Recipe #18: Tequila Lime Chicken

Earlier this month, I finally got to make Tequila Lime Chicken
Ingredients:
1 Whole Lime, Juiced and Zested
2 Cloves Garlic, Peeled or Powder
1 Whole Jalapeno, Sliced-I didn't have jalapeno, so I didn't use this
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cups Cilantro
1/4 Cups Tequila
2 Tablespoons Honey
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Orange Juice
2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
1/4 Cup Cheese, Grated

Combine lime juice, garlic, sliced jalapeno, olive oil, salt, cilantro, and tequila you can blend or put it in the food processor,if you want.

Place chicken in a plastic bag and pour in marinade. Seal bag and marinate for several hours making sure to turn it.

I cut the chicken in strips. Cook in a skillet on medium. Cook until completely done.

The tequila was really strong in the recipe, so I may tweak it and add more citrus and honey next time.

What was the last new recipe you tried? How'd it turn out?

Smart Casual

Recently, I heard the new term, "smart casual." Here's what I've heard it defined it as, "Smart Casual – This is neat yet informal attire. Nice jeans and a polo, button up shirt, or blazer."

Anytime you're wanting to look just a little bit nicer you can wear it. At my work, we are encouraging our students to wear smart casual for their business classes, as there are often recruiters who come speak to classes. Smart casual is a good option for dates also. Here are some examples of smart casual options for men and women that I created on the Polyvore website:

Have you heard of smart casual? What's your favorite smart casual outfit. Where do you wear smart casual?

Fashion in Ireland

While in Ireland last month, I took note of trends women followed. The extremely, messy top knot was really popular. Since Ireland has a chilly, rainy climate I was surprised how many ladies sported tall, leather boots in May. They also rocked cute bootie shoes and now I want a pair. ;)

Most of the guys sported the Mackelmore hairstyle, which I really like. It was all variations of the shaved sides and longer top. I wish more guys here would try it. The guys there seemed to embrace wearing color more than guys in the States.

Have you noticed any interesting fashion trends while traveling abroad?

Ireland: Part 10

From Kilkenny, we headed north to Dublin. Since we were coming home a day earlier than originally planned, we cut some stuff and headed straight to Dublin. I wanted to head to the airport and return the car, but my travel companion wanted to find a hotel, unload, then take the car back. Well, that didn't work. Dublin is huge and busy; hotels were hard to spot on the fly. So, we checked the car back in at the airport and arranged transportation into town and back to the airport the next day. As the bus got us closer to the heart of Dublin the more it started to rain.
This leads to a side note. In Ireland, you will not receive a plastic shopping bag at stores. Everything comes in a paper sack. This doesn't mesh well with all the rain. More on that later.
So, we get to what we think will be the closest stop to where we're hoping to go, grab our luggage, and set out into the rain. We walk awhile, stop for directions and keep going. The rain gets to my shopping bags and we have to combine them. We walked half a mile literally uphill and finally got to a hotel. It was much more than we wanted to spend, but we didn't want to venture out into the rain. It's a hotel chain hotel and not a cozy bed and breakfast that we've come to love. We stayed at Jury Inn Dublin Christchurch. It was a terrific location; so centrally located to everything. Our room was right across the street from the beautiful Christchurch Cathedral. We unloaded and checked out the famed Trinity College Library and Book of Kells. Thankfully, by then the rain had slowed. It was pretty packed in there, so I didn't get the experience I'd hoped, since I'd heard such great things about it. The library was beautiful though. We thought about eating at Hard Rock Cafe, but decided that since we loved Irish food so much we'd have more for our last meal. We stopped at Oliver St. John Gogarty. I got the seafood chowder; so good! They even had live music. At dinner, another table starts talking with us and they mention that Murphy's in Dingle had the "World's Best Ice Cream." We missed it! Soon, they Google and realize that there's a Murphy's here in Dublin. So, we set out to find it and it was wow! The oatmeal flavor was recommended to me; loved the texture. I also tried lemon curd and it was great! We wandered around Dublin and ended the night in the famous Temple Bar District. We loved the band at Quays Bar.
The trip home was eventful. Despite getting to the airport killer early, we nearly missed our flight (we had to go through customs before heading home, which is uncommon and it took forever). It was one of those running to your gate screaming sort of things, but we did make the flight. We got first class seats!!! It was such a great experience!
I have to say that Ireland was my best vacation ever! Such a beautiful country, wonderful people, and the best travel experience; I hated to leave!
What was your best trip? What made it special? Thanks for sharing my journey to Ireland!

Ireland: Part Nine

In Waterford, we were eager to tour the Waterford Crystal factory and get out of town. What a great tour!!! Too bad I couldn't afford anything there.

We researched other small towns along the way that would be our speed and settled on Kilkenny. Finally things were looking up! We found a cheap, little bed and breakfast and headed out to see the town. We stopped at the first food place we saw the Playwright. We weren't seated five minutes before some guy was asking if we'd been to Watergrasshill recently. Turns out we'd stopped for directions at the pub he works at; small world. So we sat with five young Irish guys. Listening to them talk was like watching a TV show in another language; you understand a word here and there, but it's still entertaining. :) Here's what we pieced together; they had a wild night the night before. One guy fell or something and scratched up his face, hands, and side. According to him, he was now ruined. I think he was exaggerating a bit. They all had funny nicknames. I, of course, developed an afternoon crush on the tall, blue-eyed hottie of the bunch. I'm friends now with one of the guys on Twitter. Now, I have friends in Ireland!

