When the words ‘cheap cocktails’ are uttered, I’m sure most of us have some terrible memory of some rancid ‘hold your nose’ concoction served to us at an indecent hour and state. Well, not all cheap cocktails have to be muck; punch is the ideal way to treat your guests to a delicious cocktail without [...]

It has been a great summer so far for growing and the strawberries haven’t let me down. They taste unbelievably flavoursome and are the stawberriest strawberries I’ve ever tasted. This is the first year I have grown the fruit and I had no idea that there would be such a bevy of them. In fact, [...]

I planned on eating just one Easter egg over the weekend but I ended up eating two giant eggs, gorging myself on cake until I hated myself, and drinking like a sailor. Now I feel rubbish and to make matters worse I’m off to Spain soon for a much awaited holiday and have to squash [...]

I religiously consult the ‘Going up – Going down’ section of the Sunday Times style magazine to keep abreast of what’s hip and what’s not. Naturally I don’t follow any of their advice but reading their checklist of what to wear, eat, listen to, buy and avoid is titillating stuff. If I did follow their [...]

I have a nasty cold at the moment. I could feel it coming on all last week but I had to babysit four of my sisters children for the weekend so I wouldn’t allow myself to be sick. Now I feel like rubbish and can’t even think straight. Well, it turns out that all of [...]

There are a stupid number of great and not so great recipes available online but to me having a cookbook in my hand feels good. I like the way you can tell what recipes have been cooked by the state of the page and you can also bring the book to the kitchen counter rather [...]

There are some great deals on vegetables and fruit at the moment. But what’s the point in stocking up if you don’t know how to store them properly? I use to shove all my fruit and vegetables in the fridge and then moan a few days later when some were rotten. Well, there is a [...]

Our reader Ciaran emailed us recently to ask if we’d seen frozen strawberries anywhere. I’ve seen frozen berries in numerous supermarkets, but they’re usually cranberries, blueberries, raspberries or bags of mixed berries that only include a few strawberries at most. However, I was in Fallon & Byrne yesterday buying some middle-class treats and saw that [...]

Yesterday’s Irish Independent ran a taste-test on concentrated orange juices, and Superquinn’s Euroshopper option came out top of their list. Juice is one of those things I spend more money than I should on. I know that they are much, much cheaper, but concentrated orange or apple juice just don’t taste the same. Concentrated orange [...]

Wow! Look at all this food. Why don’t we have anything like this in Dublin? Corkonians need no introduction to The English Market, but the rest of us might. Last Saturday, I was amazed and enchanted by an extraordinary feast for all five senses. This huge indoor market has been around since 1788 and is [...]