October is nearly over,,,,

October has been busy!

So I've had a busy October but it sure has been a lot of fun. Perhaps this was the reason I didn't blog for close on a full month.

There has been tons happening with PIGSY art with the closing of the group exhibition that he was part of in Ranelagh Arts. Other things were the Black and White Art Movement and in other exciting news he has got a new studio.  All of the above was a lot of work and there was lots of visit to the frame shop, dropping off art, specifying frames and then collecting art and delivering it to various art spaces in Dublin. And then on top of that there was an invite for PIGSY to be part of two exhibitions in Spain in December so that means planning and organising for that too! You can catch up with all of the PIGSY art news on the PIGSY blog here. 

Then there was a big birthday to celebrate (not mine!) so we went to the Stella Cinema to celebrate and after that went for dinner. We saw the film "Don't Worry Darling" and thought the setting of the amazing Stella Theatre was perfect for this beautifully cinematographic movie.

And then the next thing we do is we go to Spain! On Sunday!

It will be a flying visit to Malaga as we are returning on Wednesday but I am looking forward to returning to the city that I spent a year in during lockdown. I expect we will be busy with lots of friends to meet up with along with visits to what were our favourite restaurants in Malaga along with hopefully a swim in the sea, or two. Look out for a blog post on my trip when I get back.

Collagen - an update

Looking back at my past blogs I see that it is now over 4 weeks since I started taking Collagen (read my collagen blog here) and I am happy to report that I am seeing results of new baby hair growth at my hairline. I've also been drinking bone broth which is collagen rich too so perhaps this is also helping. I had hoped to see other results such as less dry skin but can't say there has been an improvement here, but still I sure am happy with the hair growth.  If I notice any further improvements I will report back.

Sunday Funday in Dublin

Car free Capel Street

After spending some time picking up litter in Ranelagh in the morning, I then went in to Dublin City to meet up with my sister Katie. 

I normally have Ciaran picking litter with me but still managed to pick nearly 3 bags full on my own.

Katie and I met on the newly (newish) car free/pedestrianised Capel Street on the Northside of Dublin and meandered up Capel Street and then back down again, stopping off for coffee in Camerino Bakery.  There was lots of family friendly activities on the street with face painting for the kids, street performers and music which made for a great vibe.

For us we just enjoyed the car free ambiance as we strolled around and chatted, however, there are lots of quirky independent shops on Capel Street and I made 2 purchases buying a pair of warm gloves in Ramblers Way just off Capel Street and then I bought.......wait for it......chicken feet(!) in a Chinese supermarket that had a little restaurant to the back of it. When I lived in Spain I made bone broth with chicken feet (full of collagen!) but have not done so in Ireland because chicken feet are not something that are readily available in the local supermarket.  So when I saw them in the Chinese store I bought a bag which are now sitting in my freezer for when I am next making a batch of bone broth.

This is about my 4th time visiting Capel Street (I have always cycled) since it was made traffic tree and I have found it to be very pleasant each time - I look forward to visiting again!

"We will park your bike for you"

Vegfest!

It was a fun day today at Vegfest in Rathmines where I was volunteering with the Dublin Cycling Campaign. We were offering a bike valet service where we parked attendees bikes in a safe convenient space at the entrance.

It was a fabulous sunny September day (I came wrapped up in two jackets but that was probably overkill!) and there was a big crowd at the event.  We were kept busy parking bikes all morning and we also got to talk to people about the work of the Dublin Cycling Campaign too.

All in all a fun day out - check out a few pics below

Vegfest is open again tomorrow (Sunday 24th) so get on your bike and make a visit to it!

Collagen - Dose & Co Vanilla Creamer

Collagen powder

As you know I am a big fan of bone broth and all things collagen, so when I saw Dose & Co Collagen powder for sale in Holland & Barrett I decided to buy some to see what it was like.

There were different flavours to choose from but I selected vanilla as I thought it would work best for the way that I planned to take the collagen in food.

Many people mix it in to porridge, smoothies or coffee at breakfast but because I fast until dinner time I decided to mix it in to some greek yoghurt after dinner.

There is a dairy free variation available but I have no problem with dairy so this is the one I selected.

This is what the powder looks like - I put a heaped spoonful in yoghurt and gave it a good mix

It mixed in nicely and tasted delish - nice and sweet (but not too sweet) and a mild vanilla taste.

