We're not long back from a week of holidaying in East Cork, and even though we have taken many a holiday there it's somewhere that we tend to return to again and again. There really is no place more beautiful than Ireland, once the sun makes a bit of an appearance, and we were ever so fortunate with the weather. The temperatures were just perfect for basking by the beach, as we kept an eye on the children, as they tried to outdo each other with their castle creations. For each of these beach visits much fuel was needed to optimise our energy levels. Rather conveniently, the ever impressive Midleton market made light work of filling the picnic hampers. It must be the best Farmer's market in the country, with each and every stall holder a true artisan. I even managed to have a cuppa with my blogging buddy, Lilly Higgins, who's lucky enough to have this beautiful market as her local shopping ground each Saturday morning. 

In between beach visits and market shopping I managed to take in a visit to the Ballymaloe Cookery School. My eldest boy, Jack, and I spent the afternoon at the most enjoyable cookery demonstration, guided by Rory O'Connell, who founded the school in 1985, along with his sister, Darina. The food he demonstrated was eloquent, but most of the ingredients were simply sourced from the school's impressive gardens and glasshouses. One such dish was a tomato water served with ripe peaches; perfect as a canapé or as a starter for a dinner party. The flavours reminded me of my Tomato & Feta Salad, which I tend to make lots of while Irish tomatoes are at their ripest. So, the day after our demo Jack and I put together a big bowl of this salad, and generously packed it into an Arbutus ciabatta, which we had picked up at the market. With flavours true to summer, this was the perfect picnic sandwich for that day's outing.

Tomato, Basil & Feta Ciabatta

Ingredients

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 clove garlic, crushed

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

4 tomatoes, thinly sliced

Bunch of basil leaves, roughly torn 

100g feta, crumbled

1 large Ciabatta

Method

1. First make the dressing by combining the balsamic vinegar and the olive oil. Add the garlic and season with a little sea salt and pepper.

2. To a large bowl, add the tomatoes, basil and feta. Drizzle over the dressing and combine well.

3. Cut the Ciabatta in half and stuff with the tomato and feta mixture. Wrap tightly with tin foil and refrigerate until ready to go on your picnic. 

While in East Cork, we also spent a day at Fota Wildlife Park and paid a visit, and of course a kiss, to the Blarney Stone. This year's holiday was extra special as the children had the company of all of their O'Donovan cousins. I know for sure that the fun memories they made together will last a lifetime.

A number of years ago, when I immersed myself into the world of food blogging little did I realise what a wonderful and significant step this was going to be for me. My love for photographing and writing about food naturally deepened, but what has come as the greatest surprise to me are the friends I have made, as a result of my musing on the computer. This coming weekend I'll have the opportunity to catch-up with many of my blogging buddies, as The Kerrygold Ballymloe Lit Fest of Food & Wine is kicking off on Friday. It has to be the most anticipated food event of the year, and I'm proud to say that I'm parttaking in two seperate panel discussions. If you would like to book a spot, head over to the Litfest website. It's sure to be a truly memorable weekend. If you can't make it to Cork, but would like to keep up with some Litfest related news, I'll be tweeting all about it at @Nessa_Robins or follow the hashtag #litfestie.

One of my blogging friends, that I'm looking forward to having a good chat with this weekend, is Kristin Jensen. Kristin is the wonderful writer of the blog ‘Edible Ireland’. She is based in Louth but originally hails from America. Kristin and I have become great friends, through our mutual love of food, but we also have children of a similar age, which makes for the organisation of perfect play dates, while we catch-up. On one such occasion Kristin gifted me with a lemon blueberry buckle. A buckle is a traditional American dessert which has a thick crust, is filled with fruit, and finished with a crumble topping. With so many delicious elements it’s a truly splendid dessert. My recipe I'm sharing with you today, even though it’s really just a simple crumble, resembles many elements of Kristin’s Buckle. For that zingy lemon undertone I’ve added some lemon zest to both the rhubarb and the crumble. To exaggerate the lemon flavour even more, I’ve included a few sprigs of lemon thyme to the rhubarb while it stews. The lemon thyme grows in abundance in my garden, but if you can’t get your hands on any, simply add a little extra lemon zest. One marvellous tip I received from Kristin was to part-freeze the crumble topping, which ultimately leads to a crunchier crumble top. So now whenever I make a crumble, of any variety, I pop the topping into the freezer, while I prepare the filling, and I’m always reminded of the value of friendships, old and new.

Lemon Rhubarb Crumble

Ingredients

Crumble

150g butter

250g plain flour

150g caster sugar

zest of 1 lemon

Filling

600g rhubarb, sliced into bite size pieces

100g caster sugar

zest of 1 lemon

4 sprigs of lemon thyme

2 tbsp water

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/Gas 6.

