Christmas Dinner Pies

It's that time of year again, when I can say the word "Christmas" without being shouted at for trying to drag out the festive season.  It's a lovely time of year when people seem to smile more, be a little more patient and take the opportunity to eat as much as they can in a demented fashion.  To look at people's shopping trollies in the run up to Christmas Day, you would swear that we were going to run out of food and the shops were never going to reopen.  Let's be honest, would we usually eat 20 tubes of crisps over a three-day period at any other time of year?  Supermarkets actually only close on December 25th and 26th and most other shops just close for Christmas Day.  With The Hubs working in retail, Christmas Day is his only day off over the festive season, a fact which fills me with rage every single year, despite it having been the same annually since I met him 15 years ago.

Alicia's Rainbow Birthday Cake

It's become quite the tradition in our family that I make a birthday cake for each of the Childerbeasts.  Ethan had his Big Blue Cake, Lulu had a red cake with purple icing and now it was the turn of Miss Alicia who reaches the ripe old age of eight tomorrow.  She's pretty demanding if truth be told, and a bit of a demon baker herself, so I knew a big task was in store for me.  She decided that she wanted a rainbow cake and I was the person to make it for her.

Spiced Pear Cookies

I tend to pick up new and interesting food items when I'm on my travels.  I store them away in the SuperShed and after a while, they pop back into my mind and I am consumed with the need to use them in a recipe.  And so this cookie idea was born...  The dried pears came from a trip to Sainsburys where I also bought dried apples (but that's another recipe) and I was very lucky to find rock sugar when we were on holidays in France.  The poor Hubs thought I had hurt myself pushing the trolley, such was the squeal I made when I spied it in the baking aisle.  Yes, you are right, I am easily pleased!

Beef Bonds - The Perfect Christmas Gift

Last week I was chatting to Pat Whelan, who is one of Ireland's most renowned butchers with stores in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary and Avoca Foodhall in Monkstown, Co. Dublin.  He's always looking for new and innovative ideas to promote meat and he's come up with an absolute beauty for Christmas (here comes the science bit...).

Pat Whelan launching his Beef Bonds today

Pat has launched what he claims are the world’s first ‘Beef Bonds’, giving investors an alternative to financial markets.  The Beef Bond is a boxed certificate giving a share in one of Whelan’s Angus, Hereford or Wagyu/Kobe cattle. Each bond displays the ID number, breed and expected maturity of the animal it is linked to.

Citrus Greek Yoghurt Cake

Sundays can be so long and miserable in wintertime.  The weekend is almost over and you're either tired and emotional from the night before or have a fit of the Sunday blues fretting about the week ahead.  For me, Sunday is my baking day. Chances are that The Hubs is working so I have the house to myself and can clatter around knee deep in tins, scales and flour to my heart's content.

Petrifying Puff Pastries

It's not just about apples and nuts - Halloween, that is.  Actually, if you dared to give any child who calls to your door either of those for their swag bag, they would give you a pitying look and move onto your neighbour pretty sharpish.  For kids these days, it's all about the sweets or even money if they're lucky.  Rather than pander to their every whim, you can create a really simple dessert with just a few ingredients and make it look really special.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

The first notes filled the air and everybody took a deep breath.  This wasn't a scene from The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy sings to Toto about a better place far far away.  We were in a crowded church saying goodbye to my cousin Ciara who died on Tuesday 3rd October.  I said my own personal goodbye to her a week earlier in hospital and told her I loved her millions and billions, amongst other things.

Parmesan and Thyme Crusted Pork

Picture this.  It's damp and miserable outside and you've spent an hour in rush-hour traffic after a busy day in work and you're starving.  The easy thing would be to reach for the phone and call a takeaway, right?  Wrong.  So wrong.  You can make this fantastic dinner in 15 minutes flat and be sitting down in front of the tellybox watching Corrie long before a takeaway arrives.  You'll probably have most of the ingredients already - breadcrumbs can be kept in the freezer so you always have them on hand.  The herbs come from a pot on my windowsill, cheese and eggs are usually in the fridge and the pork chops were lurking guiltily in the freezer looking for a good home.

WINNERS Competition : WIN Martin & Paul's Surf 'n Turf

Listen up food lovers.  Hopefully by now you've recovered from the shock of seeing Martin & Paul's "Dip in the Nip" at the end of their TV series on RTE.  I'm still in counselling to be honest, but The Mammy enjoyed it tremendously...

With that in mind, Quadrille have given me not just one, but TWO copies of Martin & Paul's Surf 'n Turf.  I got my hands on a copy a few months ago and you can read what I thought about it here.   You might want to read it carefully, because the answer to the competition question is there.

Review : Have You Eaten?

Masterchef is the one show on television that will make me down tools, stick the phone on silent and basically hide away on the sofa for an hour.  I especially love the versions from Down Under because they totally revolutionised the tired old format and made the show even more exciting.  This is where Billy Law comes in. You see, Billy was one of the contestants on Season 3 of Masterchef Australia where he may not have won but he has written the most exquisite cookbook entitled "Have You Eaten?".  This is a very Irish saying which Mammies all over the country utter as soon as they hear your key in the lock, but Billy is Malaysian and apparently Malaysian Mammies are very like Irish Mammies and like to feed you.