Christmas 2023 Wrap up!

Here's a few pics from Christmas 2023, in no particular order....

Homemade goodies

I made Peanut Butter Bites for homemade Christmas gifts this year - here they are along with some pics of them all boxed up and ready to give to friends (we did deliveries around the area on the days leading up to Christmas and even did a "cycle-by" to 2 houses in Ranelagh on Christmas morning, with plans to leave the homemade tasties on doorsteps!)

Wrapping Gifts

Instead of wrapping paper this year I decided to use tea towels or table cloths (mini side table sizes). I found some fabulous vintage Christmas tea towels in the most glorious of colours

The above pic is of a little gift that I gave my younger sister. How cute!

Bones got in to the Christmas spirit and wore a seasonal jumper

Christmas Eve

We had a lovely quiet Christmas Eve and spent the afternoon in The Stella watching "It's a Wonderful Life"

And after a tasty Christmas dinner it was lovely to enjoy a glass of wine with the Christmas tree lights twinkling in the background

And while Christmas is all over now, you can still check this video out to see me reading a part of 'Twas the Night before Christmas with colleagues

Hope you had wonderful Christmas full of cheer - here's to the new Year!

2024 is going to be great!!!

Seasonal Sandwich Search - Two Fifty Square, Juniors Deli and a shout out to the Lidl Sandwich!

Our Christmas Sandwich competion continued with 3 more sandwiches.

Christmas Sandwich number 7 was in Two Fifty Square (Rathmines) and it included the "moist maker" which was an extra slice of bread in the middle of the sandwich smothered in gravy.

It was a good sizeable sandwich that came with salad on the side and a dipping jus. But with a price tag of €16 it was always going to lose on price.

The scores for the Two Fity Square were 

1. Price.                                     Enid 3/5      Ciaran 3/5
2. Ingredients                            Enid 4/5      Ciaran 4/5
3. Construction / aesthetic.      Enid 4/5      Ciaran 4/5
4. Atmosphere/ Experience       Enid 2/5      Ciaran 2/5
5. Tradition                                Enid 4/5      Ciaran 4/5

With a total of 33 out of 50, Two Fifty Square achieved a good score,

Sandwich no. 8

It was then on to Juniors Deli for sandwich no. 8. 

We had high hopes for this one as Ciaran had talked it up, having enjoyed Juniors sandwiches before. Both of us removed the rocket which we felt over powered the sandwich and In think the score reflects how it was over all.

The scores for Juniors were 

1. Price.                                     Enid 4/5      Ciaran 4/5
2. Ingredients                            Enid 3/5      Ciaran 3/5
3. Construction / aesthetic.      Enid 3/5      Ciaran 4/5
4. Atmosphere/ Experience       Enid 2/5      Ciaran 3/5
5. Tradition                                Enid 3/5      Ciaran 3/5

With a total of 32out of 50, Juniors got a score lower than anticipated.

An honourary sbout out goes to the Lidl Sandwich which is on sale for €2.99 and is a great sandwich for this price point.

We didn't score this sandwich becuase we ate it at home unlike all of the other sandwiches which we ate inhouse. I reckon it would have scored well!

So that brings an end to the Annual Ciaran & Enid Christmas Sandwich Competion.

I'll announce the winner in my next blog post - but you can can read about the other sandwiches here.

Seasonal Sandwich no. 5 & 6- Gerard's Deli & Starbucks

The search continues for the best Christmas Sandwich in Dublin.....

Gerard's Deli

After visiting the Warhol exhibition in the Hugh Lane Gallery on Wednesday, we sauntered back through town from the Northside to the Southside making our way to Gerard's Deli on Earlsfort Terrace in order to have their Christmas Sandwich. which we had seen advertised on Instagram. The sandwich was made on a roll and they suggest it be toasted - so that's what we did!

There is no seating to speak of in Gerard's and it is more of a sandwich to go place that probably services all of the offices in the locality. 

However, we did manage to stand at a small counter near the back of the shop where we split a sandwich between us.

Here's the pic of the toasted sandwich with our scores to follow, and as a point of information this sandwich was €7.50.

1. Price.                                     Enid 4/5      Ciaran 4/5
2. Ingredients                            Enid 3/5      Ciaran 3/5
3. Construction / aesthetic.      Enid 3/5      Ciaran 3/5
4. Atmosphere/ Experience       Enid 3/5      Ciaran 2/5
5. Tradition                                Enid 2/5      Ciaran 2/5

Total for Gerard's is 29 out of 50

Starbucks Holiday Sandwich

After stopping in Voila on Baggot Street to see if they had a Christmas Sandwich (they don't) we headed on to Starbucks on Waterloo Road where we ordered one of their Holiday Sandwiches, which again we got toasted.

