Nosebleeds, twitchy feet and backache - dispelling the naiveté of the newly pregnant

Before I got pregnant, I thought pregnancy would be a wonderful experience. I thought I’d enjoy feeling my body change as a whole new life grew inside me. How naïve was I?

Don’t get me wrong. There are lots of enjoyable moments. The baby is kicking as I type and every kick makes me marvel.

Yet there is still a lot that has come as a (not quite nasty but not altogether welcome either) surprise about just what’s involved in growing a baby. Actually, there are so many surprises that I’ve decided to list some of them here so that other mums-to-be can be forewarned. I’ve also listed what I do to remedy these unexpected symptoms of pregnancy. Where I haven’t listed a remedy, I’d appreciate it if any of you could provide one…

1: Very early on in pregnancy, you discover that getting out of bed is no longer the simple task it once was. You can't leap out of bed as you once did. Instead, you have to develop a get-out-of-bed strategy.

In the early days, this is so you don’t get light-headed and faint. In the latter days, it’s more about hauling your increasingly heavy body into an upright position.

Here’s what I do: I roll onto my right side and then push my feet out of the bed and onto the floor. Then I manoeuvre the rest of my body into a sitting position, hold that position for a moment and finally get up. Each of these steps is completed pretty slowly as I can get dizzy if I try to do it too quickly.

2: You’ll get nosebleeds. This is because there is now up to 50% more blood in your body and your blood pressure has increased as a result, making your blood vessels work harder and making it more likely that the delicate vessels in your nose will burst.

My remedy: always carry tissues. Lots and lots of tissues. 

(Slight diversion: I was teaching a class of teenagers in July when my nose suddenly started bleeding. At first, I didn’t realise it was blood but the teenagers quickly informed me what was happening. “Ah, miss,” they yelled. “You must be dying!”)

3: You shouldn’t sleep on your right side. I love sleeping on my right side. It’s where I feel most comfortable. But it’s thought not to be best for the baby as it can restrict blood flow by putting pressure on the vena cava and increasing swelling in the legs – a factor in developing varicose veins. 

Even if you do persist in trying to sleep on your right side (which I must admit I sometimes do), it gets very uncomfortable and you’ll eventually find that you end up turning over onto your left.

What works for me: I get into bed and turn onto my left side. I then ask my partner to jam a pillow behind my back. This doesn’t entirely stop me from moving onto my right side (I have been known to push the pillow out of bed!) but it makes it far less likely that I’ll do so.

4: You may get twitchy feet. Beyond keeping my toenails in check and exfoliating any dry skin, I didn’t used to spend much time thinking about my feet. Now, I rarely stop thinking about them. 

This is because they get sore and hardly ever stop feeling twitchy, not even when I lie down to sleep at night.

The fact that I’m now carrying extra weight might have something to do with this. So might the fact that I now have more blood in my body. But what seems to be the main factor for me is that my default setting appears to be crossing my ankles when I sit at my desk. (I’ve just checked and I was doing it now so I’ve made myself stop doing it. But I’m sure that when I check again in five minutes’ time, I’ll have unconsciously crossed them again. Sigh.)

Crossing your ankles when you sit is bad for your circulation. It’s also thought to be a contributory factor to developing varicose veins when you’re pregnant.  So try not to do it.

Also, having a pillow to prop your legs up on while you’re in bed helps.  

So do foot rubs. Foot rubs are the best.

5: I’ve mentioned varicose veins twice now. I might easily have mentioned them many times more as they’re a huge worry for me. Both my mother and father have them and I think their mothers and fathers had them too. I’ve always feared getting them and now I think the time is nigh… At least, I saw a little lump on my leg this weekend. I’m hoping it goes away.

In the meantime, I’m doing all I can to minimise the risk of getting them. I’m not spending too long sitting or standing at any one time. I try to get a moderate amount of exercise every day. I sleep on my left side. I try not to cross my legs or ankles. And every part of me is hoping that this is enough to spare me the fate of becoming a varicose-veined woman.

6: Warning: this is slightly gross! At 15 weeks pregnant, I was having a pregnancy massage and as I was getting dressed afterwards, I noticed a yellow crust on my nipples. I immediately panicked and thought my nipples were infected! I even imagined them falling off!

But luckily Dr Google came to the rescue and informed me that this crusty stuff was completely normal. Your body starts producing colostrum even at this early stage of pregnancy and this yellow crust is simply a sign that all is progressing as it should be. There’s no need to panic!

What do I do with it? All I do is gently wipe it off with warm water in the bath or shower.

