Author: julie

  • Home-made bread: is it worth it?

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    Irish mammies are masters of multi-tasking, as we know. From speaking with a mouthful of pins on the phone on their shoulder  to turning off and on a faulty computer as they boil a chicken. It’s all go. The one thing they’re really good at is making brown bread when the oven is on. I’ve…

  • Preview: Rozanne Stevens Cookery Course

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    A couple of Saturdays ago I hauled myself out of bed, ate breakfast on autopilot and headed out to Rozanne Stevens’ An Introduction to Healthy Eating. It  incorporated recipes from ‘A Month of Meals’ and ‘Green Living’- two weekend courses happening in the new year. I needn’t have bothered with breakfast as we were given…

  • TV Review: The Great Irish Bake Off (Episode 8, 7 Nov 2013)

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    The final episode of The Great Irish Bake Off kicked off like a biblical epic, with dramatic music and voiceovers about how they wanted to win and never expected to get blah blah blah. The close-ups of those hideous aprons taunted us with their disregard for smoothness. The Technical Challenge is Petit fours including vanilla…

  • The Great Irish Bake Off Review (Episode 7, 31 Oct 2013)

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    The Great Irish Bake Off semi-finals certainly provided horror for Hallowe’en night.  Instead of blood-soaked teenagers running for their lives, we had soggy crab tarts. What demons had stolen Maryanne’s sunnies and  Stephen’s shorts? Why were they making a two-course meal for a baking competition? Strangeness was afoot…. “It’s the semi-final!” said Paul, “It’s a…

  • The Great Irish Bake Off Review (Episode 6, 24 Oct 2013)

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    It’s Week 6 and we’re down to six contestants in their quest to be crowned Ireland’s best baker. One of them will have to remove her sunglasses from her head if she wants to wear that crown though. On with the crumpled granny’s-stripey-bedlinen aprons and we’re off. The technical challenge is Millefeuille – layers of…

  • Julie's Great Irish Bake-Off Review

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    The Great Irish Bake Off drives Julie mad, so naturally we’re getting her to review it each week. The review below is of the episode that aired on Thursday 17th October.  I love the Great British Bake Off. I love the dedication of the contestants, how funny the presenters are and how slick the whole…

  • Recipe: Creamy Macaroni Bake with Salami and Chilli

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    Irish-born Katie Quinn Davies has done really well with her blog www.whatkatieate.com and award-winning book “What Katie Ate”. She’s also my partner in crime from school. All of her stuff is drool-worthy but I asked her what her most popular easy dinner recipe is. She said this gets the best feedback  by a mile. It…

  • Recipe for Kids: Bea's Biscuits

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    I call these Bea’s biscuits because they’re so easy my seven year old, Bea, can make them. It’s a good task to give kids after school or on the weekends.  You can weigh out the ingredients with them and let them take over as if it’s playdough.  Except you eat it instead of forcing it…

  • Recipe: Gooseberry Chutney

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    Do you remember that story about the selfish giant who hated having children in his garden and he’d shout and swing for them until one day he opened up his heart and realized it wasn’t so bad having them around? I’m like that with gooseberries. I have happy childhood memories of picking little wild gooseberries…

  • Recipe: Murphy's Sea Salt Ice Cream

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    Ice cream machines often appear in Aldi or Lidl at this time of year. They make the process easier, but, even without one, it’s a very rewarding thing to do and not that difficult as ice cream is basically frozen custard. I heard Kieran Murphy from Murphy’s Ice Cream on the radio a couple of times recently.…