Is the sun over the yardarm yet?

This BoingBoing link to a guide on making your own cocktail umbrellas reminded me of one of my favourite New Yorker cartoons. Brilliant.

There’s a potted history of cocktail umbrellas and links to more detailed info on Wikipedia. I love that somebody, somewhere woke up one day and thought, “Now, I know what I must do today. I have to write up the history of the cocktail umbrella for Wikipedia”.

Mind you, none of those sites mention how cocktail umbrellas are the perfect size for Sindys and Barbies to use as parasols. Aah, spot the child of the early Eighties…

Update: Margarita, since you ask. Or a martini. Or a mojito, at a push. Sour, bitter, simple = good. Sweet, sickly, stupidly-named = bad. You can keep your fuzzy, slippery, buttery monstrosities.  They’re ‘orrible and they always make me feel sick (as in immediately, not after a bucketload of them).

Prawn, rocket & feta salad

I’ve never been great for trying adventurous salad recipes but some friends had us over for dinner recently (it was the night of the almost ill-fated milly filly) and produced the most delicious salad as a starter. The lovely Denise sent on the recipe and I tried it out on my parents at the weekend. They agreed it was moreish and utterly satisfying. Five stars all round.

The lonely meatball

Went to Bresnan’s to buy meat on Saturday. Their meat is good and the service is usually great but the chap serving me was a bit distracted. I asked him for a leg of lamb, four chicken breasts, four Cumberland sausages and a half pound of round mince. I opened the bag at home and found the lamb, the chicken, the sausages and enough mince to make one meatball.

He evidently misheard me but why would a butcher think a customer would want less than a quarter pound of mince? Maybe some pets eat mince and butchers are used to people buying very small amounts. Well, I don’t have pets and, on Saturday evening, I didn’t have burgers either.

That reminds me, I must post my meatballs recipe some day soon. They are scrumptious, if I say so myself.

The pain! (Chilli Chorizo Pasta)

I’m an idiot. I’m normally obsessive about hand-washing while I cook. Chop, wash, chop, wash. But this evening I’ve been hurrying as I have lots of work to do and dinner is a bit of a formality.

Having brought the pasta sauce to the boil and turned it down to a simmer, I decided to have a quick cigarette before getting stuck into work for another half hour. Once that was smoked, I stretched in the chair, yawned deeply and rubbed my eyes.

Spelling it out

So call me anal but I was bothered this morning by the specials board at a nearby café. Among the offerings today are:

• Brocoli and cauliflower soup
• Gujons with tarter sauce
• Panninis
• Sandwichs

When I noticed this litany of errors, it rather put me off my scone and cappuccino. If they don’t care enough to spell things properly, why should I think they care enough to prepare my food properly? Misspelled menus are one of my great bugbears when it comes to eating out. And yes, I know I should probably calm down and get a life but it’s just so ANNOYING.

Feeling unfriendly about Amicus

Amicus is something of a favourite with Cork people. I had never been to its original home on French Church St but, looking for somewhere to get a quick lunch, I thought I would try the new incarnation of Amicus on Paul St. How I wish I didn’t.

Friday foodie links VII

Still loving cupcakes but not as much as the person who runs All Cupcakes, All the Time.

I think I might also like Frog Cake.

Actually, anything vaguely cake-like is good, even when you can’t eat it. Felt doughnuts, for example, are great.

Nothing to do with cake but very funny…Americans can buy Fresh Whole Rabbits on Amazon. The customer reviews and customers-who-bought-items-like-this-also-bought selections are superb. (Via Dethroner).

One less thing to worry about

Of all the things I could be fretting about, I don’t think I have to be concerned about the husband becoming an alpha chef.

“Instead of a partnership, some couples say that their relationship in the kitchen more closely resembles a tiny dictatorship.” 

If anything, I’m an alpha chef. Aieee, maybe I should worry about that…

Corner of Italy in Cork

Oooh, it seems that Conor has unearthed a gem – The Boot’s Specialities, a good value Italian deli in an industrial estate in Cork. I never even knew this was there. Will be paying a visit in the next few days…

The only other reference I could find to it online was on a forum for Italian people in Ireland, where a poster recommended this shop to all Italians pining for a taste of home. An extra recommendation – buonissimo!

Chuffed with blog awards nomination

Even though I haven’t been the most frequent of posters, some nice person or people has nominated Random Grub for Best Specialist Blog at the upcoming Irish Blog Awards. There are 31 others in that category – plenty far more deserving – but the nomination is a lovely fillip on a Monday morning.

You can vote here.

Now that all of the long lists have been published, I can’t wait to trawl through and find some new blogs I haven’t yet come across. That will have to wait a few days, though. Me poor computer is sick and is going off later today to Fishy’s Special Computer Hospital for an operation and some TLC.