its easter a time of eggs and biblical stuff .. And I am in Eire -Cork to be exact..  Mrs Fitz’s homeland.. Umm slight problem though.. Mrs Fitz was due to be with me however we spent all last nite looking for her passport .. 

Feck feck feck it..

We turned the house over like a major robbery or CSI investigation.. All nite..To no avail.. Either I have hidden it that well that even clooney and his gang wouldn’t get a sequel out of it.. Or I have left it in the courtesy car that went back last week.. In the glovebox.. 

Mrs Fitz was and is devastated of course. 😣 😩😥😖Mad at my irresponsible -ness..also mad as normally she looks after these matters and has never had a hiccup.. Feck it.. Yet she insisted they I fly over.. As its easter and we promised our superstar neice Ruby that we would visit.. And also that I would cook for our very good pal Serena and her lovely children.. They really are lovely! (With unspellable irish  names 😊).  

So after a drive to the airport and the flight , the hire queue of which I am the ‘proud’ driver of a red toy clown car.. Seriously they cannot really call this a car in anyway!! 

The drive over to Serenas house in the delightful town of Cobh (pronounced cove .. It’s where the titanic amongst others went from.. And upon arrival to the house and a lovely wavy smiley greeting that only happy kids can offer I handed over their aprons ready for the onslaught of Easter cooking.. 

Cute huh? Ready for action we began with getting the sausage mix ready.. I had promised to show them how to make sausages.  Didn’t really think that one through as customs were quite keen to understand why I was carrying the aluminium components of a hand cranking sausage machine in my hand luggage..  One for them to remember that one.. Staring at the X-ray and calling over others until eventually asking those great words. Is this your bag sir? 💼 umm yup says I ..

It got through though.. With seasonings and skins too.. Was a bit worried about how they would travel.. As had to de-salt them so there wasn’t liquid not paste (from the wet salt). They travelled good though.. Cool! 

So with lots of squishing from very clean hands the sausage ball wax ready .. Also a big bowl of chopped onions ready for the marathon Easter cooking bonanza.. 

Stage one done..

Mini burgers next with juniper seasoning mix made for venison really try with the onion and a sprinkle of water is just the ticket..didn’t get a chance for a shot of em cooking as sticky hands abound.. They went down well though.  We are measuring things by thumbs up..

These seem to have done quite well.. 

Moving onto a spatchcock slashed up chicken covered in polish kebab seasoning powder and a drop of veg oil.. Straight on the spankingly sparkly clean oven bars.. With a tray underneath with a little water to stop flaring and smoking and also to provide some extra moisture.. Looks burnt? 

Nope.  Not at all .. Don’t know why the pic came out that way.. It was a fantastic bird from the English market in cork City and it scored very highly in the thumb rating..

Now that everyone was jumped up on the only an ‘uncle Mr Fitz can get away with drowning children in soda pop, amount of sugar loaded caramel based big brand drinx.  

It was the perfect time to play with some smuggled in caps that you can bang with a piece of coal.. Gotta be a little careful there as I suppose you can set fire to the coal? Just thought of that while writing!! 

And then scrub-a-dub the hands ready for sausage making. 

Everyone got a go of cranking the meat through the machine as well as managing the output.. No chance of a pic iccyhat operation as mucho supervision was necessary to ensure kinda of even sausages..

Expertly twisted up.. Some new methods involving wrapping v them around the wrists was also created. 

They were hung on the most perfect kitchen implement .. 

So they are to become toad in the hole.. Following a delia recipe for the batter.. It didn’t rise as much as desired.. Still tasty though.,

It scored pretty high though ..

Which was cool.. You may be thinking this is quite a lot of food.. Umm yup it is! Only its spread over quite a few hours.. Like doing a full supper service! 

That’s it for the kids for now.. After all there is icecream and Easter eggs to snaffle ! 

I made one more dish though.. Fit for supper to send you off to sleep , or at least reduce the sugar rushes! Nothing better than doing salt sweet salt! Mixing uppers with downers is a celebrated classic after all 👍👊👏 ahem.. 

A ham hock cooked for about three hours with expertly cut potatoes , carrots and onions by my new helpers.. 

The hock stripped down when just about cool enough to handle. Added back in the the pan with milk and parsley sauce.. A Perfect thing to have in the fridge to ladle out bowl fills for hungry mouths.. A drop of bread and butter and that’s full tummys for pennies.  

So there we go.. Day one.. A bleedin long one.. And to make it even sadder I am in the hotel room that me and Mrs Fitz stayed in last christmas  and had our in room dining.  .. 

https://cookingwithmrfitz.com/2014/12/05/hotel-room-buffet-a-hotel-in-cork-ireland/

Not quite the same.. Pantaloons.. 

Feck it.. Feck feck feck.. Missing you Mrs Fitz.. 

Ok off to the bar for a pint of the black stuff.. Befor bed and then off to Kinsale to pick up Ruby .. Think if the weather is fine we will go to Fota wildlife park perhaps..

Speak laters.. 

Categories: previous posts

Tags: #lovecork, cork cooking, easter recipes, Eire, making sausages with kids, mini burger recipe, the titanic in cobh, whitestarliners