A magnificent shoal on St Anthony's Feast

It was Roo's idea to make some 'biskies' in the shape of fishes to commemorate St Anthony's miraculous speech on the shore at Rimini.
So together, we made a shortbread recipe that was passed onto me a couple of weeks ago and got out the cookie cutters. The only fish shape we had was a sort of Angel fish, appropriate in the circumstances, I suppose.
And, much mess later, here they are!

It's good to be back again.I hope to blog a bit more now that I have a better camera on my phone and that I have a bit more energy back. I have been writing another post for a while now...

Lollies in the sunshine

Holiday revisited: Day 1 Mulranny Monday

We started the long drive up to Mayo after collecting Roo from his first day at 'big' school: he got on ok and we met some very nice parents and teachers too. We had our customary pitstop in Clarenbridge at the Provident Market Kitchen cafe, which is always tasty.

We took a slight diversion in Galway at Little Dreamers, a lovely shop for children's stuff, to pick up a new addition to the family (pictured). After that the road became narrow and the countryside boggy as we started on the last leg of the journey. Driving through the pretty town of Westport, we decided we would have to return later in the week for a browse. As we got closer to Mulranny, we noticed bits of newly refurbished cycleway running closeby the road and guessed it must be the Great Western Greenway. It looked very well made and we couldn't wait for the chance to cycle it the next day.

Eventually, we reached our home for the next few nights: Mulranny Park Hotel. This old railway hotel was built long before the Celtic Tiger's glut of ghost hotels. Our room was surprisingly spacious (as we opened the door, we all gasped at its size) with gracious sash windows and high ceilings. Some of the views from the hotel were like landscape paintings and the window tables in the restaurant were much sought after. Well, more popular than the ones near our motley little crew anyway!

No car, no problem

The car was still in for repairs today, so I was at home with the lads all day. No school, no racing about.
In answer to 'what will we do noooow, Mummy?' amongst other things, we read books, tidied Our Lady's altar, made a birthday invitation (only 4 months to go), fell about laughing at different ways to pronounce 'party', baked and decorated fairy cakes (while the little Toot obligingly slept) and ran about barefoot cos of 'sticky feet' (no, I don't know what they meant either).

Meanwhile, Lee rushed around for work, trying to avoid falling asleep at the wheel whilst doing a damn fine job for people, some of whom have no intention of ever paying him.

how to get children to eat their crusts...

Bread-making is definitely not one of my strengths, contrary to what Roo said to the little Toot this morning, ('Did you know Mummy is very good at making bread?'). The thing is any previous attempts always ended up like particularly inedible doormats, until I saw the marvellous Nigel Slater make his Lazy Loaf on telly. It's like Soda Bread, only easier to make. In about 30 minutes you can feel pleasingly self-sufficient by producing your very own bread or helping your children make it. Not only is it not inedible, but my little children really actually like it and hence Roo's confident statement. They even eat the crusts, something they avoid at all costs on any other bread. Follow the link if you too wish to see your children perform this amazing feat.

Unfortunately, and not wishing to put you off your loaf, but their eyes, on the other hand, are very crusty. All three of them have now had conjunctivitis over the last few days, which makes the poor lads look, on waking, like little zombies or Egyptian mummies. Roo is much improved, but not enough to return to playschool yet.

Feast of St Nicholas

Here are some Santa cupcakes we made today, as decorated by Roo.
December 6th has brought us mixed tidings over the years. This year was fairly uneventful, the highlight being these cheery little cakes. My phone camera isn't great, but if you look closely, you'll see Santy has a marshmallow beard.

Our Tour of the Burren

The Burren Perfumery was one of our stops today. We wandered in their lovely gardens, sniffed their roses and various creams and scents, ate some cakes, spent rather a lot of money and basked in the sunshine in the lovely courtyard (above).

This butterfly and lots of little moths were very attracted to this plant.

Earlier on in Lisdoonvarna, we left the inviting Wild Honey Inn where we spent the night and visited the Burren Smokehouse where we bought some tasty goodies. Poonch likes their Smoked salmon which is less salty than others he's tried. 'He must be a bit of a gourmand,' said Birgitta, the friendly Swedish lady who runs it with her husband. She met her hubbie, a local man, in Lisdoonvarna, as did the Texan lady behind the till. Maybe Uncle B should visit...

