Downton Abbey: Back to the Future

Although I haven’t even watched Season 6 (my husband has strict orders to get me the DVD for my upcoming birthday) I’m already in deep, black-dress-and-veil mourning for the end of the series. And I know I’m one of millions.

How will we Downton Abbey fans bear it? No more anticipating watching Lady Mary’s legion of handsome, rich and titled suitors swarming round her like bees to a honey jar. No more commiserating with Lady Edith, who seems destined to be swain-free, despite her lissome figure and English, peaches-and-cream complexion. And no more staring dreamily at Irish hottie Branson, who remains true to Sybil’s memory (despite having his head temporarily turned by a certain snarky, socialist schoolmarm) and who’s a devoted daddy to boot.

Happily for us Downtonophiles, a recent article, “A few cures for ‘Downton Abbey’ withdrawal” (Seattle Times, March 20, 2016, by Beth J. Harpaz) may help us over the worst Downton downtimes. So if you'd like to revisit Downton...

*Highclere Castle, where most of the series was filmed, has tours that are open to the public for a couple of months every year. But hurry! Advance tickets are apparently nearly sold out.  www.highclerecastle.co.uk. For armchair travelers, you can actually get a Highclere app! Only $2.99.

*Also online is a free map from Wayfair, a UK retailer, www.wayfair.co.uk, that shows over 70 Downton locations, nearly half in London. One spot I think would be super fun to visit is where Lady Mary and Lord Gillingham went for tea, the Great Conservatory at Syon Park in Brentford. Then there’s Stride Travel, a review site. You can find a guide to some Downton locations, including the Horsted Keynes Railway Station, where many a farewell was made by the Downtown lords and ladies.

*In this side of the pond, there’s a traveling exhibition of costumes from the period, which, in the next couple of years, you might find at a museum near you: Chicago, Cincinnati, Anaheim, CA, Nashville, and St. Augustine, Florida! www.dressingdownton.com/tour 

Still, even with all these opportunities to experience the show in other guises, it won’t be the same, right? Our love for all things Downton means it’ll never be the same. But where there’s love, there’s hope (as Kerry, one of my Village of Ballydara heroines would say). At least in our imaginations. How might things unfold in the future?

Imagine if Matthew hadn’t gotten killed driving his little roadster on those narrow deathtraps known as English country roads. His adoration for Mary might have continued. Or not. Hopefully it would, and they would have at least two more beautiful blond offspring. She would happily run the estate with him and occasionally, the two of them could commune with the pigs like she did with one of her admirers from her early widowhood.

What about Sybil? If she hadn’t died in childbirth, she and Branson, forever madly in love, might have moved from Downton to Ireland, where her hunky Irish husband would get into rabble-rousing politics. She could continue her nursing profession, which would come in handy as they would raise a houseful of half-Irish revolutionaries who’d come home with cuts and scrapes from all the “barneys” (Irish expression for fights) they’d get into.

How about Lady Rose? I would have liked to see this Downton cousin not settle down quite so soon with Atticus, the conventional young heir to a massive estate. And not kitted out in wifely outfits instead of the gorgeous frocks she wore before she was married. It have been far more intriguing if Rose sowed a few more wild oats, hanging out in dance halls and speakeasies with her improper boyfriends.

Which leaves us with Edith. Since I don’t know what happens to her in Season 6 (no spoilers, please!!) I’m free to imagine the best future for her. A handsome beau (not to old, like her first boyfriend, and not too married, then dead, like her next one) who adores her, and who will love little Marigold like his own. And they’ll live happily ever after on Downton, where all the servants’ wages will go up and the homefarm will prosper and Robert and Cora will have more grandchildren than they know what to do with.

So to treasure our memories of Downton Abbey, maybe we can console ourselves with a lovely cup of tea in an elegant china cup. Then, like the Crawley ladies, we can curl up for a long afternoon nap. Then imagine waking up to a sumptuous five course dinner, with no dishes to do after! Bliss.

St. Patrick's Day Goodreads Giveaway!

