My dear departed granddad used to love cherry cake with lashings of real butter and a cup of hot sweet tea. For years my gran used to make these delicious cherry cakes and it’s something that always brings me back to my childhood at home on a Sunday. Lately I have been feeling very nostalgic so I decided to give this cake a go for myself. To be honest I was really proud of my efforts and the rest of the family loved it too. However, my gran had the final word – she liked the taste but deemed it unworthy of the blog! Continue Reading…
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. Continue Reading…
Blogging about food gives you a whole new awareness of other food blogs out there. Now that I read so many food blogs, I feel a lot more tuned into food from all over the world. The downside though is some of the blogs are so amazing, that I get blog envy :-(. But then you get back in the kitchen and take inspiration from some of these great blogs. I am regular reader and fan of the The Kitchn and my mouth literally watered when they posted a recipe for salted almond ice-cream last week. I am a sucker for salty sweet ice-cream with salty caramel ice-cream being my absolute favourite. Maybe the reason I like salty sweet ice-cream is because I have fond memories of eating ice-cream on the beach and maybe some of that salty sea water tainted the flavour. Continue Reading…
At first glance this picture might look like three cats eating from a dish, but it is in fact two cats and a hen! You might remember from my previous post that the cats were a little suspicious of the free range hens, however a lot has changed since then. I am sad to say that the hens were attacked and savaged by a local dog and now there remains only one single hen. She was always the plucky one and apparently she cleverly hid in the garage when the dog came, but she was pretty shaken when found.
Last week was my first foray in the yoghurt making business. And I have to say I was a little sceptical to begin with. The yoghurt making contraption arrived via mail order and looked disappointedly low tech! It was basically a plastic flask with a plastic jar that fit inside. Hmmm. Anyway, undeterred I went off and purchased my milk, milk powder and natural yoghurt! Hang on, you need yoghurt to make yoghurt??? Yes, I discovered you do indeed need yoghurt, however you only need two tiny teaspoons of it to make a huge two litre flask of yoghurt and you can use your own homemade yoghurt as a starter for your next batch. Making yoghurt is relatively straight forward though it does take a bit of time to make (8 hours of waiting to be precise.) However, if you make it in the evening, and leave overnight it will be ready for use the next day. (Bit warm for breakfast, need to cool a bit before eating). The yoghurt I made was so creamy and silky and tasted less acidic than some shop bought natural yoghurt. I added a dollop of home-made lemon to curd to mine which made this a really creamy, zingy and refreshing dessert. Continue Reading…
One sunny Friday evening my other half and I chased out of the city, battled the rush hour traffic, meandered our way down the twisty roads of West Waterford, (dodged a couple of sheep on the way) before finally landing in the picturesque town of Lismore. We were there for the Waterford Food Festival, and were excited to see what kind of food the county had to offer. We checked into the quaint Lismore House Hotel and walked the short distance to O’Brien’s Chop House restaurant. We were greeted by the charming Maitre D dressed in a vibrant orange shirt which reflected his warm personality. He led us out to a secret garden lit by candle lanterns where we were treated to some crisp white wine and a talk by Norman Gillett on fishing for wild salmon in the nearby Blackwater River. Norman’s passion for salmon fishing is infectious, so much so that even us non fishing types were reeled in.The talk was followed by Eddie Baguiohe’s (Chop House chef) demonstration of some tasty and unusual cures for salmon gravlax. The treacle and salt cured salmon (pictured above) was a real winner for me. Continue Reading…
