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?

Wishing you all the merriest of Christmas holidays

Nollaig faoi shéan agus faoi mhaise daoibh go léir.

This is an Irish saying which loosely translates as a blessing of hope and happiness at Christmas and it's something I'd like to wish everyone who takes the time to visit my little corner of the internet. I hope you all enjoy something delicious to eat and the convivial company of family and friends this festive season.

Christmas is going to be a little different for me this year as my partner and I are shirking all of our usual responsibilities and running away to Prague for a week. (We're leaving tomorrow - eek!) I'm very excited and rest assured that I'll tell you all about it when I return.

In the meantime, stay well and happy.

Nollaig shona ón nDaingean 
Happy Christmas from Dingle

Comfort eating, vegan style

Our house is right by the sea. There's just one small green field between it and the Atlantic Ocean. It might sound idyllic and sometimes it is. But other times, it can be ferocious.

Here's what it has looked like from my office window a lot lately. 

That's rain lashing at the window. Those are the white crests of waves pummelling the shoreline all along the bay. And that reflected light on the right side of the photo is a lamp on my desk, the illumination from which was badly needed as the sky was dark and heavy with clouds outside. (To shatter your idea of the idyll of living on the coast even further: this photo was taken at 12 noon!)

On days like this, a body calls out for comfort food. But when you're following what amounts to a vegan diet that includes fish, comfort food can be hard to find. (Think about it: don't most of our most comforting dishes include dairy? Mac and cheese, fish pie with creamy mash, apple crumble, chocolate cake - now I'm just torturing myself!)

Thankfully, my experiments in the kitchen have turned up some alternatives that are just as comforting and yet follow the principles of the OMS diet. This vegan cottage pie with North African spicing is one of them. It doesn't try to be a substitute for a classic, it just feels like a whole new dish to enjoy in the dark days of winter.

Vegan cottage pie with Moroccan spicing - serves 4

200g dried green speckled lentils*
500g sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 3 to 4cm cubes
1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and finely chopped 
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely (I used smoked garlic but regular garlic is fine)
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 large red pepper, cut into 1cm chunks
1 leek, peeled of its outer layers, halved lengthwise and chopped into 0.5cm slices
2 tablespoons rapeseed oil
2 teaspoons ras al hanout*
1 teaspoon cumin
1 400g can of chopped or peeled tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon salt

• Start by preparing the vegetables (sweet potatoes, red onion, celery, garlic, chilli, red pepper and leek).
• Pre-heat your oven to 200 Celsius/400 F/Gas Mark 6.
• Cover the lentils in cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for ten minutes. Reduce the heat. Cover the pot and simmer for a further 15 to 20 minutes, until the lentils have softened.
• Meanwhile cook the sweet potatoes. Cover with lightly salted cold water. Bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes or until soft.
• Place a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the rapeseed oil, chopped onion, carrot and celery. Cook for three minutes.
• Add the garlic and chill and cook for a further two minutes.
• Add the red pepper, leeks, cooked lentils and spices and cook for another three to four minutes. (If you're using canned lentils, they get added at this point too.)
• Now add the can of tomatoes and the salt and cook for a further ten minutes. (If you're using whole tomatoes, you'll have to make sure you break those down using your wooden spoon.)
• Get to work on your sweet potatoes while your lentil mix is bubbling away. Mash them with a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
• Taste both the lentil mix and the sweet potatoes to make sure you're happy with the seasoning and then pour the lentils into an oven-proof dish. Top with the sweet potato, spreading it out evenly with a fork.
• Place in the oven and cook for 20 minutes.

* Tinned lentils work in this recipe too.

* Ras al hanout is a Moroccan spice blend that you'll find for sale in the spice section of most large supermarkets.

PS: Just in case you think living along the Irish Atlantic coast is all about darkness and harsh weather, we get days like this too.

Those days demand a different dinner!

I'm back! And so is the Dingle Food and Wine Festival!