Just in time for St. Paddy's Day, It Only Takes Once, an Irish romantic comedy, will be a Goodreads Giveaway starting Thursday, March 10! Enter to win a signed copy of Book 1 of my Village of Ballydara series, about an Irish single mom searching for the perfect father for her little boy...Here's more:

“The urge to contact an old boyfriend should be approached with extreme caution, I always say,” begins Dublin girl Aislin Moore...

In this breezy novel, single mammy Aislin follows the mad impulse to find a father figure for her son...and discovers she’s complicated her life more than she  ever dreamed.  Juggling the needs of daddy-hungry little Kevin with her first love Ben and her estranged father, she’s fresh out of her klutzy charm to help her sort out the mess she’s created.

Lying low at her granny's cottage in the small village of Ballydara, in County Galway, Aislin is faced with decisions about trust, forgiveness, and the true meaning of family.  Can a commitment-shy young mother find lasting love?

You'll find more about my Irish stories and novels at www.susancolleenbrowne.com!

Irish Breakfast of Champions

The Full Irish Breakfast: you’ve got to see it to believe it. Before I went to Ireland, I’d heard of the Irish Fry: eggs, meat, with some mushrooms and tomatoes tossed into the frying pan. Oh, but the Irish breakfast is so much more than that…and whether you’re a carnivore, an omnivore, or vegetarian, there’s something for everyone.

My first encounter with the Full Irish Breakfast (FIB) experience was at the Racket Hall Country House in County Kildare. I stumbled into the medieval-looking dining room, asleep on my feet with the time change and not getting a wink the night before on the plane. But I could never have dreamed up the plentitude of chow laid out before me.

For the Racket House’s FIB, I found scrambled or fried eggs, rashers (it’s Irish bacon, only it looks like ham but much saltier, according to my husband John) pork sausage, white and black pudding, grilled mushrooms and halved tomatoes, all generous portions served up by a smiley, hair-netted Irish gal. But just to clarify: Lest you think you’re going to be spooning up some nice vanilla and chocolate dessert with your eggs and meat, the puddings aren’t a sweet.

I’d read about the puddings, an Irish delicacy, so I had a general idea what I was dealing with. For the uninitiated—count me in, because I never did take a bite of either—both puddings consist of a mix of um…animal products, bread crumbs, flour and spices stuffed into a casings…i.e., pig’s intestines. For “white” pudding, the meat is pork belly, plus pig organs. For “black,” there’s no meat at all—you use pig’s blood. If you want to check out a recipe for each pudding, Irish chef Darina Allen’s The Forgotten Skills of Cooking has directions for making both from scratch. Darina’s serving suggestion: cut your pudding into slices and pan fry in butter or bacon fat, and eat with bread and more butter.

If you’re a somewhat persnickety eater (guilty), you may find this dish bizarre. You may even be a bit queasy. But if it makes you feel better, Darina’s recipe calls for a free-range, freshly slaughtered organic pig. Not feeling better? Me neither.

Anyway, that array was just the food coming off the grill. Racket Hall also had a table with a toaster and three kinds of bread—brown bread (wholegrain soda bread) and molasses bread you could cut in whatever size you wanted, and sliced white bread, with loads of butter nearby.

There was a big pot of porridge—steel-cut oats cooked into mush—and an assortment of cold cereal with cartons of non-fat milk. Also available were bowls of prunes, non-fat fruit yogurt, three kinds of juice, and coffee and tea. The meal was all buffet-style—all you can eat. Needless to say, I felt a bit pukey from jet-lag, so I had a cup of tepid tea, a few bites of scrambled eggs, and discovered the super-yumminess of brown bread, which also helped settle my stomach.

As the days went on, and we experienced breakfast in other locations, the meals actually got bigger. Bowls of fruit salad and muesli were added to many of the breakfast boards, and more varieties of yogurt, all non-fat. I’m a full-fat yogurt girl myself, so I didn’t bother. I’d also discovered right away all the Irish yogurt was sweetened with aspartame—yuk! And some places actually sweetened the fruit salad with the stuff! Yet funny enough, the grill selections remained the same: eggs, meat, the puddings, mushrooms, and tomatoes—which to my dismay were never really “grilled” but more like heated. With no seasoning.

