Last weekend we had the most generous opportunity to go to New York City for the holiday weekend. Erica’s parents paid for our trip as a belated graduation gift. Erica has been to NYC before but not since she was … Continue reading
We got back Friday night from our almost 3-week long honeymoon! It was an AMAZING trip and we are so sad that it’s over and we have to start work (Declan) and school (Erica) today. But! We can reminisce and show you all kinds of pictures from it! Sound fun? (Warning: Prepare for lots of pictures!)
We started off with a week in Dublin. Declan’s mom was born there and he has a bunch of cousins in Dublin so it was really fun to meet everyone.
Walking around Trinity College
Dessert at Avoca in Dublin
Tour of the Guinness Storehouse
Drinks at the Old Jameson Distillery – Hot Jameson Apple and Jameson Honeycomb
Dinner with some family!
After Dublin, we flew to Paris to stay over Christmas. We had Christmas Eve dinner in the Eiffel Tower – so cool – and went to Christmas morning Mass at Notre Dame. Of course, we visited all the fun places like l’Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées, and the Louvre.
Delicious yummies!
Watching the Steelers game in Paris 🙂
Lunch at the Christmas market along Champs-Élysées
The Eiffel Tower photo of course
At night
Erica’s main course on Christmas Eve
The view from our seats during Christmas Mass
Notre Dame is so beautiful inside
Cute square where we got Christmas dinner and gelato afterwards!
Pont Neuf – where Declan’s grandma ate lunch everyday until she moved to America!
After Paris, we flew back to Ireland and visited Galway on the west coast. The town is a lot smaller than Dublin and really cute. We took two day tours while we were there – to Connemara and to the Burren and Cliffs of Moher. Our favorite day of the whole trip was our trip to Connemara because the countryside is just so beautiful, even at this time of year.
The Kings Head Pub – over 800 years old and home to the best fish and chip we had in Ireland
We visited quite a few old abbeys and friaries and each was so different and unique
Old stonework in an abbey
Such beautiful scenery!
Connemara Pony
Mountains in Connemara
Kylemore Abbey
Another old Abbey
The Burren and Poulnabrone Dolmen – ancient burial ground over 6000 years old
The Cliffs of Moher – the highest winds we have ever experienced!
Exploring Galway Bay
Old boats along Claddagh Quay
We headed back to Dublin for New Years Eve and celebrated at a local pub near the townhouse we were staying in. It was a lot of fun and we met some cool people!
New Years Eve
On New Years day, we took a train down the coast of Ireland to Wexford to visit Declan’s mom’s cousin Audrey and her husband Jack. We were so excited to spend time with them, but we both suddenly came down with a stomach bug and were in bed all that day sick. Declan recovered the next day and got to go exploring some with Audrey and Jack, but Erica still wasn’t feeling well and stayed back to rest (don’t worry she recovered before we had to go home). Audrey and Jack were the best hosts ever and we cannot thank them enough!
Views from the train ride
Ship used to transport passengers to America during the famine
Declan and Audrey
The beaches were gorgeous
After Wexford, we went back to Dublin to pack up and have dinner with another cousin who just happened to be named Declan as well, which was confusing because we have never had to deal with that before. We packed up all the stuff we had accumulated and headed to the airport Friday morning to come back to Pittsburgh.
The trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and we enjoyed every second of it (other than when we were sick)! We are so grateful for everyone who helped make it such a great success. 🙂
A recipe post is coming soon so be on the look out!!
-D&E
Declan here, I’m riding solo for the week. Erica is out of town for work but that won’t stop me from writing a blog post for all of our readers. I’ve compiled a list of ramblings that amount to a whole lot of nothing. I hope they are somewhat food/blog/cooking/college related but I don’t have Erica here to stop me! As always, enjoy!
I was fortunate this past weekend to go to my Aunt’s company picnic which was held at Heinz Field (home of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Pitt Panthers). I’ve been to Heinz Field countless times and have actually been on the field twice, but this time around we went on a tour of the entire facility! We visited the locker rooms, press area, media rooms, everything! And yes, I went on the field again.
On the field of Heinz Field
In the Steelers locker room
The food served at the picnic was an assortment of foods you would traditionally find at a Steelers tailgate on Sundays – peirogies, fried chicken, coleslaw, hot dogs, Pittsburgh cheese steak, and of course Heinz Ketchup. Overall, I left super full and super excited for football to start again!
My Dad is ready for some football,are you?
Erica and I are really trying to bring down the portion size of our meals we cook together. But it is usually difficult since we cook for two people. We realize that most college kids only cook for themselves and we do want to provide the best possible recipes for you. While we continue to try and scale down our recipes, there are a few things you can do to combat making too much food:
We are now under two months until our wedding. Wedding planning has pretty much dominated our (aka Erica’s) free time and weekends for the past 8 months. It’ll be nice to finally move back on campus with Erica. Yes, you read that correctly, Erica and I actually don’t live together. We did live together for well over a year, but I moved out last October for personal and faith based reasons (let’s just say we wanted to get married the right way). We didn’t want to confuse our readers into thinking something was wrong with our relationship so we mentioned nothing of it.