Oops! It seems as though I unintentionally took a summer break from blogging! This makes it sound as though I spent the months of August and September lying on balmy beaches, sipping cool drinks and soaking up sunshine. If only it were so....

Nope. Instead, these past two months were two of the busiest of my year so far. August is always busy in Dingle, what with being the height of the summer season. Throw a family wedding into the mix and you've got the perfect recipe for a stressed-out and exhausted Sharon. I had so many things to do and places to be that there was never any time to be here.

But that's about to change. This weekend, Dingle celebrates its annual Food and Wine Festival, marking the end of the tourist season in the town. Everyone starts winding down once the festival is over. The farmers' market closes. The long evenings start to draw in. Some of the town's businesses close for winter. And instead of catering to tourists visiting Dingle, many of the town's residents head off on holidays of their own. 

Basically, everyone draws a breath after the frenetic pace of summer. That's what I will be doing too. I'll also take advantage of the quieter months to come to share some new recipes and thoughts with you here on a much more regular basis.

In the meantime, I'm preparing for the food festival. I'll have a stall at the farmers' market where I'll be selling... Sharon takes a deep breath before she recites what is a VERY long list... brownies, double chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, Black Forest gateau cupcakes, lemon meringue cupcakes, ginger and lime cupcakes, banoffee cupcakes, Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's icing, carrot cupcakes with orange cream cheese icing, white chocolate and raspberry cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes with creamy peanut butter icing, chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache icing, cookies and cream cupcakes and mini mixed berry cheesecakes! 

Call to my stall to say hi if you're in town. And try a cupcake! 

Now, I'd best start baking.

To see what else is happening as part of the Dingle Food Festival, visit www.dinglefood.com 

What Sharon did next

Closing the café left me with a huge hole in my life. I've filled that hole by spending more time with family and friends, focusing more on my journalistic writing (something has to pay the bills!), relaxing and thinking about where I want my life to take me in the future. 

It sounds crazy but I actually still have a lot of time left over after doing all of that, which goes to show that running a café is a whole lot more work than anyone realises. It may also sound crazy to anyone who knows how burned out I was when the café closed that I still yearn to work with food, not just writing about food, but actually producing food for people to eat. 

This is why I've returned to Dingle Farmers' Market where I have a weekly stall selling baked goods every Friday from 9 am until 2 pm. I've been back since the beginning of May and have been experimenting with different flavours and options to suit my customers' tastes ever since. 

I've brought back old favourites that people loved when I last had my stall there three years ago and I've started introducing some gluten-free, dairy-free and sugar-free treats to cater for the growing number of people who are careful about what they eat for health or philosophical reasons (a growing number of people that now includes me).
  
It's been great to be back. I've re-engaged with old customers, met new ones, enjoyed the banter with fellow stall holders and I'm really appreciating once again doing something with food.

Here are some pictures I've taken of my cakes and my stall in the past few weeks, just to give you an idea of what I've been doing:

Chocolate cupcakes with a creamy peanut butter icing - these contain butter, chocolate and cream (all things I shouldn't eat) and I seriously struggle not to scoff the lot!

The most adorable marzipan bees to go on top of my spiced honey cupcakes

Dan Lepard's chocolate custard muffins topped with chocolate ganache - chocolate on chocolate; it's a classic!

Zingy with lemon and always a winner

No flour, no dairy yet oh-so deliciously good

My white chocolate and raspberry cupcakes are on the left at the back and they have once again proved to be my bestsellers. The mini cheesecakes and banoffee cupcakes are pretty popular too!

I have some questions for you before I bid you farewell today:

1: Based on your own experience of cake eating, what flavours and combinations would you like to see for sale at farmers' markets? I'd be particularly interested in hearing about options that are gluten, dairy and sugar free.

2: I'm also thinking of signing up with EatWith and hosting supper club evenings in my home. Do you think people would be interested in this? Being at the market is not really enough to satisfy my cravings to feed people while enjoying their company and I think this new concept could be just the thing for me. Has anyone tried it out before? Or do you have any thoughts or suggestions?

