chocolate eggs and a snotty nose

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chocolate, chocolate egg, chocolate eggs, christian holiday, christianity, cocoa butter, cooking, Easter, easter eggs, eggs, food, holiday, miscellaneous, painted eggs, photography, photos, random, skype, snotty nose

I awoke this morning to a skype-session with my year-and-a-half year old chocolate covered nephew and a snotty nose. His parents had forced him to say thank you for the egg-shaped Irish treats I had sent him and we spend a few minutes stuffing our faces (him), blowing our noses (me) and singing “itsy bitsy spider” (both of us).

Since Easter is probably the most important christian holiday around it does always surprise me how few people really know what is celebrated. So instead of thinking about Jesus dying for or sins and then rising from the dead to save us all,  most people spend their time devouring one chocolate egg after another thanking the Easter Bunny.

It really is surprising that the reason eggs dominate Easter goes back to the fact that the church didn’t allow eggs to be eaten in the week (Holy Week) leading up to Easter Sunday. To not waste the eggs laid in Holy Week they were painted and given to the children on Easter Sunday as gifts.

The Victorians  (1820-1900) then came up with the idea of making satin covered cardboard eggs and filled them with little gifts. This idea prompted craftsmen to start making eggs out of porcelain and later silver and gold. The ultimate Easter Eggs of the 19th Century were of course Fabergé’s creations that he made for Tzar Alexanders wife Marie.

But trust the Germans and French to come up with a more edible idea. In the early 19th century they made the very first chocolate eggs. Sadly they were a little bitter and hard but over time, as chocolate became softer and easier to mould, they perfected the know commonly known hollow variety.

However it was Cadburys introduction of pure cocoa in 1966 , combined with the Dutch invention of a press that separated the cocoa butter from the bean (1982), that allowed the mass production of Easter Eggs as we know them today.

So whether the fox (some parts of southern Germany) , the cuckoo (Switzerland) or the Easter Bunny left you a chocolaty treat today maybe spend a minute thanking the industrial revolution for the chocolaty goodness melting in your mouth. And while you nibble, chew and smile say a grateful prayer, celebrating the true meaning of Easter.

Some hand painted eggs in my window

chocolaty delights

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brunch, chocolate, Dublin, family, food, friends, good little girl, love, memories, miscellaneous, random, thoughts

Brunch is a wonderful thing, especially when you are having it with five lovely ladies in one of your favourite food places in Dublin. As always I was running late, no real reason why other than I always seem to be just five minutes behind my scheduled, maybe it’s the running in heels that does it.

Anyway, as soon as I arrived a good friend gave me some chocolates, a very special kind, and even though I was already in a good mood it skyrocketed. As I sat down with a big grin, the other beautiful faces looked at me with large question marks written all over them. It wasn’t my birthday or any other special day for that matter (unless they had forgotten the newly invented give-your-friend-some-chocolate-day) so why the big purple box filled with chocolaty delights?

My dad had an uncle, the rich, very mean and children-hating kind. And every now and then my mum and dad would take us children to visit him for an afternoon in his house by the sea in Clontarf. He was a true bachelor who loved his piece and quite and I do believe he kept all the balls that ever landed in his back-garden and stored them in his potting shed.

My big sister was a quite, good little girl who did as she was told and loved to read so she would sit and not make a sound. I was more of the chatty, questioning, sock-slipping and always getting into trouble kind who seldom did what she was told and had very little fear. And somehow this little girl version of me broke down the mean old uncle and charmed him into liking both my sister and myself.

I have no memory of this, but my mum says that on one of the visits to this old mans home, I decided I wanted to see the back garden and since my mum was busy drinking tea and it wasn’t my dads home I took my great-uncles hand and demanded he show me the garden. My mums says he was so shocked that I had no fear he brought both me and my sister outside and walked around his garden with us, holding my hand and chatting. From that day onwards whenever he came to visit us, or we went to see him or it was a special day he would give my sister and me each a box of Cadbury’s Milk Tray.

So when my generous friend told me that she sometimes gets boxes of chocolate from thankful new mums (she is a mid-wife) I told her about my special relationship to the purple Cadbury’s kind. I was just telling a story, sharing a memory with her but for some reason she understood that when you are  five, six, seven or even thirty-eight having a whole box of chocolates all to yourself is more than just a treat, it is something very special indeed.

So now, on some rare, surprising occasions, this particularly giving girl shares her chocolatey delights with me and makes me feel just as special as I did when I was a little girl.

liquorice luggage

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cheese, chocolate, Dublin, food, Germany, liquorice, marmite, miscellaneous, tastes, tea, thoughts, wine

As I was unpacking my suitcase yesterday I couldn’t help but smile at myself: I had somehow managed to pack three kilos of liquorice without noticing the sheer amount I had bought. I love liquorice and I must have picked up a lot more than I thought, so no wonder my bag was a few kilos over the limit and I am very grateful that I didn’t have to pay the extra weight.

