I have never cooked Christmas lunch in my own house but I have always helped my Mother out on the day and for the past couple of years I have taken over proceedings – a balancing act that can sometimes drive me mad. It’s quite a complicated affair in terms of timing and there is [...]

Mince pies and pudding are the quintessential Christmas treat. Both share many of the same ingredients so making your own will save you money. Last year I made mince pies the easy way. I bought a jar of mince meat and filled some ready-made vole-au-vent cases and bunged them in the oven. They were tasty, [...]

Like great prizes? In association with the Irish Independent’s LoveFood magazine, we’ve an amazing competition coming up on CheapEats tomorrow. Here’s a sneaky preview article by LoveFood deputy editor and CheapEats contributor Jacqueline Strawbridge.

I’ve always thought that non-chocolate biscuits are the lowest form of confectionary, but they seem to get rolled out at Christmas time. It’s tins of Quality Street, Roses, After Eight, Choc Mallows, and copious amount of jellies all the way in my house. In today’s Irish Times Pricewatch, Conor Pope reviews four tins of biscuits, [...]

I’m not dreaming of a white Christmas; I want mine to be a ginger one. I’m kind of bored with the Christmas decorations I’ve had for eons so instead of going out and buying new ones, I’ve decided to make them. Gingerbread Christmas ornaments are a cinch to produce and they look great on the [...]

Oxfam Ireland have generously provided us with two of their Fair Trade Luxury Christmas Hampers to give away. Each hamper contains a Fair Trade Christmas Cake, luxury chocolate, nuts, biscuits, tea, coffee and much more. One of these hampers will sort you out for all your Christmas treats, or you can pass it on as [...]

This great recipe comes from Hazel McFadden, cookery tutor at The Kitchen in the Castle in Howth. A couple of years ago, Hazel taught me on a month-long professional cookery course, and she is a brilliant teacher – patient, precise, caring and fantastic at cooking. Hazel and her husband, chef Neil McFadden, are the creative [...]

Christmas dinner is a very meat focused affair and although I do enjoy turkey, I think that turkey and ham are weird together. The sprouts are little green spheres of pure deliciousness but in general vegetables are a tad boring at Christmas and I think vegetarians get a bum deal on the day. Well, if [...]

Try this cunning little chestnut cake recipe. It’s moreish and gorgeous, and perfect to have on standby for nibbles now, or great Christmas eats. You can easily freeze it and throw it in the freezer for use at a later date. But you’ll want to eat it now; try it on its own, after dinner [...]

A couple of years ago, I received a jar of jam for Christmas. This may seem like a stingy present but it was actually one of the nicest presents I got that year. It wasn’t any ordinary shop-bought jam but homemade, wrapped specifically with me in mind and had my name printed on the jar. [...]