.  Continue reading »

With an abundance of hot cross buns at Easter time, this is the perfect way to use up any leftovers. You can also make this bread pudding with leftover brioche, stale croissants or whatever bread you have hanging around but it is particularly delicious when you use these spiced buns. I like to add the zest of an orange as it gives the custard a lovely citrus flavour but you can really adapt and change this recipe depending on what you fancy.  Continue reading »

Is there a recipe book for writers? Josephine wondered. Mix one cup of love with a dash of adventure, a few ounces of historical references, and two pounds of sweat. Let simmer on low heat, stir, sauté so it doesn’t stick, let sit for six months, a year,…
Stendhal, supposedly wrote The Charterhouse of Parma in three weeks. Georges Simenon could bang out a book in ten days.  Continue reading »

It might be a Bank Holiday Monday, but the shopping tips still have to be done. I’m doing this up early so so I can make the most of the sunshine in the garden. I hope you had a great weekend and have had a chance to chill out.
My shopping tips this week are:
ALDI
The Super-Six vegetables on offer until Wednesday 15th April are: baby rooster potatoes, avocado, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and cucumber; all priced at 39c.  Continue reading »

Drinking in the RDS on St Patrick’s Day is a proud Dublin tradition. Or at least it was until the early 1960s when the spoilsports in government made it legal for pubs to open, removing the necessity to feign interest in the Irish Kennel Club’s annual dog show in order to take advantage of its refreshing licensing loophole.
This year the custom returned, in a manner of speaking.  Continue reading »

Top 20 Posts for past Two Years

1 Cork’s Coqbull On An Early Charge

2 Happy Gaggle of Wine Geese 3 The Black Pig Wine Bar   

4 Aroi. Asian Street Food in Cork City 

5 Huguenot. New French Bistro

6 The Square Table – Great Addition to Blarney

7 The Sultan of Penrose Quay
8 Happy New Beer at Cotton Ball  

9Island of Asian Street Food at Phô

10 Electric. Easy to Book. Hard to leave.  Continue reading »

A few weeks ago, we boarded a Ryanair flight and headed to Copenhagen for the weekend. Last year was exceptionally gruelling from a work perspective and part of my tactics for improved mental health this year involve having lots of planned activities. Therefore, when Ryanair announced their new route from Dublin to Copenhagen, I booked a weekend lickety split. We first visited Copenhagen over 8 years ago as relatively poor people.  Continue reading »

Pearls of Portugal. Super Reds & A Port!

Messias Grande Escolha red 2011 (Douro DOC), 14%. €16.30 Karwig Wines

Colour is an opaque purple and it has intense aromas, more or less the raisins and spices the winery itself mentions. In the mouth, the fruit is intense, some spice, silky smooth, tannins quite fine, with a dry and persistent finish. Very Highly Recommended.

This is a blend of traditional grape varieties: Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, and Touriga Nacional.  Continue reading »

In the area where meat was sold, the floor was slimy with blood that had dripped from the cutting blocks. They were greeted like family by their usual butcher, and Katerina was quickly served with one of the sheep’s heads that had stared at them from a bucket.
‘Why are you buying that, Yiayia?’
‘For stock,’ she replied.
‘And a kilo of tripe, please.’
She would be making patsas later. For a few euros, she could feed all of them for days. Nothing was wasted here.  Continue reading »

Hotels with chickens are the best kind of hotels.
You can see more of my photos on Instagram as edibleireland.  Continue reading »

Yes, I am still alive. And no, I didn’t forget about you. Apologies for the long absence but between morning sickness, all day sickness, heartburn and just generally enjoying pregnancy blogging went on the back burner for longer than I anticipated. I have been baking a little here and there since the dreaded all day sickness abated slightly, but I’ve been sticking to old favourites already on the blog or in the book.  Continue reading »

Easy workouts
An elliptical machine is an immobile workout trainer used to imitate climbing the stairs, brisk walk, or jogging without generating enormous stress on the joints, therefore cutting down the chances of collision sprains. Because of this, folks having a bit cramps can adopt this machine to remain healthy and fit. Whereas the climber machine is like original stairs that helps the person in getting same results in less time as climbing the stairs without being hard on joints.  Continue reading »

I had an interesting conversation with a brewer at a recent beer festival about bottle sizes. He pointed out that in the UK there’s a tendency for breweries to use bottle size as an indicator of which side of the craft divide they sit.  Continue reading »

A.  Continue reading »

As far back as I can remember my mother would have hot cross buns ready to serve straight after the Good Friday ceremonies. I was never too keen on them as there always seemed to be too many sultanas and too little of the actually ‘bun’, for my liking. I’m now a great fan of these traditional cakes, but my children would share the opinion of my childhood self.  Continue reading »

Hot Cross Buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday. These ones will lead you into temptation. This recipe was first published in April 2012.

As a child, one of the great treats of staying with my Gran in Cork City was that her local bakery produced great Hot Cross Buns at Easter. Maybe my taste buds are suffering from nostalgia, but I haven’t been able to find a bakery since that can produce a bun of comparable deliciousness.  Continue reading »

Apparently simnel cake is traditionally eaten on Mothering Sunday. I have to say I never remember eating simnel cake then, but it always featured on our Easter table as I was growing up.
Technically simnel cake is a similar mixture to a Christmas cake, and has some of the same flavours.  Continue reading »

Taste of the WeekClove Rock

On a recent visit to Bantry, we called to the 100-year-old Evans shop, famous for its sweets. After a lovely chat with Jennifer who has been here for many years, we decided to buy some traditional clove rock, our Taste of the Week.  “They are very fresh,” she said. And so they were.See more here.  Continue reading »

With an abundance of hot cross buns at Easter time, this is the perfect way to use up any leftovers. If you prefer you can add additional raisins instead of the chocolate chips but I really like the chocolate hits you get when you add them in…it is Easter after all! You can also make this pudding with leftover brioche or whatever bread you have hanging around but it is particularly delicious when you use these spiced buns.  Continue reading »

It’s a waiting game now, waiting for grandchild number two to arrive in Australia as Claire spends her last few days in the office and prepares for what she hopes will be a few weeks of rest and calm before the onslaught of her baby’s arrival. We don’t know if its a boy child or a girl child, nor do we care. I just long for her to hold this much longed for baby safely in her arms.  Continue reading »