I ran across the idea from this is Food and Wine (see their recipe here). The concept is you make a crust from rice (this is similar tahdig, a fantastic Persian rice dish I shared recently) and then top it with manchego cheese and Asian ingredients. The possibilities are endless. On a recent might I made mine with arugula and smoked salmon. Shrimp would be fantastic on this. Other greens would work nicely. Mushrooms or edamame would be a lovely addition. You start it in a skillet on the stove and finish it in the oven. It’s a another great idea for leftover rice.

Japanese Pizza

 

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Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• ½ tsp toasted sesame oil
• 3 cups cooked rice
• 1½ cups grated Manchego cheese (about 5 oz)
• top of one green onion sliced thin
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
• ¼ tsp toasted sesame seeds
• 2 cups fresh arugula
• ⅓ cup crunchy sprouts
• 2½ tbsp tamari sauce
• 4 oz smoked salmon

Instructions

1. Heat a 9 inch skillet over medium high and add the oil. Press the rice into the pan, so it is evenly distributed. Allow this to cook 10-15 minutes until it is brown and crisp on the bottom.
2. Remove from heat. Sprinkle cheese over rice. Sprinkle green onion, cilantro and sesame seeds. Spread arugula and sprouts on top. Sprinkle tamari over the entire pizza.
3. Place in a 375 degree oven on the top shelf and bake for about 15 minutes until the cheese melts, the arugula cooks and the top is slightly brown.
4. Spread salmon over the top. Slide the pizza onto a platter and serve.

3.2.1249

I ran across the idea from this is Food and Wine (see their recipe here). The concept is you make a crust from rice (this is similar tahdig, a fantastic Persian rice dish I shared recently) and then top it with manchego cheese and Asian ingredients. The possibilities are endless. On a recent might I … Read more →

I got the idea for this from something I saw on Pinterest. Get out all those doilies you inherited from your grandma but couldn’t bear to throw away, even though you would never, ever use them the way she did. Layer them over each other to create a table runner down the center of your dining room table. Or use them as I did here, to cover a side table and display items on top of them. It’s a cute look for Valentine’s Day.

I got the idea for this from something I saw on Pinterest. Get out all those doilies you inherited from your grandma but couldn’t bear to throw away, even though you would never, ever use them the way she did. Layer them over each other to create a table runner down the center of your … Read more →

This is a dish I turn to when I am desperate for something for dinner and have very little time to throw something together. This recipe is very flexible. Use any kind of protein. Use any kind of vegetables. Substitute other herbs or cheese. The basic idea is a corn (or wheat tortilla), topped with veggies, meat, herbs and cheese for a quick complete meal.

Tostada Dinner Solution

 

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Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 6 corn tortillas
• olive oil
• half a zucchini, sliced thin and quickly sauteed
• ¼ fresh cilantro chopped
• 2 small caprese tomatoes (equal to about ½ a regular large tomato) sliced
• ¾ cooked steak, sliced thin or chopped
• ½ cup taco cheese mix
• juice of half a lime

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 400. Place the tortillas on a baking sheet and rub with a little olive oil. Bake for about 4 minutes, until they slightly crisp. Pile the ingredients on them and bake until the cheese melts and everything is hot. Spritz with the lime before serving.

3.2.1249

This is a dish I turn to when I am desperate for something for dinner and have very little time to throw something together. This recipe is very flexible. Use any kind of protein. Use any kind of vegetables. Substitute other herbs or cheese. The basic idea is a corn (or wheat tortilla), topped with … Read more →

I picked up this cute wreath at a local shop. It’s made by a local senior. He also had pumpkins, trees that similar, and some flowers made out of rolled paper. Some of his items are made with music scores as well. This is hanging on my office door for Valentine’s Day. I think it would be easy to make. Buy a heart wreath form, pick up a vintage book and a used newish book (to get the contrast in paper colors) and decoupage it on.  Cut the paper in flower shapes and gently roll the edges, layering the shapes on top of each other. I paid $21 for this.

