Once in a while you cross paths with people and you know you click. Well mine crossed with the lovely Charles of www.aglassofredwine.com, we joke now that we are food twins! His style of cooking and obsession with food is captivating as is his passion for wine. His blog is new…..I have been on his back as have many others to get it going and I have to say the wait was worth it! I’m delighted to have him do a ‘Guest Blog Post’ here for me on his thoughts on the making of Chutney……sometimes I think we are loosing many skills passed down through the generations and this art is something I would l ..read more

I sat down to write this blog post sure that it would flow…..I was swept away on a high this last weekend, I had gone over what I would write so many times in my head but now the words aren’t coming so I’ll just have to give you this…. Training at Sunset Four years ago when I quit smoking and started running I knew I was changing, my focus changed, my energy levels soared and I started to do things I never even began to imagine. At the time running and perhaps a little boot camp were all I thought I had in me but then just as I had fallen into exercise I fell into rowing and little did I know ..read more

Well..it’s been a while since my last blog post dear followers and for that I am truly sorry….or so the saying goes but yes, I’ve been neglecting my little blog recently. I could tell you all about how busy I’ve been…well like so many of you I do have children (4 of them) and I’m training for a half marathon etc etc but the real truth is I have so much to blog about that I think I actually reached a mental block, sometimes when you have too much in your head it’s hard to know where to start and what should come out…so here’s my start….. You see 2014 was a mixed bag of emotion for me but it end ..read more

I recently discovered a recipe that I want to share more than any other recipe I have ever come across…. I moved to Kerry 13 years ago, I took a leap of faith with my husband and our then two sons, we have since invested and have added two Kerry babies to the pack. The leap wasn’t one that spanned oceans or continents but it crossed an even bigger divide, that of the Cork and Kerry border. We landed in a place that matched the beauty of where we had left. Where we once had the Atlantic ocean and rolling green hills we now discovered a land of mountains, forests and lakes, not only mountains b ..read more

Friday night has always been our night. As long as we have been together once 6pm comes we kick back, pour a drink and relax. For us it marks the end of Vincent’s Monday to Friday working week but more importantly it is time that we set aside for each other. It is so easy to get into a rut and lose each other in the kids but we have found that having this time for us keeps us on track. We might get merry, or a little silly, we will chat, we might argue, we catch up but, most importantly we stop being Mom & Dad and we become Karen & Vincent and remember what it was all those years ago t ..read more

Once in a while it takes something special, maybe a place, a person or a community to make really good food. Food that is sustainable, has a low impact on the environment, food that is understood by those who love what they do and who have a deep respect for their surroundings and ecosystem. You see last week we went on a boat trip….. It was a Wednesday morning in late September. Bord Bia had invited purchasers from different parts of the world to meet with local food producers all over Ireland and to attend a one day conference in Dublin. Derick and I were thrilled to be invited along b ..read more

I remember a time before you were born. A time when I didn’t have you in my life. I remember putting my hand against my bump and feeling you there….your perfectly shaped heel inside of me. I remember holding you once you were born and feeling that same shape in my palm. You see….I made you, as every mother does. I once went away when you were small and took your blanket with me….so I could lie and smell your smell and feel you close. I have watched you grow, I’ve shared your tears, I’ve picked you up when you are down, I’ve sat and listened, I’ve cheered you on, clapped when you scored, cried ..read more

It’s been 3 years since we came to Portugal and 5 since our first ever holiday here. We first ventured to Praia da Luz when the twins were one year old. How we survived that holiday, I will never know. We had the twins a 15year old and a 10 year old all demanding different things from their 2 weeks in the sun. The twins were still crawling and a nightmare,the 10 yr old just wanted to dig up the beach, the 15 yr old fancied himself as a bit of a cool dude surfer type and in the middle of it all was mom & dad trying to have their own bit of fun in the sun. I remember the plane journey, 2 and ..read more

My family are hardened forest goers. We love nothing more that to don our gear and head to the woods My teenagers have outgrown it but with my now 5 year old twins I have found the excuse to prolong this pleasure and do it all again. I love the smell of the forest, that dark dank almost rotting smell. There’s an eeriness there, a spookiness that excites and ignites the child in me, a wonderment at strange sounds and freshly burrowed ground. But you see, for all of this to us the forest is a place of bounty. A bounty that changes with each season, a bounty that changes around time and weat ..read more

I just love the sound my ‘Little Foodies’ make when they are enjoying their food. That pleasurable snort mixed with the sucking of tongues against the roofs of their mouths and the ultimate gulp as they swallow with sheer joy and satisfaction. My children are like me….they love good food! We forage, we pick, we grow, we collect, WE EAT. They have at a tender age stood at the side of a hedgerow like kids in a sweet shop squealing with delight while filling their mouths with Wild Blueberries while a blue goo trickled down their chins….a natural blue, no E this or added that just a natural sweet ..read more