Lyric fm: Miss Courtney’s Tearooms

Antique china teacups and linen tablecloths at the ready! My Culture File report on Miss Courtney’s Tearooms and a return to the gentle act of taking tea will be broadcast on Lyric fm 96-99fm this evening at approximately 6.40pm. Picture of Sandra Dunlea courtesy of www.misscourtneys.com Updated 31...

Food, glorious Food(Camp)

Tweets and trends, coffee and conversation, information and inspiration: all in the mix at Savour Kilkenny‘s first Irish FoodCamp last Friday. It was a full on day. Not only were Dinner du Jour and I presenting a new Irish blogger resource but the schedule was crammed with talks on a variety of...

Time ticking down to Kilkenny Foodcamp

Savour Kilkenny kicks off tomorrow, Friday 22 October, with the first Irish Foodcamp and we’re nearly ready to go. Kristin of Dinner du Jour and I have a slot – there we are at 11.45am in the Slaney Suite of Kilkenny’s Ormonde Hotel – and we’ve been busy working and designing,...

An Irish Butcher Shop by Pat Whelan

Irish butchers are coming out from behind the counter. No longer content with just selling quality meat, they’re now talking about it as well. They’re telling people exactly where that particular joint comes from, how it is raised, humanely slaughtered and properly aged before it is handed over....

LocalMarkets.ie kicks off in style

Old Millbank Smokehouse smoked salmon, O’Flynn’s sausages with Bad Boy banana ketchup, seafood pie from Taste a Memory, pâté from Flynn’s Kitchen on Arbutus Bread: just a few of the savoury offerings at tonight’s LocalMarkets.ie launch in – where else? – the English...

Pickin’ spuds: Spiced Lamb and Homegrown Potatoes

This has been a rather mixed year in the garden. Despite all my busy sowing early in the year, there wasn’t a whole load to harvest after the pesky rabbits got stuck into all those tasty green shoots. Still, the arrival of four cats (and the occasional extra stray or two) has put a stop to the dozen or...

Lyric FM: McCarthy’s Black Pudding

There was a rich, savoury smell in the autumn air as a band marched down the crowded streets of Kanturk, leading a white and crimson velvet-gowned troup. The members of the Brotherhood of the Knights of the Black Pudding, or La Confrérie des Chevaliers du Goûte Boudin, had travelled from France to pay...

Cannelloni, beer and macaroons: all winners at Blas

Flynn’s Kitchens, Dungarvan Brewing Company and The Cake Stand were all winners at this year’s Blas na hÉireann Irish Food Awards, which were announced on Saturday evening at the Dingle Peninsula Food and Wine Festival. Based in Riverstick, just outside Cork city, Flynn’s Kitchens’...

Itsa Cookbook by Domini Kemp

I’ve been a Domini Kemp fan since she and her sister, Peaches, opened the first Itsabagel in Dublin’s Epicurean Food Hall. I fell in love with the Mountaineer bagel at first bite and Itsabagel became a regular port of call as well as the unanimous office choice when I was picking up lunch for...

Newstalk: More turkey

These turkeys have legs! After a call from a Newstalk researcher on Friday, I was on the Tom Dunne show yesterday morning, talking about keeping – and harvesting – turkeys for Christmas. You can listen from here and my interview starts about 21 minutes in. And the picture? That’s one of my...

A turkey for the table

They may not be recognisable from the shrink-wrapped fowl that you can pick up at the supermarket for your Christmas dinner but these awkward-looking animals are actually turkeys. Bronze turkeys, to be precise, and they came to live down the bottom of my garden a month ago. They are not pets: they are...

Irish Foodies’ Autumn Fruit Cookalong: Courgette Cake

Ahem! Now, I know that the theme of tonight’s cookalong is actually autumn fruit and I know that a courgette isn’t exactly what you might call a fruit but as it grew in my garden and I’m turning it into a Very Good Cake, I thought I might get away with it. Besides, this is the kind of...