Planning the
Irish Fair, we formed several groups (Trinity College, Irish food, German/Irish
news reports, Celtic fairy tales, dancing, singing...) and I belonged
to the food group. Though we first had some problems deciding how to divide
up the work, we soon came to a conclusion: Nina should make our "cookbook"
including drawings, whereas the others should contribute typical Irish
food to our Fair in order to offer all visitors a culinary insight into
Ireland
.
Therefore we planned to prepare muffins, sandwiches, chocolate cakes,
scones and shortbread, not to mention drinks, especially the Irish Beer
(Guinness, Kilkenny, and Harp Lager). I decided to make shortbread.
Thinking back to the evening before the Irish Fair, I recall standing
in the kitchen and trying to bake shortbread for the first time in my
life. The recipe seemed really simple, but nonetheless my mum was supplying
a steady stream of advice, although she had in fact never tried it herself.
As a result not much time passed before she began to get on my nerves.
But her presence did not discourage me; neither did the sticky pastry,
which fought against being put in the two cake pans. While placing them
into the oven, I found a lot of questions going through my head: How would
the shortbread taste? Wouldn't it be too sweet, or should I have put more
sugar in it? But the pleasantly sweet smell a quarter of an hour later
reassured me.
Then the next disaster: One of my pans of shortbread broke into pieces.
For this reason I was able to taste it. How delicious it was! And I hope
all the people eating it at the Irish Fair found it tasty as well!
Claudia Lönze