I picked up this cute wreath at a local shop. It’s made by a local senior. He also had pumpkins, trees that similar, and some flowers made out of rolled paper. Some of his items are made with music scores as well. This is hanging on my office door for Valentine’s Day. I think it … Read more →

Puppies made it better: a substitute excursion in Alaska

One of the highlights of our stay on Oahu was going to be a visit to the Iolani Palace, the only royal palace on US soil. And then Hawaiian nationalists stormed the palace and took over the grounds, holding it hostage for several days while we were there.

We signed up for an excursion to take a  helicopter ride to the glacier to go on a dogsled ride when we ported in Juneau during our Alaskan cruise. Unfortunately,  a dense fog covered the area that day and helicopters could not take off so our excursion was cancelled.

Climbing the Tower of Pisa was something I was excited to get to do! We bought our tickets in advance and took a train from Florence for the day. We took lots of photos beforehand and planned to walk back to the train station, find some lunch and do a little shopping on the way. That is until my husband sprained his ankle walking down the 296 circular stairs.

Travelling requires you to be ready to deal with the unexpected – both the good and the bad. Often, our travels have offered pleasant surprises and revealed exciting information, views, landscapes or flavors. Once in a while though, as in the situations above, something really disappointing happens. We’ve been very fortunate that nothing that is a real tragedy or complete trip disaster has ever happened to us and of course in comparison the bad things that could happen, we have been really lucky. However, these experiences have taught me what to do when something unexpectedly unpleasant or unplanned happens.

• Handle a medical emergency first. Obviously, if someone is sick or hurt, you need to deal with the problem. I overpack medical supplies and this has served me well in dealing with the sprained ankle (Ace bandage in the kit), UTIs (prescription and OTC meds packed), and stomach upset (I always bring ginger and chamomile which work miracles) and so on. The thing to remember is that most medical issues are not trip-ending, and if you miss an afternoon or day due to illness it is not the end of the world.
• Reassess and consider alternates. How much time do you have? How much do you want to spend (consider that you probably just got some cash back when your plans were cancelled)? Where are you and what is closest? You will most likely to be able to flex your plans and find something else to do that fits your budget and your interests. For this reason, when I am planning a trip, I always make a list of alternate activities and places to go if something on our main list misfires.
• Be open to new things. When the Iolani Palace closed, we instead went to the Bishop Museum, where we learned a lot about natural and cultural Hawaiian history and saw an up-close demonstration of traditional hula dancing. They also had a pretty decent gift shop! It wasn’t something I planned to do, but it ended up being a good experience.
• Focus on replacing the heart of the experience. When our helicopter ride to the dogsleds on the glacier was cancelled it was a big deal, since this was going to be the highlight of our trip. The excursion company had nothing else to offer us, so we talked to vendors on the street and soon planned an excursion to a dog camp in the hills, where we got to see where the dogs train, pet them all (extremely important!), and be pulled by the team of dogs in their summer training vehicle. We had a great time, got to cuddle some puppies, and came home with a nice photo of us in the training vehicle. We didn’t get to walk on a glacier (another time!), but we did get to do what was most important – see the dogs. And we saved a lot of money. If the glacier had been our priority, there were bus tours to go see it. We didn’t get everything we wanted, but we ended up having a great time. The extra cash in my pocket bought me a jade salmon-catching bear carving.
• Don’t be afraid to take the day off. Sometimes the best way to enjoy a destination is to simply relax at your hotel or resort, or to wander and spend some time in a park, beach, or restaurant. I tend to over-schedule our trips, so sometimes forced relaxation can be a good thing.

One of the highlights of our stay on Oahu was going to be a visit to the Iolani Palace, the only royal palace on US soil. And then Hawaiian nationalists stormed the palace and took over the grounds, holding it hostage for several days while we were there. We signed up for an excursion to … Read more →

I remember first seeing thin velvet hangers (you know the hangers I’m talking about – they are super thin covered in velvet) during one of my surreptitious visits to the QVC channel. (Once in a while I just like to see what they are selling! I’ve gotten a few good gift ideas by doing this). I have to say the presentations about these hangers turned me off.  They would show a closet overflowing with clothes then compare it to a closet that clearly had less than half of the same items hanging on the new super thin hangers. I snorted in outrage and changed the channel. It was pretty obvious the hangers were not creating a lot of change.

