Polly Watched Pan's Giveaway Grow...

Some time ago I had the pleasure of witnessing the fabulously talented Donal Skehan of the Good Mood Food blog in the role of Peter Pan during our annual family pilgrimage to the Cheerio's Panto. For many years  my family have enjoyed the company of Alan Hughes aka Sammy Sausages and Buffy, starring alongside established and emerging stars on New Years Day.

Once I laughed soooo hard that I cried. Not one to miss an opportunity, although often a line or two, Buffy took the advantage and announced to the audience at large that "Awwh, Mammy's crying...!" I suppose I was fair game. I've lost count of the amount of times that the heckling from the front row has taken its toll on the slightly hung over cast, resulting in snorts, guffaws and the giggles. It's a grand relationship and in hind sight I am sad that it has probably come to an end, my boys consider themselves too old for childish toys and pantos now...

This year (2010), poor weather conditions saw an expedition, halted by the snow and ice. It took us only as far as Dunne & Crescenzi's L'Officina at Kildare Village, where we consoled ourselves with a super Italian dinner for five. Meanwhile, I watched the surrounding tables with eagle eyes, seeking my prey. I was looking for a family who might be heading towards the big city and might be glad of a crazy womans New Year's gesture of tickets for the panto. It was not to be...

Anyway, as I reminisce, I also digress. Returning to Donal Skehan, he may have played Peter Pan alongside Jenny Masterson's Tinkerbelle, but in real life he is growing up. His foodie blog has really taken off, he's written and published one cookery book and is in the process of a second one and he's becoming something of a household name here in Ireland. Good on yer, Donal!

So, how do you fancy a trip to one of his favourite restaurants? Meet the owner and head chef of SABA in the video below and see for yourself why Donal loves this place so much...




Okay, so didn't that look just scrumptious? Now, for my Irish readers why don't you head over to the Good Mood Food Blog and see how can you win yourself a table for two at one of Ireland's finest Thai & Vietnamese restaurants (and don't forget to tell him that Polly sent you)...

Good luck!

Polly

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Polly Congratulates Glenisk On Latest...

Early this afternoon I logged into my Facebook account to catch up with the world, his brother and sister and basically to have a good look around. Amongst the regular updates about Farmeville and the like (all of which I studiously ignore!) I came across the latest update from Glenisk.

Regular readers are no doubt aware that Glenisk is in fact one of my neighbours. In rural Ireland, if someone lives within a couple of miles as the crow flies, they are your neighbour and I am thrilled to have the pleasure of having watched the Cleary family from Newtown, Killeigh expand their business over the past three decades. Time after time I'm proud to say that this family business has been nominated for and received top awards and this week is no exception...

Glenisk is the overall winner of the SFA National Business Award 2010. Winning the Food & Drinks category, Glenisk also beat off competition from 35 other finalists to take the top prize. The award was presented to finance director, Gerard Cleary by An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, TD, on Thursday, 4 March.

While we're on the subject of the latest from Glenisk, why not have a look at their new TV advert. Apparently, this was filmed in the middle of a particularly chilly December which meant that it wasn't practical to film au naturel, ie out on the farm. If you want to see how they did it head over here for more details...

So, congratulations to Vincent, Ger and all the lads over in Newtown! Keep up the good work and carry on bringing national and international awards back to our parish, making organics and sustainability hip, and the nation healthier...!

Polly Pierce

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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
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