2. To prepare the crumble, place the flour in a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and the lemon zest, and combine. Place the crumble mixture into the freezer until you have the rhubarb stewed.

3. Place the rhubarb, sugar, lemon zest, lemon thyme and water into a medium sized saucepan. Bring to the boil, and then turn down the heat, cover and allow to simmer for  two minutes, until the rhubarb has slightly softened.

4. Scoop out the sprigs of lemon thyme. Spoon the stewed rhubarb into a large ovenproof dish. Sprinkle over the chilled crumble mixture and place the dish on a baking tray. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 35-40 minutes, until the crumble topping is golden brown and the rhubarb is bubbling around the edges. Serve with freshly whipped cream or custard.

I've had a bag of dried carrageen moss, in the press, for the past year. A friend of my late aunts, from Donegal, gifted me with it, as I had mentioned that I had never used it before. Then last summer, while holidaying in Cork, Diarmuid and I had the most glorious dinner at Ballymaloe House and there, on the dessert trolley, was a large crystal bowl filled with carrageen moss pudding. I thought it was rather nice, for something that is so nutritious, and vowed to make it on returning home. Only today did I make it, for the first time. Carrageen Moss, also known as Irish Moss, is highly nutritious. It is very rich in iron, iodine, fibre and anti-oxidants. My Dad is currently struggling to maintain high levels of iron, so I'm trying to help him with some iron-rich foods. We had this carrageen moss pudding for today's dessert and tomorrow morning the boys and I are going foraging for another iron-rich ingredient - nettles. I'll be making Nettle Soup, as suggested to me by the very lovely Sally McKenna, who knows a thing or two about foraging!

The dried Carrageen moss can be found in most health food shops and online. It keeps almost indefinitely, when it's in its dried form.

This recipe is from the queen of foraging, Darina Allen. Darina claims that all the babies of Ballymaloe were weaned onto Carrageen moss pudding. All of my children tried it today and once sprinkled with a little soft brown sugar they seemed to enjoy it. It is best served chilled with a fruit compote. I paired today's pudding with some poached rhubarb, which worked wonderfully.

Carrageen Moss Pudding

Ingredients

1 semi-closed fistful (1/4 oz /7g) cleaned, well dried Carrageen Moss

900ml (1 1/2) pints  milk
1 tablespoon castor sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

Method
1.Soak the carrageen in tepid water for 10 minutes. 
2.Strain off the water and put the carrageen into a saucepan with milk and vanilla extract.
3.Bring to the boil and simmer very gently, on a low heat, with the lid on for 20 minutes.
4. At that point separate the egg, put the yolk into a large bowl, add the sugar and vanilla extract and whisk together for a few seconds.
5. Pour the milk and carrageen moss through a strainer onto the egg yolk mixture whisking all the time. The carrageen will now be swollen and exuding jelly. Rub all this jelly through the strainer and whisk this also into the milk with the sugar, egg yolk and vanilla extract if used. 
6.Whisk the egg white until stiff and fold it in gently. It will rise to make a fluffy top. 
7. Serve chilled with soft brown sugar and cream and/or with a fruit compote such as rhubarb or plum.

We arrived back home on Saturday from a really lovely family holiday in East Cork. For the most part it was sunny which made easy planning of daily activities. When away I like to make the most of amenities so we managed to get to Fota Wildlife Park, of course the beach was a massive attraction to the kids however it proved awkward with Millie who protested to only wanting to get in the water. Fionn turned 4 last week so a trip to the cinema followed by bowling and a visit to a play centre fitted in nicely on one of the wet days.

Somewhere that we hadn't visited before and it most certainly was worth a visit was The Blarney Stone and Castle. The grounds are magnificent with so many interesting hidden areas that the children just loved exploring. I'm sorry to say that I didn't kiss the stone. I did attempt to climb the winding stairs to reach the top of the castle but I buckled. I'm not terribly good with either heights or confined spaces so being stuck in a tight que while slowly climbing to the top of the tower made me feel a little light headed and in fear that I might collapse back on the American tourist, that were behind me, I apologetically squeezed passed them with Millie on my hip. To my disbelief Fionn, who's only 4, had no issue with climbing the tower and in turn lay back and kissed the stone without batting an eyelid! I was so proud of him!