One of the most crammed closets in our house is the coat closet in the front hall. In fact, when guests come, we just lay their coats on the hope chest in the hall instead of trying to make room in the closet. Moving coats in that closet is an athletic event. You have to lean in, insert half of your body between two coats, then lean with all of your strength to get them to scootch over. We often cannot find the coat we need simply because they’re all falling off the hangers and smushed in too tightly.

After my parents came for Thanksgiving and getting their coats hung up was an Olympic event, I decided something had to be done. I really looked hard at what was happening in that closet. With four people, four seasons, and a daughter with a wardrobe hoarding problem (said in my most loving tone), we have way too many coats. I was able to weed out a couple to donate, but there is really no real thinning out to be done. Then I noticed that almost all of the coats are on big wooden or plastic suit hangers. The fat ones – at least an inch wide and if you take into account that they are curved, they actually take up several inches each. I started wondering if replacing these hangers could make a difference. I’m not going back to wire hangers and while we have some white plastic tubular hangers around I decided to try the new thin velvet hangers.

The package of 50 arrived from Amazon and the box was pretty small for 50 hangers. I got to work swapping them out. I was impressed. They are super thin. The velvet means nothing slips off of them.

They did make a difference in our crazy closet. No, it did not make it appear as spacious and empty as the QVC presentations imply. They make it easier to move the coats across the rack and now we can definitely squeeze in a couple more for guests more easily. I felt more organized with these in place – everything is uniform and it is easier to move the coats around the closet. The bottom line is if you have too many clothes in too small a space this is not going to solve your problem. It will however make it a bit easier to move things around and will give you a little extra space, particularly if you are replacing big nasty hangers.

I did break one hanger as I tried to reach around to squeeze the last coat in the very back of the closet. It just was not willing to bend to get there.

I’m going to buy another box of them to use in my clothes closet mostly because I just like them and they will prevent things from slipping off the hangers. I don’t have a ton of big fat hangers there, but these are thinner than the ones I am using now so it will give me some space.

Have you tried these hangers? What did you think?

I remember first seeing thin velvet hangers (you know the hangers I’m talking about – they are super thin covered in velvet) during one of my surreptitious visits to the QVC channel. (Once in a while I just like to see what they are selling! I’ve gotten a few good gift ideas by doing this). … Read more →

When I heard that Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese by going to be published by my friend Stephanie Stiavetti and her co-author Garrett McCord, my first reaction was to drool. Because an entire book about macaroni and cheese is possibly the evilest, most wonderfulest thing I could imagine. Then I started to wonder, what exactly could Stephanie be up to? How many recipes for mac and cheese are there? Well, it turns out there are more than you can imagine. Stephanie was kind enough to send me a book and then kind enough not to get mad at me when it sat on my desk for several months while I waded through an incredibly complex work and personal time. I’ve finally shoved some other things to the side and gotten down to enjoying this book.

First let’s talk about the concept of the book. This is not a throw a recipe together from your pantry kind of cookbook. You need to plan ahead to make these recipes. Each recipe specifies a particular artisan cheese (I cannot fathom how much cheese Stephanie must have tasted and how she can still fit in her pants).  The recipes revolve around these very special cheeses and are meant to highlight the amazing flavors of said cheeses. And although she has chosen the most perfect cheese for each recipe, she offers alternatives if you don’t have access to a wonderful cheese shop. Which I don’t.  At first I was kind of put off by this. I mean, it can be hard enough to source the ingredients in recipes, but to have to order artisan cheese? Well, it seemed a bit nuts to me. However, the recipes are exciting enough by themselves so even if you use grocery store cheese (which I do!), you will still find a lot of things in this cookbook you’re going to want to make. With your grocery store cheese. And they’re going to knock your socks off because the flavor combos are amazing.