At a cost of €6.25 it was tasty even though I was picking up a hint of cinnamon from it - perhaps it was in the stuffing? Is this a thing?

Here's our scores for this sandwich

1. Price.                              Enid 4/5      Ciaran 4/5
2. Ingredients                          Enid 3/5      Ciaran 4/5
3. Construction / aesthetic.       Enid 3/5      Ciaran 4/5
4. Atmosphere/ Experience        Enid 3/5      Ciaran 3/5
5. Tradition                                Enid 3/5      Ciaran 2/5

Starbucks sandwich got a total of 33 out of 50

So as you can see neither of these sandwiches are top scorers with Greenville Deli sandwich still at the top. And if you want to read about the last contender, click here to read about the Santy Bagel from Itsa.

Seasonal Sandwich Search no. 4 - Santy Bagel in Itsa

So we got a bonus sandwich added to our search for the best Christmas sandwich in Dublin this year.

We made a quick stop off in the city before Ciaran headed off for Mayo later in the day. Both of us were a little bit hungry so we decided to go for a Christmas sandwich and ended up in Itsa Bagel (in Arnotts) were we each had their "Santy Bagel".

They were very tasty but the cranberry was quite sharp so I asked for some mayonaise and added that to my bagel to tone it down.

I haven't had a bagel in a long while and this one was particularly good but perhaps quite sweet.

Here's the pic of the Santy Bagel, which was made of all the usual Christmas trimmings.

Keenly priced at just under 8 euro, here's how it scored overall.

1. Price.                                     Enid 4/5   Ciaran 4/5
2. Ingredients                            Enid 4/5     Ciaran 4/5
3. Construction / aesthetic.     Enid 3/5     Ciaran 3/5
4. Atmosphere/ Experience      Enid 3/5     Ciaran 2/5
5. Tradition                                 Enid 2/5     Ciaran 2/5

With a score of 31 out of 50 this is a good sandwich but unfortunately not in the top two scoring sandwiches. See here to read about the current top Christmas sandwich from Greenville Deli in Rathmines

And below is the receipt saved for posterity.

The search continues!

Seasonal Sandwich Search - No. 3 at Greenville Deli

For our 3rd Christmas Sandwich of the season we returned to Rathmines in order to visit Greenville Deli where I had seen their seasonal sandwich offering on Instagram and it looked promising.

We ordered one sandwich between us as they seemed sizable enough and Ciaran also ordered a coffee while I had a Coke Zero.

We seemed to have hit the cafe at a bad time, literally peak lunch time, at about 1.30pm and there was a long line ahead of us and then more people after us with the place being packed and having no seats available. Seating generally is quite limited in the place and we ended up at the counter facing out on to the street with a high stool for me and Ciaran standing.

And finally after a bit of a wait, our number was called and this was the sandwich we collected at the counter.

Looks good doesn't it?!

On the Greenville Deli insta they list the following ingredients in the sandwich: Roasted Turkey, hand carved ham, sage & rosemary stuffing, brie, pickled red cabbage, cranberry sauce and mustard mayo on sourdough! Comes with our homemade cranberry aioli dip and a little bag of crisps.  And altogether it sure tasted good......even the brie - of which I am normally not a fan.

And so it was on to the scores for the sandwich:

Price: Enid 5/5 Ciaran 5/5

Ingredients: Enid 5/5 Ciaran 5/5

Construction/Aesthetic: Enid 4/5 Ciaran 5/5

Atmosphere/Experience: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 2/5

Tradition: Enid 2/5 Ciaran 2/5

With a score of 38 out of 50, Greenville Deli is on top at the moment having beaten sandwich no. 2 (Farmer Browns) by 2 points. See here for the Farmer Brown results and pics

I forgot to take a pic of the receipt but coming in at 9 euro this sandwich ranked high on quality and taste versus price, and while there was not a whole lot of Christmas spirit in the cafe (barely a decoration in sight and no Christmas music being played) it is looking like this sandwich could win out to be our ultimate winner!

Seasonal Sandwich Search - No. 2 at Farmer Brown

After two strikes on our Christmas Sandwich Search this afternoon (no seasonal sandwich in Brother Hubbard Ranelagh and all sandwiches sold out by 3pm in Greenville Deli in Rathmines) we ended up in Farmer Browns in Rathmines where we both ordered the "Turkey & Ham Yorkshire Pudding Wrap" for 12 euro each.