Also the same was the non-fat milk, the only kind available. At every breakfast, John searched for whole milk or half-and-half for his coffee, but there was No. Fat. Anywhere.

It did strike me that this meal was super-heavy on the fat and calories—so what was with the non-fat dairy and aspartame? It seemed a lot like binging on potato chips and dip but making sure to have diet soda. I’m just sayin’.

For someone who generally breakfasts on fruit, toast and peanut butter or nuts, I was pretty overwhelmed, and I never got used to these table-groaning buffets. I concluded that these meals had to be designed for a hard-working farmer from days of yore, not for your average 21^st century city person or tourist. But one advantage of the FIB for the traveler on a budget: you’re much too full to bother with lunch!

Success Woo-Woo?

Made any New Year's Resolutions? Maybe you want to change up your eating plan, exercise routine, or practice new techniques for greater success? A friend of mine believes to achieve something, you must visualize it first. Even better, create some kind of visual aid to help move the Universe along. Here's what she made for yours truly!

Book Fair appearance plus digital make-believe!

This month, I actually made a resolution to eat dinner earlier--I tend to load up my evenings with work tasks, gardening, housework, and baking projects, determined to get everything done before I eat our evening meal. (I'm embarrassed to share what time that generally is. Okay, truth is power, so...it's usually 9 pm or later. In the high summer, it's often after 10. There.) I'm trying to make dinner an hour earlier, but am having only middling success. Maybe I should visualize eating at 8? Or better yet, display a photo of John and me sitting at the table, with a clock showing 8 pm?

Have your resolutions fizzled? Or are you still going strong? I would love to hear about it!

Elizabeth Gilbert's new book--must-read for creative people!

If you're looking for new inspiration, here's a book that's perfect for artists, writers, performers, crafters and anyone who enjoys expressing their creativity: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. You're sure to finish the book feeling more inspired and energized about all your creative projects!

Gilbert, who also wrote Eat, Pray, Love, mentions an extraordinary experience in this wonderful book. Some years back, she met a world-famous author, and they began an instant friendship. Sharing their latest book works-in-progress, they discovered they were each working on a mystery set in the Amazon jungle, with uncannily similar plots! Ms. Gilbert believes that such “coincidences,” that is, ideas that come to more than one person about the same time, speak to the power of creativity and its intimate connection to the universe. (As it turned out, life happened to Ms. Gilbert, and she never wrote her book, But her friend Ann Pachett’s novel became the best-selling State of Wonder.)

I had a similar experience (minus the bestseller!). A little over a year ago, a new friend, Laine, mentioned she was writing a fairy book. “How cool is that!” I told her. “I’m writing a fairy book too!” In my spare time, I’d been noodling around with a kids’ story, and I figured Laine was still at the “playing with ideas” stage as well. Anyway, I was busy working on another novel (The Hopeful Romantic), but we resolved to meet again after the New Year.

Several weeks later, with Christmas swiftly approaching, I was hit by an overwhelming urge to write my entire fairy book. In an unprecedented writing binge, I finished what became Morgan Carey and The Mystery of the Christmas Fairies in 6 days. When I came up for air Christmas Eve, I realized I’d written the story so fast it was like there was some power beyond me, helping me get Morgan’s holiday fairy story down on paper before December 25.

Laine's Faerie Activity Book!

I’d had to miss out on a lot holiday traditions to get it done but it was worth it. When I saw Laine again after the holidays, she had not only finished her fairy book, but had a mock-up of it ready. Clearly, the two of us had been working on our books at the same time! Coincidence? Or…magic? While Laine’s book, In the Mt. Baker Faerie Forest (written with the author name MaryElaine De-Good Wheatley) is a vividly illustrated fairy activity book (think coloring book, only far better!) mine is a middle-grade chapter book. Yet both books express the power of love and wonder, both take place in the forests of Northwest Washington near Mount Baker, and both Laine and I  published our books in 2015. Now that, my friends, is the power of creativity! 