Seems like a very good way of getting collagen in to your body without going through the palaver of making bone broth (which I plan to do for the Winter time).

I'm not too sure what results to expect but am hoping that my hair will thicken up.  I'll give it 30 days and will see!

Keto Waffles made with Kerrygold Butter

What's the best thing about Keto?!

Butter and even better is if it is Kerrygold

So when I happened upon a receipe for Keto Waffles calling for butter as one of the ingredients, I was on board.

However as I usually do I kind of modified the recipe. You can find the original keto waffle recipe here, or you can use my recipe below.

For my recipe I did the following

Added 5 eggs to 250g of Mascarpone Cream Cheese and mixed together.  

To the above I added a cup of melted Kerrygold Butter along with a splash of double cream.

Then the final ingredient gets added - it's about a quarter cup of coconut flour *with optional Baking Powder)

Depending how wet or dry the batter is, you can add either more coconut flour if too dry or another egg if it is too dry. 

I added Baking Powder to the last batch that I made. But they seemed no different to any without the baking powder.......so it probably can be left out.

Check my batter!! Just perfect....

Stack of waffles - they can be reheated in the microwave

Oh and here's a tip, if you want more of a buttery taste, just lash on some more Kerrygold when the waffle are made

Take care with coconut flour, add it slowly as it absorbs liquid massively and it can dry out your batter very quickly. You can always add more if needed!

Enjoy your waffles and let me know what you thought they tasted like......and what did you eat them with?!

Coffee at Nicks - a Ranelagh institution

 Do you know about Nick's in Ranelagh?

It's a coffee shop that used to be in a little kiosk on the main street. In actual fact it featured in one of my blogs back in 2013.

But now it is moved to a new premises (the old Ranelagh Arts Centre) next to Supervalu.

Here's a few pics from the other day when we went to Nick's with Bones for a cup of coffee (short americano, 3/4 full, black).

They offer free dog biscuits to Bones but the boldie makes a show of us by sniffing it and then turning his nose up at the treat!!!

Lining up for coffee - definitely worth the wait.....and always great to support local independent shops

They still give free coffee to over 65 year olds!

No one tends to go inside with most people ordering at the hatch outside - old habits die hard!

Bike friendly and dog friendly, what's not to love about this place!

Love this place and I hope we have it forever in Ranelagh. It's got two benches outside the shop near the kerb and it's always fun to sit and people watch. Or it's only a short walk away to the park so sometimes we head there with our coffees. 

It's a great spot and I recommend a visit of you are ever in Ranelagh Village.

American Football comes to Dublin!

 Aer Lingus College Football Classic 2022

Who doesn't love stadium hot dogs and the spectacle of American Football?! Me! That's for sure.....

So when I saw that Northwestern and Nebraska would be coming to Dublin for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic I knew that a great day was ahead of us and we should definitely go to the game to see a great game of American Football being played on Irish soil.

There were plenty of tickets available and we bought ours the evening before on Tickemaster.  We were unsure which side we were going to end up on when we selected our tickets but got lucky and landed on the home team side of Northwestern (Go Cats!) so were in a really great postion for the half time college bands and the National Anthems at the beginning.  The band and music was really great and we had fun trying to pay attention to the actual players with all of the other distractions like the cheer leaders and dancers. As I mentioned at the beginning of the blog I love the whole spectacle of American Football which to me seems more that just the football but is about everything from the college band and cheer leaders to the fans.

Let me know what you think, do you love the rituals of American Football?!

Aviva Stadium

The football game was on in Aviva Stadium which is about a 10 minute walk from our house.  So for the 5.30pm kick off, we set off about 4.30pm.  The game ended after 9pm and so we rang Rasoi and made an order for Indian takeaway food to pick up when we got to Ranelagh.  As we passed our house, we dropped in and got our bikes for the 2 minute cycle to Rasoi in Ranelagh and then quickly cycled home and were eating dinner by 10pm!!

I should also mention the weather which unusually for Ireland, it behaved itself. It was sunny in the afternoon in the low twenties and then it progressed in to a mild evening, with some football fans bravely wearing shorts and t-shirts. I had layers with me but did start out just wearing a Margaritaville t-shirt (recent purchase on my June trip to Key West!) and then put a jacket on as it got cooler.

Northwestern Wildcats win out in a close finish to Nebraska Huskers

All in all a great evening.....enjoy the pics from the game (in no particular order) and congrats to Northwestern on an exciting win over Nebraska.