Since I am gluten and lactose intolerant, I was hoping for a little recognition and there is one recipe that uses gluten-free pasta, however I am not one to stand on ceremony so I always make my own substitutions in recipes for my own dietary issues. Here are the recipes I can’t stop thinking about and will be trying:

Humboldt Fog with Grilled Peaches and Orzo

Paneer, Pineapple, and Cucumber Pasta Salad

Early Autumn Pasta Salad With Fiscalini Bandage Wrapped Cheddar and Fuyu Persimmons

Roaring Forties with Honey-Roasted Delicata Squash, Sage Butter, and Rotini

Raclette with Cornichons, and Sauteed Onions

Red Hawk Macaroni with Prosciutto and Raspberry Jam

Pumpkin Stuffed with Fontina, Italian Sausage and Macaroni

Chicken Breast Stuffed with Lenora Goat Cheese, Star Pasta, and Crushed Gingersnaps

Orzo Pudding with Poached Dried Fruit

As you can see, this isn’t blue box mac and cheese. And really it’s not a mac and cheese cookbook. It’s a cheese and pasta cookbook, done creatively with massive attention to detail. It’s filled with gorgeous photos and tons of info about cheese, so you can become a true expert just by holding it in your hands and breathing it in.

If you love cheese and love pasta, you want this book on your shelf. There are so many times when a pasta dish seems like the solution to my dinner dilemmas, but my repertoire is getting a little tired. These recipes will spice that up for me, giving me some new go-tos I can shop for in advance and have at the ready.

When I heard that Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese by going to be published by my friend Stephanie Stiavetti and her co-author Garrett McCord, my first reaction was to drool. Because an entire book about macaroni and cheese is possibly the evilest, most wonderfulest thing I could imagine. Then I started to wonder, … Read more →

in late 2012 I learned I was gluten and lactose intolerant. It was really hard to accept at first. My first thought was that I would toe the line at home but since it is “just” an intolerance and not an allergy, I could eat the forbidden foods when dining out or at other people’s homes. I quickly learned that that wasn’t going to work. I felt so GOOD when I avoided gluten and lactose and was so, so sick when I ate them. Finally I learned to embrace the restrictions. It took a while but I learned that I can make almost anything I want at home. Eating out can be a challenge, but is manageable, particularly as more and more food professionals become aware of food intolerances (the only things missing in my home repertoire of substitutes are puff pastry and filo dough).

My husband soon admitted that he too was gluten and lactose intolerance (after eating LF and GF at home for months he succumbed to pizza at the office and had to admit it. A few later experiments with salad dressing drove the point home even harder to him). It’s easier having someone else in my boat, so to speak.

Once I had this figured out, I thought I was home free. Cup4Cup flour and Lactaid and away I went.

The universe laughed at me. This fall, my mother-in-law ended up in the hospital and then a nursing home and then hospice. I took on the job of feeding my father-in-law several nights a week. His biggest request was soup, so as I posted here on the blog, I began my fall soup fest, making 2-3 batches of soup a week. And I suddenly I began to feel sick again. I ripped the house apart, searching for what I was sure was a hidden source of gluten. I called every manufacturer of every OTC or prescription drug, cosmetic, and health product I was taking or using. I read the ingredients on every item in my pantry. I could not solve the problem, but I knew something I was eating was making me very sick.

My first stop was to pay for food intolerance testing through a functional medicine doctor, none of which (visits or tests) were covered by insurance. I walked away with a detailed list with one food to never eat (black beans – something I never eat anyhow), foods to avoid for 3 months (which included chicken, which I was eating probably 4 times a week, and things like basil and cantaloupe) and foods I should only eat every 4 days (including baker’s yeast and egg whites). The theory was I had leaky gut syndrome and these foods were creating an inflammatory reaction in my body, leading to my GI symptoms and worsening my autoimmune interstitial cystitis (basically an angry bladder). I was SO excited to have a possible solution. I stuck to the diet and took the supplements that were supposed to help me. If anything, I continued to get worse. Nothing was helping.

I suddenly remembered an article I had read in Gluten-Free Living about a special diet for people who were gluten-free but suddenly sick again. It’s called the FODMAP diet. The theory behind it is that there are certain sugars/carbohydrates in specific foods that draw lots of water into your intestines. For some people, this gets out of control, causing severe GI symptoms. Wheat and lactose are on the list of foods that cause this and apparently it is very common that people who think they are gluten intolerant suddenly become unable to tolerate these foods as well – the thinking is you are not intolerant of the gluten itself but the sugar/carbohydrate type in it.