Vote for Dingle - we all know it's THE Foodie Town of Ireland

People who visit Dingle are always very impressed by the sheer quality of its food.

The town has 52 (count them!) restaurants, cafés and other places to eat serving dishes made from the finest of local ingredients including fish freshly landed at Dingle Pier, meats such as the lamb raised on the Great Blasket Island, locally-made cheeses, black puddings, chocolates and even locally-brewed beers.

The streets are lined with fantastic food shops selling local and Irish cheeses as well as cheeses from all over Europe, award-winning ice cream and wonderful healthful foods.

Every Friday, the town hosts a farmers' market (to which I returned last Friday but more on that anon).

And early every October, there is the not-to-be-missed Dingle Food Festival.

With all of this and more, surely Dingle has to rank as THE Foodie Town of Ireland? To make it official, vote here

The Restaurants Association of Ireland, in association with AdMailer.ie from An Post, are on the search for Ireland’s premier foodie destination. Let them know that you've found it in Dingle by voting here before Sunday, May 18th.

Dingle: there's no place quite like it

Addendum May 20: voting has now ended and the judges are due to visit Dingle this Thursday. Here's hoping Dingle knocks their socks off!

Addendum number two: just in case you missed it: we won! It's now official. Dingle is THE foodie town of Ireland - at least for 2014!

The sense of an ending

I closed the café on November 2nd. That was the last day I made food and served it to customers.

Since then, I’ve been slowly clearing the café of everything I had filled it with over the course of the past two years and today, I finally brought out the last box and closed the door on what had been the adventure of my lifetime. 

I knew closing was the right thing to do for all sorts of reasons and yet closing that door and turning my back on that space was heart wrenching. I’d put so much time and energy and so much of my self into making that space mine, into making it Béile le Chéile, that there was a huge sense of loss in walking away. Every box I filled and carried to the car emptied that space of what I had made it and consigned it to the past, made it something I once did and no longer do, something I created that now no longer exists.

Although I am filled with relief and overcome by the sense of freedom involved in walking away from a venture that had taken over every waking hour of my life, I am still sad. Very sad.

Running a café? All you do is saunter around all day with no worries!

I must admit to being a little disappointed. I had promised myself that this year would be different. No matter how busy things were in the café, I would be more organised and maintain enough time to write a weekly post for this blog.
Well, two whole months since my last blog post, all I can say is 'So much for that!'

Béile le Chéile has been open for over a month and it's been quite the whirlwind ever since. It's taken me all this time to get back into the rhythm of cooking, baking, ordering, organising staff and the general rushing about that is running a café.

That's why I laughed out loud when I read the results of a survey in The Irish Times last weekend. They asked random people what they thought the best jobs in the world might be and one person was quoted as saying:
'I'd like to run a café. You'd saunter around all day with no worries.'

Oh, how I laughed. It's funny that people think that all you have to do to run a successful café is turn up in the morning, turn on the coffee machine and start serving customers. They really have no idea of how much work goes on behind the scenes.

In a way, that's testament to the good work done by so many people who work in the food industry. Like serene swans who are swimming furiously under the surface, they make it look simple. The relaxed smiles on their faces as they serve up delicious food belies the amount of hard work and effort they've put into making it. 

One day, I hope to become someone who makes running a café look simple. And I actually think I'm getting there. This time last year, I was hardly sleeping at night as all I could do was worry about what I'd got myself into and my waking hours away from the café were spent in floods of tears because I was so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work facing me every day.

But this is not at all how I feel this year. I'm sleeping well. There have been no tears. I feel much more under control and am far happier. I'm still daunted by the thoughts of high summer and the amount of work involved in making a visit to Béile le Chéile the enjoyable experience I'd love for it to be for every single customer. But I think that I can do it.

One day, someone will look at me and think I've got the dream job. Sauntering around without a worry... Yeah, that'll be me.

