A sweet treat - Take the Cake!

A while ago, I discovered Take the Cake cakes in my local Supervalu in Ranelagh. Oh dear lord they are so good!

At this point I'm fairly addicted.

So.....

What I'm now doing is buying the cupcakes rather than a whole cake - which stops me eating too much of the delicious cakeness!

Not a bad lifehack I think!!

Pictured above is the gorgeous chocolate flavour cupcake which I enjoyed on Sunday.

These cakes have to be tasted to be believed - so fresh and homemade tasting. They just don't have that preservative taste that so many shop bought cakes taste of and each bite is melt in your mouth - just divine.

Check out the Take the Cake website to see all of the different places you can buy them.....or you can buy online too. 

So if Salted Caramel Cupcakes or Key Lime Pie is your thing, be sure and check out Take the Cake instore or online. Let me know what you think if you do get to taste one!

As I am currently on Keto (or modified Keto which I call Cheato) I need to be really careful how much sugar I am consuming, so only eating one cupcake very infrequently is best for me as an occasional treat. Even better is probably just to eat half the cupcake and leave the other half - but who has that kind of will power?!!

Aug Bank Holiday

Yesterday was busy catching up on lots of chores but I had a bit of fun too!

We started our day by meeting up with Friends of the Grand Canal and picking up litter along the canal. It started raining just as we started so we dashed to Starbucks and drank coffee under an outdoor umbrella until it finished in about 20 mins. Then we were right back at the litter picking - we did Fitzwilliam Street and then back on to the canal.

It was a fairly productive hour - we got a bag full. There were loads of other volunteers out collecting litter so there will probably be 20-30 bags collected in total.

After that we headed to Pot Bellied Pig in Rathmines for a spot of brunch. We both had the Hog (the full Irish) and I even had a glass of prosecco!

Oh and Bones came too....

And then on to the chores bit....we got the chimney swept.
While this was being done I did some laundry and steam cleaned the floor.

Later Ciaran went off and played Paddel Tennis while I went to Rathmines and bought a HDMI connector to hook my TV up to my Surface Book in order to watch Now TV. After getting the cable in Gallagher TV I then chilled over a coffee in Insomnia.

And so later that evening we watched an episode of shows on Now TV - Manifest, Chernobyl & Big Little Lies.  Can't say I was hugely impressed by them all.....

Anyway that was Saturday - we still have Sunday & Monday to enjoy on this Bank Holiday!

Sunday in the City

It was a beautiful day in Dublin so we got up and headed in to town on the Luas. We planned on getting coffee and wandering down Grafton Street with it but then decided to go to Stephens Green park and sit on the grass with our coffee.  Ciaran went to Butlers while I went to Insomnia (I brought my keep cup) and then we met in the park.

 

Afterwards we did take the stroll as planned down Grafton Street and landed on College Green which was car free for the second week running.

The atmosphere was great in the area with a relaxed vibe as everyone walked the streets on the plaza.

Check out #streetsareforpeople on twitter for more pics.

From College Green we went on to Temple Bar and found that All City was open. Ciaran took the opportunity to go in for a browse and pick up some spray paint and oil sticks.

 

And then after Temple Bar we walked to South Williams Street where we took Bones for a pint in Grogans!

By this time we were getting ready for lunch so we decided to go get some wings in Wishbone on Montague Street. So Bones went back on the lead and off we went walking again.

It was such a nice day that we took our wings in to Stephens Green and sat on a bench and enjoyed them there. We could hear music from the band stand which was very cool!

And finally after all of that it was home on the luas. Fun for sure and car free College Green was very enjoyable. A great day all in all!

Friday meet up....

I met up with Cousin Kasey this morning and we had a lovely breakfast in The Pot Bellied Pig in Rathmines after a walk from Ranelagh. 

After breakfast we went for a coffee across the road in Insomnia where we chatted further. It was all very relaxed.

And then after that we had a browse around the Swan Centre where Kasey helped me select a hostess gift for a dinner date in a friends house tomorrow night - see below, I got a nice balsamic vinegar in
Fallon & Byrne.



Edit 5/01/2020
Fallon & Byrne Rathmines closed on the 31st of December 2019

Keto pizza night!

I had a hankering for a chilled out evening on Thursday as I was off on Friday so I made keto pizza!