It was worth a try. I began the elimination diet and cut out a huge list of foods and immediately felt 100% better. It was the same feeling as when I eliminated wheat and dairy from my diet – a sudden, drastic change in my health for the better. I knew I was on to something. I then began to experiment with adding back in the 5 groups of foods back into my diet to test them.  It turns out I have a pretty severe reaction to 4 of the 5 groups and have some problem foods in the 5th group.

The stunner for me was that the entire family that includes onions/garlic/beets, asparagus, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and broccoli were HUGE triggers for me.  And then it hit me. I’d been making all this soup and soup ALWAYS has onion in it. I thought I was eating healthily with tons of fruits and veggies and in fact, many of these foods were making me sick. By eating soup most nights of the week, I was feeding myself one of my big triggers. It was ridiculous, maddening and really upsetting to realize I had to cut ALL of these foods out of my diet, possibly forever.

Again, when cooking at home, I found work-arounds. Cooking without onion and garlic is supremely challenging though. So many of the dishes most cooks make contain these two aromatics. I started experimenting. I learned I could eat the green tops of scallions and this became my go-to instead of onions. They work perfectly in its place and add a nice green color as well. That was simple. Garlic is harder, but the scallion tops are an ok substitute. Horseradish works to give me a bite when I need it and I’ve also found that Dijon mustard is also a good alternative.

It is hard to deal with the loss of so many of my favorite fruits and veggies: broccoli was on our table twice a week. Now I still make it for the family, but I eat something else (cauliflower is a good substitute). Apples were my go-to fruit (so portable and perfect!), but they are also on my no-no list. Fortunately all berries and pears are ok for me. I haven’t yet had nectarines, peaches or plums, but those will have to be tested since they are in the polyol family. I’m not missing the galactan group so much – kidney beans, baked beans, etc. since I was never a huge fan to begin with. Cashews (my fave nut) and pistachios are out. So I’m eating pecans and almonds instead.

Once again, many prepared foods are now off the table. Spaghetti sauce has onion and garlic.  Any restaurant or prepared pizza has garlic and onions in the sauce. Goodbye.  Hummus has chick peas. Salad dressings have onion or garlic. Ketchup has onion or garlic powder but does not seem to bother me. I’m still learning what I can tolerate and what I can’t. Eating out has now become all but impossible. I either have to walk in with a printed, detailed list of items I can’t have (Yes, I am now THAT person) – not only must my food be gluten-free but it can’t have onions or garlic. I can most likely determine the presence of the fruits and vegetables I can’t eat myself from a menu description and my food knowledge, but I can’t order anything without checking on the onion and garlic. Even a simple hamburger might contain them. It’s stressful, frustrating and annoying that food, which was one of the big loves and hobbies in my life has now become a burden and a challenge. My woo-woo acupuncturist would tell me that the universe is asking me to learn the lesson that we must sometimes let go of the things we are most attached to, and often the hardest lessons are the most important. I say universe, you’re stinky.

So I’m moving forward, carefully filling my cart at the grocery store and more committed than ever to the fact that I have to simply accept that the best choice is to cook at home and not eat at restaurants. At a point in my life when I have less free time than ever before, I have to make time to cook real food. This new diet is forcing me to work with foods I avoided before. Swiss chard is in the crisper this week. Spaghetti squash is sitting on the counter. We’re eating more zucchini. Little by little I will find a way to move forward without feeling deprived and/or crazy. It’s all about looking for alternatives and having patience as you try them.

I would love to hear from my readers who are also dealing with food allergies, intolerances, and substitutes. What are you avoiding and how you are working around it?

in late 2012 I learned I was gluten and lactose intolerant. It was really hard to accept at first. My first thought was that I would toe the line at home but since it is “just” an intolerance and not an allergy, I could eat the forbidden foods when dining out or at other people’s … Read more →

The recipe for these donuts originally came from one of the Goldy catering mysteries by Diane Mott Davidson (she calls them Galaxy Doughnuts). Over the years, I’ve altered it a bit. We have this every year for Christmas breakfast, with hot chocolate. The donuts are warm, buttery, cinnamon-y, and comforting. I always makes them in advance and freeze them, then set the container out the night before to thaw. They are a snap to warm up and dunk in butter and then cinnamon and sugar on Christmas morning. Here is my version of this wonderful treat we look forward to every single year.

