Award-winning blog of Irish food writer and broadcaster Caroline Hennessy.
Everybody needs a little sunshine in their lives, especially at the thin end of January, facing into the dreary bleakness that is February. It’s damp and cold and wet outside; I need a little...
Demos / Food for Friends / Lovely Lunches
by Caroline · Published January 7, 2014 · Last modified October 10, 2017
I don’t do detox. I savour my food – hot chocolate on a weary afternoon, luscious cheesy dinners and mood-enhancing spiced morning toast – all too well. But I also love salads, particularly one that you can make and keep in the fridge to eat alongside all the other good things.
Very important to have Lots of Stuffing.
As a result of developing and testing these recipes for my recent Christmas cookery demonstration at Bulgaden, the Husband came home from the brewery on more than a few days to be faced with a dinner of assorted stuffings. You know what I discovered? Pile a plate high with stuffing, add some hearty salad on the side – something like this Crunchy Apple ‘Slaw or Broccoli, Tomato and Avocado Salad would be good – fry an egg in chilli oil, slide it on top and, hey presto!, you’ve got a real meal.
Cook / Demos / Food for Friends / Irish beer & cider
by Caroline · Published November 26, 2013 · Last modified October 10, 2017
Melted cheese. Hot, bubbling, gloriously rich, fabulously molten melted cheese. From fondue, Irish-style, to Diana Henry’s Tartiflette or the simplest Tuna Melt, anything that involves cheese + heat is a wintertime winner at the cottage, especially with the recent cold snap.
Working on recipes for this week’s cookery demonstration at Bulgaden Castle, I decided to feature some Irish cheese. It was a cold day when I was looking at my Cooleeney brie and the oven was already on. I couldn’t resist. It had to be baked, served under a blanket of bitter-sweet caramel and crunchy pecan nuts – and half-eaten before anyone else got near it.
Bake / Cook / Food for Friends / Grow
by Caroline · Published August 29, 2013 · Last modified October 10, 2017
Every year we plant one – one – courgette plant. Every year we still manage to have a glut. I’ve been getting more strict with these summer squash, always trying to pick them when...
Bake / Do / Food for Friends / Irish beer & cider
by Caroline · Published August 21, 2013 · Last modified February 12, 2020
I didn’t eat potatoes until I was 30. Not voluntarily at least. Like almost every other Irish child I was weaned on milk-and-butter-rich pandy. But it wasn’t too long before I began to assert...
Lovely Lunches / Storecupboard Specials
by Caroline · Published July 17, 2013 · Last modified August 22, 2017
We were at a pre-wedding family get together in New Zealand some years ago, right before one of the Husband’s sisters got married – and I was checking out the buffet table. It was the...
“Is it warm spring, now, Mammy?” asked Little Missy this morning as she gazed out the window at sunshine while I scrabbled in last year’s boxes to find her a summer dress. As far...
