I had started this post earlier in the day, then forgot to actually “publish” it, so it will be posted a day late.
It’s Saturday so I let myself sleep in a little bit later than usual. It’s rainy and grey out, and I’m feeling like making some sort of breakfast treat. There’s a really good Irish scone recipe I found a couple of years ago, but it’s somewhat involved, so instead I decide to try a quick and easy recipe that calls for chocolate chips (Allrecipe’s English Royalty Chocolate Chip Scones). Basically, it’s like cookie dough but without egg. Also, instead of “creaming” the sugar and butter together, with scones the butter is cut into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. The butter I’ve been getting comes in a much larger block — about the size of 4 sticks of butter — and the packaging doesn’t have the handy measurement guides so I have to eye the amounts. I ended up actually adding more butter than is pictured until I achieved the coarse crumb texture. Also, this recipe calls for orange juice as the liquid to bind the mixture into a dough, which adds a little zing flavour. The amount of chocolate chips I used might have been a little on the heavy side; the recipe called for 1/2 cup and I used a 100g package (about 33% extra). I use the mini-oven to bake the scones since the temperature controls are more precise than the built-in oven. It takes a little longer for them to brown, which may be due to the proportions of ingredients being a little different than what’s in the recipe. I’m happy with the end result — not quite as buttery and flakey as the more involved scone recipe I have, but not bad given the amount of effort involved.
Later in the afternoon the steady rain subsides into intermittent showers. I get out for a short walk down to Grafton Street and pop into the St. Stephens Green Shopping Centre to the Dunnes grocery store there. It’s bustling with lots of weekend shoppers. Chocolate Easter eggs have appeared on the shelves at aisle ends. I’m only picking up a few items, including some smaller juice glasses (I recently broke one of the ones that came with the apartment), so I’m in-and-out in about 15-20 minutes.
Grafton Street still has lots of pedestrian traffic even though most shops are still closed:
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that the Irish government won’t consider allowing hospitality businesses (including pubs) to open until mid-summer. At the same time, he reiterated the need for “business supports” (i.e., government subsidies) so that the sector survives. On one hand, I’m disappointed to be missing out on the pub culture that is a big part of life in Ireland (and in particular Dublin). On the other hand, I’m glad not to be living in Temple Bar when it is party-central… the noise would be irritating.
Until next time….
