Photohunt: scoop

Ah, St Patricks Day! The world’s excuse to dye everything green, and flavour everything with Guinness. Including ice-cream. Actually, this worked quite well – the malty flavour of the stout was reminiscent of other confectionery like Maltesers, and I don’t like my desserts to be overly sweet.  For reference, this was in an ice-cream parlour [...]

Photohunt spicy

St Georges Market, in downtown Belfast is a great place to find all sorts of interesting foodstuffs.  Here’s one of the spice stalls. My kids always tease me about ordering the ”most random thing on the menu”.  As I surveyed my morning’s purchases – roast dulse, dopiaza sauce, feta stuffed peppers, marinated artichoke hearts, pistachio and sour cherry biscotti  and [...]

Quinoa salad

Cook a cup of quinoa, in water or stock. Take one large or 2 small courgettes, and cut into rounds. Lightly oil a griddle pan, and cook the courgette rounds so that they get lovely stripes on each side. In a dry frying pan, toast a handful of pine-nuts. Combine all ingredients in a large [...]

Recipe: roast roots

This is one of my favourite recipes – roast roots. Dice some squash, sweet potato, and carrot (parsnip is good too) Tuck in some herbs – rosemary and thyme work well. And some whole unpeeled cloves of garlic if that’s something you like. Season with black pepper and sea salt. Toss in some oil – [...]

One week later

One week into the new house

When God gives you lemons…

I know, the textbook answer is “make lemonade”. Although after a fab weekend with my best friend Sarah, we decided the answer should be “pour gin and tonics!” I’d gone to London for the h2g2 meet, managing to wave to Prince Charles en route, and get an upgrade to first class on the Stansted Express [...]

Tastefest

Mouthwatering food in Botanic gardens