Missing in action: an explanation

Please don't think I've forgotten you because I haven't. In fact, I was supposed to post a new recipe here today (for an almond and orange cake inspired by a recent visit to Brother Hubbard in Dublin) but it got slightly burned while baking and it isn't good enough for you to enjoy just yet.
Although this doesn't mean that it's not good enough for me to eat. I'm licking the delicious crumbs from my lips as I type!

It's a good cake so I'll bake it again (and bake it better) some day really soon and post it here for you then. I'm also planning to make some chocolate, cheesecake and raspberry brownies at the weekend so I'll post those here on Sunday (fingers crossed I don't burn them too).

In the meantime, here are some pictures taken by my house recently. It's been cold but beautiful in this part of the world.

Mount Brandon from Feothanach Beach

The evenings are getting longer too, which means I can fit a walk in after work.

And this makes our dog, Jimmy, very happy.

My adventures as a café owner make the national news!

Apologies to those of you who have had it with my stories of opening a café but those of you who have yet to be sated by such tales can read what I wrote in today's Irish Examiner. Read all about it here.

So that was 2012. Bring on 2013.

The past few weeks have been a reflective time for me. After the whirligig year that was 2012, I have closed Béile le Chéile until mid March and finally have time to look back on all that has happened since I fell off the edge of the world  opened the café.

My café is in Dick Mack's Yard, behind the pub, upstairs from the pottery shop and beside Dingle's oldest art gallery!

My first nine months as a café owner have been a huge learning curve. I've learned that:

1: Running a café is one of the most exhausting things you can do, especially at the beginning. For the first six weeks or so, I would get up at five or six in the morning and go to the café to bake. I'd rush around from then until five in the evening when the café closed. AND THEN there would be clean up, accounts to do and food to order for the following day. I'd get home at 7pm or so - dead on my feet and unable to speak - and go to bed shortly after dinner, only to wake up in the middle of the night worrying about all there was to do the next day.

(Looking back on it now, I think I was in a state of shock at just what I'd got myself into. I'd spend all day rushing about on auto-pilot and once I got to my car in the evening, I'd burst into tears at the relief of having survived another day without disaster. It felt as though I was lurching from day to day, desperately hoping to avoid catastrophe.
The tears would also threaten to come if ever anyone asked how I was or how the business was going in those early days. "Fine," I'd respond in a tight voice as my inner self would scream "don't cry. For god's sake, don't cry!". 
Thankfully, the crying phase ended after a few weeks, hopefully never to return!)

Thankfully too, there were no disasters, though there were close calls. Burst water pipes, falling chimneys, disappearing waitresses - all of these and more were setbacks that were overcome.

Lesson number two: people are kind. I got so much help when I first opened the café. People left comments here. Others contacted me on Twitter. Fellow café owners and restaurateurs in Dingle gave me advice. 
My family and friends were phenomenal. My brothers both loaned me money to set up the café and my plumber brother rushed to the rescue more than once. My artistic sister designed my sign, helped me find tablecloths, picked up my cash register, made an emergency delivery of coffee and stepped in on the morning the café opened just as I was about to have a meltdown.
My other three sisters helped out too. One was a full-time waitress over the summer months and the other two helped when I needed them. There was one particularly busy day when two of them came in for lunch and ended up being drafted in to do the washing up for hours.

Thanks to Gearóid, my sister Úna's boyfriend who came up with the café's name. It may have been controversial but I love it.
My lovely boyfriend was always there to help too. He was right by my side getting the place ready to open and always on call if every anything went wrong. I literally could not have done it without him.

The calm after the storm

Lesson number three: most customers are lovely. It's great to see people becoming regulars and appreciating the food you have cooked.

Lesson number four: I can work in a café kitchen. When I first planned to open a café, it wasn't my intention to be in the kitchen. I would bake but others would do the cooking. Because I could only find one cook for my kitchen, I took up the rest of the slack. And do you know what? I'm pretty good at it!

