Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Super Cheesy Parmesan & Chive Scones

There is nothing nicer than a fluffy scone, liberally spread with good Irish salted butter and perhaps a dollop of raspberry jam.  Until you make a savoury scone crammed full of cheese and fragrant herbs and realise what you've been missing out on.  I'll be honest, scone making has never been my special skill and when I was learning to bake in Home Economics class in school, mine were usually an unmitigated disaster.  Overworked, dry and tough, my scones could have been used as a hockey puck.  Not now however, I have a secret weapon to transform my scones into little fluffy angels - my food processor.  It blends butter and flour together in an instant and means that anything that uses the rubbing-in method turns out as light as air.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

It's OK not to feel OK

For the past few months, I've been organising the local leg of Cycle Against Suicide 2016 which came to my adopted home of Arklow on Friday May 6th.  Rather than a fundraising exercise, the main objective of the Cycle is to raise awareness of the considerable help and support in place for people battling depression, self-harm, suicide or those bereaved by suicide.  I initially volunteered because of the suicide of a friend last year, seeing the devastation of their family and hoping that we would never be in a situation like that again.  I did write about it at the time but it was too raw to publicise and I wanted to do something practical to help instead.

Some of the TY students of St. Mary's College