We were unsure what was going to be served to us - but I was happy enough to wait, and see, while sitting outside sipping a glass of proseco. It was a cold day but we were seated under an outdoor heater and there was also blankets on all of the chairs which was a nice touch.

Well when it arrived we were quite surprised by what it was!

We shouldn't have been surprised as what arrived at the able was was exactly as described on the menu. Check it out!!

It was basically a Christmas dinner wrapped in the most massive Yorkshire Pudding. Quite whether it could be classified as a "Christmas Sandwich" gave us pause for thought as we ate the dish. 

But either way we went ahead and scored it against the same criteria as KC Peaches which was our first sandwich as part of this seasonal competition that we do. See here for KC Peaches sandwich score and pics.

And this is our scores for the Farmer Browns seasonal "sandwich" (debateable!)

Price: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 3/5

Ingredients: Enid 4/5 Ciaran 4/5

Construction/Aesthetic: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 3/5

Atmosphere/Experience: Enid 4/5 Ciaran 4/5

Tradition: Enid 4/5 Ciaran 4/5

Both our scores were added together and this sandwich got a total of 36 out of 50, which means that it takes the lead......but still lots more sandwiches to go so it's certainly not guaranteed a win at this point!

Edit - so seemingly the Yorkshire Pudding Wrap is a viral trend!

After reading my blog, my younger sister let me know that she had seen a video of the Yorkshire Pudding Wrap in borough Market, on Tik Tok. So I went in search of more info and found lots of places serving it. Let me know what you think?  Are you intruiged and will you be visiting Farmer Browns to taste it here in Dublin?!

Christmas is coming.....

After the terrible events of Thursday evening in Dublin City when the city was overtaken by a rioting mob (truly a dark day) I was happy to sit back and relax and watch the Late Late Toy Show.

I didn't plan to wear my Christmas jumper this early in the season but my sister texted this pic in to our sisters what's app group with a note that she was ready for the toy show.

So after seeing Katie in her jumper, I changed in to mine and then took a pic to send to the group - along with Bones because he was going to watch with me!

I've written about the Late Late Toy Show before on my blog and you can read about it here

This year we had a new presenter with Patrick Kielty taking over the helm. Well he did a great job and I really enjoyed the show. I reckon it was the best show in years!

So once the Toy Show has been on, it is really the start of the Christmas season here in Ireland.

So because of this, Ciaran and I started our Christmas Sandwich Search / Competition. 

We have a thing where we select a few places that serve a Christmas Sandwich and we go visit and taste it and then rate it.  We each get to select 2 places but then go to 5 in total because the winner from last year automatically gets in to the following year's lineup.  

Well KC Peaches was the 2022 winning Christmas Sandwich so we put it first on the list and visited there this afternoon.

Here's the pic of the sandwich (we made a small modification where we removed the spinach which was an ingredient on the sandwich)

Well it was a good start but we hope to have some better sandwiches after this one. Here's our scores for the KC Peaches one

Price: Enid 4/5 Ciaran 4/5

Ingredients: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 2/5

Construction/Aesthetic: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 3/5

Atmosphere/Experience: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 2/5

Tradition: Enid 2/5 Ciaran 2/5

Both our scores were added together and this sandwich got a total of 28 out of 50 (a fairly good score for the first sandwich but I don't think it will be the winner).

For the record, here's the receipt for two sandwiches, 1 prosecco and 1 cup of tea. Watch this space for more Christmas Sandwiches and to see which one is the winner for 2023!

Hola! Back at learning Spanish

Here's what I've been getting up to over the past few days. Unfortunately I took no photos so will just have to see what I can find online.

Thursday evening brought me back to somewhat formal Spanish learning with a teacher led conversational Spanish class in the library.  I'm currently doing Duolingo but am finding that that the less Spanish I speak the more I am losing my words and any fluency that I have built up. So it was good to be back conversing in Spanish. At the first class we spoke about food that we like and in the next class the plan is to talk about the airport.

And then on Friday, I took half day from work in order to meet my mother and niece for a lovely lunch in a Chinese restaurant on Wicklow Street (my mother's choice). Both Mam and Eleanor had curry (chicken and vegetable) while I had chicken with satay sauce which was so good. There were lots of tasty veg in my dish and the sauce was perfectly peanutty with the slightest bit of heat. We shared starters of spring rolls, salt & chilli chicken and Satay chicken skewers. With some nice red wine to wash it all down it was a great meet up in the centre of Dublin

And later that evening on Friday, I suggested to Ciaran that we should head over to Capel Street on the north side of the city as Dublin City Council were running a night market street event with loads of activities on Capel Street.

