The Butcher, The Baker and The Candlestick Maker

Well I don't have a picture for this post. Sorry.

There are things that I just love about living in Ireland and one of them is the fresh local produce and ...the butchers. When we came here when Ruthie was 3 months old to visit where we would be living, we stopped at a local butchers to ask for directions. He stopped and talked with us about the area, what things there were to do here with the kids, etc. His name was Tom and we have never forgotten him. Well, for our anniversary we decided to have a nice dinner in. Ruthie is now 2 1/2. That tells you how much of an impact that one conversation had.

Anyway, Ludie went to see Tom and buy some steaks. They were wonderful. Definitely fresh! You could tell this by the taste. Then we hosted the Immersion Team Farewell Party and went to see Tom again and just got prices and quality you could not match in a store. So now, we get all our meat through Tom at Madden Meats (just in case you are in Roscommon and reading this, you will know where to go).

Today we (the kids and I) prepared for our first visit to the butcher! Even Ruthie was excited to take a nap because she knew that when she woke up, we were going to see Tom the butcher. (She has no idea who he is or what a butcher is but it is exciting none the less). And so, today, for the very first time in my life I bought meat at the butcher's.

I made cajun hamburgers for supper (and might I say they were "lovely"). :)

The thing I am most excited about is that I found a mock recipe for Jimmie Dean sausage. I MISS patty sausage and cannot wait to eat it-if the recipe works out. Now I love many things about Ireland but I have to say the sausage here is, well, not good. It is linked sausage with no herbs or flavorings that I can tell. You know what is so cool, is that Tom said that when I get the recipe the way I want it, to give it to him and he will prepare it for me. Oh, how exciting. I know...I am just too excited about this but I just think it is the little things in life that make life fun. So today, I am excited about the ability to continue my love affair with pork.

To just give you an idea of how much I love patty sausage I spent an hour trying to read and find a loop hole in getting sausage sent over from the US, and even emailing Bass Farm to see if they could ship sausage over (it cannot be imported here from the US), so if we can't get it.....we will make it. (I hope it works).