All posts filed under: blog

Spicy Marinated Butternut Squash

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A few months ago we celebrated my Mam’s birthday. My mam loves Mexican food – well probably more Tex-Mex, to be honest, and so I prepared a feast. We had so much food. I think we had two different types of rice – my Easy Dressed-Up Cilantro/Coriander Rice and Green Rice (will have to share some day but as it’s something that I only make, from a recipe book, on very special occasions that will be some time in the distant future), as well as chicken and beef, lots of veggies, burritos, tacos and salads. In two words: A FEAST! The chicken was from this recipe book that I bought for my sister a couple of years ago called Everyday Mexican and it’s a wonderful little book that includes aforementioned Green Rice  as well as this fantastic Chicken Fajitas recipe where the chicken is marinated in honey/maple syrup, oregano and chili-flakes. It was a hit, particularly with the adults at the table and I definitely need to make it again at some point. The taste of …

Nutella and Pumpkin French Toast Roll-ups

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“The 12-step chocoholics program: Never be more than 12 steps away from chocolate!” ~ Terry Moore I know, I know! Pumpkin in June! It sounds crazy but when you get a craving – you get a craving! And, I’m not the only mad one in my family – my mother has requested a pumpkin pie for her birthday which is at the end of the month. Thankfully, what with our local Tesco having tins of pumpkin available all year round, indulging in the yumminess that is that autumn vegetable is easily sorted. The following recipe is an idea I’ve been playing around with for a while. Of course, it was mostly inspired by the wonderful Jhuls @The Not So Creative Cook and her amazing French Toast Nutella Roll-ups (a firm favourite with my two little helpers) but also by a memory of one Thanksgiving a long time ago. I was in college at the time and I was visiting my family in Omaha. My cousin, Bets, was making cheesecake for the dinner later on that …

Easy Chocolate Orange Sauce

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  Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive ~Joanne Harris There it lay, shattered and cracked. Its pieces were a quarter-inch thick. Its edges, curving upwards, indicated its once rounded shape. We stared at the lump-hammer that had caused this destruction for one moment of suspended silence. Then, we rushed forward and started stuffing pieces into our mouths. One year, a long, long time ago, my family received a gift of a giant Easter egg, possibly a Lir 0ne, if memory serves.  The egg was huge! According to my mam, maybe even as tall as 20 inches. Imagine! A chocolate Easter Egg TWENTY inches high. It was so thick that when we threw it on the ground we didn’t make a dint in it at all and, until my father smashed it to smithereens with his hammer, it remained impenetrable. To this day, I’ve never seen an Easter egg quite like it and, obviously, it made a huge impact on  my childhood memories. I don’t remember anything else about that …

Date-Pecan-Marshmallow-Dessert

Mam’s Celebration Date Roll

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Firstly, Happy Leap day, everyone! I know someone who actually turns 2, officially, today! Do you know anyone who has a Leap year birthday? What did you do with your extra day? I studied, cooked a recipe I’ve been trying out, went on a few walks to hit my goal (one more to do!) and worked on this post. It may not have been exciting but it was productive! Secondly, my apologies for the lateness of this recipe as I know I have had some requests for it for over 6 weeks and I’m only getting to it now. I promised myself that I wouldn’t post any new recipes after my last IMK until this one was out, hence the delay – but I kept true to my word and this is my first recipe since then. The below recipe is one my Mam adapted years ago from a recipe she found in the Irish Independent newspaper (way back in 1985!). It was similar enough to something she remembered her own mother making that she was …