While on holidays I found it quite difficult to eat to the standard that I would at home, its just wonderful to have plenty of fresh veggies and fruit in the back garden as well as fresh eggs. Of course not having my well stocked store cupboard and many kitchen bits and bobs also influenced what meals I cooked while away. We limited the amount of times we ate out with the children as more often its expensive and in many cases at least two out of the four would barely finish what they order so I find picnics are always the best option. One of the days we stopped at a cafe as it was a little blustery and a bowl of soup was sure to warm us up. As always I ask plenty of questions before deciding what to order. On enquiring whether the soup was home made the young girl glanced to an older girl and both answered 'yes'. I went on to order soup for each of us but once it reached the counter I could see little pieces of imitation veg floating on the top. I had a little taste and with it's distinctive packet soup flavour I knew this vegetable soup had never seen any vegetables. I had five hungry kids at the table awaiting their soup so I was buying it anyway but I had to advise this young girl that 'I don't think this is home made' in turn she was completely insistent that it was. If their version of 'homemade' was mixing a packet with with some milk and water, well yes it was 'homemade'. I felt like a child who had to get the last word in of a fight 'NOT HOMEMADE!'

Adults and children will enjoy a trip to Ballymaloe Cookery School. The gardens are very impressive and you might even bump into Darina or Rachel!

Diarmuid's parents joined us for two of the days and this gave us the opportunity to dine out one of the evenings. The house which we stayed in was a mere two minute drive from Ballymaloe House so this was our chosen eatery. In all the times I travelled to Cork and visited Ballymaloe I never actually had a meal at the house. I have always wanted to but the opportunity never arose. I was so excited about the prospect of a child-free meal and where better to enjoy this than in the the beautiful setting of Ballymaloe. On our arrival we were given the choice of three tables. We choose one by a window which had a beautiful view but also was conducive to taking a few photos. On reading the menu it seemed fairly straight forward, no unusual ingredient but plenty of choice.

We both had a Potato & Fresh Herb Soup to start which was seasoned well with a lovely creaminess. Lots of deliciously fresh bread accompanied it. Next I had a Beetroot, Marsh Samphire & Knockalara Salad which was simple but bursting with fresh flavours. Diarmuid had the Pate Campagne which was so tasty and had lots of pistachio nuts flecked through it. For main I had Cod with Scallops and Diarmuid had Beef, both really scrumptious meals. The cod was the nicest I've ever had and when I complimented it to the waiter he replied that it was only caught earlier that day in Ballycotton. Such comments I love to hear when eating out and not that 'Mr Knorr' had been busy over a stove all night ;) To accompany our main were some carrots, new potatoes and a green salad. To my husbands delight seconds were offered not only of the veg and spuds but also more meat.

The staff at Ballymaloe were all perfectly groomed and so nice and friendly, each eager to make our dining experience a good one. The cheese course consisted of some well chosen local cheeses with little homemade crackers. For dessert one of the young waitresses wheeled over a very well presented dessert trolley on which was a lemon tart, poached plums, fresh plums, carageen moss pudding, meringue roulade and homemade vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. I opted for a little taste of everything! As if all that wasn't enough some pretty little petit fours were offered with our very nice cup of coffee.

Each dish completely showcased the freshness of their ingredients. There were so many delicious dishes that I could see myself recreating at home. What an amazing dining experience that was a complete treat that surpassed all my expectations.
After a week away it's always lovely to come home especially when ladened down with lots of lovely memories of a fun family holiday.

I love mushrooms and try to include them in as many dishes as possible. As a child, when mushrooms were in season, I would go picking them with my father. My mother would then prepare the wild mushrooms, fry in butter, season, add some milk and bring to a simmer. This would then be served on a thick slice of crusty bread to mop up all the juices. A delicious dish with some treasured memories.
This recipe for Mushrooms is simply a richer version. This is my ultimate mushroom fix; creamy mushrooms on toasted brioche. It is also good on toasted white or brown bread.


Ingredients
25g  butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
225g mushrooms, sliced
100ml cream
freshly chopped parsley
1/2 tablespoon freshly chopped chives (optional)
a squeeze of lemon juice
salt and freshly ground pepper

Method
1. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan until it foams. Add the chopped onions, cover and sweat on a gentle heat for 5-10 minutes or until quite soft but not coloured.
2. Meanwhile cook the sliced mushrooms in a little butter, in a hot frying pan in batches if necessary. Season each batch with salt, freshly ground pepper and a tiny squeeze of lemon juice.
3. Add the mushrooms to the onions in the saucepan, then add the cream and allow to bubble for a few minutes.
4. Taste and correct the seasoning, and add parsley and chives if used.


These creamy mushrooms may be served as a vegetable, or as a filling for vol au vents or pancakes or as a quick sauce for pasta. This sauce will keep well in the fridge for 3 days.