Twitter for Cooks

Over the past few months, Twitter has been an increasingly lively forum for keeping up to date with reading, recipes and the usual palaver of everyday life.

Following the

#foodies

thread there leads to recipes I would never have thought of.

Today's find is Chicken Chili Verde with Beans from Honestcooking.

Hit the title bar and it will lead you there.

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas and Happy Eating for 2011

Making Mincemeat

My husband spends many meals singing the praises of Neven Maguire.

All his recipes work and there is always some surprise element that keeps the diners guessing and buoys up conversation on a cold evening in December.

In the title bar is Neven's recipe for mincemeat. I tend to wait until the few days before Christmas and make this delicacy fresh. Some prefer to start some batches off earlier in the month and lay it down like a fine port.

Whatever your preference, nothing beats homemade mincemeat.
Proportions can be adjusted to individual taste.
Spices can be very carefully balanced and add to the wonderful aromas coming from the kitchen.

One trick I find always pleases visitors...
Make a Tarte Tatin, carmelising the apples in the usual way, but adding a goodly jar of mincemeat spread over the fruit before you add the pastry crust.

It's wonderful...

Baking Up a Storm

The Irish Budget 2010 has shocked me into action.
"Operation Home Baking" will start as from now...

Last year an encounter with "Industrial Food" in an Irish hospital was so disturbing I decided to focus on photography and keep spirits up with colourful images of the pleasant aspects of life in Ireland. It is a beautiful country and our home produce is of a very high standard indeed. Why this is sometimes not reflected in our institutions is a subject for sociologists, not for the home cook, so I'll stick to what I know.

Here's a recipe from the past for a rich, pastry-like

Apple Crumble

I once found it listed at a restaurant in Paris as
"Apple Grumble", which seems apt for these wintery days.

Setting up the Tracking Code

Here's hoping to find who reads this blog, and why.

Tracking is always fun...

Slow as Molasses in January...

... is probably the best description of my food blogging over the past few months.

I've been spending so much time on serious eating that the thought of writing it all down is definitely "de trop".

Today's news, which is certainly not new, is that Italian Foodies is now to be found on the Wordpress platform.

One of my favourites... please to hit the title bar and enjoy.

I've Started Roaming the Net Again

... in search of lively Foodie Blogs.

The Irish Blog Awards 2009 Nominations
have been posted and I'll get round to
making a link to the nominees in time.

The best way to get to know another country is
to try the food.

Marsfoodblog is interesting, as I have never been to Canada
and there are so many European influences still there;
the dishes are both recognisable and not.