The patio outside the café

Lesson number five: I'm not good at bookkeeping. There is so much of it to do and so little time in which to do it. At one stage during the summer, I had to wade through paper in order to reach the computer in my home office - I'm not (AND I REPEAT, NOT) letting it get to that stage this year.

Lesson number six: I still love everything to do with food and cooking. I always enjoyed preparing the food and seeing and hearing people's reactions to it. Hearing the sigh of satisfaction when they had their first sip of coffee (we use Pónaire Coffee which is roasted in Limerick ). Watching them as they tasted our chocolate chip cookies or our blueberry scones.  Encouraging regulars to try things like this spicy shakshouka or a summery pea and mint soup.


I'm grateful for all the help I got in 2012, from my honest and hardworking staff, from my ever-understanding environmental health officer, from my family and friends and from all my customers.

2012 wasn't an easy year but it was a worthwhile one and I'm really looking forward to 2013. I want to make Béile le Chéile even better by showcasing more great Irish food products; creating an even more welcoming and relaxing atmosphere and maybe branching out into holding some events. (I'm thinking bookclubs, supper clubs, talks... What say you?) 

Also, I've made a decision that even if I do get ridiculously busy with the café again (which I inevitably will do), I'm going to keep this blog going in 2013. Come what may, no matter what cakes need to be baked or customers need to be served, there will be a weekly post here on Foodie Fancies - that's one of my not-to-be-broken New Year's Resolutions.

The next two months will be taken up with sourcing new suppliers, coming up with new ideas for the menu and maybe planning some events. I can't wait! If you've got any ideas, I'd love to hear them. And if ever you are in Dingle, I'd love to welcome you to Béile le Chéile. We'll be open from mid March...

Oh! And before I forget, did I tell you we won a Bridgestone Award? It may have been a whirligig year but we must have been doing something right! 

Sharon has fallen off the edge of the world.

I haven't forgotten you, the lovely readers of this blog. It's just that I've fallen off the edge of the world opened a café and it's taken over my life. All I seem to do these days is get woken by the sound of my alarm clock, haul my tired body out of bed and into the café where I bake and cook all day long and then come home, collapse from exhaustion and wake up to do it all over again the next day...

But I can see that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Things are getting easier. I'm beginning to build a good team of people around me and most importantly of all, I'm learning how to delegate. You would not believe how hard it is for a girl like me to learn to trust other people to do things properly, even apparently simple things like making a good cup of coffee. But I am learning and I will get there (that's what I keep telling myself anyhow).
As soon as I do, I'll start posting here regularly again. It won't be long, I promise.

In the meantime, here are some quickly shot snaps of Béile le Chéile (there's still a lot more to be done though so when I next update, you should notice lots of changes)

This is the building from the outside, with my sign pointing to where I am:

I've got an outside patio area which is perfect for when it's sunny (ok, so not all that often in Dingle!)

And here are two shots of the interior:

I've have lots more pictures and stories for you next time - which hopefully won't be too long off. I have to get up at 6am tomorrow morning and I'm bound to be very busy over the bank holiday weekend but I hope to find some time over the next few days to tell you about everything I've been up to. Slán go fóill!

Lamenting the loss of lie-ins

Oh, lie-ins, how I miss you. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed one of you, the last time I dawdled in bed with nothing to do except flick through magazines, doze and wonder what to have for breakfast.

I've been working so hard trying to get this café up and running while struggling to keep up with my writing and teaching work at the same time. Last Wednesday saw me teaching a class in Tralee, taking an interview in my car and then writing a 1200 word article in a car park all the while being interrupted by calls from fire safety officers and suppliers. This is just how erratic my life has got. So erratic that I'm going to bed exhausted every night and rolling out of bed early the next morning only to do it all over again. 

You can see why I miss lie-ins... 

I've made progress though. The painting is finished bar a few touch-ups. The kitchen is near ready. I've sorted out lots (but not all) of my suppliers. I've even hired some staff. And I also have a name. But it seems to be contentious...

