My trip to Dublin for the offset design conference was really wonderful and I wanted to share a couple of my favorite places that I had the chance to visit. I really couldn’t get over how friendly everyone was, everyone wanted to chat. It felt a lot like Philadelphia, especially a lot like the Irish neighborhood that I live in now. I had a really wonderful visit, and it’s definitely a place that I would like to spend more time in.

The first was the Temple Bar farmers market which is open from 10am – 4pm every Saturday. It was really a food lovers paradise of artisan baked goods, cheeses, meats, and produce. I had a really delicious blueberry scone, and really wish that I got to try more.

The next place that I couldn’t wait to share is a cafe/store called Avoca. Their food was AMAZING. We actually ate here twice because everything that we had was so good. All of the produce was fresh and the flavors were delicious. My favorites were the charcuterie plate, beef curry, and their home made lemonade. You can read more about them here.

Avoca also makes their own Irish Wool Blankets in really stunning designs in a mill that’s been in operation for over 300 years. Since I’m a housewares designer and nerd out on things like textiles I had to buy this one.

Here is a lovely video about the mill where they are made:

Other favorite things were
-Paulie’s Pizza: we also ate here twice because it was so nice and the staff was so friendly.
-Chop House: kind of pricey, but everything we had was really delicious and the atmosphere was really homey
-I brought Jason back a bottle of Kilbeggan’s Irish Whiskey from the oldest distillery in the world

And the one recipe that came back wanting to master was Irish Brown Bread. They had it at breakfast at the hotel every morning, and it was really delicious and comforting. I’m going to try this recipe first unless you have some other suggestions.

Cheers!

I’m leaving tonight for Dublin to go to the Offset design conference. I hope to try some Jameson, eat some sausages and potatoes, and experience a corner pub (preferably one with a dog). When traveling I usually just reference the Design Sponge travel guides, but please let me know if you have any places I should visit.

Photos via the National Library of Ireland Flickr Page found via Wolf Eyebrows

I recently came across this post on pinterest about snack necklaces. It was most definitely meant for children, but it got me so excited that I’m tempted to start sporting a pretzel popcorn necklace myself. This would be really hilarious considering I work for a fashion company that thankfully doesn’t take itself too seriously, I wonder if I could make it catch on? All this to say that I am in love with pinterest and all of the recipes, smart and funny ideas, and inspiration that I’ve gotten. If you want you can follow me, just search for Haley Harmon or go to https://pinterest.com/wemadeithome/.

I love pizza and I love Philadelphia, and I wanted to share a brilliant story of something going on in my neighborhood. There are a few gentleman that have been on a mission to start the first pizza museum restaurant. Brian Dwyer started by securing the Guinness Book of World record Title of the largest collection of pizza paraphernalia in the world. They have held fundraisers to buy a pizza oven, and are currently converting a storefront to be their pizza haven. They are raising more dinero via a kickstarter fund to keep their project moving. I’m so excited about their adventure, am astounded by the community involvement and am really pulling for their success. So for the love of pizza help these guys out.

I attended a really sweet baby shower a couple weeks ago and there was the most amazing dip there. Seriously like crack dip, the kind that you can’t stop eating and it was served with a bunch of crudites including jicama! Brilliant!

Here’s the recipe for the Lemon Pesto Goat Cheese Dip. I think I’m going to adopt this recipe and turn it into a pasta sauce soon. I’ll keep you posted on my efforts.

I’m completely taken with the process of making things whether it be food or art or objects. There’s something so amazing about creating things that weren’t there before. I even love that they are not perfect, that they don’t look like something you would buy in the store, that they really look like they are mine. When you come over for some tea we should toast to creating.

Nothing says I love you like Southern Jewish food with a side of bacon.
Aka Honey’s Bargain Breakfast
$3.95 for coffee, 2 eggs, a biscuit and latka
If you are every in Philadelphia you should definitely stop by for a visit.
Best Valentine’s Day ever.

Also did you hear about this man, the potato advocate who ate nothing but spuds for 60 days? I think I could do that if the potatoes came in the form of Honey’s Latkas.

Ingredients
½ T butter
1 T cream
a couple diced mushrooms
a couple diced cherry tomatoes
1 clove garlic
½ T Rosemary
¼ T Thyme
1 T Parsley
2 T Parmesan
3 eggs

Preparation
-Turn on Broiler
-Chop all fresh herbs and chop garlic
-Put butter and cream in one ramekin
-Place dish in broiler for 1 minute until butter and cream bubble
-Remove ramekin
-Add eggs, herbs, mushrooms, salt and pepper, top with parmesan
-Place back in the broiler for 7 minutes
-Remove from the oven and let them sit for a minute before topping with tomatoes and serving with toast

Honey Harvest from Kinfolk on Vimeo.

I would love to raise bees. I’ve heard tales that my grandfather raised bees, and I’m fairly certain that it’s in my blood. They could live on our row house roof and pollinate all the city flowers. And I could start my day with my very own home made honey in tea and on rolls. I saw this beautiful video from kinfolk magazine and this girl even makes a bee keeper outfit look fashionable. Quite impressive if you ask me.

-Honey Yeast Rolls-

Ingredients
¼ c warm water
2 T yeast
1 t honey
1 ¾ c milk
2 large eggs at room temperature
½ c butter, melted with 2 T rosemary steeped in it
⅓ c honey
3 t salt
7 c flour sifted
½ cup butter, softened
¼ cup honey

Preparation
-combine water yeast and honey and let sit for a few minutes
-heat milk in a saucepan for a couple minutes until warm
-mix honey eggs and butter together
-stir in yeast and water mixture
-begin to add 5 c of water
-let rise for one hour
-mix in the rest of the flour
-roll into clementine sized balls and put into a well greased muffin tin
-let rise again for an hour
-bake in preheated 350° for 30-45 minutes
-brush with honey rosemary mixture when finished

So now that I’m all grown up I decided to reclaim my ceramics experience. Not reclaim it really, I think that maybe it’s just been long enough that I temporarily forgot how stressful that class was and ceramics finally sounded like a fun thing to do with friends. Last night was the first full class where I got to make something and I made so many spoons! We have people over at our house quite a lot and there’s always coffee and tea being served and I thought it would be nice to have some special spoons to stir in cream and sugar. I also made some spoons with extra long handles so that I could stir honey into my to-go mugs of tea in the morning and reach all the way to the bottom of the mug. The best part is that I had so much fun making them!

I hope you don’t mind me sharing this little ceramics victory even though it’s not a painting.

Here they are.