7: Your back becomes sore. So sore. As you get heavier, the muscles and ligaments in your pelvis start to shift and become softer, in readiness for the birth of your baby. This means that they are no longer carrying as much of your weight as they once did so now all of that weight gets shifted to your back - your unbelievably sore back.

It’s hard to know what to do to remedy this. I’ve started to do some stretches, including one where I stand up, extend my arms above my head to their full extent, clasp them together and hold them there for 30 seconds. I do that whenever I go to the loo, which is usually about 10 to 15 times a day (see number eight).

8: You get really thirsty which means that you drink a lot, which in turn means that you have to go to the loo ridiculously often.

There’s no cure for this. Your body and the baby’s need hydration and because your bladder is forced to take up less space than it’s used to (your growing baby is hogging all that space now), it no longer has the same capacity it once had. Get used to it!

However, I have imposed a rule on myself.  I drink constantly throughout the day (approximately two litres of water and several cups of green or herbal tea) but unless I’m really thirsty, I don’t drink anything after 9pm. That way, I don’t have to get up too often during the night.  My sleep suffers enough as it is!

I’ll stop this list here but I have a feeling I might return to it as my body changes more in the future. If you’re also a mum-to-be or if you’ve had a baby in the past, I’d love to hear what tips worked for you. 

If any of you are curious about me and my bump, here's what we looked like during a spectacular sunset in West Kerry about two weeks ago.

The challenge that comes with eating for two and a recipe for pea and mint soup

Pregnancy is a weird and wonderful thing!  

We had our 20-week scan a fortnight ago and saw what seems to be a happy and healthy baby boy moving about on the screen. A baby boy! Imagine that!

That little boy has begun to move about a lot recently. I first felt his movements as tentative little flutterings but lately there have been a few well-aimed wallops! 

I’m beginning to relax into pregnancy a little more now. I don’t know if it was because we tried to get pregnant for so long and to no avail but I’ve found it hard to believe that we're about to have a baby. I still catch sight of myself in the mirror and am startled at the sight of my growing bump. Is that really me, I ask myself.  Is this really happening?

Eating remains something of a challenge and I’m finding that my attitude to food is changing. Before I got pregnant, I used to eat primarily for pleasure, choosing whatever looked good in the fridge and composing a meal from that. Now, I eat much more strategically. I pause to consider whether I’m getting all the nutrients I need (calcium and iron in particular) before I decide what to make for dinner.

I’m also aware that the baby has now begun swallowing amniotic fluid and so can taste some of what I’m eating. I’m desperate not to have a fussy eater on my hands and want to do everything I can to ensure this doesn’t happen. Right now, this means trying to eat as wide a range of foods as possible.

Combine this with my dietary restrictions, my quest to consume enough calcium and iron and the fact that I’m often lacking in energy for cooking at the end of the day and you’ll see why the culinary pressure is well and truly on.

This particular recipe isn’t particularly bursting with calcium and iron but it is full of seasonal summery flavour. On top of that, it’s easy and effortless to make and consists entirely of ingredients that I always have to hand, which is a big bonus for busy mums-to-be (and for anyone who struggles to find the time and energy to make a home-made meal at the end of the day).

Pea and mint soup 

This makes between eight and ten servings.

2 onions, peeled and chopped

1 large floury potato, peeled and chopped (Rooster, Kerr’s pinks, Maris Piper, Golden Wonder and Queens are all good varieties)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 litres of vegetable stock

750g frozen peas

A bunch of mint, finely chopped

Salt and black pepper

• Prepare your vegetables.
• Sweat the chopped onion and potato in the oil over a very low heat for ten minutes, until the onion has softened but hasn't yet begun to colour.
• Add the stock. Bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes until the potato is tender.
• Raise the heat, stir in the frozen peas and simmer for four to five minutes.
• Remove from the heat, add the chopped mint and purée the soup using a soup wand or a blender. I always do this in stages, tasting as I go. For this amount of soup, I would use at least 10 grams of mint (leaves and stalks). Some of you may prefer your soup to take on a mintier flavour; others may prefer it less so.
• Finally, I add the salt and pepper. Again, I would urge you to do this to taste. I use at least 3 teaspoons of salt (and 2 teaspoons of freshly-ground black pepper) for this amount of soup but that's my palate, not yours. Start with 2 teaspoons. Stir it in and taste. Add more as you see fit. That's what 'seasoning to taste' is all about.

All sorts of accompaniments go with this soup. I've been eating toasted bread slathered with hummus but those of you on an unrestricted diet might also opt for a bacon sandwich or a cheese toasty. Yum!

I've got news. BIG news.

Have you missed me? I’m sorry to have left you in the lurch but rest assured that I did have the best of reasons.

