Happy Friday!

Has this been the longest week ever or what?!

And this weather. One minute I'm swinging around and the next I've got to turn my heat on and pull out my winter jacket :(

Testing out the new swingset at work with some pals. 

What are the weekend plans for you, dear readers? I'm heading to a hen party (my first of 4 this year!) and it may involve some sheep and cows (only in Ireland)! I hope the weather holds out for the fun farm activities planned! xo

Glorious!

Sadly, Ireland DOES live up to its stereotype. It's almost always raining, but when it isn't the island is GLORIOUS!

Yesterday, it was on and off, but when I got home from work, it had stopped. Hubby and I headed down to the sea for a late evening walk.

Along the Pier 

Where's my pot of gold? 

When we got home, I had the urge to try out my sister's version of my mom's recipe for making a Vietnamese crab and tomato soup- commonly referred to as Bun Rieu. In general, I can't follow a recipe to save my life, because I'm one of those people that don't measure (even when the recipe says you MUST). So this recipe which is below was perfect for me. This is one of the first meals I've made that tasted like my mom's on the FIRST try. Sooo impressed with myself. 

Steaming Vietnamese Soup! 

Her recipe if you want to try it:

In a pot with water, bring the dried shrimp to a boil and let it cook for a bit. In the meantime, sautéed chopped onions and chopped tomato in a pot. When it cooks down, add about two to three cans of chicken broth. 

Once the dried shrimp is cooked, remove from the water and chop them into tiny pieces(dice them) . Heat a pan with oil and garlic, add the shrimp and a am or two of crab meat. Stir it around for a bit, add sugar, salt, pepper. Stir. Add an egg or two..stir. 

Take the water from the shrimp and add it to the tomato, broth, onion mixture. Then add te shrimp, crab, egg mixture to the tomato mixture. Season with nuoc mam! Voila! You are done...let it cook for a bit and then eat! 

If you want one with measurements, perhaps check this one out though I've personally never tried that recipe. 

Sunshine in the Sunroom

It's finally starting to feel like Spring in Dublin! In the past couple of months, we've spent a lot of time re-doing our patio and shed - hoping that it would be warm enough to sit outside and have dinner. Not so much. With that in mind, over the weekend, I decided that we needed to change our sitting sunroom into a dining area.

We still have the day bed on one side, but I moved the arm chairs into the shed, and we got a lovely little dining set.

The previous set up of half of the sun room. 

We barely sat in these chairs. 

Updated! 

Also the best part of this was that when I got home from work, Hubby had it all set up. 

Except for the flowers, I picked those fresh from the garden!

A sneaky peek into the shed. 

We still have a bit a lot of decorating to do. 

Aobaba - Vietnamese Baguettes in Dublin!

I was doing a bit of research this past week and guess what I found?! ANOTHER Vietnamese restaurant. HURRAY! It's called Aobaba and is located on Capel Street. I had some errands to run on Saturday so headed in that direction and grabbed some items to take home and eat in our sunny backyard. (BTW, this is set up more like a cafe then a restaurant. It's not full service dining, but there are some tables that you can sit and have your meal).

Abbreviated menu 

I ordered 3 Vietnamese Baguettes, Summer rolls (but mistakenly got Spring rolls- or maybe I mistakenly ordered them- not sure.) and Banh Cuon.  I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy wolfing everything down, but I would definitely go back again.

• The Vietnamese Baguettes were not as AMAZING as the ones (not a lot of meat in the sandwich) that I get in say San Francisco or Boston, but they were a good substitute. Also they were the size of my arm. No joke. For 4 euros, I would definitely be going back to get more. 

• The Spring Rolls-I thought I had ordered summer rolls (was trying to be healthy), but when I got home I had spring rolls in my bag. I was a little bit sad, but I got over it quickly. These tasted like my grandmother's egg rolls which are very different from my mother's egg rolls. It has pork and mushrooms where my mom uses chicken, carrots and bean thread (thin, clear noodles). Still delicious though! 

• Banh Cuon- This was my favorite of all the dishes probably because I can probably make the above two but have no idea how to make this one. It was delish and tasted like my grandmother's. I would DEFINITELY come back for this dish. 

I highly recommend this place. It's really inexpensive and relatively authentic. Enjoy! 

The Lovely (albeit foggy) Alps!

This past weekend, I packed up my little suitcase and headed to Geneva to meet my pal Laura for a weekend girly date in Geneva. (Hubby went to meet with friends in London so clearly I HAD to get away as well.)

I landed in Geneva and spent the afternoon walking around there. To be 100% honest, there isn't too much to see or do. No major sites or attractions and the shopping and restaurant area is relatively small (compared to say Dublin which is saying ALOT since I think Dublin is quite small).

We then took the train up to Montreux which was AMAZING (!!!!) and the only 5 hours in the whole long weekend when there was sun. The rest of the weekend it rained so Laura and I took the train to check out Lausanna (30 minutes between Geneva and Montreux). The weekend was filled mostly with eating and sitting in cafes having chocolate croissants (Yum!).

While I enjoyed the catch up time with my pal, I wouldn't go racing back to this area unless I'm a skier (which I'm not) or if it was really warm and sunny as I imagine the lake is gorgeous in the summertime.

View of the Alps from our balcony

Lake Geneva in Montreux

 Bliss! We spent quite a bit of time sitting here soaking up the short time we had sun. 

Cloudy view of the Alps 

When in Geneva... Cheese and chocolate fondue. So decadent! 

Shed-loads of weekend painting

I'm still trying to recover from all the painting we did this weekend - still finding splotches of paint in the most random of my places on my body.

But... 

Isn't she beautiful!? My friends and co-workers think I'm CRAZY because I have been talking about this shed non-stop since we decided to put it in the yard (I may have even created a PowerPoint preso which I shared with the guys doing the shed who thought I was bat s@#$ crazy). 

We've still got a bit of painting left and then decorating on the inside! Will update when we find cool things for the garden room. 

{Boston}

Spending my formative years in Boston, I fell in love with this city. My heart goes out to those affected by these tragic events. 

Google People Finder - Boston Marathon