Fionn MacCumhaill....

and the Salmon of Knowledge

Cherry buns for tea

Inspired by Saturday's little beauties, Roo and I made some 'berry buns' of our own yesterday. Here's the last one... Gobble, gobble...

Cherry buns in the park

Pizza, Little Piggies and Paul O'Connell

Today we had a brush with stardom. After a sunny visit to the playground, we went to La Cucina for some yummy pizza (the only way we could persuade Roo to leave). 'Look who it is...' said Lee to me as we went in. And there, sitting alone with a bowl of soup was the great Paul O'Connell, the Munster rugby captain*. We were shown a table, but then Paul left and they put us at his table! You could say Roo took his place, because he sat in the very same seat that Paul had just vacated (it was still a little warm). Roo himself was oblivious of course as he devoured two slices of Margherita pizza. He was disappointed earlier in Little Piggies when he was told he didn't need new shoes yet. I told him he'd have to eat lots so that his feet would get bigger.

*(People say Superman goes to bed in Paul O'Connell pyjamas. To tell you the truth, we think Paul made himself scarce when he saw Poonch coming in;))

Jamie's pancakes

These go down very well with the boys.... just mix together:

1 cup of self-raising flour
1 cup of milk
1 large egg, preferably free-range or organic
A pinch of sea salt
1 pear, grated.

Then fry with a few knobs of butter and eat with gloopy, creamy stuff, Nutella, bananas, or whatever takes your fancy.

Inspiration for toddler meals

Rollercoaster has some of Annabel Karmel's recipes for fussy eaters on their website. They are appetising excerpts from a new book she has written which looks quite tempting. I'm reading her Superfoods book at the moment in an attempt to get Roo to eat more veg. Last night we had pasta in Hidden Vegetable sauce with Mascarpone. Very nice and... Roo even ate some of the sauce as it was smeared onto his pasta. That means he ingested onion, carrot and courgette, as they were cooked and then pureed into the sauce.

But perhaps more remarkably, he quite knowingly gobbled down COURGETTES, yes green vegetables (aka zucchinis) as he helped to make the muffins they were stuffed with. CBeebies I Can Cook is such a fantastic programme. You'll find more toddler-able recipes on the I Can Cook website.

St Andrew's party

Have just been speaking to Mum. Their front garden was the scene this morning of multiple crashes due to black ice, which resulted in their front wall being destroyed, but miraculously no-one being hurt.

She told me that today is the start of St Andrew's Novena, which continues until Christmas. Throughout each day between now and then, you say the above prayer for your intentions. Fifteen times a day. I think it's a beautiful prayer in itself. Thanks to Two Hearts Design for their version of the text.

Incidentally, Mum's prayer to St Anthony was prayed fervently and successfully on Thursday night while in the Big Smoke, when Lee's phone went missing. We stayed nearer town this time in the hotel that actively attracts culchies like us. So I suppose it was inevitable that me walking in with my wellies on met with complete indifference. It was slightly disappointing, except it meant I won the bet with Lee! Other notable events while we were there included my brother's book launch (congratulations Bee!), meeting friends I've never met or relatives I haven't seen in too long a time, Roo's first trip on a Luas or any train for that matter, three generations watching the Christmas lights in 'piercing cold', two lovely meals (in lieu of a 'party' for Bee), coffee and pancakes in Lemon, Mum's first Late Late Toy Show since my sister died 25 years ago, self-indulgent trips round ribbon and knitting shops (well I did win the bet after all) and a visit to my lovely Therese in the oasis that is St Teresa's Church off Grafton St.

Last Day of the Old Milk Market

Well, someone up there must have been listening to me yesterday because today has been a great day. I even managed to get some heavy duty washing dry without having to resort to the tumble dryer.
This morning we headed into Limerick City to do our rounds of the Milk Market : a weekly open-air market that sells much more than just milk. I'm glad we made it in, because today was it's last day in it's current incarnation. It is due to be closed for 6 months while it is refurbished and covered with a roof. Speaking to some of the traders, Theresa and Olivier, there is a mixed reaction to these changes. It'll be interesting to see how it all turns out.
I am reading an anthology of short articles by Mother Teresa that sort of resolves the conflict I posted about yesterday. She writes, 'children [need someone] to receive them, to pay attention to them, to encourage them if they are sad, to share their joy if they are happy. They long for somebody to accept them, to love them, to praise them, to be proud of them.' It sounds fairly obvious and simple, of course, but if I concentrated on doing just those 'little things' as she calls them -'by kindness, by sharing joy, by sharing a smile', I would really be doing well I think. Back to Therese's Little Way. If I could just manage that, it could change our little part of the world.
On another note, if you can, pray for Fr Michael Sinnott, the 79 year old who is still being held by a gang in the Philippines.