I’ve been exhausted and completely lacking in motivation to do any sort of creative cooking for the past few months. Luckily, it’s not because I’ve been experiencing an MS relapse (I feel healthy and strong from that point of view). It’s because I’m pregnant!

Some of you who know me in real life will know that this is something I’ve wanted for a long time – a very long time.

Life got in my way. We had difficulty conceiving. There were all the health worries associated with me having MS. In fact, there were so many hurdles that I was beginning to come to the heart-breaking conclusion that I would never be a mother.

But… then came March and a positive pregnancy test (actually three positive pregnancy tests as I couldn’t believe what the first, or second, was telling me!).

This is the third test - the one I finally believed!

My reactions surprised me. I was understandably shocked. I was overwhelmed with happiness. But I also felt unexpectedly fearful, fearful for the future and the physical, emotional and other challenges it would bring. It seemed that hoping for something for a long time had in no way prepared me for the reality of being pregnant.

Nor did it prepare me for the side-effects of early pregnancy. There were times when I felt entirely drained of physical and mental energy. Lifting my limbs or thinking a thought through to a logical conclusion (let alone crafting a sentence) proved to be beyond me. I didn’t suffer from morning sickness but I was repulsed by food. I had a disgusting metallic taste in my mouth no matter what I ate.  

(Surely when you take all of this into consideration, you’ll understand why I haven’t been able to cook or write anything about food for you here!)

I feel better now that I’m in my second trimester. The metallic taste is gone and repulsion has been replaced by ravenousness. However, the tiredness hasn’t gone away but recent blood tests may have revealed the reason for that: my iron levels are low.

This poses a particular problem for me. I have a condition that is common to Irish people called haemochromatosis. It causes my body to absorb excessive amounts of iron, which in turn puts pressure on my liver. In the past, I controlled this by not eating too many iron-rich foods; something that wasn’t too difficult because the OMS diet prevents me from eating red meat (or indeed any meat at all).

But now the baby obviously needs more iron than I have to give and because of my condition, I can’t take iron supplements.

So, I’ve started a new regime. I’ve decided to eat red meat once a week and two weeks ago, we had lamb. We cooked it on the barbeque so that most of the fat cooked out of the meat and on to the coals and it was delicious.  The following week, we had beef and that didn't go so well (but the less said about that, the better).

I’m eating sardines once a week. I had them with red onions, broccoli and whole-wheat pasta for lunch today and I’m still licking my lips.

I'm eating tofu once a week too. I don't want to eat it more often than that as I'm a little worried about soy products. 

(Those of you who are more informed than I am: am I right to be worried?)

I’m also eating more pulses.

I’m looking forward to experimenting with all of these ingredients and I’m sure I’ll post lots about it (and about the learning process of being pregnant) here.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from any of you who followed the OMS diet or any kind of health-giving exclusion diet while pregnant. How did you stick to the diet while making sure your baby got everything it needed to grow strong and healthy?

A recipe that will come to your rescue: pasta with broccoli, anchovies and garlic

I couldn't tell you how often I've made this for supper. I discovered it in Jamie Oliver's Happy Days with the Naked Chef about 15 years ago and have probably made it more than a hundred times since then. I've adapted the recipe a little to make it OMS friendly but it still tastes as lip-smackingly good as ever.

The flavour combination isn't the only reason this has become one of my go-to recipes. It's also easy and quick to make and I always have the ingredients to hand. 

I've even found that this recipe comes to the rescue if ever I'm hungover. There's something about the carbs in the pasta together with the saltiness of the anchovies and the head-clearing qualities of chilli that make it the ideal hangover buster!

So, here's how you whip up dinner for a hungry woman in the space of 15 minutes.

100g dried pasta (I use wholewheat farfalle)
One quarter of a head of broccoli, stem and all
1 large clove of garlic
4 anchovies
1 tablespoon of olive oil (if your anchovies come in oil, use some of that)
1/4 teaspoon of chilli
Salt and black pepper

• Bring a pot of water to the boil. Add a generous amount of salt and when the water starts bubbling again, add the pasta. Wholewheat pasta usually takes about 15 minutes to cook, which allows you plenty of time to get everything else ready.
• Chop the stem off your quarter head of broccoli. Cut off the dried-out end of the stem and any rough edges. Then chop the remainder into one-centimetre pieces. Don't worry too much about being precise. This isn't that sort of recipe.
• Cut the head of broccoli into small florets and add any chunky stems to your pile of stem pieces. In this recipe nothing goes to waste.
• You should end up with two piles that look something like this:
  

  

  
  

