M&S is spilling out of my freezer since I decided it was stupid not to pick up three dine-in for two deals every fortnight. I figure I’d get through around three bottles of wine every two weeks, so for an extra euro or so I’m getting a whackload of food – making it cheaper than any other dinner option.
But I can’t get through it all, and I’m running out of space.  Continue reading »

The 75cl bottle is, I think, one of our greatest allies in the campaign to get beer taken seriously (or at least frivolously) as an accompaniment to food. Wine goes with food because it’s strong, robustly flavoured and a 75cl bottle allows two people to share flavours in common even if what’s on their plates is different. The infinite flexibility of beer means that this niche is completely open to it as well.  Continue reading »

I love technology and the way that the simplest of ideas can be amazing. I think the potential of QR codes is amazing. This is the first one I’ve made – I don’t even have the scanning software on my phone to read it…yet! So….
Will you test it on your phone scanner and reply to me what it says so I know I’m doing it right!

Don’t forget to Feed the Fish at the bottom of this Post!
zack.  Continue reading »

Donegal Town Food Guide at EveryTrail
In time for next weekend’s “A Taste of Donegal Food Festival” (26th – 28th August) a new Online Food Guide has been launched that shows you the array of places to eat in Donegal Town. The “Donegal Town Food Guide” is a detailed analysis of the local eateries in this south county town. It can be viewed on-line or downloaded directly to your mobile phone for ease of access.  Continue reading »

With late summer come lots of occasions for celebrating, including Labor Day, the start of school, and holidays such as Halloween. Serve up a treat that is totally customizable and that everyone will love with an ice cream cake or pie. We’ll show you some great recipes and tips after the jump!
Make an Oreo Ice Cream Cake following this recipe. It involves softening ice cream, adding lots of oreos, and refreezing the mixture until frozen.  Continue reading »

Here’s a little insight from the Lindner brothers into what to expect for the 2010 vintage at Langmeil. Currently we only have two wines from the 2010 vintage, two Eden Valley whites, but in the video (about 2 minutes in) Paul has a sneaky taste of the 2008 Freedom Shiraz which was still in barrel when this was shot back in May of last year. In case you’re not already aware, it comes solely from what is believed to be the world’s oldest surviving Shiraz vineyard in the world.  Continue reading »

I LOVE Sangria, especially white sangria though I find it hard to find in most restaurants and bars ’round my neck of the woods beach. So I decided to look up some recipes and make my own. In the summer I always have fruit out the wazoo from my CSA box and it just so happened I had quite a bit that was on the brink of being tossed, which also played into my logic of making sangria (I hate to waste food). All justifiable right?
But I had no idea how to make sangria.  Continue reading »

No otha’ bruthas’ can deny… and so on… What is about sweet things like big dirty chocolate cakes, drippy sticky toffee pudding, and oozing eclairs that always seem to grab people’s attention?  I could write fresh and healthy recipes everyday for the rest of my life, and they would still never get the same reaction as the oooohing and aaaahing that a great big, filthy slice of gooey, dark chocolate brownie manages to draw.  Continue reading »

The trouble with designing a pizza, or perhaps the beauty of it, is that there’s just so much choice.
Like a painter who has no subject before them to guide their work, the pizza creator is limited only by imagination – and, one hopes, a good sense of taste – in choosing the canvas, colours and textures of their design.  Continue reading »

Reeks of cheap…

Our pal Rosemary MacCabe, Irish Times journalist and fashion blogger, is looking for your advice. Thanks for the post Rosemary!
Hi there! Seeing as I’ve stopped writing my own blog, I thought I’d send you a wee rant from an experience I had recently, because I genuinely want to know what people would think. So what happened was:
I was out for lunch with a friend, in Howth.  Continue reading »

 
I remember summers being a whole lot sunnier when I was a kid.  I’m not talking in a rose-tinted glasses “oh the memories” sort of way, I mean we actually had more sunny days.  Once summer rolled around and the weather was any way dry we would spend our days outside playing.  I never see kids out playing for hours on end anymore, but we seemed to manage it alright.  We had a very full schedule of hopscotch, skipping, two balls, rounders, queenie eye oh, what time is it Mr.  Continue reading »

 
A little learning, a lot of wine and a bit of fun: all included in the Wine Fundamentals Series starting on September 3rd!
Emmanuelle Legrand from WineUncorked will be hosting and tutoring four successive classes, designed to learn about wine in a fun and lively way. These classes will take place in the beautiful Metropole Hotel in Cork city centre on Saturday afternoons between 3 and 5 pm. There is no need for any prior knowledge or experience of wine to take part.  Continue reading »

Did you know that there’s a National Cheesecake Day (well, in the US at least)? The official date was July 30th, and I have a whole heap of websites bookmarked following a blitz of cheesecake-related tweets on Twitter. My undoubted favourite of all these links is “10 rich recipes for National Cheesecake Day” from Yummly.com.Feast your eyes on the luscious photos in this link – don’t they just want to make you run to the kitchen and start baking?  Continue reading »

Most children seem to just love chicken nuggets or goujons. Whether it’s a birthday party or a family get together they always seem to make an appearance somewhere on the menu. There are many different variety in the shops but there are none so nice as the ones you will make yourself.
With such a vast amount of chickens being imported into Ireland each week I always enquire to the origin of the chicken that I order in a restaurant or buy from a butcher.  Continue reading »

As you know Wine
education in Ireland has slowed up considerably in recent months. Recently
however I have seen an increase in interest again and am starting to fill a few
classes which is great.

We would really
appreciate it if you could feature our upcoming course dates in your relevant
publications. If you need any more information please don’t hesitate to get in
touch.  Continue reading »

The Method
Melt the butter in a large pot on a low heat, then add the milk.

When the mixture is lukewarm, remove from the heat and add the two sachets of dried yeast, sugar and salt.

Slowly incorporate the flour a little at a time; be patient, as the mixture will eventually come together – you won’t be left with a sticky mess forever! You may need to add less or more of the flour to get the right consistency.  Continue reading »

CollegeDinners.ie – €10 for four student meals a week.

CollegeDinners.ie – Now there’s an idea I would have subscribed to if it was around in my heady days as a WIT student. For those going to college in UCC, cooking on a budget is just about to get cheaper – and concerned parents might breathe a sigh of relief knowing their son or daughter might not have to live on noodles or takeaway pizza every day of the week.  Continue reading »

Some years ago, while hiking in Snowdonia in Wales, I shared a hostel kitchen with three girl guides as they prepared lunch for their troop. 

I speak Geordie… This is A bool a kyle … apparently

The first girl guide slathered margarine on the bread…
the second girl guide filled the sandwiches with square ham and plastic cheese…
the third girl guide painstakingly nibbled away any filling that peeped over the edge of the crust, before wrapping the completed sandwiches… Bleaugh!  Continue reading »

Some years ago, while hiking in Snowdonia in Wales, I shared a hostel kitchen with three girl guides as they prepared lunch for their troop. 

I speak Geordie… This is A bool a kyle … apparently

The first girl guide slathered margarine on the bread…
the second girl guide filled the sandwiches with square ham and plastic cheese…
the third girl guide painstakingly nibbled away any filling that peeped over the edge of the crust, before wrapping the completed sandwiches… Bleaugh!  Continue reading »

I always thought marshmallows would be really difficult to make. Much easier to buy them surely? I don’t know exactly what possessed me to make them last week, but, you know what, I’m really glad I did. They tasted exactly like …marshmallows. They were the perfect texture and consistency, springy and chewy but slightly crumbly and crusty on the outside. And the greatest thing about making marshmallows was the actual making of them!  Continue reading »