I wasn't anticipating this but I've had conflicting reactions to the name and I wonder what you are going to think of it. I've decided to call it (drum roll, please):

Béile le Chéile (I'm useless at figuring out how to write things phonetically but it's pronounced something like bay-le le chay-le and it loosely translates as 'a shared meal'.)

Anyhow, I thought it sounded lovely as it rhymes and I liked the communal feel of what it meant. And I wanted something that was in the Irish language as it's something that I feel is at the heart of who we are in this part of Ireland yet it's also something that is slowly fading away.

So... here are the reactions I’ve had to it. Irish-speaking people instantly like it. It makes them smile.
Irish people who don’t speak English don’t like it and think that the fact it’s an Irish name will keep people away from the café. Be honest with me here: do you really think this will happen?
Foreigners who are not English speaking like it once they are told what it means and think it will have no bearing on whether or not they would go to a café.
Foreigners who live in Dingle and are not Irish speaking think it might affect business.
My boyfriend, who is English and speaks hardly any Irish, doesn’t know what to think!

I’m confused. It took me ages to come up with the name (and I have to give credit to my sister's boyfriend Gearóid for the final choice). I wanted it to be in Irish as I think the fact that the language is in decline has a lot to do with people like me abandoning it in favour of English when presented with situations such as this. I wasn’t expecting my choice of name to present me with such ethical problems. What do you think?

As you can see, I’ve had problems on my plate which is why I haven’t posted here for a while. I’d have much preferred to have something like this on my plate – a breakfast dish that is perfect for people who have just enjoyed a lie-in, a dish that is full of flavour, that is worth lingering over and is a great way to start a lazy weekend.

It comes from Yotam Ottolenghi's book 'Plenty' and it's eggy, herby and spicy with a hint of sweetness. It's called Shakshuka and it's one of my favourite ways to celebrate having had a lie-in.

And although it takes over a half an hour to make, you can make the pepper mix in advance and then all you need to do is cook the eggs in it for ten minutes in the morning. I've done this before and it's so worth it.

This makes a very satisfying brunch for two
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
90ml vegetable oil or light olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
1 red and 1 yellow pepper, halved, quartered and then cut into 2cm strips
2 teaspoons muscuvado sugar
1 bay leaf
3 thyme sprigs, leaves picked and chopped
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped coriander, plus extra to garnish
3 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
1/4 teaspoon saffron threads
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Up to 125ml water
4 free-range eggs
Salt and black pepper

• Place a large frying pan over a high heat and dry roast the cumin seeds for two minutes.
• Add the oil and the onions and sauté for five minutes.
• Add the peppers, sugar and herbs and continue cooking on a high heat for five to ten minutes to get a nice colour.
• Add the tomatoes, saffron, cayenne and some salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes.
• During the cooking, keep adding water so that the mix has the consistency of pasta sauce.
• Taste and adjust the seasoning. You want something with a strong flavour.  (This is the part of the dish that you can make up in advance - it keeps well in the fridge).
• Remove the bay leaf and divide the mix into two separate small frying pans, each large enough to take an individual portion. 
• Place them on a medium heat to warm up.
• Then make two gaps in the mix and break an egg into each gap.
• Sprinkle with salt and cover the pans with lids.
• Cook on a very gentle heat for 10 to 12 minutes or until the eggs are just set.
• Sprinkle with coriander and serve with some crusty bread.

Breakfasts like this are what make me miss lie-ins even more. Oh well, off I go to the café to finish the painting and start decorating the bathrooms. If I get enough done today, maybe I can have a lie-in followed by some shakshuka for breakfast tomorrow. Now there's a thought to inspire a girl to work harder.

Proof once again that chocolate will always make things better

Last week was a tough week. Things went wrong. Things fell through. And at one stage, a chimney almost fell off - but I don't even want to go there and, believe me, neither do you!