• Chop your garlic as finely as you can.
• Add the oil, anchovies, garlic, chilli and broccoli pieces to a small saucepan. Cover the saucepan and place over a low heat for seven minutes. I recommend shaking the saucepan about every minute or so to make sure that nothing is sticking to the bottom. If you feel that there is a danger of this happening or that your garlic might burn, add a tablespoon or two of water to the pan to keep the temperature down and make sure your concoction doesn't fry to a frazzle. 
• Add the broccoli florets to the pan with the pasta in it five minutes or so before the pasta is due to be ready.
• Then when everything is cooked, strain the water from the pasta and broccoli and toss them both into the pan with the broccoli pieces. Add some freshly-ground black pepper (be generous) and combine all of the ingredients thoroughly.
• Pour everything into a bowl, making sure that you scrape out every last drizzle of the garlicky, anchovy-flavoured oil at the bottom of the pan. That's where all the real flavour is!

Enjoy!

Good food and box sets - the only way to recover from the excesses of Christmas

Is it just me or are there others out there who think the festive season ought to be renamed exhaustion season? While it was lovely to catch up with family and friends over Christmas and New Year, the endless whirlwind of cooking, eating, drinking, socialising and staying up late wore me out and I'm only just beginning to recover.

The weather probably had its part to play too. Here in Dingle and all over Ireland, it didn't stop raining for days. And by rain, I'm not talking about a light shower. No, we're talking torrential downpours here. This meant that the only time I got out of the house was when I ran to the car to venture to the shops for more supplies or to the pub to meet up with friends!

Nor did I succeed in sticking to the OMS diet 100% of the time. It was next to impossible considering the amount of chocolate and mince pies in the house!
However, I didn't stray too much. I'd taken precautions by preparing batches of OMS-friendly treats such as these cookies and raw brownies so I was able to tuck into those whenever I felt tempted. And I'm very much back on the wagon now, using the power of good food to help me get over the exertions of Christmas*.

One of the dishes I've been cooking a lot lately is this one: spiced cauliflower and leeks with green beans and freekeh.

It's a dish that quick and easy to make. Its seasonal ingredients are affordable and widely available in the shops. It's packed with nutritional goodness. And for anyone who doesn't know what freekeh is, it's an ancient grain with a nutty flavour. Once confined to health stores, it's now stocked in many supermarkets. But don't worry if you can't find it. Feel free to substitute with any other wholegrain. I'd recommend bulgur wheat for its similar flavour and texture.

The following portions serve one.

50g freekeh (or alternative wholegrain)
150g cauliflower, approximately one quarter of a head of cauliflower
100g leeks, approximately one leek
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
5 tablespoons water
70g green beans
Some chopped coriander

• Start by preparing your vegetables. Remove the tough stalk from the cauliflower and tear the remainder into small florets. Remove the hairy root from the leek, peel off its tough outer layer and then chop what remains into one-centimetre-long rounds. Top and tail the green beans and cut them in half.
• Place your freekeh in a pan of salted water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes.
• Place the olive oil in a wok or frying pan (be sure to use one that has a lid). Add the spices and salt. Add the cauliflower florets and chopped leeks and toss so that the veggies are covered in the spicy oil. Add the water. 
• Place a lid on the wok/frying pan and place it over a medium heat. Cook for 10 minutes, shaking the pan frequently to make sure none of the vegetables are sticking to the bottom of the pan.
• Five minutes before your freekeh is due to be cooked, add the green beans to the pan with the grains and cover with a lid.
• Once fifteen minutes are up, toss the contents of the two pans together. Add some chopped coriander and combine thoroughly. Taste and add a touch more salt if necessary.
• A fried or poached egg makes a delicious addition to this dish.
• May we all eat this well in the year to come!

* Now that the weather is better, I'm able to exercise more too. Long walks in the fresh air with my always enthusiastic dog Jimmy are just the thing to lift the spirits. And so too are dark evenings curled up on the sofa with the latest season of the Bridge. I'm looking forward to watching Making a Murderer next. Have any of you seen it?

You can also find me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter 

Christmas is...

(a) A time of family harmony and togetherness
(b) A source of stress and pressure
(c) An opportunity to make and devour delicious food
(d) A struggle to cover the cost of gifts and the price of the aforementioned feast and/or to find the time to get everything ready in time.

If you’re anything like me, Christmas is a combination of all of the above. I think the festive season is a wonderful yet fraught time of year. For me, it’s already involved a heart-lifting evening listening to the Dingle choir and orchestra as well as several frantic searches for Christmas gifts. And it hasn’t even really started yet…

For the moment, I’ve succeeded in in juggling the various challenges that Christmas brings and I hope you’re managing to do so too.

Wishing you all a Christmas that is full of kindness and blessed with love, laughter and good food.

