The tradition in our house is that Friday lunchboxes *always* contain a homebaked treat… which is lovely… until you lose track of the days, wake up, realise it’s Friday morning and hastily have to cobble something together as oblivious little people chat excitedly amongst themselves about what treat might be in store for them today. No pressure! This One-Bowl-One-Spoon recipe has saved my bacon on more than one occasion. In 15 minutes, start to finish, you can have freshly baked cookies on the counter. (Then it’s just a matter of cooling them as fast as possible for the lunchboxes while swear ..read more

Hot cross buns are an Easter tradition in Ireland. There’s even a schoolyard rhyme about them! Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns! One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns! Give ’em to your daughters, give ’em to your sons. One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns! Good Friday (the Friday immediately preceding Easter Sunday and the day upon which Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Christ) is a day of fast and abstinence for Catholics. This means that people consume smaller meals for the day, avoid eating between meals and also refrain from eating any meat. On Good Friday in the past, a t ..read more

Use this simple guide to confidently identify elderflower… then make the most fantastic summer drink you’ve ever tasted! How to Recognise Elderflower – the tree, the flowers, the leaves Plants which can be confused with Elderflower – plants often mistaken for elderflower Elderflower Identification What does an elder tree look like? The elder (also known as an elderflower tree or an elderberry tree) is a somewhat scraggy, untidy-looking tree which doesn’t usually have a single, main trunk. Instead, several stems tend to emerge from the ground and branch frequently, giving the tree a bushy ..read more

If you’re looking for the best way to dye brown eggs – this is it! Read on… Here in Ireland (and in some parts of the UK) the vast majority of eggs available for sale are brown eggs. (This contrasts with the US where white eggs are widely available.) While there is almost no difference between the eggs nutritionally… brown eggs pose a bit of a challenge when it comes to trying to dye the eggs in pretty colours at Easter! Darker brown eggs just can’t take on the pretty pink, pale blue and spring yellow colours the way that white eggs can. After several years dyeing brown eggs dark colours – d ..read more

The temperature hit 18C yesterday in Dublin so, of course, we had to make hay while the sun shone* and make a batch of sorbet. A few years ago, we invested in an ice cream machine for the Irish Kitchen – one of our best decisions ever! We now have a constant supply of homemade ice creams and sorbets in the freezer. One of our absolute favourites is this easy mango and lime sorbet. If you *don’t* have an ice cream machine though, don’t despair! You can use a blender or food processor to make this fantastic sorbet by following the alternative directions below. *Wintry showers are forecast for t ..read more

Soda Bread is a traditional Irish quick bread which can be taken from mixing bowl to freshly baked loaf in under an hour. Traditionally, Soda Bread was baked in a bastible (a type of cooking pot) over an open fire. We always bake ours in a cast iron pot to mimic this traditional cooking method. Irish Fruit Soda Bread Servings: 1 loaf Print Quick and Easy Fruit Soda Bread - a traditional Irish recipe. Ingredients 450g plain / all-purpose flour 2 tsp sugar 1 tsp salt 1 tsp bread soda 375g buttermilk 100g raisins or sultanas Directions Place a cast iron pot (or any cooking pot, complete w ..read more

Love Halloween. Love all the traditions. Love Halloween treats… but ONLY the spooky, fun kind. NOT the gory, gross kind. Cute meringue ghosts? Skeleton cookies? Spiderweb shortbread? Yes, yes and yes! Eyeball doughnuts? Severed finger cookies? Zombie brain cakes? No, no and no! If you’re looking for easy, fun, and definitely-not-gross Halloween treats, Mummy Cookie Pops perfectly fit the bill. NOTE: I purchase “candy eyes” for Mummy Cookies and other Halloween Treats from Candyland Crafts in New Jersey. As a customer of 10 years plus, I can’t praise this place enough. Fantastic staff who supp ..read more

Chocolate Revel Bars. One of our all-time favourite chocolate treats. A rich chocolate fudge filling sandwiched between layers of brown sugar and oat cookie dough. Packed lunches, picnics, bake sales… these bars are your friend. They are super easy to make, they slice beautifully, they travel well packed in old biscuit tins or tupperware and they’re easy to eat – no plates or cutlery required! Chocolate Revel Bars Print Ingredients Cookie Dough: 160g soft butter 350g brown sugar (light or dark or a mixture of both) 2 eggs 2 tsp vanilla extract 280g plain flour 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1/2 ..read more

For the first time in living memory, St Patrick’s Day will be a very quiet day in Ireland. No parades, no parties, no gatherings in the local pub. And while all of this feels surreal, we do this for the greater good. Ní neart go cur le chéile. (Our strength is in our unity.) Today will be a very different St Patrick’s Day… but different doesn’t have to mean bad! Now, more than ever, it’s important to make a BIG celebration out of even the small holidays. So whether or not you’re Irish and even if you’ve never marked St Patrick’s Day before… join the celebrations today! Here are some of the t ..read more

What do you do when you find yourself drowning in apples but with no time/energy/inclination to spend the next 2 weeks peeling said apples? Make no-peel apple sauce of course! I make vats of this apple sauce every year to use up windfall apples from our garden. While this method is a fantastic way to deal with large quantities of apples (windfall or otherwise), I also find it really effective for using up small or misshapen apples which are difficult to peel. Use the apple sauce to make Homemade Granola, Irish Apple Tart or Eve’s Pudding. Eat it with yogurt or porridge for breakfast or with c ..read more