My Kids' Fairy Book!

The Mystery of the Christmas Fairies is Book 2 of my Morgan Carey series. You'll find more about all my books at www.susancolleenbrowne.com !

Goodreads Giveaway for Thanksgiving!

A Thanksgiving weekend when a young woman's life turns upside down… and a fateful Christmas season when reconciliation seems impossible…Just in time for the holidays, The Hopeful Romantic, my 3rd Village of Ballydara novel, will be a Goodreads Giveaway starting Monday, November 23!

And watch for more posts about Irish food and holiday recipes too!

Irish Food: Cream Cakes, Pub Grub, and Everything In Between

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, foodies everywhere are feverishly scanning recipes for fresh takes on turkey, sides, and desserts…and if you’re like me, you’re daydreaming of new and exotic dishes to serve on T-Day. Somehow, though, you often end up serving the same-old roast turkey and mashed potatoes, and using the pumpkin pie recipe on the back of the Libby’s can.

On our summer trip to Ireland, the cuisine reminded me of typical Thanksgiving fare: roast meat and gravy, mashed spuds, and cooked vegetables. In fact, no matter where we ate—a little hillside café above the Atlantic Ocean in the wilds of County Kerry, or a city hotel in Galway, most of the food we encountered was like in America—you could easily find Caesar salad, burgers, and fish and chips wherever you went.

Ireland is also a carnivore’s dream come true. Given the number of farm critters in Ireland (mentioned in my previous Glen Keen Farm post), meat, and plenty of it, was available for breakfast, lunch and dinner: pork, lamb, beef and often turkey, as well as bangers (sausages) and rashers (bacon). Not much new in the meat department, then—but one food that surprised me was the vegetable soup, offered on nearly every lunch menu. Instead of veggies floating in broth, in Ireland the soup is a mix of cooked pureed root vegetables. Really delicious!

One new food I did discover was turnips!  I’d never tried them before…but then, in my experience, no restaurants I’d ever eaten at offered them. In Ireland, they’re served either mashed, or in the aforementioned vegetable soup, lending a delicate sweetness to the preparation. I liked turnips so much I’ll be dedicating a big garden bed to turnips this coming summer.

Our best meal, hands down, was at the King’s Head Pub in Galway City’s High Street. (Although the street sign reads “Shop Street”—take your pick.) John ordered a burger and fries—mostly, I think, because he liked the little tin bucket the fries came in. I had teriyaki salmon on a bed of rice—the fish was super-crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. It was actually, hands-down, the tastiest salmon I’ve ever had. Same goes for the coleslaw, creamy and sweet, just the way I like it.
  

For anyone with an incorrigible sweet tooth (guilty!), Irish desserts are first class—one dinner ended with a rhubarb crumble, another with an apple crumble, both of which were served in little ramekins that could have been a LOT bigger. Carrot cake was frequently on the menu, lunch or dinner. The Glen Keen Farm tearoom had a bakery case that could bring tears to your eyes—groaning with five kinds of scones, frosted cakes and custard cakes.

I took myself on a “bakery crawl” (as opposed to a pub crawl—you see my priorities here!) in Westport, County Mayo, and in Dublin. Each bakery offered lots of cakes too, which I would have loved to try. But eating on the run generally gives me a tummyache, and you can’t carry a slice of cream cake in your backpack while you traipse around museums and ruins. So I’d end up buying a cookie.

The most memorable dish was the one that got away: the drool-inducing cheesecake at the Kylemore Abbey restaurant in County Galway. I’ve long concluded that most restaurant cheesecake is served in pieces that are WAY too small. But this massive slice of what appeared to be New York style was perfect. Still, with a long ride to Westport ahead, I knew it would be gooey mess by the time I got to it, so any cheesecake-eating would have to be in my imagination.

When I had a sweet craving, and no cream cakes or even cookies to be had, I’d settle for a Butler’s chocolate bar. But I’m still dreaming about that cheesecake.