Guím Nollaig mhór mhaith oraibh go léir

The weather is very mild here so I don't think we're in for a white Christmas but this is what it was like during the cold winter of 2009

The Dingle Food Festival is back. Are you coming?

The Dingle Food Festival is happening this weekend and for the first time in as long as I can remember, I'm going to be able to sit back and enjoy it.

I've had a stall at the farmers' market since 2007 and as a result, the weekend of the food festival was always one of the busiest of my entire year. It was even busier when I had the café as I took part in the Taste Trail too. (I remember going to sleep at 1am on the Friday of the food festival in 2012 and setting my alarm to get up again at 4.30am - painful memories!)

This year will be different. I'm taking a sabbatical, which means I can attend all the cookery demonstrations and workshops I want, savouring the atmosphere on the streets and sampling deliciousness as I go.

Top of my agenda are cookery demonstrations from:
- Rory O'Connell of Ballymaloe renown
- Mark Moriarty who recently won the title of San Pellegrino Young Chef of the year (which means he's the best young chef in the world!)
- French chef Michel LeBorgne
- And spice supremo Arun Kapil of Green Saffron fame.

I also hope to attend the fermentation workshop. I'm intrigued by the sound of the TRADEIT project, which will showcase 20 food producers from all over Europe.

And then there's the Taste Trail. Seventy six of Dingle's shops, pubs, art galleries, cafés, restaurants and breweries will host food producers from all over the peninsula who will sell samples of their most delicious food. I'm already eagerly anticipating the likes of Dingle Bay crabmeat and monkfish thermidor tartlets, Derry Clarke's Dingle Vodka-cured salmon with pickled baby vegetables and sea herbs, porchetta with homemade bread and caramelised onions and adventures in Valhrona chocolate...

I can't wait for this year's festival. Will any of you be there?

Memories of childhood Saturdays and a recipe for dairy-free ice cream

What were your Saturdays like when you were a child? Mine would always begin with my sisters and I huddled under duvets on the sofa, chomping on bowls of Rice Crispies with milk and giggling at Saturday morning cartoons.

They would end with mass. It never mattered how much we resisted that weekly trip to church, we’d be washed, scrubbed and dressed in our Sunday (or in this case, Saturday) best before being dragged reluctantly along to the service.

Our parents did try to sweeten the deal though. In an attempt to ensure that we didn’t fidget or fight during what often seemed like a never-ending service, our parents would promise us the ice cream of our choice from the shop across the road from the church once mass was over.

Peering into a freezer full of ice cream, trying to decide between a Feast, Cornetto, Freaky Foot or Tangle Twister became the Saturday night ritual of my childhood and I still associate ice cream with a treat.

It’s a treat that I’ve been unable to indulge in since I started to follow the OMS diet. And boy have I missed it!

Despite the fact that there has been a huge growth in free-from foods, I haven’t been able to find many ice creams I can eat.  A lot of dairy-free ices are made with coconut milk and because of its high saturated fat content, that’s not an ingredient for me.

Lately though, I have been hearing good things about ice creams made with frozen bananas. So last week I decided to experiment.

I must admit that my hopes weren’t high. Bananas may be sweet but I couldn’t see how they could also be creamy…

However, there’s magic in these ingredients. Combined, they create a flavour, a texture and a melt-in-the-mouth deliciousness that's just like ice cream. 

And you don’t just have to take my word for it. My partner Richard (who hasn’t had to abstain from regular ice cream like I have) likes this ice cream too. In fact, he said it might just be the best thing I’ve ever made.

So there you have it: it’s possible to combine five simple dairy-free ingredients to create a truly decadent treat – one that I think even my childhood self would have liked!

Sharon's mint-choc dairy-free ice cream

This makes two moderately-sized ice cream portions. If it's the sort of evening where you want to sit on the sofa, watch TV and gorge on ice cream, you're going to need a lot more!

3 frozen bananas

3 tablespoons cocoa powder 

2 tablespoons almond milk

1 tablespoon date syrup or sweetener of your choice 

4 mint leaves

• Peel and chop the frozen bananas. I find this easier to do if I chop the bananas into two-centimetre/one inch thick slices first. Your fingers will get cold though so it might be a good idea to wear a pair of rubber gloves to avoid the chill factor!*
• Add the chopped banana slices and the other ingredients to a food processor or liquidiser. 
• Blitz until smooth and enjoy. 

I'm planning to experiment with more flavour combinations in the next few weeks. I'm thinking chocolate and raspberry and rum and raisin. Do you have any other suggestions? What's your favourite ice cream flavour? Or what was your favourite ice cream when you were a child?

* In response to this post, smarter people than me have said that they peel, slice and bag their bananas before they go in the freezer. I'll be doing this from now on to avoid frozen fingers!

