It’s that time of year again, when supermarkets try to sell us green paraphernalia and convince everyone to be Irish for a day. Here, everyone insists on calling it ‘St. Patty’s day’ which kind of makes of me smile and cringe at the same time. It is great to see our feast day celebrated across the world though. More …
Greetings from Seattle. I’m here just over a week and settling in well. Apologies to my subscribers for sending out a premature update yesterday. I was having a wee technical issue with my site 
It was kind of one of those weird days. I was all set to make some potato latkes yesterday and had everything prepped and ready. I had read a few tips and tricks online for making perfect potato latkes, and I felt well informed. It’s a pretty easy recipe, but there are a few little things that make these treats extra tasty and crispy. More …
At home, we always seem to run out of pepper, you see, my Dad likes to have enormous amounts of pepper on everything. He puts so much pepper on his food that most meals start with a massive bout of sneezing. It’s always been called ‘black cap’ in our house which makes it sound more like an illicit drug than a condiment. More …
A lot of people ask me, what do you cook when you have no time? I know it looks like I cook all the time, but when it comes to feeding myself; I am usually very short on time. So to prevent myself from starving 
I always try to have good quality ingredients on hand. Decent ingredients practically speak for themselves, which means they take very little preparation. Take some free range eggs, fresh green herbs and creamy Irish cheese and you have a beautiful omelette. Some Irish Smoked mackerel, brown bread and beetroot, make another great supper. As long as you a few delicious things in the fridge you can make a great meal with them. More …
Recently I did a fantastic French bread making course. I’ve always wanted to make my own French baguette as it’s so hard to get a decent baguette in Ireland. So this course seemed like a perfect way to spend my Saturday, kneading and dreaming about la vie en France. We arrived on the dot at ten and our eager teacher was already dressed in his whites and jaunty baker’s hat. This course definitely isn’t for the faint hearted. It was go go, knead knead, and prove, prove from the outset. More …
This is my Dad’s very own recipe for brown bread and I almost feel guilty for sharing it because it’s very special to us. It’s actually more of a white soda with a bit of brown as opposed to the traditional brown bread. He makes it every day, and it’s always been a bit of a ritual in our home. He has modified and tried so many recipes for brown bread, honed them and perfected them and finally came up with this one. For me, it is the best brown bread ever. I should point out that the loaf pictured was made by Donal Mc himself and not me. More …