Some of you may think I'm mad but I've been trying to coordinate setting up a café with my other full-time work. This means that the past few weeks have consisted of me constantly switching from journalist mode to teacher mode to hassled-person-trying-to-set-up-a-café mode. Mostly, I've been doing fine, though there have been times when I've forgotten just who I'm supposed to be...

That was until last Thursday. I'd been in Tralee on Wednesday, where I'd found tablecloths I liked. This was a huge step forward as I'd spent ages searching in Dublin, Limerick and Dingle. But when I called the shop early on Thursday morning to finalise the order, they hit me with a bombshell. They didn't have enough fabric and the pattern had been discontinued so they couldn't order in any more. Back to the drawing board went a VERY disheartened Sharon.

Barely a second after that phone call, there was the chimney incident (the less said about that, the better) and another phone call from my landlord with more bad news.

Feeling really discouraged by now, I then had to go and teach a computer literacy class to a group of pensioners. The computers were playing up and it took at least 40 minutes to get started, by which time my normally lovely pensioners were very crotchety.

Things got even worse after that but I can feel my blood pressure rising as I write so perhaps it's just best for me to say that by Friday, I had made little or no progress with the café and expected little from the weekend.

Needing some serious cheering up, I found myself browsing through Short and Sweet by Dan Lepard, one of the cookbooks I got this Christmas and a treasure trove of baking treats. I found a recipe for chocolate custard muffins and by their very name alone, I knew they were what I needed.

Note to readers: before you get too excited, the name refers to the cooking method. There is no chocolate custard inside. But this doesn't make them any less delicious. These muffins are moist, chocolately and more-ish. One will most definitely not be enough.
Note to self: must make chocolate muffins with chocolate custard inside.

You'll find Dan's recipe for the muffins on the Guardian website here. He's a regular contributor of theirs and I warn you that if you browse his recipes, you'll definitely end up wanting his book! 
While the muffins were baking in the oven and cooling afterwards, I made Dan's treacle chocolate fudge icing to go on top. 

Halve the measurements he uses and you'll have enough to swirl on top of 12 muffins as well as some left over to use as chocolate spread afterwards. It keeps very well in the fridge.

I felt so much better after baking and eating these that my weekend seemed to flow from there. My boyfriend, two of my sisters and one of their boyfriends came to help me get started with painting on Saturday. One of them even had lots of tablecloth samples for me and I found one that was better than my original choice. (Hooray!)

We made much more progress than I ever thought we would and I am so thankful to them all for helping me and lifting me out of what was becoming a dark and pessimistic mood.

I feel I should thank these muffins too. The very act of baking them and the pleasure of eating them made me remember just what I'm trying to do with this café. There will be obstacles to overcome along the way but if delicious food like this is the result, I feel that it will be worth it.

My helpers enjoyed eating the muffins too!

I'll definitely be making these again. They may even feature on the menu of my café. If they made me feel better and made a success of a weekend that I thought would be a total failure, they must be good.

You are all so kind...

Thank you all so much for taking a look at my last post. It was my most read post so far and the fact that so many of you read it makes me feel that I may not be entirely out of my mind in thinking that I have it in me to run a good café. All of your suggestions are very welcome and if you have any more, I'd love to hear them.

I'm going to be very busy over the next while and may not be able to post here as regularly as I'd like. But I do promise you a post before the week is out - if I haven't put something up here by Friday, you can rap me on the knuckles!

In the meantime, I'm still racking my brains to come up with a name for my café! If you've got any ideas, no matter how zany, be sure to send them to me.

Sharon puts her money where her mouth is

I have butterflies in my stomach as I write this. Regular readers will know that I promised to announce something today and my Twitter followers will know that I've been working up to something for a while. Well, I'm finally ready to reveal just what it is that I've been planning:

I'M OPENING A CAFÉ IN DINGLE!!!

Sorry about the screaming capitals but I feel as though little else can convey quite how excited and nervous I'm feeling about this venture. Although it's something I've been thinking about doing for some time, I'm anxious about how it's all going to work out.

