marshacarlin

Looking for a recipe for Queen's Cakes which we bought in bakeries along the way in Ireland during our wonderful trip there last week. They were plain cupcake looking yellow cakes sometimes stuffed with jam and cream. Ymm. Also looking for a lemon possett over lemon curd recipe we had on the Isle of Skye if anyone knows one ( I already asked the restaurant-but no luck). Trip report to follow.
Thanks for the help

rex

I see that you have asked the ame question twice in a short period of time. Perhaps you couldn't tell if it "took", or were puzzled where your post was. Remember to "refresh" from time to time (f5) in Windows...

... and as more posts are added over the next hour... and next 24 hours... your post will be come all the more challenging to find.

And I see that you are actually not "all that new" here - - how do I know that? just "click on your own name" (upper lefthand corner, once you are logged in) - - this is a valuable tip that Fodors fails to tell you when they send you that e-mail confirming your registration.

Best wishes,

Rex

marshacarlin

Actually I posited the Possett request on both the Ireland and Grt Britain board since I didn't think folks looking on one board would necessarily read the other.....mistake? I actually do know about the upper left corner clck because of your mention of it in other posts.......thanks for the help.

starrsville

marsha, they really aren't separate boards. Both appear on the same Europe thread. 'Tis a bit confusing

rex

<<Actually I posited the Possett request on both the Ireland and Grt Britain board since I didn't think folks looking on one board would necessarily read the other.....mistake?>>

No, you did not make a mistake, if that was your intention.

See my latest post on this thread.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34622814

But I should have mentioned there that you can post to more than one specific country - - by holding down the "Ctrl" key, and click on as many countries as you wish.

starrsville

Here's one -

Lemon Posset

(Recipe from James O’Shea)

2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
Juice of 2 large lemons
Blackberries, raspberries, sliced strawberries, sections of blood oranges, as desired (about 2 cups total)
Fresh mint, for garnish
Confectioner’s sugar

Pour heavy cream and sugar into a heavy-bottomed, non-reactive saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium; continue cooking and stirring vigorously for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

Pour cream mixture into 6 tall crystal custard cups and refrigerate until firm (at least 3 hours). Serve in the custard cups, garnished with berries and-or blood-orange wedges and fresh mint, dusted with confectioner’s sugar.

Makes 6 servings.

starrsville

Here's a link for a Queen's Cake recipe -

http://recipes.chef2chef.net/recipe-...6/248519.shtml

I hope these are the ones!

marshacarlin

Thanks so much for responding. I'll try the Queen's Cake recipe tomorrow and see if it measures up to the memories!

marshacarlin

rex, thanks for the tips. I am relatively new and sometimes cruise through the Europe board, but in planning our trip I went to the Ireland and Scotland board for info on those countries.......seemed more efficient, and to hit folks with more interest in those countries.

I'm still figuring this Fodor thing out but I think it's great. What's your advice for a post about a bad experience we had with Continental airline on the way to Ireland (oversold by 8 seats) Would like to warn others of this practice and how it was handled. Thanks for any advice on which board to post on to reach fellow travelers.

rex

<<What's your advice for a post about a bad experience we had with Continental airline on the way to Ireland (oversold by 8 seats) Would like to warn others of this practice and how it was handled. Thanks for any advice on which board to post on to reach fellow travelers.>>

Personally, I don't think that people need to be "warned" about overselling. As I understand it, overselling keeps prices down by 10-20% for everyone. Since travelers (or Americans, at least) seem to flock, undeterred, to the airline that offers the lowest price on a route, any airline that would decide to stop overselling - - thus flying with 10-20% more empty seats, and thus needing to raise all prices 10-20% - - would presumably be on an ever faster path towards demise (could any airline in the US be headed towards demise any faster?!)

But as to how/where to get your message maximum exposure - - put it here, there and everywhere, I guess, if you feel compelled to do so. And "top" it over and over and over. In doing so, you will most likely lose credibility - - appearing to be someone on an obsession with revenge.