Christmas Donuts

 

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Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 5 tsp active dry yeast (2 packages ¼ oz each)
• ⅓ cup warm water
• ½ teaspoon plus ¼ cup sugar, separated
• 2¼ cups melted unsalted butter
• 1½ cups milk, scalded and cooled (I use lactose-free)
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• ¼ buckwheat flour
• ¼ cup soy flour
• ¼ cup pulverized oats (I use gluten-free)
• 4½ cups flour (I use gluten-free Cup4Cup brand)
• Sprinkle the yeast over the water in a large bowl and allow to sit for about 5 minutes until the yeast is soft. Stir in ½ tsp sugar and allow it to proof in a warm spot for about 10 minutes until foamy.
• Mix the melted butter with the milk and pour into the yeast mixture. Stir in ¼ cup sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs and all the flours and oats.
• Mix until completely combined then cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for about an hour, until it doubles.
• Remove the dough and press it out to about ½ inch thick on a floured board or counter. I usually use my hands - no rolling pin needed. Cut out with cookie cutters. I use heart shapes or trees. Place 2 inches apart on buttered baking sheets. Allow to rise on baking sheets for about 20-30 minutes in a warm spot.
• Bake at 400 for about 10-15 minutes until golden brown. If you are making ahead, bake only for about 10 minutes since they will bake more when you reheat them. Store them in a plastic container if you are making in advance.
• When you are ready to serve the donuts, reheat them at 400.
• Melt 2 sticks of butter in a shallow bowl that is larger than your donuts. Mix 1 cup of sugar with 2 tsp cinnamon in another bowl, larger than the donuts. Using tongs, dip the hot donuts in the butter first, flipping so it gets coated on both sides, then dunk them in the cinnamon sugar mix, flipping and using a spoon to shovel some mix on top of them directly.
• Lightly shake the donuts off and serve while hot.

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The recipe for these donuts originally came from one of the Goldy catering mysteries by Diane Mott Davidson (she calls them Galaxy Doughnuts). Over the years, I’ve altered it a bit. We have this every year for Christmas breakfast, with hot chocolate. The donuts are warm, buttery, cinnamon-y, and comforting. I always makes them in … Read more →

Gregans Castle Hotel

When you plan a trip to Ireland you soon learn there are a wide variety of accommodations to choose from, and often it’s hard to evaluate them if you’re used to US chain hotels. During our stay in Ireland we stayed in a US chain hotel (the Radisson Blu in Dublin), a castle (Dromoland Castle), a luxury Irish spa hotel (Aghadoe Heights), and also at a country home.

I had grand visions of Irish country homes and was eager to stay in one and experience it for myself. A country home may not sound impressive, but actually Ireland is brimming with these huge, over the top homes the wealthy used to live in and they are must-do experience. They aren’t exactly mansions and they certainly aren’t palaces, but are more like an upscale retreat in a country.

We stayed at Gregans Castle Hotel which is located in the Burren in Ballyvaughan. Never heard of the Burren? I hadn’t either before I began planning our trip. The word burren in Irish means a rocky place and that’s an apt description for this very strange landscape that is technically what is called a karst. It’s almost like a moon landscape – all rocks with big cracks in them. There is some grass that grows among the cracks – no trees. It’s rather eerie. There

Vintage bath

are interesting sites however, including the Poulnabrone Dolmen Tomb. This  is a small stone shelter smack in the middle of the desolate Burren. It’s eerie and moving to think it was created for a body and that it has stood since between 4200 and 2900 BCE (basically a long-ass time).

The Burren is fascinating when you first encounter it but soon it becomes a very dull landscape to view. It’s definitely worth a visit as you are passing through the area (western mid-coast Ireland, south of Galway), but unless you are excited about hiking it, I wouldn’t plan to stay here. But of course, we did exactly that! Gregans Castle Hotel is neither a castle nor a hotel. It’s a large home, situated on the edge of the Burren and indeed there is a rather remarkable view of the Burren from

Common room

the backyard, where you can clearly watch the sun and the shadows from clouds move over the bare hills.  It’s situated on a winding road (note: back Dramamine if anyone in your group has carsickness issues: I had two kids in the back seat moaning all the way there) and does not look impressive from the road. In fact, it’s rather hard

Gardens

to find.

