Irish Thymes Blog

Just had to share a short video of "why the Irish dance that way" - link to it at irishsetdancing.ning.com or directly on YouTube ~ cute.

Yesterday was a double-family birthday celebration and I was up for baking a cake. In the morning, I happened to see on MSN.com a blurb for "Olive Oil Cake - it looked pretty with a dusting of confectioner's sugar. What surprises me now is that a Google search brought up a number of olive oil cake recipes. MSN's feature was very much like this Olive Oil Cake from Food Network. It seems the Italian's had thought of using olive oil in their cakes before I ever heard of it.

Well, here's the recipe for the cake I made, as I had copied out the recipe to use yesterday. Knowing there was 1 1/2 cups of oil in the cake led me to describe it as "oiley" rather than moist, but it wasn't bad. I didn't happen to have parchment paper on hand on a Sunday morning and I wasn't much concerned about it either, but I'll have to remember to make paper-lined cupcakes if I make it again because it stuck real bad to the pan - and I think it would benefit from a few chopped apples. I also used Peach Schnapps with orange flavoring instead of the orange liqueur and I frosted it with cream-cheese frosting (using about a quarter to a half of the usual amount of ingredients - to keep it somewhat healthy). About the Onion Cookies, it's just a family joke - my kids think I make some strange concoctions.

Olive Oil Cake
View a video of this cake being made - it's here I learned the origin if this cake is Greek!
video

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 1/4 cups milk
1 1/2 cups good-quality extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup orange liqueur, such as Grand Marnier
3 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup bleached almonds, chopped fine
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Fresh berries and mint, for garnish


Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray the bottom and sides of a 10-inch round cake pan with nonstick spray. Cut a piece of parchment paper into a circle and set in the bottom of the pan.

In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate large bowl, cream together the eggs and sugar with a whisk. Add the orange juice, milk, olive oil, orange liqueur and lemon zest.

Mix the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Whisk until blended well. Pour the mix into the prepared cake pan. Sprinkle the almonds on top of the cake.

Bake for 1 hour, until the cake springs back to the touch. Remove cake from pan and place on a rack to cool. Run a knife around the edges and place the olive oil cake on a stand. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, garnish with fresh berries and mint.

I've been doing a lot of Irish set dancing. Harrington's is still popular and it's always fun. This week we added The Borlin to our repertoire of set dances. It's a very lively polka set from the Cork/Kerry area of Ireland. About half of us had danced it before and maybe half of those had actually had a lesson in it. But with the aid of an instruction book, we gave it a go. It keeps things interesting when we do new dances, but we all realized we needed to look into how that last figure was done.

We have been noticing more and more set dances being shown on YouTube. Here's the third figure of The Borlin Setdanced to the Abby Ceili Band in County Clare. Notice how lively it's danced. And in another YouTube video of the same third figure of the Borlin Set you can clearly see the steps of the body: jump-two, *dance in place*, turn 2-3, and into place - this is what makes the dance so unique.

Here is the
the famous 5th figure with the doubling that we had so much trouble with. We'll have to give it another try, now that we know what it looks like (come to think of it, we were never "taught' this figure, probably for fear we'd mow each other down or take off into flight). YouTube is great!

It's not so strange and it's not new that Europeans are buying property in Florida. However, according to an article published by Kevin Brass in the International Herald Tribune on October 19, 2006, Bidets in Florida?, "In 2005, overseas purchasers accounted for 15 percent of the houses sold in Florida... The majority were Europeans taking advantage of a favorable exchange rate with the dollar and inexpensive air fares..." Apparently Orlando is the most popular spot in Florida for European buyers.

It amazes me that I just didn't know this. I care only because I've been wanting to buy property in Florida for years. I welcome the European influence and think it will make Florida a more interesting place to live or visit. The same author reports, however, that a deterrent to a foreigner buying property in Florida or anywhere in the US has been a more rigorous visa process in recent years for anyone wanting to visit for more than 90 days.

It's been an eye-opening revelation for me. It's interesting to think about. And how about this: as reported in the October 25th issue of The Irish Echo,
"One organizer of FÁS's recent expo in New York jokingly compared the situation to Ellis Island as people lined up around the block, eager to find out more about living and working in a land of great opportunity." And guess where that land of opportunity is? Ireland! "The strength of Irish economy was the primary attraction," a spokesperson for the Consulate General of Ireland said. Now?

The Ireland visit has come and gone and leaves fond and happy memories. We visited with family and explored some of the country in County Cork, namely Cobh, where we stayed, Kinsale and Youghal, both day trips from Cobh, and the Beara Peninsula when we stayed on Bere Island in the amazing rugged beauty of the far southwest of Ireland.