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 €60.

!’ve never really cooked in this guerrilla fashion before, but it’s great! Last night ‘cooking’ dinner required just a little light defrosting and reheating along with rustling up some veg. This is what we ate - stuffed courgette with mozzarella.

I of course ate mine in front of the computer, while reading about the election.

Tags: Cooking for the Freezer, US Elections
Posted in This Blog | 8 Comments »

Well, this was not a typical afternoon!

An RTE outside broadcast unit have just driven away from my house. I’ll be on the 9.00 news tonight, barring some major news story suddenly appearing.

I made chocolate walnut cups for the camera but Nigella I ain’t so I’m hoping that comes over ok. It was quite fun filming it but now I’m getting nervous and am sitting here hoping they edit kindly!

Tags: RTE
Posted in This Blog | 23 Comments »

It seems like every week I read in the paper that more and more Irish people are being “driven” into Lidl in an effort to cut their grocery bills. Apparantly some people are mildly ashamed of this. I’ve no idea why. If you’re one of those people who sneak in under the pretense of buying flowers - get over yourself! Since when is it shameful to look for good value?

I’ve been shopping in Lidl for years and am amazed that everyone doesn’t. They have great food, great prices and you can get stuff that just isn’t that easy to get elsewhere.

This blog is intended as a kind of guide for the uninitiated, pointing out particularly good buys and quality products and occassionally suggesting a few recipes.

I hope you find it useful.

Tags: This Blog
Posted in This Blog | 9 Comments »