I’ve been completely plagued about providing an update to the course in Ballymaloe by loads of people… I’m going to do this quickly as I could ramble on for pages about how great the course is, but in summary, it’s lived up to all my expectations & more.
On Monday, we were given a tour of the gardens, glasshouses and grounds.  Continue reading »

Having witnessed the family home in Cork razed to the ground last week I noticed this week another piece of my past is soon to go under the hammer.
Number 8 Mary Street, in Waterford which we ran as.  Continue reading »

Woo hoo! Bibliocook got a brief mention in Marie-Claire Digby’s Webwatch in the food section of yesterday’s Irish Times Magazine. Unless you have a subscription, you can’t view it online so here it is (told you it was brief!):
Webwatch
www.bibliocook.com
Read about the culinary adventures of former entertainment journalist turned Ballymaloe-trained cook and food writer, Caroline Hennessy.
Published: Sat 19 April 2008 – The Irish Times – Magazine.  Continue reading »

                                        
Ok, I know it’s been pretty quiet around here but I do have an excuse, well I have 2 really!!  Continue reading »

There’s an article on us and the book in the Weekend section of today’s Irish Examiner. It’s written by the excellent Clodagh Mckenna and includes a couple recipes from the book. I’ll post a link if they put it on-line….  Continue reading »

 Since I seem to be on a baking kick, I’ll post this meringue recipe. I’ve written up recipes before – most recently here, because meringues are something we want to get right. That’s because our ice cream uses only egg yolks, and we hate discarding egg whites. Meringues are also gluten-free, so they have their uses in desserts for people with restricted diets. Hopefully we’ll try to sell meringues in some form in the very near future.  Continue reading »

You can buy ground Hazelnuts in any supermarket in France and in some speciality shops here.
Today I decided to try substituting them for almonds in my favourite biscuit recipe (favourite because it is foolproof, simple and delicious).
They tast fantastic, might even be worth skinning and grinding hazelnuts especially to make them up.  Continue reading »

I finally managed to put up a post about our tasting of Bodega Tintoralba’s deep, dark wines, and now Emilio from the bodega has kindly acknowledged this in a post about his hopes and intentions in setting up the Tintoralba blog. As you’ll see from my comment, I’m all for it.  Continue reading »

George, of Culinary Travels of A Kitchen Goddess commented on my unfinished post from yesterday, and quite rightly so! In my haste to collect LB; I didn’t have time to publish my six descriptive words. That’s right SIX words which, in a nutshell, describe me:

Passionate
Ethical
Generous
Adventurous
Spontaneos
Courteous

Boy, did I have to think to come up with those. It’s all too easy to be subjective, when considering one’s self.  Continue reading »

As many of you know, the Jewish holiday of Passover begins tomorrow night. As I’m typing this, I can barely believe it – it seems that Passover has crept on us without so much as a peep.  Continue reading »

Is kosher the new “organic”? – In the wake of Passover, both kosher wines and matzo grab the attention of Jews AND non-Jews alike.
Parisian Prunes – Prunes are taking the place of chocolate and other well known Parisian delicacies. Apparently there something to try!
Green Cooking – No, I’m not talking about your green vegetables, I’m talking about Earth Day! Be Eco-friendly in the kitchen on Tuesday, April 22nd!  Continue reading »

Another recipe now from February’s Delicious magazine – in this case from a selection of pulse/grain recipes from Bill Granger. I had this on the table less that 20 mins after arriving home last week and it offers a great alternative to the ubiquitous midweek pasta. I had somehow up to now missed out on Bill Granger but after this dinner The Doc went and bought me two of his books ‘Holiday’ and ‘Every Day’, so expect a lot of his recipes in the weeks to come!  Continue reading »

As a result of my activism the other day, on behalf of enslaved chickens whose work and living conditions leave much to be desired; George of Culinary Travels of a Kitchen Goddess left a seemingly innocent comment on the blog. It was only afterwards that I realised; I had been tagged!
For the first time ever; I have been tagged. I did participate in a meme, which is much the same only voluntary!  Continue reading »

We are happy to announce that the markets we held prior to Christmas were so successful that they are now running EVERY SUNDAY FROM 10AM! Local support has been very positive, and we currently have between twelve and fifteen regular stallholders.  Continue reading »

Well, from our years of both taking and recommending various vitamin and mineral supplements, we would, as Healthfood Shop owners, say ”No”. And certainly not under normal circumstances. Water, salt, aspirin, the sun… all these can kill, if you drink/eat/swallow/bathe too much. If a person attempted to live on vitamins alone, they would not live very long. That is why all vitamin supplements carry a warning that they are not to be used in place of a varied diet.  Continue reading »

There are a huge number of new ‘gourmet’ burger joints popping up around Dublin on a very frequent basis at the moment. In the same way that juice bars opened on every corner a few years ago, now fancy fast food restaurants are opening all over the south side of the city. In Ballsbridge and Ranelagh you have the Gourmet Burger Company, in Rathmines there is Jo-Burger and on Camden St you have.  Continue reading »

DA BEARS! I think Chef Tom Colicchio said it best: “There are two things Chicagoans are really passionate about: One is their sports teams, and the other is their food.” So this week’s elimination challenge of cooking for a Bears game tailgate put Chicago sports fans in heaven. Paired with a”simple pleasures” quickfire, this episode was all about good food and good beer.Warning: Spoilers after the jump!  Continue reading »

Thanks to Caroline at Bibliocook for reminding usabout, and explaining, tonight’s Slow Food event at the Lobby.
Trotters, Declan Ryan’s bread, Beamish and more on the menu. In common with American soul food, it ought to be simple, satisfying and cheap, and enrich the eater. Cork has a long history with the pig, which is handy for when you need a ham hock or whatever. There’s a good chance people know what you’re on about.  Continue reading »

The first open wine night went ahead on Tuesday evening downstairs in Fallon & Byrne.
It was a great night, with a nice mix of people, some I knew well, others I met for the first time. Rather than the wines, it was the people who made it such an enjoyable evening, so thank you to all who came.
All in all, there were about fifteen people, with varying interest in wine, again something which added to the evening.  Continue reading »

I know this is a bit late, but here’s the article (mostly an interview with my brother) in last week’s Sunday Times. Forgive me my crooked smile in the photo!  Continue reading »