Niceoise salad and memories of kindness

Here's another salad recipe but this time it doesn't come with a side order of complaints about the Irish weather. (Lest you think this means the weather has improved here on the Dingle Peninsula; it's done no such thing. We may have spent the past few weeks crossing our fingers for an Indian summer but those clouds have remained resolutely in our skies.)

No, this salad comes with a more personal story...

My partner Richard is quite a bit older than I am and when we first got together, there was some disapproval from our family and friends. With this as background information, you'll understand why I felt nervous the first time I met Richard's mother. By that stage, she was an old lady in her late seventies and I thought that if anyone were going to react in a judgemental way to our age difference, it was going to be her.

How wrong I was. I came to see that Anne was someone who prized love above all else in this world. She immediately saw and understood the strength of the love we shared. Her eyes shone with happiness for her son and from that moment on, she welcomed me warmly into her family.

She prepared a Niceoise salad for us to eat on the evening of that first visit. It was the first time I'd ever tasted this clever combination of green beans, tuna, anchovies, black olives and eggs but it definitely wasn't the last. It's become one of my go-to recipes for simple suppers ever since.

Anne died in 2007 but whenever I make this salad, I think of her and how kind she was to me on our first meeting.

My memory of Anne Smallwood's Niceoise Salad
This recipe feeds two greedy adults (with some leftovers for lunch the following day). Like all salad recipes, it's pretty adaptable. You can add more or less of any of the ingredients, according to your own preference.

400g small baby potatoes

250g green beans

1 medium-sized green pepper

15 black olives, the small puckered ones are best for flavour

250g tuna in olive oil, brine or water

8 anchovies

4 eggs

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

A pinch of salt

• Wash the potatoes and place in a saucepan. Sprinkle with salt and cover with boiling water. Simmer over a medium heat until a knife passes through the potatoes with ease. This should take between 15 and 20 minutes, depending on the size of your potatoes. Strain out the water and set aside to cool.
• Prepare your other ingredients while you're waiting for the potatoes. 
• Top and tail the beans and then cut them in half.
• Place them in a saucepan and sprinkle with salt. Add a centimetre or two of boiling water to the pan. Cover with a lid and simmer the beans over a medium to high heat for four minutes or until they are tender but still retain a slight bite.
• Cut the top off the pepper and scoop out the seeds and pith inside. Cut the flesh into bite-sized pieces.
• Remove the pits from the olives and cut them in half.
• Place the eggs in a small saucepan. Cover them with boiling water and simmer over a medium heat for seven minutes. Then place the saucepan in your sink and run cold water over the eggs until they become cool enough to handle. Set aside until it's time for assembly.
• Make the dressing by adding the olive oil, cider vinegar, honey, mustard and salt to a jam jar, screwing on the lid and shaking the jar vigorously until all the ingredients have combined.
• Your potatoes ought to have cooked at this stage. You could cut them in three and add them to the salad as they are but I like to fry them in a little olive oil to give them crispy edges. Simply heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add your potato slices and a sprinkling of salt. Wait for a golden crispy skin to develop before turning each slice over and doing the same again.
• It's time for assembly. Add the beans, potatoes, tuna, olives and green pepper to a salad bowl. Toss together until they are well combined.
• Peel the eggs by tapping them gently against a chopping board or counter top until cracks appear in the shell. Carefully peel the shell off the egg and cut each egg into quarters. Arrange the eggs and anchovies on top of the salad.
• It's up to you whether you dress the salad before it is served or not. I usually serve the dressing alongside and allow everyone to add as much or as little as they like.

My new adventures in seaweed

I've always been intrigued by seaweed. I've taken seaweed baths. I've eaten lots of sushi. I've even purchased books by Irish seaweed gurus, Prannie Rhatigan and Sally McKenna.

I live by the coast and sometimes see neighbours foraging for seaweed along the shoreline. But I've always been nervous about gathering seaweed myself. I felt as though I lacked the knowledge I needed to identify what was safe to eat. I was convinced that I'd end up poisoning myself.

That was until I went on a seaweed foraging with Darach Ó Murchú, an outdoors guide who runs foraging workshops here in West Kerry. He opened my eyes to a whole new edible world along the shoreline. 

I wrote about my adventures in seaweed in Monday's Irish Examiner. You can read all about it here.

My hair may be windswept but at last I know how to identify some of Ireland's best edible seaweeds!

The sun has gone AWOL - this calls for an emergency panzanella salad

This summer has been a little too Irish for my liking. I know it's supposed to rain in this country but does it have to rain so much that we've only been able to have dinner outside three times in the past three months?
I know we're not supposed to swelter under the sun either but did July really have to be one of the coldest on record? Or did it have to be the case that I never once took a walk on the beach without bringing along a fleece-lined jacket for fear of encountering biting Arctic winds?

