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 [...]

This week I have been mostly eating….

Brrr, its been cold so I’ve resurrected this recipe and am loving it this week. I appreciate recipes that are quick and easy to carry out and this one definitely fits the bill. Red Lentil Soup Ingredients: 1 onion 1 carrot 1 celery stick Couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil 1 clove of garlic 1 [...]

If you love chocolate….

Hurrah,  the Spicendipity site is open for business. It looks gorgeous and theres a great selection of spice mixes, sauces, baking mixes and gift hampers. In addition, a very helpful recipe section which gives plenty of serving/cooking suggestions and examples and is therefore excellent for people like me who are culinary imagination challenged. All the [...]

Yummmm

What are the dishes and food that you remember from your childhood? As the eldest of 7 children, with only 10 years between me and the youngest, I recall there always being a mad rush around mealtimes when we were younger. The main meals I remember are fried liver on a Thursday (my mother had [...]

Review of Great British Menu – Welsh Week

I confess I had been disappointed with the first regional final last week of this TV series. None of the dishes greatly appealed to me and some in fact did the opposite. But this week its the turn of Angela Hartnett and Stephen Terry to compete in the four course cook-off to see who’ll go through at the end [...]

Review of Guerrilla Gourmet, Series 1 Episode 3, RTE

Guerrilla Gourmet, Series 1 Episode 3, RTE “After a not so good start to this series, I enjoyed this episode as it was less gimmicky, more food and chef focussed.“   The first two episodes of this series I have to admit bugged me a bit. Kevin Dundon and Denis Cotter are both chefs who [...]

Review of Silicone bakeware

Silicone bakeware “Easy to clean and use, non stick, makes baking banana bread so much easier than using standard metal loaf tin.“   I bought a silicone loaf pan on impulse about a year ago in Dunnes Stores. It cost €6 and it looks similiar to this one: I have found it excellent. Really easy [...]

Review of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares

Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares Ramsay at his best, entertaining and interesting reality TV as he tries to help failing and struggling restaurants. Forget “Hell’s Kitchen USA” and the “F word”, this is the only series in which to watch Gordon Ramsay. You can see why he has become such a successful chef and restaurant owner. His passion [...]

Review of Hell’s Kitchen USA Series 3

Hell’s Kitchen USA Series 3 Not enough cooking, too many stupid stunts. Ramsay’s loud, brash bullying wearing thin. Just watched the third episode of this latest offering in the Hell’s Kitchen USA series and to be honest, I dont think I’ll bother watching the rest. I don’t really care who wins or loses. The series [...]

Review of The Restaurant TV series BBC2

The Restaurant TV series BBC2 The Apprentice meets Hell’s Kitchen, this series started slowly but gaining pace with 9 couples competing to win a restaurant with Raymond Blanc This latest reality TV offering started a couple of weeks ago. Everyone thinks they can run their own restaurant so the prospect of watching amateurs give it [...]

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