Bringing home the silver!

Ciaran just came in the door and handed me a silver plate. He came 2nd in the Over 40 Irish Squash Open. I'm delighted for him!

Breakfast at Mary's

My cousin Kasey invited me for breakfast this morning.  She had friends over from London along with my other cousin Fiona (who it was great to see as it has been awhile since i have seen her).  They were setting off on a road trip to Cork for the weekend so Kasey's mam, Mary, (assisted by Kasey) cooked up a big breakfast before they set off.  Another cousin of mine, Dawn, was also at breakfast along with her really cute daughter Isla.  You are probably wondering how many cousins I have.  I should let you know that my mother is one of 13 children so I think my Nana has over 25 grandchildren aswell as a handful of greatgrandchildren - I have a lot of cousins!!

Anyway back to breakfast - what a spread!  There was a delicious selection of breads, meats, cheese & smoked salmon along with croissants & jam.  After all of that there was a huge big platter of sausages, raashers (bacon), black pudding and white pudding.  Mary then cooked eggs to order, I had mine scrambled which were devine.  Further to all of this there was also fried tomatoes and eggs.

All of the food was gorgeous.  My aunt Mary has a great table with a Lazy Susan on it that makes it so easy to serve food.  My cousin joked that my aunt likes to imagine that she is a short order cook working in a diner!!!

The weather is so bad here there is flooding in lots of parts of the country so it was a really nice start to the day.  Hopefully the girls have a safe journey to Cork and a great weekend in the country.

Thirtysomething

Thirtysomething - did you watch it?
I loved this TV programme back in the late '80s.  Scary to think I am now "Thirtysomething". Eeek! 
BTW, did you know that the actors who played Nancy and Michael are married?
I think Michael and Gary (how hot was he with his long blonde hair?!) were my favourite - who was your favourite? 

I just saw recently that the actor who played Elliot is getting married to Melissa Gilbert of Little House on the Prairie fame, they seem like a really nice couple. 

Irish Food Fleadh

Superquinn are having an Irish Food "Fleadh" (pronounced "Fla" it is the Irish word for Festival) so I picked up some great fillet steaks and also a great free little recipe booklet. They also had some Cashel Blue cheese on sale so I got some of that to have with our favourite Wheaten crackers. Here's some of the recipes. Enjoy!

Afternoon tea

We had Ciaran's parents for tea this afternoon.  I decided to serve sandwiches and apple tart with cream.  I got the apple tart in the Butler's Pantry and also picked up a fudge cake in Superquinn. I made a round of crumbled ham & cheese sandwiches.  I would normally make much fancier canapes when having friends for afternoon tea but I think older people like more traditional simple food. Pots of tea helped wash down the food.

Breakfast

After the Butler's Pantry we went to the Fumbally Cafe for breakfast.  You may be wondering why we aren't in work.  Yesterday was a bank holiday for St. Patrick's Day and today we both took annual leave so we could spend some time together.  Here's some pics of the Fumbally cafe......make of it what you will!
;-)

The Butler's Pantry

We are having Ciaran's parents over for tea later today so we called to the Butler's Pantry to pick up an apple tart.  There are two Butler's Pantrys close to us.  One in Donnybrook and the other in Rathgar.