Polly's Four Stone Up & One Stone Down...

I recently received a comment from Mike over on The Wine Buff. Simply put, Mike was wondering if I was ever going to pull my finger out and actually post on this blog at any time in the future...? Oooops!

The simple answer to that question is errrr, yes, that is my intention! It has always been my intention, but sadly it's something I haven't been doing for a while. Thinking about this, it occurred to me that my waffley bad blogging schedule started sometime last May, around the time I returned to work! The truth is I've been doing too many things (or maybe not in this case) and to be honest I've been advised by more than one source to slow things down a little but surely that doesn't mean grind to a halt, does it?

There have honestly been times when that's pretty much what I've done. In the past year I've spent much of my time when not working resting either in bed, having off days or sitting in zombie like fashion infront of this very pc (actually, it's more likely that it was the one I killed or the borrowed laptop that went back when I resigned as secretary of the dyslexia group!!!) Alternately, I may have been working like a beaver to fill orders for greeting cards - as time is at a premium these days I have to slip this in in between scouting, etc...

Cooking hasn't exactly been high on my list of priorities either. I've cajoled 'the boys', any or all three of them to whip up culinary delights on my behalf, persuaded DG to bring home disasterous takeaways or worse still resorted to the occasional emergency bottle of readymade sauce! Yuck - at least that's what my conscience tries to tell me on these (bottled) occasions.

The boys really are quite accomplished cooks, the youngest concocts a presentable panna cotta from memory. Only the eldest one, ie the 40 year old is truly accountable for his actions though, he actually clears up afterwards. I shame when he arrives home after a long days work only to make dinner for four because the lady is out in the shed making greeting cards! I sometimes wonder if it's worth it, and I'm quite sure he does so regularly...

This said, there is perhaps method in such madness. The whole house has suffered in this past year, more than any other, to the extent that teenage boys have discovered the delights of bargaining and persuasion alongside those of vaccuming and lawnmowing. My partner in life has realised that maybe we do need a new cooker. The gas pressure steadily drops off while he's in the midst of something requiring crucial timing - ie it's got to be cooked by bedtime!

How many times have we slapped medium rare best Irish beef steaks (from our beloved Aldi) onto our plates only to have to whip them back off again, wash the plates and recook them under the ailing grill, while the veg stews? We no longer eat roast meats, roast potatoes or yorkshire puddings anymore, unless my Mum rushes to the rescue which is typically on a Monday evenings due to my involvement with scouts...

Okay, I did purchase a brand new microwave rice & pasta cooker recently. Actually, it was a freebie due to the fact that the blessed thing went missing in the post and then promptly arrived on my door step the day after the company had reimbursed my credit card. They insisted that I kept it by way of compensation for the extraordinary nine weeks in transit, which was mighty decent of them, especially as their promotion had promised free shipping, the cost of which was promptly added to the price after we'd reached checkout!

Ah yes, life in the Pierce household has been 'interesting' over the past year or so. My inactivity and penchant for fine red wines has led to me gaining an extra-ordinary four stone over the past five years. The last one has yoyoed horrifically. Each time I've congratulated myself on losing it I've celebrated this by adding to the fortunes of my local vintners (including Wines Direct) and master chocalatiers...

Yesterday I treated myself to a brand new copy of this months "Weight Watcher's Magazine" and a double decker! And yes, my intentions are once more GOOD...

Polly Wishes You All A Very Merry Chocolate Christmas...

For those of you who are confirmed chocolate junkies the Temple Bar Cultural Trust will be holding a Chocolate Festival in December. This annual celebration of all things chocolate is known as 'A Chocolate Christmas' and runs from Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th December 2010.

Featuring a whole host of chocolatey activities, displays and tastings this should amount to a whole lot of fun for anyone who has even a passing interest in the stuff. There will be stalls  from many of Ireland's finest artisan chocolate producers and outdoor screenings of Chrismas classics like The Polar Express in meeting house square.

For more information on Dublin's latest chocolate craze visit The Temple Bar Cultural Trust website. The full programme of events will be published on November 1st at www.templebar.ie. Bookings will be available from Monday 15th November and if I were you I'd be seriously thinking about using this facility because as we all know, it's bound to be a best seller...!