It’s been a tough 8 months commuting everyday between work, Erica’s place, and my Aunt’s house where I am currently staying. But my Aunt packs my lunch and does my laundry and won’t even let me pay rent, I’m very fortunate. I do however look forward to coming home from work and spending the rest of the evening with my wife; that thought keeps me going.
Here is a pic of my dinner Sunday night, my parents go all out when I visit:
Grilled zucchini, grilled bbq ribs, and grilled potatoes
I’m running out of ramblings. I guess we could talk about the Pittsburgh Pirates chances of making the playoffs this year, but out of respect for Erica, I’ll leave it at that.
-D&E, oops just D this time
We haven’t had a non-recipe post for awhile now, and since it is the summer we think we are due for one.
We were back down in Maryland again this past weekend for more wedding stuff, but fun wedding stuff, as in Erica’s bridal shower! Erica’s sister Tara (the maid of honor) did such a fantastic job throwing the party which was hosted by her cousin Caitlin. She had all of the invitees fill out a blank recipe card to bring to the shower, so now we have a lot of new recipes to try! Including Declan’s mom’s recipe for her homemade peach cobbler, which we will never share! Sorry, we never expected her to give it away in the first place.
Tara did an awesome job with selecting the food. She had us pick 5 of our favorite ethnic dishes. Here are a few pics of the food.
Mmm Tiramisu
Foods from all over the world!
Can anyone guess this favorite dish of Erica’s?
Good times were had by all…
Kelly, Jessy, and Gabbi filling out their MadLib
The bridesmaids (sans Karin) with their toilet paper veils
And guess what we finally have now thanks to Declan’s mom…
Wait for it…
A KITCHEN AID MIXER!!! (Thank you Andrea for these oh-so-flattering pictures!)
Overall the trip was a success! At least this upcoming weekend we can take a break from our wedding planning and attend Erica’s cousin’s wedding. Don’t worry guys, in less than three months you’ll finally be able to read our blog without us yapping away about wedding stuff. We promise!
-D&E
Dearest Readers,
One year ago this Sunday, we embarked on an epic journey. That’s right, Sunday is our 1 year anniversary of Cooking in College (back then it was called Declan and Erica Cook)! We can’t believe a whole year has gone by, and what a year it has been. We’ve won an award, been mentioned in a “Top something” list, and wrote an article for a magazine! But most importantly, we’ve had the opportunity to meet you!
Looking back, our first post was pretty uneventful, but nevertheless, it is our first post that started it all. We can still remember the excitement of publishing it and anticipating all that our blog would become. Here is the text from our first post one year ago:
“If you are a starving college student who can’t cook to save your life, you have come to the right place!
“However, we are still working on putting this blog together. Please check back in a few days for our first recipe!
“…Huh? You’re starving and don’t have a few days to wait?
“Okay, just find whatever food you have in your apartment, scrape off any mold, and eat it. Just kidding! You can hang in there; this blog is going to save your life – and your cooking skills.”
Okay so maybe this blog hasn’t saved your life (if it has, please let us know!). We realize that becoming an awesome cook doesn’t happen by just reading a blog, it happens because of practice and persistence. It happens because you make it happen.
Even if you haven’t learned one thing from reading Cooking in College we do hope that our passion for cooking has at least inspired you to get into the kitchen. And if we’ve inspired just one person to get into the kitchen becasue they read this blog, then gosh darn it, this past year has been totally worth it.
Much love,
Declan and Erica
Dearest Readers,
Wow. We finally made it, 100 posts of Cooking in College. To be honest we had no idea what we were supposed to do for our 100th post, we’ve never blogged before and didn’t know if this time called for a special celebration. Search Google images for “100th blog post” and you’ll see that we we’re under a lot of pressure to do something special. So here is our something special:
Now you know what we sound like in real life! And yes we are always this awkward:
This has been an awesome journey so far: we’ve grown as cooks, we’ve met really great people (online and in person), and we’ve had so much fun writing for you every week.
It’s fun to look back at our old posts and see how far we’ve come. Here are a some that are really special to us:
But most of all we look forward to the future filled with great food, awesome blog friends, and many more pictures of Rory and Cici! We wouldn’t be writing this blog if we didn’t believe each and every one of you can learn to cook.
Take care and again thank you!
Declan and Erica
Well 2011 has certainly been a wonderful year for us! We each had good paying internships, we started this blog, and we’re now engaged! We hope that this year has been nice towards you and if not, 2012 is just around the corner.
To wrap up this year, here are a few of our favorite recipes we’ve posted (in so specific order, we love them all equally). If you think we’ve left one out, please feel free to comment in the comment section below.
2. Carnitas
And of course our engagement post!
We wish everyone a Happy New Year! See you all in 2012!
-D&E
Learning to be all God created me to be and walking daily in His grace.
simple, healthy recipes for young adults
ACE YOUR BACHELOR OF EATING WELL - EVEN ON YOUR BUSIEST DAY!
by Declan and Erica, America's Cutest Cooking College Couple
A twentysomething's mission to make better food with little time, money, and experience
Cooking in College 
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