All posts filed under: sweet

Nutella and Pumpkin French Toast Roll-ups

Published by Maggie

“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

Published by Maggie

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 …

Mam’s Celebration Date Roll

Published by Maggie

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 …

Hikes, Movies and Easy Baked Cheesecake – Guest Recipe

Published by Maggie

The only way cheese is dessert is when it’s followed by the word cake. ~ Michele Gorman This recipe is from my friend, Maria, who I met in Korea. She has been visiting me for the last week and a half, and I’ve talked about how we made gimbap for my family last weekend. It’s been a busy week as I was preparing for a course that I will start next week (more on that in the next In My Kitchen) but we still found time to hang out, see some sights and, of course, have some food moments, which included chips and a batter burger at a take-away and tea and scones at a Dublin institution. The weekend was packed full of fun things as we went on two hikes, one to Howth, which is my favourite place in Dublin, where we saw porpoise and cormorants, and the other to Poolbeg lighthouse. It was my first time going out there and it was quite a walk (6 miles round trip!). The wind howled, pushing and pulling …

Banana and Coconut Ice Cream Cake

Published by Maggie

I love you ice cream, ice cream. I love ice cream. Ice cream, I love you. Yes, I do. Chocolate, cherries, bananas and berries. Honey baby, I love you.

– The Calendar Song, Busy Beavers

The above quote is taken from one of the ESL songs I use frequently in my classroom. This rather addicting song teaches days of the week and months of the year and is hugely popular with my students. It’s a dividing point amongst many of my teacher friends here with some, like me, who love the song and others who absolutely hate it. Either way, it’s an appropriate quote for today’s recipe as the subject of the recipe is an ice cream cake. I have only made this recipe once but it is super easy and just so good that I am super excited to share it with you! My friends who tried it all really liked it and some even went back for fourths. Be warned though, if you don’t like bananas, this recipe is not for you as they are included in each layer, except the biscuit base. So look away now! However, banana lovers, read on!