As the recession bites in Ireland, more and more people are "swallowing their pride" and shopping in Lidl.
Well, what took you so long? There's good stuff in there and this blog is intended to guide you to the best of it.
After Ear to the Ground last night a number of people have asked for the recipe for this and also for the Raspberry Clafouti. I’m making the clafouti again this weekend, so I’ll take pics of that. I don’t know when I’ll have pork belly again,
Just over 2 weeks ago I spent an odd, but enjoyable, day cooking for the cameras.
The deal was that I’d cook a meal for six, two courses, using locally sourced ingredients for under
I’m just back from a week in Florence, a wonderful blur of bright sunny days, old streets, busy markets, stunning art and fabulous food. This was my first holiday in years without family, there was just Sabrina and I, on a proper grown-up holiday, and I can highly recommend her as an excellent travelling companion. We’re still friends, narry a cross word spoken, and with plans to repeat the exact same holiday in a year’s time.
The pic is of the wonderful Monna Lisa Hotel were we stayed, it’s actually taken from just outside the door of our room. And yes, it’s every bit as nice as it looks.
As you might expect, food played a major role in this excursion. I’m just left with an impression of wonderful food, from the vast buffet breakfast every morning to perfect coffees for
Yes, I know. I was supposed to post about the great freezer cook up – and I will, really I will, but the notes I took were atrocious (though I thought at the time they were great) and I’ve been very distracted by work (of which more below).
But I had to get this in – the J.D. Gross range of speciality chocolates are back at Lidl. Oh happy, happy day for chocoholics everywhere! The range has been expanded too, with several new ones alongside old favorites, including some very interesting looking fruit flavoured ones, which I haven’t tried yet.
As a lover of really, really dark chocolate I went first for the three bars pictured here, each of which cost
10 days, no updates – I’ve been sorely neglecting this blog. And it’s not because I’ve been away, or lazy or had nothing to write. In fact it isn’t really my fault at all. You can pick any one of four people to blame. If I was pushed to pick I’d lay the blame at the feet of Sarah Palin, but to be absolutely fair I could equally choose her boss or either of the opposing team.
I’ve become obsessed with the US presidential election.
I am definitely spending way too much time reading about it, watching various clips on YouTube and talking about it with the increasing number of people who seem to be similarly and completely caught up in the strangely fascinating politics of another country.
Staying up into the wee small hours to watch debates has thrown my internal clock into complete disarray – my body now believes that 4 or 5 am is a good time to start thinking about going to bed, even though I still have to be up for a school run. It’s not good. Needing afternoon naps makes me feel old.
I’m also very busy at work (which I manage to fit in somewhere between intensive blog reading sessions) so by the time dinner rolls around in the evening I’m in no mood to start getting creative in the kitchen. The freezer has become my best friend.
But on Saturday, horror, the freezer was empty. With my obsession showing no sign of waning I decided to have a major cooking session and fill it with enough dinners to last until at least Nov 5th.
I kept scribbled notes about the whole process, with timing, which I’ll have made sense of (between the many food splashes) by tomorrow and will post here. But in around three hours I managed to ‘bank’ over 2 dozen very varied dinner-sized dishes, several side dishes and a load of soup into the now very packed freezer. All for less than