Skipper

She's a dory, not a taxi.

Where do you want to go.

Come in. Pull up a chair.

Them days you sent a youngster up the road to say there was a game on. Now you send the code, and if a chair's still empty when you deal, one of the regulars takes it.

Well, Sunday after Mass we'd walk it. Start at the gate and go down, and every house along here I'll tell you who's in it.

Them days the garden party was the whole summer. Here's what's on the go now, and when.

Well, Sunday the pot was on before Mass and the smell of it met you at the gate. Here's what was in it, and how it's done.

Pease pudding

Yellow split peas boiled in a cloth bag in the dinner pot and mashed with butter and pepper.

One bowl, enough for a dinner · About an hour, after an overnight soak

What you need

split yellow peas
salt beef, salt pork or ham chuck
onion
butter
pepper
sea salt
water

How it's done

1. Soak the split peas overnight in a cotton pudding bag standing in a bowl of water. Tie the bag loose — the peas swell.
2. Next day, throw off that water.
3. If you are using salt beef, part-cook it an hour and throw off that water too.
4. Put the meat in the pot with fresh water and set it going on a medium heat.
5. Tie the pea bag to the side of the pot so it hangs in the water, add a piece of onion, and let it boil with the dinner.
6. Take the bag out, cut the string, and press out the liquid.
7. Turn the peas into a bowl and mash them with butter, salt and pepper.

Where to get a feed

On the plate with any Jiggs dinner. Hall suppers put a spoon of it on every plate without asking.

Where that comes from

Them days the hall had a dance Saturday and the kitchen had music the rest of the week. It's still playing. Come in and listen.

He said, you know the one about the light on the water. I said, I do. That's a story, mind, and I'll tell you which parts.

No, I said, that's not the house. It was down just below there. Go back up the road.

Back up the road