We pulled in the gravel drive and entered through the very unassuming entrance. The reception area is a tiny spot and immediately the whole thing felt very weird. The gentleman at the front desk (who I am certain is a lovely, lovely man) gave us a bit of a Hotel California feel – as if we might never leave. He did help haul in our ridiculous amount of luggage for a one-night stay (two weeks in Europe leads to plenty of luggage) but was rather unfriendly.

The home is a huge, sprawling place, yet it does not feel grand or luxurious. It truly feels like a place where rich people went to feel rustic. There are hallways that twist and turn with plenty of

The Burren

old, old portraits of horses and people and country scenes gracing the walls. There are unexpected rooms with bookcases, sofas, TVs (since there are none in the rooms), fireplaces and little nooks with chairs everywhere you turn. There are several staircases (and no elevators which made our luggage mountain even more outrageous). Finally we arrived at our two rooms which were not adjoining, but one room away from each in a separate upstairs hall. Each room is named and has a giant key on a huge plaque. We had a LOT of trouble getting the keys to work.

Once inside, we were shocked by the size of our rooms. They were huge. One room had a separate seating area through some French doors. They were furnished with beautiful antiques, floor to ceiling draperies, and lots of books, china, and knicknacks. It truly felt like you’d been invited out to the country for a spot of fox hunting and some family drama circa Downton Abbey. The rooms were a bit of a trip back in time. The bathrooms certainly felt dated, but dated in a luxurious kind of way – sinks with separate hot and cold taps; long, narrow tubs and ancient tiled floors.  The beds were comfortable and the rooms fun to explore.

The hotel has grounds to explore, which include some farm animals, lawn croquet (I kid you not)

The Burren

and some chairs set outside to enjoy the scenery. The entire hotel was freezing cold in August. The heat was not on in the hallways and common rooms and if you were cold, you were best to find a fireplace and huddle. Our rooms were also cold but we had space heaters we turned on. Our stay included breakfast which was part buffet and part made to order. We again had that creepy Hotel California feeling with staff that was unfriendly (a rarity in Ireland) and stand-offish.

Another problem we had with the hotel was a dinner recommendation. As we were heading out for the evening, we had to turn in our keys at the desk (something American travelers may find annoying, but which is still common in Europe). A very friendly woman behind the desk asked where

Karst

we were headed. We told her we were going to dinner and she asked where. She dissuaded us from our choice and instead highly recommended a different place (the Pier Head in Kinvara), saying she ate there often and loved it and added that it was on the waterfront. She said she could call and get us a table with a view since she knew the owner. We usually have great luck with hotel dinner recommendations and so we agreed. We arrived to find a tiny restaurant with gaggles of people (clearly locals)  sitting and loudly drinking at picnic tables outside ( a little intimidating to walk through). Our table was not ready and we had to wait. Once we were served, it ended up being the absolute worst meal we had in all of Ireland. I was absolutely shocked that someone at a such a very fine and expensive hotel could send guests to such

The view from our window

a truly terrible place that clearly was in no way up to the standards the hotel had set.

Despite this and the creepiness of most of the staff, the hotel was a lovely place to visit and would be a nice place to come and just sit, if that’s your ideal vacation. There are a number of small towns scattered across the edges of the Burren. Stop in at the Burren Visitor Centre in Kilfenora and pick up a map. The volunteers will mark the highlights of the Burren on it for you and you easily see where you might stop for a bite or a bit of shopping (I bought my best find on the entire trip in a tiny shop across the road from the

The Pier House

visitor’s center, so it pays to poke around!).

I’m glad I got to see the Burren, since it is one of the biggest natural features in Ireland and I’m also happy to have been able to experience a country house. If you have time, both should be added to your itinerary, but if you are looking to hit the hot spots in Ireland I would skip both. The Cliffs of Moher is in the same vicinity and gives you more bang for your bucks when it comes to natural beauty.

When you plan a trip to Ireland you soon learn there are a wide variety of accommodations to choose from, and often it’s hard to evaluate them if you’re used to US chain hotels. During our stay in Ireland we stayed in a US chain hotel (the Radisson Blu in Dublin), a castle (Dromoland Castle), … Read more →