Author: Maggie

Creamy Tomato Chicken Pasta Bake

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Pasta doesn’t make you fat. How much pasta you eat makes you fat. – Giada De Laurentiis Years ago, I was visiting my sister who lived in Galway at the time. From my memory it was either late Autumn or early Winter. We had gone out the night before and had spent our day recovering by watching TV, chatting, and I believe she introduced me to the magic that was “G’s to Gents”. When we finally decided to eat she introduced me to what has become one of my favourite meals to make when I’m having friends over. All the vegetables and chicken smelled divine by themselves but adding the Dolmio® Creamy Tomato Sauce gave it that extra edge. My sister is one of those people who always ups her game when it comes to cooking and this recipe had already been given to her by another friend in it’s basic form of the Dolmio jar, chicken and pasta. My sister not only added vegetables, but she also stirred in single cream and added hunks …

“Pizza” Baguettes and English Muffins – Cooking with Kids

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  Cooking with kids is not just about ingredients, recipes, and cooking. It’s about harnessing imagination, empowerment, and creativity. – Guy Fieri One of my favourite little people, The Jam, loves cooking. Sometimes, when we Skype, he is in the middle of baking something delectable with his parents. This made picking an activity to do with him (besides reading stories) quite easy! In fact, when I was home in January I decided to get him, and his family, two cookbooks – The Usbourne Beginner’s Cookbook and Ella’s Kitchen: The Cookbook. When I returned in August, I picked a recipe from the former of these books to make with him. So, off we marched the local shop where we picked up some baguettes and where he conned me into buying ice-creams for his parents and a King Cornetto for himself (smart kid!). One reason why I feel this recipe is a great one to do with kids is because they can choose their own toppings based on their own likes and dislikes, and can help at a variety of levels depending …

Colcannon: A Traditional Irish Potato Dish

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Elves and Dragons! Cabbages and potatoes are better for me and you. Don’t go getting mixed up in the business of your betters, or you’ll land in trouble too big for you. J.R.R Tolkien Last weekend, one of my friends came to visit. We spent nearly all weekend cooking and eating, eating and cooking. From pizza baguettes to chicken sandwiches to stuffed zucchinis and a hummus platter, we had it all. Some adventures were had, lessons were learnt, and other lessons were re-discovered. It was so much fun, and we had a great time just chatting and creating. One thing we both discovered was how fast time goes when you are cooking with someone else. Or, really, just doing anything with someone else. The morning after she arrived, we got up at 8.00 as we had to leave at 9.15 to help at a party for some local kids. Somehow 8.45 came with a bang when we had barely started preparing breakfast (nevermind actually being dressed). We had envisioned a lazy breakfast of scrambled eggs and …

Ghostly Graveyard Ice-cream Cake

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At first cock-crow the ghosts must go Back to their quiet graves below ~Theodosia Garrison I love Hallowe’en! The fact that is a traditionally Irish holiday makes it all the better. This Hallowe’en was a little bit EPIK (sorry for the pun – I’m an EPIK teacher in Korea and it was an EPIC weekend). The weekend before, some friends and I went to Everland, an amusement park near Suwon in South Korea. Despite the long queues we had a great time and even went to a Horror Maze. Confession: I closed my eyes for a good portion of this but I will admit that I think I psyched myself out trying to imagine what would be inside. As much as I love Hallowe’en the “gory” elements like zombies are not really my cup of tea. What I do love about Halloween are the decorations, the plethora of candles, pumpkins with scary faces and really creative carvings, persimmons (I was only introduced to this fabulous fruit when I arrived in Korea), ghosts, ghouls, mummies, and witches. The …

Slightly Boozy Homemade Apple Cider

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Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple. – JK Rowling As much as I love spring and summer, there is just something enchanting about Autumn and Winter flavours, smells, colours and holidays. I love the look, taste, and smell of everything these two season have to offer: warm fragrant soups, pumpkin pies, apple tarts, oranges stuffed with cloves, hot minty chocolate, and hot apple cider — to mention just a few. The first time I ever had apple cider was at my first Thanksgiving in America as an adult (way back in 2001!). I was confused. I didn’t understand how it could be cider as there was no alcohol! Eventually I came to appreciate this kind of cider and now I really, really love all the flavours. Last year, for a tea night I decided I wanted to make American apple cider, however, most recipes I saw called for pre-made cider. I didn’t understand why, when surely you could just use apples to …