Pollys Jamaican Barbecue

Just a quickie post today, because I've to finish packing for my camping holiday in Donegal and get ready for tonight's scouting activities. DG's gone into town to collect essential items, such as camping gas and inhalers and I've luxuriated at home, drinking tea and posting on my blogs. Somehow, I think I should have got myself a lot more organised than this, but what the heck?

One little snippet of useless foodie information for you all is the fact that Cadbury's have kindly re-launched their Old Jamaica bourneville chocolate bar. Just the name of it conjures up many childhood memories of special treats and rum n raisin flavoured favourites, ice-cream, fudge and of course chocolate!

This particular favourite used, like all chocolate back then, to come in a foil and paper package. The foil however was a lovely golden colour and the paper and organgey-reddish colour with a picture of an old fashioned cutter on the front. Why they took Old Jamaica off the market I don't know, but I do know that I have polished off two big bars of it in as many weeks...

Also, for anyone who likes their burger's last weekend we celebrated LB's birthday. Yes, I know! It was exactly six months late, but by doing it this way he was guaranteed of having a few guests turn up. In fact we only lost one, which makes a huge change from the usual round of "I can't come because I've got to go shopping for presents with Daddy..." excuses at Christmas time. Why men leave it to the last minute, I don't know. What I do know is that poor LB misses out something terrible, but I digress...

The whole point of this is that I went shopping last Friday, with a wad of cash in my hand. For several reasons I went to Lidl, not least because the parking is handy and the food good. Considering the lovel weather and the fact that the boys would be camping out I'd already decided that we'd be having a barbecue buffet so I settled on Lidl's own brand pizza's, quarter pounder's and frankfurter sausages along with all the usual accoutrements.

My oven is still acting up so the pizzas were nuked in the microwave for ten minutes and then placed under a hot grill to finish. They disappeared in a flash and their were no complaints!
The frankfurters were warmed up, and served with fried onions to make hot dogs and even my Mum remarked on how nice they were - these ones were in the fridge section in packets of ten.
As for the quarter pounders, they were lovely, to the point that you could mistake them for homemade!

The total cost of the food for the party was less than €120.00, which included a couple of bottles of wine, minerals, cleaning materials and lot of food left over in the freezer for the weeks to come. Refreshments, crisps, sweets were also used for school lunches this week and we have juices to take with us on our hols.

All in all this represented terrific value for money, enabled LB to have a great party with lots of goodies to share with his mates, school lunches, breakfasts, dinners and teas plus some refreshments for the older members of the family! For those who say ugh! Lidl is there for people who can't afford to buy better quality food, I say wise up and shop sensibly.

Sure you may save a few euro's, but you will also pick up some top quality own and premium brand food which sometimes can't be purchased elsewhere. Look after the pennies and the pounds WILL look after themselves...

All in all it's been a great week for shopping and eating. One word of caution to anyone who is thinking of following our example and heading up north, if you shop in Aldi or Lidl they tend to use the same pricing structure north and south of the border, ie pound = euro prices. Bearing this in mind, I certainly intend to do a shop or two while I'm up there, but it will be in the Republic due to the less expensive pricing thanks to the exchange rate! Do not use up your pounds unnecessarily, save them for Junction 1 and lots of bargains up there instead...

Happy Hols Everyone - see ya in two weeks!

Love Polly
Vinca Cards Irish Wedding Stationery Made By Hand

Housewife Humbled

During this mornings ramble across the blogosphere I paid a little visit to The Humble Housewife and lo & behold found Vinca's-in-tha-Kitchen! on her blog links page! Thank you for that Deborah, I'm thrilled!!! Not only that but I also found a smashing blog; Ice-Cream Ireland dedicated to Ice-creammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...!

As a special treat for all my fellow addicts I'm going to share one of my favourite's with you:

Classic Dark Chocolate Ice-cream (serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

4 egg yolks

3oz caster sugar

1 tsp cornflour

½ pint Semi-skimmed milk

7oz Dark Chocolate

½ pint whipping cream

Shaved chocolate to decorate.