Here's the recipe I followed from Diet Doctor

It was a big success with both Ciaran and I agreeing that it tasted really good. 

I doubled the recipe so made two - guess it will be pizza night again tonight!!

I used Janet's Pizza Sauce (available in Supervalu) for the pizza and topped with both cheddar & mozzarella cheese along with pepperoni, bacon & chicken.

This is the almond flour that I used - almond flour is pretty much ground almonds.

When you are buying your almond flour be sure and do a good price comparison.  One of these ground almonds was €9.95 per kg while the other was a whopping €32.90 per kg!!!

Guess which one I bought!

Sun & Fun on a Monday night!

It was sunny and warm yesterday in Dublin. After cycling home from work I was hot hot hot and needed a cold drink to cool down. Ciaran was painting up in the studio so I called up to him that I was going to open the Whispering Angel and did he want a glass.

While dinner was cooking, I hung out in the studio with him enjoying the cold rosé wine and the good sounds that he was playing on spotify. It was a lot of fun!

 

There has been a fair bit of rain and also sun (very mixed weather altogether) and because of this the plants in my garden have shot up. Look at how hidden my letter box is - I love it.

For plastic free July I switched out my plastic scrubbing brush for a wooden one with a detachable head. When the head wears out you can just buy a new one. What a great idea and far better than the horrible plastic one that I had been using previously. Have you made any changes for Plastic Free July?!

An "Up and at 'em" Saturday

Whew I got up to loads yesterday!

I was up early and we headed off to Deansgrange to visit a church. A church you say!

Yes! This 1970's wonder designed by John L. Griffith who seemingly was the brother of the parish priest of the time. 

It's the Holy Family Parish Church at Kill O'the Grange and it's a whopper of a brick building.

Very impressive altogether and worth a visit. It was locked so had to take the picture of the internals through a window. I'd like to go back and see the inside sometime in the future.

 



After our Church visit, Ciaran had to go on a site visit so I went home and did some social media work for his website and on his return we took Bones to Pot Bellied Pig, Rathmines for brunch. I had their full Irish (the Hog) for the first time and was really impressed. Excellent quality ingredients cooked perfectly. Annoyingly I forgot to ask them to leave off the toast as I don't eat bread.  Gah, I hate food waste.

 

After brunch, Ciaran headed off to play Padel in Bushy Park, while I got on my bike and cycled in to town to experience a "Car Free" South William Street.

This one street had been closed off to car traffic for the day (access was given to anyone with a disabled parking badge and cars could still exit the Brown Thomas car park) by some civic activists including the Dublin Commuters Coalition, Irish Pedestrian Network and the Dublin Cycling Campaign.

Wow it was blissful given that this is a terrible street when cars are on it as it is woefully small, with inadequate pathways for pedestrians - in particular those with buggies or using wheelchairs.
It was great to see the street being fully used with loads of people socialising on the street, families hanging out and people spilling out from Grogans drinking pints of Guinness on the roadway. It's definitely one road that could be pedestrianised quickly and would be such a great improvement for the city.

I hope that People Power can get this done!

Check this pic out - Dublin is so small. My sister in the States was sent this pic by a friend asking if this was me! You can't do anything in this town without being spotted.... :-) 

And then I found a picture of myself on social media coverage of the Streets are for People actions. Too funny seeing myself caught on film all unaware!

After my cycle home, I had a short turn around time before I headed back towards the city on the Luas. This time it was to Iveagh Gardens to see Burt Bacharach.

This was my first time as this venue and I thought it was brilliant. Capacity is about 5,000 and it has a nice bar set up with lots of food stalls to get something to eat at.

The bar had beer, wine and mixed Gin drinks in a can (this is a somewhat odd single liquor offering, but how and ever...) so I went for a glass of prosecco which was rather nice in the setting!

We had a great night at the concert, it was mild and didn't rain. We were able to get very close to the stage and had a great view of the show along with the sound being very good. Burt Bacharach is an absolute legend, 91 yrs old and still going strong. All of his hits had me singing along and I was still singing them in my head as we took the Luas home. 

A great day and an even better night!

As the song goes
"Dublin can be heaven, with coffee at a eleven and a stroll around Stephens Green......"
With the pedestrianising of more streets there can be more strolling around this heavenly city - let's keep the action going!

For further info about South William Street being given over to pedestrians, check out #Streetsareforpeople on Twitter.