ManicMammy's Blog

Reviews, news, family, wine and me

Never cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink

Via Springwise: I kinda like this idea from Acadamie Wines, a Californian Wine producer. They offer 4 different blends of wine in 375ml bottles to suit cooking with different types of food. Never again would you have to reach for old, stale, leftover wine whilst creating your culinary masterpieces in the kitchen. These would be [...]

Outstanding Organ Donation Documentary

This is by far the best television documentary series that I’ve seen in ages. It follows 14 different people from the 600 or so who are awaiting organ transplants in Ireland. In the first episode a lady awaiting and eventually receiving a heart transplant, a spouse to spouse kidney transplant, a young man awaiting his [...]

Sidewalk Artists?

I spotted this box of chalk a few weeks before Christmas whilst toy shopping in Smyths. My children love it. They’ve gotten hours of fun out of drawing on the driveway and footpaths outside the house. From huge monstrous pictures to pictures of each other and treasure maps. Top value at €4.99 for the box [...]

Terrific Twebt Returns

After the fun and success of the first Twitter Event Blind Tasting (twebt), Brian and Kevin with the able assistance of local Curious Wines have organised the second twebt for next Sunday, 31st of January at 8pm. Anyone can join in and all are welcome. This is definitely just for fun and it really doesn’t [...]

Jigsaws just got a whole lot more complicated

This is what infuriated, challenged and entertained Oscar on Christmas day, a 240 piece 3D jigsaw. He loved completing it, though it took him longer than he anticipated and it now is displayed proudly in his bedroom. Great fun. He’s looking forward to trying more complex and intricate puzzleballs. Would definitely recommend as an alternative [...]

Media Monster Mayhem

My kids are loving this at the moment. You build your media monster by selecting four different recording media. You are then given a choice of monster composed of different arrangements of these parts. You name your monster and you can then enter it in the championship and can challenge other monsters to duels. Its [...]

Top notch service in Clonakilty’s Aubergine Cafe

Last Saturday, myself, Oisín and Sibéal headed to Clonakilty for a few hours. We were on a mission to get knitting needles and wool for Sibéal and a new book for Oisín. Whilst there, it started to rain and the kids declared they were hungry so we decided to have lunch in the Aubergine Cafe. [...]

Bubble Brothers announce new Wine club

photo credit: lostash Starting on the 28th of January in Blackrock Castle, the wine club shall meet on the last Thursday of every month (excluding July and December) from 7.30pm till 9.30pm. The  inaugural meeting will be hosted by Champagne’s own Mlle Valérie Ravillon in a champagne masterclass. Six champagnes shall be tasted and she’ll [...]

Cupcake calamity

A couple of weeks before Christmas, Sibéal spotted an ad on tv for Girl Gourmet Cupcake maker and was instantly hooked. It was top of her list and no amount of persuasion was going to shift it. Santy duly obliged, it arrived and she was delighted.  With all the festivities and travel, it was a [...]

Life is too short to drink boring wine

Over the Christmas break, I finally managed a sneaky visit to Karwig wines in Carrigaline. Its not the easiest place to find, as I’m not that familiar with Carrigaline, but I diligently followed the directions on their website and arrived without too much hassle. Joe Karwig, originally from Bremen in Germany, arrived in Cork over [...]

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