Award-winning blog of Irish food writer and broadcaster Caroline Hennessy.
On a cold, wet, miserable day, there’s nothing better than coming home to a big bowl of piping hot, homemade soup. Pick from Chicken Noodle,Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato or White Bean and Cabbage Soups and make a meal of it with Caroline Hennessy’s recipes for pots of pleasure on SilverCircle.ie.
…but we’re not heading home just yet. Next stop – via a brief overnight in Kuala Lumpur – Vietnam!
Flowers on a feijoa tree at Stafford Lane Estate when we visited on a wine tour of the Nelson area. Feijoas are very popular in New Zealand, I loved them when we were living...
Nicola Galloway may be based in Nelson, New Zealand, but this no-nonsense, practical cookbook will appeal to parents in any hemisphere. From first tastes and flavors to school lunches and dinnertimes, there are plenty of ideas here for feeding children of every age group as well as recipes you can adapt for the entire family.
Without television, radio or mobile reception, heading off to the Husband’s family bach, or holiday home, at Lake Rotoiti always entails packing lots of books. The use of the Husband’s Mother’s library card is always very much appreciated and gives me a chance to pick up a few cookbooks from the great selection available (did I ever mention that I love NZ libraries?). Between occasional walks and trips down to the small village of St Arnaud for coffee at the Alpine Lodge café – fresh baked muffins (favourite: raspberry, pecan and chocolate) and scones every morning, great looking brunches and lunches, with long blacks worth walking miles for – there is plenty of time for reading.
While in New Zealand, staying with the Husband’s parents, our nearest café is actually a winery called Fossil Ridge. We pass the small vineyard on our daily walk (sometimes several times a day as the Husband tries to balance lots of eating his mother’s fabulous food with regular competitive brother-in-law weigh-ins!) and the walk does occasionally get a little interrupted. An attractive wooden building, set amidst olive groves and overlooking a pond covered with water lilies, the cellar door is a relaxed setting to enjoy a selection of platters and light lunches to accompany its wines.
Darina Allen’s latest book focuses on kitchen skills and traditions – such as making yoghurt, keeping hens and baking bread – that have been lost in recent times. She talks to Caroline Hennessy for EveryMonday.ie about how the increasing interest in self-sufficiency can help us weather the recession.
Since the release of Julie and Julia, both the book and the film,Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking has taken on a new lease of life. Now when readers look at this classic cookbook – first published in 1961 – they do so with the memory of Julie Powell’s consternation while tackling recipes like Boeuf Bourguignonne and Homard a l’Americaine. And they hear Julia Child’s idiosyncratic voice (and Meryl Streep’s take on that voice) in every line of this opinionated, entertaining and educational book.
