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April 2009
Newsletter
Dia Dhuit (Hello),
I
hope that your St. Patrick's Day celebrations were
filled with lots of happy moments.
Easter
is just around the corner and I have chosen some
new Irish
Easter recipes. There is a wonderful Roast
Turkey with Chestnut and Prune Stuffing for your
main dish.
How
about a delightful Irish
Carrot Soup for
a start to your dinner? I have
found a luscious Irish
Dressed Cabbage
for your vegetable, and some Irish
Accordion Potatoes with Rosemary. I have made
a yummy dessert recipe in the form of an Apple
and Blackberry
Cake,
topped with Irish Whiskey Custard.
For
the kids, some decorated Easter
Sugar Cookies.
And, last but not least, I have colored some
Easter
eggs and decorated them with an Irish
theme. I hope you will like these recipes as much
as I
do. Enjoy!
Terry
and I have made a decision about when we will take our
next trip to Ireland. In the past, we have been there on
Terry's birthday and Easter in April, twice on St. Patrick's
Day, twice in the summer, and once in November. This time
we are going for my birthday on December 18th, will stay
through Christmas and ring in 2010 on New Year's Eve.
We
are both very excited about the trip and are really looking
forward to it. By the time December rolls around, it
will have been about two and a half years since our last
trip
in the summer of 2007. I should have some really good
stories to write about as there will be a lot of celebrating
being
done.
We
will spend most of the trip in Mohill, Co. Leitrim, where
we can't wait to see all of our old friends and
meet the new friends we have made through LittleShamrocks.com.
And, of course, we will continue our search for Terry's
ancestors. Before we return on January 3rd, we will
spend our last two days in Kiltale, Co. Meath, visiting
with
our friends Mary and Michael Lydon.
Gerry Bohan has submitted his latest
issue of The
Leitrim Connection. The recession has
hit Ireland
as well as most of the rest of the world. He gave
us some good news in that he was recently elected
chairman of the Mohill G.A.A. Bord Na Og, which tends
to the youth football levels. He also passed on some
news that our friends, Peader Reynolds and his longtime
girlfriend, Irene, were recently married. Congratulations!
I
received an interesting submission from a woman
in Massachusetts who loves knitting
Aran style Irish
knit sweaters. She asked if LittleShamrocks.com sells
a book of the different patterns used and what the
specific meanings are. Well, in my research, I came
upon some information that I didn't know, so I wrote
an article 'The
Myth About Irish Knit Sweaters'.
It
turns out that a man from Germany named Keiwe invented
all sorts of names for these stitches and
tried to link them to traditional meanings which
were fictitious. Somewhere along the line, someone
tried to link the stitch patterns to specific clan
patterns, which was also a total fabrication.
After
the word spread, the sweaters came to be very
highly demanded and the Aran knitters kept very
busy and
made a lot more income. Even though they knew
that there was very little truth to the story,
they
weren't about to turn away the increase in business.
Mr.
Keiwe obviously had a very keen sense for marketing
that benefited the Aran knitters. For more
information about the true history of Irish knit
sweaters,
Alice Starmore has written 'Aran
Knitting', in which
she has deciphered the facts from the fiction.
I have also added some Aran
style knitting books with
instructions for the stitch patterns.
I
was happy to receive an e-mail from Patty Wei,
the owner of Slipperyware
Solutions.
She asked if I would be interested in trying some
samples of their new products, cookware and bakeware
liners. These liners are reusable and eliminate the
need to buy non-stick sprays and parchment paper.
I made some cookies and used the liners on my baking
sheets and the results were fabulous ... no more
problems with burning or sticking with this product.
I love them!
I received a submission from someone
looking for the recipe to make an Irish drink called
an 'inkwell'.
I couldn't find it anywhere, so If anyone knows,
please submit the recipe and I will gladly add it
to our drinks page.
In March, our traffic ranking went
through the roof. Being the month for St. Patrick's
Day, March is always
our busiest for traffic. People from all over the
world are searching for Irish food and other products
to buy, as well as searching for recipes to prepare
for their parties.
We
have had some very large orders from our affiliate
ShinDigz.com,
which sells all types of party supplies for any
occasion. Our
traffic for this March was over 60,000 visitors,
for a daily average of 2,300, with nearly 9,000
on
St.
Patrick's
Day alone, which makes us very happy!
Well, that's the news for this month.
I will look forward to writing the May newsletter.
Until next
time ... I hope you all have a Happy and Blessed
Easter!
Sláinte,
Tyna
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