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December 2018
With the Toy Show being on last night Christmas season has officially kicked off in Ireland; in fact I have a Christmas party to go to tonight. The kids are obsessed with Christmas and their pure joy and delight in decorations in the shops and music playing on the radio is brilliant. As usual for the start of December though I don’t have the decorations up and I’ve no Christmas Tree in the sitting room quite yet. I know I’m not the only one. I suppose it’s a hangover from the days of being so stressed out about money that we tried not to put the decorations up early or…
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Half Size Me – Food Waste, Portion Sizes, And Dining Out
‘There’s always the children’s menu if you want a smaller portion,’ the waitress said, directing me to the short 5 item menu attached at the back of the main menu. ‘That’s great if you fancy chicken nuggets and chips, sausages (with chips), or a burger with (you’ve guessed it) chips, or a half portion of the day’s roast dinner. What if I want to order a half portion of your signature pasta?’ I asked. ‘Oh the chef only cooks full portions.’ This response from a restaurant in Dublin doesn’t surprise me but does disappoint me. I love dining out and the occasional take away, but I love ‘adult’ food, not…
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Monitoring Your Child’s Internet Access
I originally wrote this piece in 2013 and unfortunately I’m reviewing it today in the light of discussion about children’s internet access and online safety today.
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Opinion: Food Headlines Worth Banning
Let’s ban the urgency of headlines when talking about food when talking about food OMG if you read one thing about food today, read this, quick. Before everybody else reads it. Does this sound familiar to you? It certainly does to me, and I’m tired of it. A quick trawl through articles published in Ireland by bloggers, online magazines, and newspapers in the past month reveal the following headline samples:
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Opinion: Unconscious Bias in Irish Food
Everybody has to eat. Breaking bread together, sitting down to eat at a table, it is where I believe community begins. It’s a fundamental part of what makes us human. As I grow food, prepare meals, and eat them with my family, I’m reminded that this is a process that has been going on for millenia. Growing, preparing, cooking, and eating. In our society, as in most societies, 71% of families report that the task of meal preparation is carried out by women in Ireland.* In fact in the majority, women make grocery decisions, prepare the food, then serve it up to the family for everyone to enjoy. I’m not…
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What Is Irish Food?
It’s the ruby juice from a ripe strawberry as it runs down my chin. The golden sheen of a smear of butter, so yellow it could only come from grass-fed cows. The pop of elderflower champagne, and the gentle buzz of its fizz in my glass. Earthy, soil-like smell from roasting fresh beetroot in the oven. Steam escaping from a pot of boiled potatoes, filling the room, fogging my glasses and making me smile. “Yum, yum, pig’s bum, cabbage and potatoes.” Sweet gur cake, washed down with strong tea, makes me think of the generations who have eaten it before, and wonder if my children will eat it in the…
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Things I Don’t Buy Anymore
Last year I wrote about the things we don’t buy anymore but I just realised that it’s due an update. Although I talk a lot about what I buy, what we eat and how we live, maybe what is missing from the list might be interesting. This afternoon I was working through my shopping list and figuring out what I want to get for the week ahead and it struck me. So here’s a list of some of the things I don’t buy anymore and the reasons why (if any):
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Food Blogging Tips & Tricks That I’ve Learned
Call this post a review of sorts, in effect it is. This is a review of a year in the life of an Irish food blogger, but it also a way of sharing some food bloggingtips and tricks I picked up along the way. This blogpost was originally written in December 2012, now 2 years later I’m updating some of the information.
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Where Does Your Meat Come From?
If you buy your meat at the supermarket you can clearly see where the meat has come from. Plain meat with no sauces or “value added” to the package. If you go to a decent supermarket, you’ll be able to see which farm reared the animal that the meat is from, or which county it’s from. That makes it really easy for those of us who go into the shops to choose whether or not we want to buy Irish meat. Irish meat labelling can be confusing but at least you can be confident that if you buy a whole Irish chicken in a supermarket that it’s been raised on…
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Are Groceries More Expensive In Ireland?
I believed that grocery prices in Ireland are expensive; I felt they are steadily on the rise again, spurred on by the report from The Guardian published on Saturday, I’ve revisited my grocery shopping list from a few years ago to see how the prices differ.
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Choosing School Uniforms
I apologise for this post as I know that for some parents the thoughts of getting uniforms and organising back-to-school stuff waits until August. Having just bought some of the new uniform for the Autumn term I thought it might be worthwhile to explain what I learned last year and how it has affected my choices this year. Just before the 5-year-old started school last year I blogged about the expenses of sending him to school and how much it was costing. At least I have a real account I can compare to! The cost of school charges (including book rental) and books I have to buy pretty much remain…
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Let’s Talk About Pigs
Why I haven’t blogged about the pigs? After all I’ve written about many aspects of my family life, including the allotment produce, so why not the pigs? Some of you reading this might be thinking what pigs? That’s understandable too as I’ve not written about them much. We keep pigs as part of a group. I say we, but this mainly means my husband because he normally has the car and the spot where we keep them isn’t within a safe walking distance so the responsibility falls to him.
