Whiskey Marmalade Steamed Pudding. So good, I cooked it twice!

I believe it’s important to face up to one’s shortcomings. If you can get into the way of doing this, it is very good for the soul. It also allows you negate the scornful snickering and finger-pointing of those with less emotional intelligence than you. I am lucky enough to live in a bliss-filled house where the Wife never alludes to my failings and daughters have only praise for my efforts in the kitchen. My beloved mother does as she has done for over 50 years. She doles out gentle encouragement for my culinary adventures. That’s all true up to a point. We passed that particular marker when I tried to cook Whiskey Marmalade Steamed Pudding. 

The Post of Christmas Past.

I really don’t care if you think that this is an act of despicable laziness and crass in the extreme. It probably is a bit of both. Two Christmases ago, I posted about my mince tart. It is buried deep in the bowels of One Man’s Meat. A year after that festive, culinary triumph, I went to a lot of trouble to prepare traditional shortbread biscuits. They too are buried, just not as far down the list. If you are new to the blog, you will be delighted to have a couple of recipes, served up just too late to prepare for Christmas 2014. If you are an old codger who tends to forget things that happened over a month ago, these will be new to you. If you take insult at the ‘old codger’ descriptor, take heart, in time, you will forget that too.

Chocolate Fondant, scoff it if you can!

“You never do desserts.” came the criticism. This was not friendly, constructive comment. It was said through sneering lips. As much as to say “Any fool can roast a leg of lamb or fry a pork chop. But, it takes real talent to cook a dessert.” That got me thinking. No, I don’t do a lot of desserts. That doesn’t mean I can’t. It just means I don’t. But, I could not let the scoffing criticism go. I started looking at puddings and confections. 

Fig Galette – Just passin’ through.

They say figs are good for the digestion. But, that’s not what I mean by the headline. No. This brief post is here to celebrate the very short Irish fig season. The figs are not Irish but we seem to get exposed to them for the briefest of spells each Autumn. So, just like the figs, this post is just passin’ through. 

Cherry Cobbler – Food to heal your soul.

Heralding the end of the season, the price of cherries dropped suddenly a couple of weeks ago. Given that I had a virgin cherry stoner, purchased on the last French holiday, I thought it time to lay my hands on half a kilo of these delectable treats. The plan was to prepare a simple Cherry Cobbler. A quick trawl of the Internet, revealed thousands of recipe options. As is my way, I decided to meld a number of these into something approaching a reasonable concoction.

The Bitter Aftertaste of Blog Awards and Apricot Tart Tatin.

You know the story. A beautiful girl from the slums of some south American dive wins the Miss World contest and her life is transformed. She goes from washing herself and her impoverished sisters and brothers in an abandoned oil drum to starring in Maxx Factor commercials and bathing in goat’s milk. The little darling spends days modelling top fashion and sipping Evian water. Mercedes insist on her driving around in one of their better small saloons. When she is not being gainfully employed, she is entertained by those at the apex of the social pyramid. That’s how it’s meant to be…. With this as the backdrop, I hear you muse; “Since winning two coveted prizes in 2013 Blog Awards, what has changed in your life Conor?”

Upside Down Two Mango Cake. Go cheap, go dry.

A while ago, I prepared a fig tart tatin. That worked pretty well for a first attempt. In fact, it worked extremely well. With the enthusiasm of the first time lucky, I decided it would be a good idea to try another dessert. I had a spare mango in the fruit bowl and the tatin success had me thinking of upside-down desserts. 

Want to compete with Foreigners? It’s Noreen’s Meringue Cake with Raspberries.

It hurts me to write this post. I feel like I am putting another nail in my blogging coffin. You see, this post has me acting as “you’re in my way in the kitchen” photographer while the Wife prepares a recipe given to her by my revered mother-in-law. The real problem for me is that it is the dessert course of our multi-blog meal where we cooked along with Stefan on his and Kees trip to Tipperary. That is only a problem because my best efforts were knocked into a pretty degrading and distant third place.

Fig Tart Tatin and why photographing ice cream is a job for the professionals.

I do a moderately good job on the photos. Well, I have reached the stage in my development (pun intended) that I know how much I don’t know. I know my known knowns. I have a good idea of the known unknowns. I know there probably are some unknown unknowns too. But, I’ll leave it there for fear of turning into the Donald Rumsfeld of the food blogging community. Let me show you my Fig Tart Tatin instead.

Rhubarb fool you once, no shame on you. Rhubarb fool you twice….

Yes, I am fooling around again. Earlier in the year, I gave rhubarb fool a go. I liked it but there were a couple of niggles. My previous rhubarb fool was pretty tasty, pretty good in all respects.  But, perhaps it could have been lighter, Perhaps it could have been rhubarbier (new word). Perhaps I need to completely rethink the idea of the fool. So, it’s time to fool you twice, if you don’t mind.