We took the Luas to O'Connell Street and from there we walked to Capel Street. When we got to the street, a screening of "The Goonies" was just starting at the top end of the street (not the Quays end) and we walked from the top to the bottom and took all the activitiy in. There was live music, games and market stalls along with cooking demonstrations.  

It was so busy with the street packed with people so I couldn't event really see if there were stalls selling hot food - this is what I had hoped for, as Ciaran hadn't eaten all day so I thought he could get something here. We even tried to get in to All Bar Chicken but that was fully booked.  So perhaps for the next night street event like this there could be food trucks as part of the event. But fun all the same!

We took the bus home and cooked chicken wings for dinner along with a glass of cava while watching Big Brother live evictions. 

All in all another great day in Dublin City!

Tomahawk Steak for 7!

 7 for 7

- that's how it went this Sunday evening when we hosted a dinner of 7 people starting at 7pm.

Prior to the dinner I had a scavenger hunt on my hand having set myself the task of sourcing Tomahawk Steaks. Not easy! 

With a search that took me from Dun Laoghaire to Rathmines and beyond, I finally settled upon two 30 day aged steaks from the butcher in Ranelagh, hitting about the 2kg mark in total.

Cooking these bad boys normally involves a reverse sear method and a very smokey kitchen - which isn't great for an open plan kitchen and no dinner guest likes to be sitting in smoke!

So this time I decided to the reverse of the reverse sear method and instead seared the steaks when guests arrived and while they had a pre-dinner drink in the front room. After searing a nice crust on each of the steaks I popped them in the oven with a meat thermometer set for 52 degrees celcius in order to achieve a rare cook.

It all worked out perfectly with no smokey kitchen and, after a starter of a blue cheese wedge salad, followed by some tomato meatballs on a small ring of pasta and some smoked salmon blinis (with cream cheese and sweet chilli sauce), we all enjoyed the meat along with brocolli and hasselback potatoes. 

I sure was glad it worked out because (1) I didn't want to ruin the good meat and (2) truth be told I was very nervous about cooking for 7!!

What's better than a dessert after dinner?!

Why 2 desserts of course!!

Fiona brought a delicious chocolate cake (Darina Allen receipe) while I made a strawberry cookies and cream "ice box cake"

Both so so good!

And the empty wine bottles all tell a story :-) 

And conveniently I signed up for a glass bottle bin collection service so the next morning clean up was very little hassle with the bottles all just getting put in the bin in the garden with no trip to the bottle bank having to be organised. I highly recommend this service.

Halloween Cycle in Dublin City

Friday brought the start of the Bank Holiday weekend (wahey!) 

After leaving work I headed to Dublin City to meet up with Ciaran at the start of the Critical Mass Halloween cycle. Unfortunately I had a bit of a false start after I realised that I left my phone in work, just as the train left Dun Laoghaire Station. I had to get off at Monkstown Station and cycle back to DL - in fairness it was a nice cycle on the protected cycle path of the DLR Coastal Mobility Route. After picking up my phone from my desk I returned to the station but unfortunately I just missed a train so that set me up to be late for the start of the cycle.  So I reassessed my plan and texted Ciaran to say that I would meet up with the cycle gang on Capel Street.  And that's what I did having got off at Tara Street and cycling down Abbey Street directly to Capel Street.

Many of the cycle crew were in full costume but we just wore masks - red dragon for me and werewolf for Ciarán.

Always fun to take part in this event and have a nice saunter on the bike around Dublin. But I particularly like the themed critical mass cycles depending on the time of year. I look forward to the Christmas one now that the Halloween one is over for the year.

And after the cycle it was back to Capel Street where we had wings & wine in All Bar Chicken......

....well I had wine, the werewolf had beer!

Click here to see my very first Critical Mass cycle - which coincidentally was a Halloween cycle too (and I dressed in full costume for this one)!

You can join Critical Mass if you like - just come along to the start at Parnell Square opposite the entrance to the Hugh Lane Gallery, at the side of the Garden of Remembrance. It is on the last Friday of every month and starts at 6pm. See you there!!

My new favourite thing!

Well look at this lovely surprize gift that arrived in a little envelope from my twin sister all the way in the USA - a fab ELVIS necklace!

I LOVE IT!!

It's my new favourite thing :-) 

Thanks Amy - I'll wear it to work tomorrow and hopefully I get a few comments on it! 

Before I start work tomorrow I'm getting my flu vaccine and then after work is the start of the Bank Holiday weekend. Woo hoo! 

