Author: jacqueline
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Lunch in Queen of Tarts
I must be incredibly slow on the uptake, but I was unaware that Queen of Tarts, my favourite coffee and cake shop in town, had languidly expanded and opened a fabulous new twin restaurant in Cow’s Lane. I left a friend waiting for lunch the other day, as I sat stubbornly in the wrong shop.…
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Grandma knew best…
Note that it is international Grandmother’s Day on April 25th, and for the second year running Slow Food Ireland will be celebrating in earnest. How? By celebrating those precious skills that might otherwise be lost: think, baking cakes, sewing seeds and catching fish. Grandparents, Slow Food Ireland remind us, are the “guardians of inherited wisdom,”…
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The Good Life Bandwagon
Recently, I sent my partner on a course at Ballymaloe Cookery School, as a birthday gift. The course was called ‘How to Keep Chickens in your Garden’. Result? We now have three baby hens pottering around our back garden, soon to be producing lovely eggs for our family. Darina Allen has plenty of courses like this, like…
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Recipe to put a Spring in your step
My sister has just informed me that she has become addicted to lamb. Consequently, she has been inventive in the kitchen again and come up with this little gem, perfect for a light Sunday lunch, if you are brave enough to eat out in the garden (well, for God’s sake it’s scorching outside).
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Gather round the table (or TV)
“Since the beginning of time, food has always meant the gathering of the clan, loved ones chopping, stirring, kneading together, and that second most intimate of acts, feeding each other, for food is not so much about cooking as it is about love and sharing.” Loving the recent addition to Huffington Post, the HuffPost Food…
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Recipe: Seaweed Soup
I used to eat big white bags of Dulse as a child in Donegal, and I loved it. Currently, I’m obsessed with Japanese cooking, the benefits of miso and using seaweed. Miso is a fermented product, made from soy bean or barley, and it’s really good for your tummy (think Yakult times a zillion). Seaweed is…
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Watching Jamie with bated breath
I’ve seen a sneak preview of Jamie’s Food Revolution in the US (watch the trailer here) and already I am fascinated and horrified in equal parts. I think Jamie is fantastic, you can see that he really cares about what children are eating. He takes Huntington in West Virginia as his starting point for a ‘seed…
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Recipe: Brave broth
Since being with my partner, I have put on one entire stone. There is no mystery as to why – it is because I have spent too many nights on the sofa with a glass (ahem) of wine and some really good food, which invariably contains all or one of the following: cream, butter and…
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Recipe: Beef stew booster
My uncle told me about this recipe, and I’m including it because, along with other gorgeous ingredients, it contains turmeric. I am a turmeric virgin, but really want to learn more about what dishes to add it to. This is not a typical turmeric-fuelled recipe, but it is lovely. It’s called The Barge Casserole because…
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Recipe: Sweet celery salad
At the weekend, my partner and I catered for a friend’s christening. We had the camera ready to fondly take pictures of our food, and exclaim over how great it all looked, but we seriously misjudged our timings. We didn’t have time to lift a camera, we barely had time to breathe – the evening…