When you travel internationally, do you enjoy small towns or big cities better? I enjoy small towns, because they help me feel more immersed in that country's culture. All big cities seem kind of the same to me; they're kind of generic.

Ireland: Part Eight

From Kenmare the plan was to head to Kinsale. From Kenmare we stopped at the Torc Waterfall.

From there, we toured Ross Castle and I got this shot:

One of my very favorite photos!
The trip got rough from here. First, we had to go through Cork to get to Kinsale. Cork is a massive city and we got lost a lot. Once we got to Kinsale, we spent an hour looking for a hotel room to no avail. Also, we hadn't eaten. We decided to head back to Cork and stay there. Well, Cork was overwhelming, so we just kept driving through Cork. So we decided to drive to our next sight, Cashel. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong road. I tried to get us back on track, but that required us taking a lot of no-name, one-lane roads. We ended up in Watergrasshill. We planned to find lodging there and eat. Well, there was NO lodging in Watergrasshill, so we got directions to Glanmire. We ended up at Fitzgerald's Vienna Woods Hotel. Dinner was amazing there and the rooms were comfy and affordable. We definitely got the rest we needed.
From here, we had a great breakfast and headed out to Cashel. We were off to see the Rock of Cashel. Rock of Cashel:

This is where the day took a downward spiral. Someone put unleaded in the diesel-only car. We had to call a mechanic. The repair took 2+ hours and cost two arms and a leg. This was a downer, but I got some shopping in. From there we headed to Waterford. There we saw the sun for one of the first times of the trip.

We stayed at the Travel Lodge (lame) and ate noodles. Not our night.

Any rough travel experiences you'd like to share? They definitely make the trip memorable, right?! :)

Ireland: Part Seven

We left Dingle and headed to Kenmare, another small, fun town. On the way, we saw this interesting sign:

No, the bathrooms weren't that great.

Funny sign.

A pear tart I had for lunch.

:)

Couldn't resist.

Once in Kenmare, we stayed at Hawthorn House. We loved it there! Mary was wonderful and served a terrific breakfast. We really enjoyed Kenmare. I had a tasty "Out of the Sea Pizza" at O'Donnabhain's Gastro Bar.

Definitely one of the best pizzas I've ever had!

That night we checked out music at some place that had a duo that played HARP, harmonica, and guitar music. Here we tried another beer that was made in Kilkenny, Smithwick's. Lastly, we ended up at Foley's Restaurant & Bar. We listened to Irish Folk singer, Pat Kelleher.

Has anyone else been to Ireland? Any travel tips or experiences you'd like to share? I'd love to hear any feedback you have!

Ireland: Part Six

We headed back to Dingle for our last night. Here I got most of my shopping done: wool scarves, wool socks, a bracelet, a jewelry box, a souvenir t-shirt, lavender sachets, etc. We got an early dinner at Murphy's Pub. I had a very yummy lamb pot pie.

Next, we walked all around Dingle and took some photos, since the sun came out. This was one of my favorite photos from the whole trip.

Next, we headed for dessert. I'd seen an Apple Berry Crumble advertised and had to have it. It was at Paudie's Bar and it was great!

Here we heard my new favorite band, the Blow-ins. I bought one of their CDs and we jammed to it for the rest of our trip.

Ireland: Part Five

Our second night in Dingle we decided to drive the Dingle Peninsula. It took over half the day and was a great scenic drive.

It did get pretty cold and windy at times. We were able to get some good views of the Blasket Islands. We checked out the Blasket Islands Visitor Centre and found it to be quite well done and interesting. Blasket Islands:

We also made friends with this feathered guy. He seemed quite comfortable with people.

We got a little cold along the way and then came upon a food truck with hot chocolate! So good!

Ireland: Part Four

Finally we made it to Dingle. There we stayed at the Alpine Guesthouse. This was the largest bed and breakfast we stayed at. It was three stories and had chickens. It was in a good location and close to all major sights.

We checked in and headed straight to the harbor.

Soon after arriving it started raining.

So, we headed to a nearby restaurant called simply, Fresh Fish and Chips. I ordered the fish and chips, which were pretty ordinary.

That night, we followed our ears searching for good, traditional Irish music. It had started to rain and we heard males voices singing in harmony from Dingle Pub. There were two musicians singing Irish bar tunes. The male voices we heard were a group of guys in their 50s were traveling through Ireland from New York.

Out of nowhere, 50-some college students started trickling in from the rain and soon the place was packed and everyone was singing. It's one of the many things I came to love about Ireland!

Ireland: Part Three

Our next destination was Dingle, our most scenic drive was while heading to Dingle. No words or photos could ever fully portray the beauty of the Irish countryside. I wish it could! We took a short ferry ride to save a couple of hours. As our car slowly climbed the mountains, it got colder and windy. We saw sheep all along the way. The roads were narrow and curvy. Oftentimes, it wasn't wide enough for two cars. Near the top of the mountain, we came upon a beautiful waterfall and stopped to take photos.

We found it quite interesting that the sheep farmers spray neon spray paint on the sheep to help identify them on the steep mountainside.

While there was so much beauty to take in, a few more miles up the road we came upon Connor Pass and soaked up the view there too and found an ice cream truck. Ice cream became our lunch! :)