Living out in the country means we don’t see most of our friends as often as we’d like so we try to have at least one party per summer in order to catch up with everyone As our friends get partners and have kids, and our kids invite their friends the numbers coming to the parties grows constantly and we’ve had to learn how to deal with that. A few sausages and some potato salad just doesn’t cut it anymore. Here are a few tips I’ve learned over the years to hopefully help for all of you out there planning your birthday, communion, confirmation or whatever party.
1 Barbecuing is out for large groups. I mean more than say 25. Unless you have couple of barbies and a gang of willing barbecue gods that is. Its expensive to buy that much meat and then you have to fit in the fridge and to make sure its actually cooked and people have to wait around to long for their food. Go with something else . By all means have the barbecue going and cook a few things on it but don’t make it the main event. For example for Alex’s 13th birthday party we had pulled pork sandwiches as the main attraction (I’d made it the day before) and just cooked some hotdogs and fish on the barbie. (Oh and a Pigs head just for fun).
2 You will never have enough time. Pare down that grandiose list of food to a few items. Pick your theme or style for the party, pick a menu, cut half of the things off that list of food cos you don’t need 25 different items . Pick your costume and party decorations. Figure out a timetable to get everything done then double the time you allotted to each job -it always takes more time. Be prepared to just say to hell with it . sometimes there isn’t enough time to do everything. Be flexible.
3 Accept help- anytime somebody says can I bring anything – your answer is a resounding ” Yes Please!” . Anything to take the pressure off. Conversely some will say they will help and then get sidetracked and not help- so have a contingency plan.
4 Precook everything you can. There are 2 reasons for this- salmonella and time. Nobody wants undercooked food but nobody wants to wait for the food to cook either. Precook anything you can and just heat it through on the day. You don’t want to be slaving at the stove when you have guests. We may cook things weeks beforehand and then bung it in the freezer.
5 Use small plates and glasses and bottles. This is a great tip that my friend Deirdre gave me(she has a party mom), years ago when we were catering my wedding. People fill their plates no matter what size they are. If the plate is big they wont eat all the food and so much gets wasted, same with drinks -how often have you seen abandoned cups of coke or juice at parties.We also get the small stubby beer bottles for the same reason. Waste not want not.
6 Make a lightly alcoholic Punch. -something like Pimms or Sangria. Serve this to people when they arrive. We do this in the summer as when its warm people drink more – better that they are drinking something only vaguely boozy than they start on beer or liquor too early and end up squiffy by dinner.
7 People will arrive earlier than they say- be ready for that. Get dressed well before the party and slap on an apron if you still have to finish in the kitchen. However if they arrive too early have no qualms about making them help you finish everything -they should have read the time on the invite.
8 Make kids work. Whether your kids or somebody else s, get those little hands helping-set them to chopping, pouring crisps, handing out drinks whatever -it’ll keep them out from under your feet and they are so happy to help.
9 Nobody really wants to eat that green salad. Its always the last man standing on the party table, sitting there all wilted and forlorn when its fun pasta,rice and potato salad friends are long gone.The same goes for other healthy foods-its a party, nobody wants to eat rabbit food.
10 Buy Partyware At the end of the summer when the stores sell off the summer party ware buy it all. I’ve got boxes of heavy duty plastic wine and beer glasses that I picked up years ago . They are trotted out for every party and are so handy. I always know I have glassware and I don’t need to worry about broken glass through my house and garden. Grab serving platters and bowls and serving spoons too. Or take a trip to IKEA to pick up eveything. Apart from that I use paper spoons plates and forks-easy to get rid of.
11 Put Bins everywhere and boxes for recycling. People usually will dump stuff in a bin rather than just putting it down so that will save you a lot of clean up.
12 Chillax!. .Its a party- have fun .-only you care if everything is perfect, so what if you just dumped a cake on the floor or you forgot the icecream or that the sausage rolls are a tad overcooked. Next year nobody will remember what they ate- just that they had fun.
Party on Dude!









This is a fabulous recipe if I may say so myself. Its an adaptation of my mothers famous Green Tomato Chutney Recipe only better as you can use up all of those fruits and vegetables that are sitting around at the end of the season, especially those giant marrows you’ve just discovered lurking under the leaves and no matter what your mix of fruit it turns out pretty much the same each time. Cant beat that in a recipe. The allspice gives it a spicy lift (without making it taste christmassy) and enhances the fruitiness and the mustard seeds add a savory depth.


Fry the chopped onions in one of the tablespoons of butter untill they are golden and starting to carmelise and stick to the bottom of the pan (this adds and excellent extra layer of flavour).
Whizz up your bread until it is in large crumbs.
Mix the greens,breadcrumbs and onion together by hand.
Grab a piece and taste it and add enough salt and pepperfor your taste-add more greens or herbs at this point if you like and pat into a buttered casserole dish.(We always cook our stuffing seperate to our birds to decrease cooking times and prevent the bird from being underdone in the middle).
Dab the remaining butter on top and bake uncovered at 200deg for approx 30 mins.Check if its golden on top and if not- try 5 more minutes .















Although I love having such a large garden (and attatched field )it does mean it takes a lot of maintenance and planting. Where we live is called Derryclough -The Stone of the Oak and this used to be all woodland but was cleared in the 1960′s.We are trying to replant but its slow work. We’ve put in hundreds of trees but need much more.
This spring I picked up a selection from their nursery of wild crabapples,oaks ,native aspen and poplar, birch and hazel. Fantastic trees and fantastic value.


Go to your local forest.Your trees will thus be suitable for your local growing conditions .You can find seedling trees which are in very poor positions -edge of path ,too close to other trees etc, and the tree wont survive there (At least thats how I justify it). Carefully dig them up disturbing the ground as little as possible. Ive also found sprouted oak and hazel seeds mixed in with leaves on forest paths and at the edge of roads which will only be mouse or squirrel food. I rescued them and they are now 3 ft trees.

Christmas is the time of year cookies really come in to their own at our house especially since I inherited such a great range of christmas cookies cutters from my Grandma. My girls are happy to spend hours rolling baking and decorating cookies and peace reigns.




I finally remembered to bring my camera in with me to the market last weekend and took a quick run around to get some pictures of what I buy as presents for my family and friends so this post will be heavy on pictures and light on words.



Whole small cheeses from Pete of ” Kilshanny Cheese” .Every April we get him to put away a big Plain cheese in his cheese house for us . By Christmas its fantastic- almost fudgey textured and sharp on the palate. A whole cheese doesn’t last long in our house.
Katrina also has the cutest Finnish Gingerbread Cookies in all shapes and sizes (also a whole range of Gluten free baking)
Locally roasted award-winning Coffee is available from Ponaire s Coffee house and teas are available from “Teas and Grind” and “Tea4You”
Why not pop in a bag of Irish Harvested Seaweed

You can pick up a variety of cheeses from Mairis Cheese shop ,
Pates, preserved fish, and terrines from Olivier, wines from Country Choice (along with about anything else you can think of.


Susan ‘s Nativity scene
and her Crazy camel
Handmade hats to keep you warm and stylish this winter
Handcarved wooden pieces
Jasmine from Sunvale Soaps has a great range of homemade and french soaps, salves and creams. 






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