But liquorice wasn’t the only food stored away in my luggage, I had pumpernickel (really dark rye bread), some German chocolate, marzipan and even some fruit tea and cappuccino. Maybe an odd combination but they are all things I love to eat but either can’t get here in Dublin or if I can at too high a price. And as I don’t go to Germany that often they are kept as special treats and savored.

While I was putting away my goodies I had to think about what people like to eat and how tastes are so very different. It starts at sugar in your tea and goes all the way up to Marmite, you either love it or hate it. I am not a big fan of Marmite and I don’t take sugar in any hot beverage but I use to, when I was small.

I think I must have been ten when I started drinking tea, weak, very milky and with a spoonful of sugar, now my tea is the builders kind, very strong, literately a drop or two of milk and no sugar. And some of my other tastes have changed too, I don’t gag anymore when I eat corn of the cob, I can take it or leave it but I will eat it, a bit like asparagus. I like red wine, which I didn’t for years and actually prefer it to white now. Natural yogurt is another one of those tastes that has grown on me over the years, I really love it now and don’t buy the flavored kind that often anymore. Dark chocolate has overtake the milk variation and who knew I like vodka, gin and sherry?

Other tastes have stayed the same. I still love all kind of cheese, the smellier the better, and ginger and cumin still makes me what to throw up, so I avoid them like the plague. I love red cabbage and nut ice-cream but aspic and chocolate ice-creme never passes my lips. And I really don’t mind just eating lots and lots of tomatoes and berries, but I will never be a vegetarian, I love my meat to much. But I am not a picky eater and will try most things at least once, unlike my niece who doesn’t even like it when her foods touch.

Funnily enough being a picky eater is something we seem to be born with. Children naturally love the sweetness of sugar and dislike bitter tastes like coffee. It may have to do with the fact that ripe fruit is sweet and filled with vitamins, yet poisonous berries or herbs are bitter in taste.  Our bodies crave fatty foods and that is why burgers and chips are so appealing to most. Interestingly enough most picky eaters will eat all kinds of carbs, as these are mainly tasteless or only have little flavour. And what few people realise is they dislike something not necessarily because of what it tastes like but what it feels like when it’s in their mouths. But you can learn to like things and studies have shown that it takes up to 15 attempts to persuade your taste-buds to accept the new flavours. Generally we don’t try that hard and just continue to dislike the unknown.

But for now I am happy with my liquorice luggage and can’t wait to treat myself to my favorite tastes every now and then. And while I do enjoy some brussels-sprouts and stinky cheese I think I will stick to cocktails and wine when I go out tonight.

Accounting for Taste

bad hare day

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chocolate, Easter, families, fun, holidays, humour, love, miscellaneous, random, singles

The Easter Bunny may be visiting people far and wide today but somehow that silly hare has yet again forgotten to put me on his list of happy chocolate receivers. So with no chocolate loot to go searching for I made myself a little basket of chocolatey goodies, but it really isn’t the same and got me thinking about all those lovely family holidays.

I am big fan of Christmas, love the whole season surrounding it. The lights transforming the world into a magical place, the hot drinks and cold noses, the joy of being able to splurge on others and be as tacky as you like with decorations in your home. Valentines day on the other hand is a strictly couple affair, only exciting when a surprise gorilla-o-gram interrupts your day with a red chocolate heart and a card stuffed with love and hopefully an invite for the night. Mothers day is when we spoil those who put plasters on our knees, made us pancakes and helped with our homework. Fathers day is when Daddy’s spoil themselves and go off drinking with the lads. St Patrick’s day is the greenest day of the year with families dipping their heads and hearts into national pride.  But Easter stands a little apart for me. Although it is the most important Church Holiday, it also seems to be mainly a family event.

For some reason while others are gorging themselves with chocolate eggs and hunting down the last shiny orbs in the garden I often end up with no plans. Today is no different, but I am sure I will come up with lots of lovely things to fill the day with.  Yet I have to admit that it does niggle at me slightly that there is no day in the year to celebrate the singles amongst us. Which seems odd as we are an increasingly growing number.

So as my mind is untainted by a cocoa high I had this thought: maybe we should just invent such a day. I am thinking one day in the summer would be nice. No work for those who live alone and the singles cat Jingle (each holiday needs its bearer of gifts and what better than an alley cat?)  would bring us all cards, chocolates, flowers and condoms. And everyone you have ever given a gift to on their showers, wedding days, engagement parties and other couply events have to remember you for a change and exchange the favour. After all didn’t someone once say the joy is in the giving?

But for now I will eat a marzipan egg and see what the city has to offer as the sun is hiding behind grey clouds and my beach plans seem a little too dull.  And maybe the chocolate filled bellies will keep most families at home and I will have the galleries to myself. Yes, sometimes being single is perfect!