ENGLISH MUM

Ooh I love the sunshine.  One of the few downsides of living in Ireland was watching the weather forecast and seeing that our family at home in the south of England were enjoying weather a good 6 or 7 degrees warmer than us. Happily, we’re now enjoying those extra degrees (interspersed with a few proper English days of torrential rain –  just to keep us in our place), plus a few more it would...

So during half term, my adorable twin niece and nephew, Miss Turtle and Mr Jackson came to stay with my two chisellers.  We decided to have a blow-out junk food and video night and Turtle agreed to be my glamorous assistant, tearing herself away from her mobile phone and nail file (how the girl doesn’t have stumps for fingers the amount of filing she does, I’ll never know) for just long enough...

I have my friend and fellow blogger Mrs Wallop to thank for this one.  I was at the butcher’s a couple of weeks ago, and was rather taken by a whole shoulder of lamb, which I bought on a whim because it was cheap.  Shoulder has by far the tastiest meat, but isn’t a pretty joint.  Still, it has… erm… ‘character’, shall we say. Anyhoo, later, when it was sitting staring at...

Every time we have a takeaway from the local Indian Restaurant, Hubby always raves about their Chicken Dhansak.  It’s kind of a lentily, thick and very slightly sweet chicken curry with a powerful kick of chilli.  I’ve been trying to recreate it for a while and I think, judging by his reaction, I’m nearly there.  It’s great served with my cheaty flatbreads and once you’ve got...

So that’s it, then.  The big day is shortly upon us and I’m looking forward to a small family Christmas (just us, English Grandma and maybe Mad Uncle Ali in the afternoon) at our new little house in Hertfordshire. Wherever you are and whoever you’re with, I wish you all a wonderful, indulgent Christmas. And as always, remember to chill out, have fun, stick on your glad rags, enjoy your precious...

Moving on, then, because frankly, a girl’s got to eat, even when she’s packing.  Here’s a nice, warming, saying-goodbye-to-Ireland kind of pie.  This is the kind of pie to eat with a big pile of mashed potato whilst looking out of your window at the rain driving horizontally across the garden, and feeling smug that you’re not out there, but in here with a big piece of pie. So.  You’ll...

A funny thing happened on Friday afternoon. A chap knocked on the door and delivered an enormous wicker hamper, stuffed with every possible seasonal vegetable you can imagine. I was in the garden, and was, frankly, slightly confused when #2 came out to find me and declare that ‘some bloke just dropped off a big box of broccoli and stuff’. Anyhoo, it turned out not to be an anonymous food parcel...

We had this for lunch today and I realised I’ve never posted this little beauty before.  I’m almost embarrassed to pass on the chicken recipe to you as it’s barely more than mixing a few ingredients together, but it’s soooo good and makes the house smell so delicious that I think you deserve it.  Here goes, then: For the tandoori chicken: 4 heaped tbsp plain yoghurt 1 tbsp tandoori...

So it’s bank hols here in the Republic and yesterday dawned the most beautiful, hot sunny day.  There’s nothing quite like a sunny day in Ireland.  Not only is it very unusual and therefore all the more welcome, but the whole greenness of the place gives it an almost luminous, lime green glow.   The kids started off mucking about spraying each other with water guns, then hubby disappeared to...

Ah, Mother’s Day.  A day for eating cremated bacon sandwiches whilst smiling broadly and going ‘mmm, delicious!’, drinking the half-cup of dodgy tea that was delivered to your bedside whilst secretly worrying how long it’s going to take you to remove the other half that’s been slopped up the stairs, and being the recipient of approximately fifteen hardly squeezes and twenty five...