This is what my walks have looked like this summer. Nice, I know, but where's the sunshine?

This weather has had consequences. Not only is everyone in Ireland at risk of vitamin D deficiency, we've all started to feel grouchy too. We need some sunshine!

I'm not a miracle worker. I can't compel the sun to shine on Ireland. Nor can this recipe promise to make up for our lack of sunshine. All I can do is assure you that its ripe tomatoes, charred red peppers, wrinkled black olives, salty anchovies and heady fragrance of basil will look, smell and taste just like summer on a plate.

Sharon's thrown-together take on a panzanella salad
The following quantities serve two adults. 
Feel free to adjust according to your own taste. If, for example, you don't like anchovies, just leave them out. The salad will still be full of flavour. It may however need a pinch of salt. 

200g of stale sourdough bread (or any other stale bread you've got lying around)
2 medium-sized red peppers
1 tablespoon olive oil
14 plum tomatoes
6 large sun-dried tomatoes
12 or so wrinkled black olives
6 anchovies 
6 large basil leaves
Salt and freshly-ground pepper 

• Pre-heat your oven to 200C/400F.
• Wash the peppers, place them on a baking tray and put them in the oven for 25 minutes. Set a timer for 15 minutes so you can use the oven to toast your croutons for the last ten minutes of cooking time.
• Remove the crust from the bread and chop what remains into chunks measuring approximately 1.5cm squared. (Don't worry too much about accuracy. This is a rough and ready salad.)
• Pour a tablespoon of olive oil onto a baking tray, tilting the tray so that the oil covers the entire base. Bung in the croutons. Toss them in the oil and give them a liberal sprinkling of salt and pepper.
• Your timer should have gone off by now. Place the croutons in the oven and bake for ten minutes. By then, you should have crunchy croutons that still retain a satisfyingly chewy texture in the middle. Your peppers should be ready too - charred on the outside with yielding flesh underneath. Set both the croutons and peppers aside to cool and turn off your oven.
• All that remains to do is chop up your remaining ingredients and add them to your salad bowl. Chop the tomatoes into quarters. 
• Roughly chop the sun-dried tomatoes.
• Remove the pits from the olives and cut them in half.
• Roughly chop the anchovies.
• Tear up the basil.
• Peel the charred skin off the peppers and roughly chop the flesh.
• Add all of these ingredients to a salad bowl, along with the croutons.
• Add at least half a teaspoon of pepper (about six twists of a pepper grinder) to the salad. 
• Use your hands or some salad servers to make sure that all of the ingredients are well combined.
• Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking. Depending on the quality of your ingredients, you may need more pepper, a touch of salt or a few more basil leaves. (If you like olive oil, you can drizzle some over the salad. Personally, I don't think it needs it.)

{I know that, like the sunshine, I too have been absent from this blog. My apologies. I hope to check in here on a much more regular basis from now on. In the meantime, I wish you sunshine!}

Honesty and emotion on Lena Dunham's Girls and the much-needed comfort of cookies

I've been a fan of the TV series Girls from the very beginning. There have been many moments when Lena Dunham's (sometimes brutally) honest depiction of just how self-absorbed and unaware young women can be struck a chord and made me realise how much I've grown up since my early twenties.

I haven't enjoyed this latest series as much. Or at least I wasn't enjoying it until I watched episode 5.

{SPOILER ALERT}
This is the episode when Hannah returns to New York to find that her boyfriend Adam has moved in with another girl, that she has been replaced in his heart and that his life has moved on without her in it. She reacts in typically over-dramatic Hannah fashion (although, to be fair, I think we'd all be just as dramatic if we discovered that our boyfriend was living with someone else and hadn't bothered to tell us that our relationship was over).

This episode culminates with Hannah and Adam having a heartfelt conversation where they discuss their past relationship and where they now stand with each other in a very open and rational way. They talk about what they had and how it's gone and how they both need to leave it behind and move on to something new - although Adam is obviously more ready to do this than Hannah is.
This entire conversation felt so real to me (though it must be acknowledged that life rarely affords us the opportunity to say exactly what we feel and think at exactly the right time as it does on TV). It touched upon the sadness we all feel when letting go of something that was special; how difficult it is to recognise when the moment is right for us to do this; the loss and heartbreak we feel when someone is no longer a part of our lives; and yet how vital it is that we make that break and move on to better and happier times.

These feelings lived on in me long after I finished watching the show and I needed the comfort of cookies. So I made these almond and ginger cookies.

They're adapted from a Lilly Higgins recipe. (She's a Cork lady and a great baker.)