And even in the big picture, you can only keep a thread up near the top for what... 5 days? 7 days? and reach what percentage of the thousands of visitors to this forum each year? 2%? 4%?

You might as well write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.

I don't mean to sound so cynical - - but if you are on a campaign, call your congressman, take out full page ads in the Wall Street Journal - - make it your life's work, if you choose.

But I wouldn't.

WillTravel

Did Continental provide you the required involuntarily denied boarding compensation? What was it? If they did not give you this, that is something to complain about - but if you were late for check-in at all you were probably out of luck.

marshacarlin

in brief, we bought tickets 4 months ago, never were given seat assignments, but assured we could get them 1 month prior to flight, we called exactly on date, told to keep trying back, called continuously, arrived at airport 4 HOURS ahead of flight, checked bags, still no tickets, stood in line at empty gate until attendants should up 45 min before flight to find that we were 2 of 8 oversold seats. The plane had a tour on and only one person wanted to take the $400 offer which they never increased. In the end I went, my husband stayed,, because we had 4 others who were meeting us in Shannon. Continental did not volunteer to notifying our children that we wouldn't be on the plane, and they were alrady enroute from 3 other airports in the US. Car reservations, B and B were all in our name. They gave my husband $500 for involuntary bumping and taxi fare one way (home) but not back. They said we had paid full fare for a reservation, but not a seat guarantee (claimed it says so in the fine print). MY beef is that they knew 4 months ago they were oversold and should have told us so we could opt out of buying the tickets in the first place. On an international flight a days delay can mean losing car reservation, lodging deposits (if not the whole cost, etc., to say nothing of if we were meeting a tour) etc. I just think I'd like to alert Fodorites as to this possibiliby. I might have reconsidered having phones for the whold party (which we didn't think we needed) or alternative plans if someone didn't make their flight.

rex

<<we bought tickets 4 months ago, never were given seat assignments, but assured we could get them 1 month prior to flight, we called exactly on date, told to keep trying back, called continuously...>>

Okay, so... as much as I want to defend overselling - - you got screwed, I agree.

I stick with my point that this forum is really not an effective way to tell the world about it. At best, the post will stay visible for a week - - but then it will (essentially) never be sought out using the "search engine" here (Ha!) - - who would go looking for posts on someone else's bad experience? What word(s) would they search? And if we scoured the database, perhaps we could find a bad experience with almost every airline on earth... and it wouldn't mean anything with regard to those airlines for whom a bad experience was NOT reported.

But you DO have an important story to tell - - and I'm not sure that overselling is the key.

I might use this as a message header...

"When an airline tells you can get your seat assignments 30 days before departure - - but then they can't/won't...nor on 29 days before... nor on 28 days before... etc..."

And then tell your story...

And even if only briefly, you might share an important lesson with those who have "tickets" but no seat assignments (yet)... that this is a big red flag... and I wouldn't think that the lesson has anything to do with Continental necessarily.

I don't know what I would have done when - - but most likely at about 27 days before - - if I had tried patiently for three consecutive days, I would go directly to a station manager at the closest airport served by the airline and make it clear that you are not leaving without a seat assignment or new tickets or a refund or something. And if that failed, I would go to my credit card company and ask for my money back. While there was still time (maybe) to salvage the trip. Since I mentioned a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, I probably <u>would</u> write to your local paper and document your dissatisfaction with the airline's station manager in your community. I would tell the station manager you intend to to do it, and send a cc: to that person. They <i>really</i> do not want that kind of local publicity.

I don't think that your snafu is indicative of a system problem at Continental... but if any other traveler learns something and/or gets some protection from reading it... then your pain will not have been in vain.

WillTravel

Most of the time the lack of seat reservations does *not* mean that your plane is oversold. I seem to recall that about half of seats can be reserved in advance - but gate agents leave the rest free so that they can deal with challenging seating situations on the spot. And sometimes people who have guaranteed seat reservations are also involuntarily denied boarding.

I'd post at the Continental forum at FlyerTalk to get some ideas for the best approaches for complaints and compensation.