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Review: Las Tapas, Greystones
With the rise of the Celtic Tiger, the boom in the Irish economy over a decade ago, we saw a surge of new restaurants, offering a wide range of international fare, from sushi bars to dining in total darkness, one of the most popular being Tapas! Tapas originate in Spain, a very continental way to enjoy your wine, with several small dishes of savoury hot or cold food, the average size of a tapas dish is the size of the top of a glass of wine- tapas actually means lid! Tapas dishes used to come complimentary like peanuts but they took off in a big way! The way to enjoy…
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Leaves Pure Food: HEALTHY PASTA! AT LAST!
There’s a huge amount of people with wheat issues, in some way or another and personally, my opinion, is that it’s down to two reasons. The first reason is that I believe we eat way too much of it today, we have cereal for breakfast, lunchtime comes in work and what do we have? A sandwich…. if we have a cookie then, with our coffee, more wheat and depending on what your dinner is, more wheat, in the form of pasta, bread, pastry… and we’ve built some sort of intolerance to it. The second, is something I discovered through a friend a couple of years ago, when wheat is harvested,…
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Recipe: Frangipane Tart With Amaretto & Pear
I was watching Great British Bake Off last week, and was blown away by the Frangipane Tart, I had to make it! To anyone living in UK or Ireland, it’s more or less a Bakewell Tart, made with poached pears. So I made a Frangipane tart, I didn’t use any recipe for the pastry, I always make my own, I understand the texture of it and know how it feels in my hand, so I make it to eye. I also used Matthews Cotswold Mazebite flour a blend of plain flour and fine maizemeal, which ALDI were selling recently and I’ve used it on lots of things, it gives you…
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My Autumn Wardrobe Faves
It’s Autumn already and Summer already seems like a distant memory, but you know what? I am secretly relishing the idea of wrapping up in knitwear, cozy nights by the fire, the beautiful colours that Autumn brings, russets, rusts and golds. This is my favourite time of year! The 70’s is a huge trend this Autumn but you know what? I’m not one to follow trends, I like to think I have my own individual style (not that I have any, while we’re saving for this house purchase anyway, the budget is tight!) but I like to think of my own personal style as classic and tailored but really feminine,…
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Days Out: Powerscourt House & Gardens
Great Irish Houses: Powerscourt House & Gardens “It was a mistake to think of houses, old houses, as being empty. They were filled with memories, with the faded echoes of voices. Drops of tears, drops of blood, the ring of laughter, the edge of tempers that had ebbed and flowed between the walls, into the walls, over the years. Wasn’t it, after all, a kind of life? And there were houses, he knew it, that breathed. They carried in their wood and stone, their brick and mortar a kind of ego that was nearly, very nearly, human.” ― Nora Roberts, Key of Knowledge” I’ve been writing a lot about old…
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Vanilla Pod’s Chicken Salad
One of my true favourite places to eat in Dublin, is the Vanilla Pod Eatery in Carrickmines, every day it’s hopping, from brunch until evening and caters for a wide range of appetites. Divided into two, there’s the Vanilla Pod Kitchen, in which resides a large wood fired oven for delicious pizza and breads and the Vanilla Pod Eatery which is delightfully decorated with bright colours, re-purposed wine crates rustic accessories and frames quotes from Julia Child. Vanilla Pod dishes are delightfully refreshing and their salads feel like they’ve nourished your soul, warm and comforting. I normally order Minestrone soup, with a little parmesan cheese, accompanied by a little…
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Hatch and Sons Brunch Review
I had never heard of Hatch and Sons until it appeared in my Twitter feed last week, it was in the Huffington Post’s Dublin’s 10 Best Breakfasts. I’m a real foodie and seeing as how we were heading into town the morning after the photo of that skillet caught my eye, I had to try it. The breakfast featured was the double baked eggs with brown soda bread, bacon, sausage and baked tomato. Ugh, I couldn’t get that image out of my head! It’s available all day too! We found Hatch and Sons, literally in the same building as The Little Museum, on the (St.Stephens) Green, just on the Corner…
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Longlisted for an award????
I’ve been dancing on air the past week, not only am I now a full time blogger (as of the end of the week) but I’ve made the Longlist for a blog award with Blog Awards Ireland, run by Ashville Media Group!! Firstly, a huge huge THANK YOU, to my fabulous readers, who thought I might be good enough to even be considered and register my blog on the Blog Awards Ireland website, I found out last week that I’ve gone through to be longlisted!!!!!!! *deep breath* I’m not being defeatist, but there are hundreds of longlisted blogs but to even get this far is utterly amazing! There are bloggers…
A lifestyle blog by Sarah Cooke-O'Neill
