil, garlic powder, pepper and some salt, and more wine! We simmered that for about 45 minutes, added the crab which I so elegantly cracked-aka chopped Ax style with a metal spatula...for the next twenty minutes. We had to remove most of the potatoes and carrots from the first pot into a smaller one so all of our crab could fit! Before adding the crab we were like "oh nooo why did we add cinnamon and peppers, thats all we taste?!" but that crab sure added flavor and between the two of us we finished both pots of the soup. Maggie and Christina each had a bowl, and were as impressed as we were with our masterpiece. While the soup was simmering we finished the rest of the white wine (whine- as I so geniusly put together- kind of like that made up word too), opened a bottle of red, ate from our loaf of bread, had some brie cheese, peppers, and oil and balsamic vinegar as an appetizer! I really could not have enjoyed yesterday more!

Now today is filled with homework, homework, homework...


Cheers!