Makes 10 regular sized cookies
50g olive oil
60g light muscovado sugar
75g almond butter
100g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bread soda
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
40g ginger nuts (stem ginger)*, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons of the syrup from the stem ginger
40g almonds, roughly chopped
30g sesame seeds 

• Preheat the oven to 180 C/350F.
• Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.
• Mix the olive oil, sugar, almond butter, flour, soda and ginger in a bowl until well combined.
• Add the chopped ginger nuts, syrup and chopped almonds and mix again.
• Roll teaspoons of the dough into balls and then roll the balls in the sesame seeds until they are coated.  
• Place on the baking tray and flatten slightly. (These cookies don't spread out much while baking.)
• Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.  Allow to cool on the tray and then dig in.

Episode six of Girls shows in Ireland tonight and I've only got one cookie left. Perhaps I need to get baking?

*Some of you have expressed confusion about ginger nuts/stem ginger. They are pictured on the spoon in the photo above and are essentially preserved, candied ginger bottled in a sweet syrup. You'll find them for sale in an increasing number of supermarkets but I often find mine in Middle Eastern stores (where they are cheaper too). 

My week in dinners

I don't know if there was ever a time when food was simple. The ingredients we cook with, the way in which we cook them and how we eat have always been indicators of status. Here in Ireland, the high society who lived in grand houses dined on the finest foods for centuries while peasants subsisted on potatoes, oats and hardy vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, cabbage and kale.

However, I think food has become more complicated in recent years. Turkey Twizzlers or tofu, chia pudding or Coco Pops, sliced pan or artisan sourdough; what you eat has never said more about who you are and how you want others to see you.

Food bloggers have certainly had a part to play in this. We all work hard to style our food photos to make them look as appealing as possible. Everything from the dish the meal is served in to the artfully-placed green herb placed on top has been carefully considered.  The words and images we use convey a message about food and it's not always a helpful one. And nor does it necessarily represent the way we eat every day.

While I'm lucky in that I love cooking and experimenting with new flavours and dishes, I don't always have the time or energy to cook at the end of a long day. And while I certainly pay some attention to how I present the food when I plate it up, the pressure to put food on the table means that I don't style it to within an inch of its life. For one thing, the food would be stone cold by the time I was satisfied with how it looked!

This is why I was intrigued by an idea suggested by fellow food blogger Bumbles of Rice. She called on food bloggers to tell their readers just what they had for dinner for five consecutive days. 

So, here is my week in dinners:

Wednesday: Minestrone soup

A solo dinner: which explains why I'm eating early and reading the paper

I usually try to make a batch of soup for dinner once a week.  I always make extra as I mostly work from home during the day and a bowl of soup makes for a quick and easy lunch. It's also a good fall-back option if I'm too tired to cook dinner on another evening during the week.
You can find the recipe for this soup here

Thursday: Jamie Oliver's cauliflower risotto with anchovy breadcrumbs

Forgive the god-awful picture but this is what it looks like when you use your camera phone and  there is no natural light - it is dinner time and February in Ireland after all!

Friday: grilled miso salmon, brown rice and veggies

Once again: the evening light is rubbish

I eat at least three servings of fish every week, with a focus on oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, tuna, etc. This ties in with my OMS diet which prioritizes intake of omega 3 fats, which we should all be trying to get more of.

Saturday: Potato and cauliflower curry from Olive Magazine - I adapted this to suit my diet and added this mushroom and spinach dish, some flat breads and yoghurt. (I know it's cauliflower again but it's cheap at the moment and I had lots of it in the fridge!)

Sunday: Pork roasted in the oven with onions, apples and wholegrain mustard served with mashed potatoes, crushed carrots and parsnips and brussel sprouts 

Because my diet means I can't eat meat, my boyfriend rarely eats meat during the week. To make up for this, I usually cook him something meaty on Sundays, serving myself something that is easy to rustle up alongside. On this day, I had a baked mackerel dish with the same sides.
But I forgot to take a picture as we were rushing out to the cinema.

Monday: I had some mashed potato and mackerel left over from Sunday as well as some tuna in olive oil in the cupboard so I used them to make this:

Tuna (and mackerel) fishcakes with parsley and caper salad from Olive Magazine again

(I know this is six days of dinners. But because I forgot to photograph one, I thought you deserved one extra!)

Your daily dinners are probably different to mine. They may not focus as much on fish and vegetables. Maybe you don't have the same amount of time or inclination to cook as I do . You might also live closer to a good takeout or a restaurant where you can eat cheaply and well (8 miles from Dingle town - where most good restaurants are pricey - I don't have such luxuries). Whatever the case, I'd love to hear about your week in dinners.