Nyad: Never ever give up!

"Nyad" the movie about the amazing Diana Nyad's 100 mile swim from Cuba to Key West opened here in Ireland this weekend. It is a Netflix presentation so it seems like it was a limited cinema release with it then going live on Netflix in a month.

After searching around I saw that it was in Dundrum Centre Cinema on Sunday afternoon so we headed off on the Luas to see it there. 

Wow was it inspirational!

After being beaten by the cruel Florida Straits in the 1970's as a young lady, Diana made a plan to do it at the grand young age of 60. With her trainer and best friend Bonnie, she made attempt after attempt (4 times) until she finally succeeded on 2nd of Sept 2013, with a team of support around her. The film is so great and in particular the acting by both Annette Benning and Jodie Foster - they deserve Oscar nods, I think.

Diana's achievement was a serious feat and it made me feel like anything is possible. It also brought back memories to me of the Key West Swim that my sisters and I did, when we competed in the Key West Swim as a relay in the Island Swim - all 12.5 miles of it!

And speaking of sisters, look who my twin sister actually met in Key West this Saturday - only Diana Nyad who was in Key West to mark the 10 year anniversary of her epic swim.

Amy went to the movie also yesterday, and you can read her blog about it here.

And for us, after our trip to Dundrum, we stayed on the Luas until it got in to the city where we strolled down to Capel Street for wings in All Bar Chicken.

On the way to Capel Street we stopped off in Arnotts where Ciaran got a new Secrid wallet as well as getting his old one repaired by the fantastic counter assistant. So now he has two Secrid wallets. He plans to continue to use the old paint splattered one for a while more, before he switches to his new one!

New Coffee Machine

 L'Or coffee (which I love) had an offer recently for a bundle of coffee with a coffee machine for the princely sum of 70 euro.

I generally buy their coffee from Tesco on a weekly basis but it made sense to buy in bulk with this offer and pretty much get the coffee machine for free.

Here is the new machine on my bar pictured beside my old Nespresso machine.

The unique thing about this new machine is that you can make two coffees at once using the larger size capsule

Pictured above are the larger size capsules with the machine taking both sizes.

This is all the coffee I ordered. 

Along with some decaff that are the blue coloured ones

Both Ciaran and I are in agreement that the coffee is made nicer in this new machine and we both enjoy a single cup made with the larger size double cup capsule.

It also makes my takeaway cup coffee quicker which I make just before I head for the train to get to work. I make it in my Two Friends Key West Cup and it fits in the cupholder on my bike. It's so nice to get to the train station and enjoy a coffee on the platform while I wait for my train - one of the small pleasures in life!

Early morning wake up call - chirping!

Chirp!

It was about 5.30am when we were woken by the first chirp. And shortly thereafter, there was another chirp.

No, it was not the sound of early morning chirping birds, but instead the loud chirping sound of a wired smoke alarm detector with a dead back up battery. Ciaran got out of bed first and located which smoke detector was emitting the sound. He then went about unscrewing the detector and locating the battery that needed changing. He had difficulty removing the detector from the wiring fitting so I went online to find a user manual with instructions. In the heel of the hunt he was doing everything correctly but the chirping stopped anyway without the battery being changed.  So we went back to bed and tried to get back asleep quickly. He fell asleep straightaway but it took me about an hour.

And then when I woke up about 9am Ciaran had already left the house to meet a friend for coffee and about 30 minutes later guess what started up again?! Yup the chirping.

Well don't worry we got it sorted. When Ciaran returned home, in the light of day he was able to get the fitting down, the battery changed and the detector back on the ceiling. All good!

New cushion covers

So after all of that excitement(!) we went up to Nicks in Ranelagh for a coffee and to browse the two pop up shops. 

Both "Feel Good Cycle" and "Pilllows & Patterns" had lots of lovely merchandise on display in their pop up shops in the coffee store. I was so glad to see the lovely cushion covers from Pillows & Patterns as I had been meaning to buy some to replace the ones that are currently on the couch in my conversation pit. 

And so these are the ones I chose. They have a great mid century modern look to them and I think they are very unique and nothing like I had seen before. I'm very happy with them.......and always glad to support and buy local!

Pillows & Patterns will be back in Nick's Coffee in Ranelagh on Sunday, or you can order from their website.  You can also check them out on their instagram.  

I also hear that they will be popping up at Christmas time in Arnotts so look out for them there!

Edit - 

I returned on Sunday and bought the above cushion cover to add to my collection. What do you think of them all?!