Method:

1 Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a bowl until thick and foamy. Pour the milk into a saucepan, bring it just to the boil, and then gradually whisk it into the yolk mixture.

2. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens and is smooth. Take the pan off the heat.

3. Break the chocolate into small pieces and stir into the hot custard until it has melted. Leave to cool, then chill.

4. By Hand:

• Whip the cream until it has thickened but still falls from a spoon.
• Fold into the custard then pour into a plastic tub or similar freezer proof container. Freeze for 6 hours or until firm enough to scoop, beating once or twice with a fork or in a food processor.

Using Ice-cream Maker:

• Mix the chocolate custard with the whipping cream.
• Churn until firm enough to scoop.

5. Serve in scoops, decorated with chocolate shavings.

I prefer to use the ice-cream maker as I am a lazy cook, and forgetful with it. However, I don’t make ice-cream very often for much the same reason! Not only that, but I suspect that it is jam packed with hundreds of calories and I really do have to watch what I eat; being 5’ 2” tall every pound shows and a diet of chocolate ice-cream for breakfast, dinner and tea would soon have some very serious consequences.

Taste Test: 10/10

Ease of Preparation: 9/10

Unfortunately I don’t have any nice pictures to show you; we ate it all!!!!

Incidentally, we used milk chocolate for this recipe with a teaspoon of extra Green and Blacks Organic Cocoa. Imagine what we'd be saying if we'd followed the recipe religiously?

Polly Px

Chocolate

Thanks to my cyberfriend Fly Lady; plus the fact that my Fibro-flare is slowly beginning to clear up, I am back in the mood for relocating/tidying up the house. In fact, yesterday I managed to cook up enough meat for two days meals. With one or two changes to the basics we'll have a scrummy strogannoff for four this evening; without any of the usual grief which accompanies the life-style of busy card making Taxi-Mom!


At the weekend DG & I spent a lot of our time sorting and clearing. First it was the boys' room; then ours. Having moved it all around; we now have the task of transferring the computer to the new computer desk in the corner. I dare say that I might get around to it eventually! It's hard work dragging the components around the place; not only is it heavy, ie the monitor, but it's also fiddly.



One of the advantages of all this is that once installed it would be easier to use; a proper computer desk has all the necessary accoutrement's, rather than my homemade diy jobbie at the end of the hall. Also, our room is much lighter and therefor I would be less prone to eye strain as I'll be able to tweak the final adjustments to the wiring without the use of a flashlight!



Fly Lady would be proud of me. Not only have I acquired a smart new home for my computer; I have also got tons of extra storage space for the paper, books, shredder, scanner, printer(s), files, etc. With a little more effort and we could all be that little bit tidier; especially me, and I will never again have to ransack the house for a little piece of paper again. It's a nice thought, but I am not so sure about that aspect of things, some habits are just too hard to break!



In the meantime our latest addition to the family; ie Chocolate the fluffy ball of kittenish fun, has a new playground. In order to keep the mayhem to a minimum; I announced to one and all that the poor little scrap would sleep in its bed in our bedroom. That way neither the boys nor the dogs would have the opportunity to upset him too much, or me for that matter! Seeing as he's a very well behaved little cat, he is already toilet trained and comes when his name is called; that is unless he is curled up in a ball on our bed.


The boys are simply chuffed to bits with their new friend and have even set up their Scalectric's for the first time in ages, in an effort to entertain him. Well, I'm not so sure about that one, as it's them I hear laughing their socks off, but hey! They're not doing any harm; so we'll leave them for a while, so long as they remember to pack everything away afterwards.



Since Chocolate's arrival; on Monday evening, we have had all sorts of fun and games. The girls' natural curiosity has been met with hissing and spitting, stiking out with razor sharp claws and running to hide. Gypsophillus; being a terrier is determined to seek him out. Whether this is because she wants to play; we're uncertain.



TilleyTwo is also curious. We think that this is probably her maternal nature coming out; she has already managed to smother a couple of escapee hamsters and a field mouse while licking them quite literally to death! Unfortunately she's not so keep on Chocolate's annoying habit of swiping at her nose...

I'm off to the washing line and then I'm going to think about another 27 boogie-fling!

Polly Px