Friday 26 September 2014

My Easy Peasy Pavlova Recipe

Last Sunday I baked and served one of my retro favs for a trip to the in-laws - a pavlova laden with lashings of fresh Irish cream and a pretty odd but lovely array of fresh fruit! There was a decent amount of liking and commenting over on Facebook and Instagram so to all my appreciated likers, here is my very simple, straightforward recipe for this delicious sweet treat, which is naturally gluten-free too!
This pavlova will serve about 6 to 8 portions (*ahem* but we shared it among four adults *cough*)

Thursday 18 September 2014

Baked Camembert with Pasta

Cheese, cheese, cheese. I could talk about cheese until the cows come home...and provide us with more milk, to make more cheese! Yay! I have been a cheese fanatic for as long as I can recall and I haven't found a cheese yet that I dislike. Cheese, being high in fat, I like to see as a treat. I also regard it as an important food to boost my intake of dietary calcium, along with yogurt, as I'm not a big fan of milk. I currently have a lovely vintage Cheddar and Parmesan (for an impending risotto) in my fridge and up until recently, there was a Camembert round too. Half of this Camembert round for 2 people (or the whole thing for 4) will provide you with this luscious and very simple pasta lunch dish. It is also a lovely date type of lunch as it requires sharing, which we are all more than happy to do with our partner, right?! I hope you enjoy.

Baked Camembert and spinach fusilli pasta are served

Friday 12 September 2014

#BPBR no. 2 - The Hairy Dieters' Eat For Life

'The Hairy Dieters' Eat For Life', by Si King and Dave Myers, published in 2013

This was a work book club thingy find and it was a steal, I think I bought it for about €8. I am sucker for cookbooks in a general sense, but when a deal like this appears, there's no stopping me! I have seen a few episodes here and there of the Hairy Bikers, as they are more commonly known, and I felt this book would definitely be worth a try as I couldn't imagine these two guys ever wanting to scrimp on the flavour side of things. Their approach to healthier eating is pretty simple really - healthier choices and lower calories in what they cook and eat but happily their mantra will appeal to all foodies: "first and foremost our diet recipes are great food". So here's to great food!


The Hairy Dieters' Cookbook above, and below; some photos from the book - healthy chicken fajitas and biryani.

Friday 5 September 2014

#BPBR no. 1 - Nigella Express

'Nigella Express', by Nigella Lawson, published in 2007.

This cookbook came into my possession at Christmas time in 2007 as a gift from my youngest sister Muireann. She knows me well. The book is well worn at this stage, which to me, is one of the best signs of a cookbook. This isn't my only cookbook by Nigella but it is the one I return to most often and is among my favourite cookbooks of my entire (sizable) collection. I hope you enjoy reading this review of 'Nigella Express', my first #BPBR!

The cookbook - 'Nigella Express' - did you guess this would be first up?!

Thursday 4 September 2014

#BPBR - An Introduction

So I have come up with a new idea for the blog, which I am on planning on writing about over the coming months, until Christmas all going well. So what is #BPBR? Well, it means Bullet Point Book Review. Not long ago I was doing a bit of rejigging on the blog, looking over my about section and so on and I noticed I haven't done anything in the line of a cookbook review yet. I have a mighty stack of the things and just added four new books this past summer. So it's time to remedy that. My first #BPBR will be up on the blog tomorrow.

See can you guess which one of these books will be the subject of tomorrow's first #BPBR?!