Irish Muffins

Bread is one of those things that has both the hint of the sacred and the touch of the common about it. From Jesus’ “I am the Bread of Life” and the symbolism of his broken body in the communion loaf to wheat symbolising resurrection, carrying within its life cycle the mystery of birth and…

One a penny, two a penny

Bake them on Good Friday, tradition says, and they won’t go mouldy the whole year; keep one to spare to give to any in the household who become sick before the next Easter season. Marked with a cross, these buns are obviously symbolic of Christ’s death on the cross – observed by Christians on Good…

Such Cool Tie-Dye

Summertime was always a kitchen season, the three different kitchens of my childhood and teen years often full of steam and the sticky scent of cooking fruit or the tingle of pickling vinegar. Jars were sterilised, huge pots bubbled. We shelled peas for hours, or it could have been weeks. This wasn’t just women’s work,…

The Day of Delphine Cake

I had a cake catastrophe. It was late, after a long but lovely day hosting my beloved aunt-in-law for Easter dinner, while also prepping for brunch with friends the next morning, and making cake for birthday cake in the afternoon with even more friends. The witching hour was approaching and the cake would just not…

Sweet

So, Easter: that time of year when Ireland hides almost 20000 tonnes of packaging (2016 estimate), finds it, and then disposes of it. It’s been a Plastic-less Lent for me. Unfortunately not plastic-FREE: we’re not there yet. Nonetheless, I’ve been trying to go beyond what I was already doing to cut out single-use items and…

Cake to Celebrate

In one of my recent posts (Looking Forward) I mentioned marking my 10th anniversary at my job and I said, “…though I wonder where that decade has gone, I think I need to mark it in some way. Cake would be especially appropriate because most of the lunch times one of those years was spent…

Good Health, Good Cheer

If the throat tickles start and the coughing gets rough, when the sniffles begin and life feels kinda tough, that’s when you need magic*, our secret recipe (it’s secret no longer): a drink we call Head Tea. This amazing potion, called an aromatic infusion in the book where I saw the recipe, was christened head…

Golden Delicious

I’m in the hot tub at the local swimming pool, soaking up to my neck in a gurgle of hot water between swimming lengths in a chilly pool. It’s making me feel great: stretching my muscles and giving me a sense of doing something right for my body. Just like bus stops, hot tubs are…

World AIDS Day Meets a Peanut Ginger Garlic Dip

An über tasty dip and World AIDS Day don’t usually have good reason to be linked, unless the recipe for said dip comes via Nireekshana ACET, a community-based care centre in Hyderabad, India. Nireekshana is “dedicated to the compassionate care and support of people infected and effected with HIV/AIDS, TB, Leprosy and other diseases of poverty”.…

Barmbrack

It is while sifting through my recipe files that I miss my mother-in-law, Carmel, the most. I have inherited her stash of handwritten notes and recipes along with a tattered book or two, that are now part of the mix of newspaper clippings, pages cut from magazines, and online print outs that fill two folders…