Pray, Hope and Don't Worry

I watched a really interesting programme about Padre Pio tonight. A bit spooky in bits, what with the whole bi-location and wrestling with the devil thing. But I didn't realise one of his sayings was 'Pray, hope and don't worry'. It's so simple, like John Paul II's 'Be not afraid'.
Easier said than done, of course. We had a setback today with the house we can't sell. Someone who had agreed to rent it has pulled out. It would have been a huge help as we are paying mortgage on that house and rent on this one each month. We'll just have to pray, hope and not worry....
The picture came from rosary.org via Google images. If you click on it, you'll find a lovely story about Padre Pio and pasta, which he and my boys share a love of, apparently.

We are still blessed with sunshine here, an Indian summer. It's wonderful to be able to spend time outside with the lads, Lou on my back in the sling, Roo chattering incessantly, picking 'berries' (but 'not red ones') and dig, dig, digging. Today we planted mustard seeds in the veg patch. My hero from Gardener's World, Alys Fowler, recommended it on the telly as a green manure, so it was a good incentive to clear the ground (again) and kick-start our life of self-sufficiency. (Yeah, right!)

Babba Nana Bread

I am enjoying making things from Tana Ramsay's Family Kitchen. Last night I had a couple of too-ripe bananas to use up, so I tried her version of Banana bread. It varies from my usual recipe in that it has apple in it (rather than sultanas), and no vanilla essence. I thought Babba Roo might prefer it, now that he has gone off food with 'bits' in it. So here's the version I tried, only without salt and with wholemeal self-raising flour.


85g soft butter
150g sugar (soft brown Muscovado, etc)
2 large beaten eggs
4 mashed medium ripe bananas
1 grated apple
250g wholemeal self-raising flour
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp grated nutmeg

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs gradually and beat.
Mix in the apple and bananas. Sift in the flour and spices and mix well.
Scrape into a lined 2lb loaf tin and bake at 180ºC for 40-45 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the tin for 20-30 minutes on a wire rack. Eat. Make appreciative noises, such as 'mmmmm, tayshy, myummy'.

Ticky tocky pudding

We had planned to go to a local playgroup for the first time today, but to cut a long story short, we didn't.
So we got to work on something i started a couple of days ago when i boiled
225g chopped dates in
250ml tea for 1minute.
Being a warmer day than we are used to,
100g butter was lovely and easy to beat. Roo added
175g golden caster sugar and stirred away until really soft. Next we beat in
3 eggs individually. Then we added
1tsp vanilla extract with the dates and tea and mixed like crazy. Finally we sifted
225g self raising flour (actually 100g wholemeal sr plus 125g white sr in a pointless attempt to make it healthier) together with
3quarters tsp bicarb and 1 tsp mixed spice. I poured the mixture into the closest thing we have to a
20cm lined greased cake tin and fiddled about with our rubbish oven until i thought it was at a moderate temperature. Then i cooked it for about 45minutes.
Voilà.! La cake. Next step- the sticky toffee sauce.

Waterford Food Festival

We spent Saturday and Sunday in Ballymacarbry, Old Parish and Dungarvan. (Gosh, it is a lovely house, by the way. We have started to furnish it, so we can go there at weekends, but it's such a pity no-one lives there all the time. Maybe someone will buy it soon...)

The weather was fabulous: yes the Sunny South-East blah blah... Sunday in particular was wonderful. We spent the morning after mass browsing the market on the square, buying honey, veggies, perfect coffees and fluffy milk!!

This flying pig was spotted near the new shopping centre.

Later on we went for a walk down to the strand. Roo was exhausted, but happy.

Teatime with my Sweetie pies

Fruit compote