From reading previous posts, you'll know that I have had a stall at Dingle Farmers' Market for the past few years and that the cupcakes, brownies and other sweet treats I sell there have proved to be popular with customers. These will be one of the main attractions in my new café, which I'm hoping will become a place where people will come to enjoy good teas, coffees and cakes.

But I'm realistic enough to realise that this won't be enough to sustain a business in Dingle, especially outside of the summer months so I'm also planning to do good sandwiches (roast beef with garlic aioli and rocket, anyone?), soups, brunch specials, salads and three lunch specials that will change regularly, if not daily. There's a lot I still need to sort out but I know that the emphasis I want is seasonal, simple and mostly local food based on quality ingredients.

For those of you who know Dingle, my café is going to be located in Dick Mack's yard where Bee's Teas used to be. For those of you that don't, it will be upstairs in the charming but quite ramshackle building pictured below (there's also a terrace where customers can sit on sunny days).

There's a huge amount to do before it opens - which I hope will be in early March. The outside needs a facelift. So too does the interior. I need to organise insurance; find suppliers; buy crockery, cutlery, tablecloths and kitchen equipment; and hire staff.

There's a lot to worry about. I feel as though I'm really putting my money where my mouth is. I'm going from being a blogger who occasionally reviews restaurants and often finds fault to someone who tries to set up a place of her own. I've got very high standards and I just hope I can meet them.

I'd appreciate any advice you can give me. Suggestions as to where to buy crockery, cutlery, cake stands, cushions for seats and anything else that comes to mind would be more than welcome.

So too would suggestions for a name for my café. So far, I've got The Sweet Season, an Séasúr Blasta (which is Irish for The Tasty/Delicious Season) and Cookies but I don't know if any of them is quite right. 

Think about it and leave your thoughts in the comments below. I want something that conveys the idea of seasonal, natural, simple cooking and the name could also include a reference to sweet treats as they are what I am best known for. 

Don't worry if you think your suggestion sounds batty. Sometimes, batty is best!

A taste of Dingle courtesy of the Dingle Hamper Company

There is just over a week to go to Christmas and if you're anything like me, you won't have bought a single Christmas present yet. Not a single one.

If you're even more like me, a feeling of panic will be beginning to develop at the pit of your stomach. You know the one: that queasy rumbling that asks you why you've done it again. Why do you always leave it so late?

If only the people I have to buy gifts for this year were foodies. Then I would know exactly what to buy them. Two of my fellow stall holders at Dingle Farmers' Market, Saorla the chocolatier - shown here before she had embarked on her chocolate making adventures:

and Marie the maker of fabulous fudge and interesting jams and chutneys (her range includes a wonderful clove apple jelly and a strawberry and black pepper jam): 

have joined forces and created Dingle Hampers - a luxury gift that offers a taste of the food of the peninsula.

The hampers are available in different sizes and suit a range of budgets. Most importantly of all, they are filled with lots of good things. Tear off the wrapping and you'll be tempted by Saorla's chocolates. Will you opt for the Green Fairy absinthe truffle, the brandy and apricot truffle or perhaps one of these chocolate spoons - just stir into hot milk for the perfect hot chocolate.

You'll also find Marie's creative food, which includes such flavours as Baileys and chocolate fudge, maple syrup and walnut fudge and butternut squash and almond chutney.

As well as Saorla and Marie's food, the hampers include Maya Binder's Dingle Peninsula cheese which is a hard cheese flavoured with dillisk seaweed; Olivier Beaujouan's On the Wild Side products which include cured meats, fish and foods he has foraged from the seashore; homemade fruit cordials; and lots more. In fact, Saorla and Marie are constantly on the lookout for more local products to add to their hampers.

This is a hamper I'd love to tear open on Christmas Day and tuck into over the festive period. Perhaps I'll buy one for myself...

However tempting it might be to treat myself to one of these hampers, it still doesn't solve my present-buying problem. But it might solve yours and if so, at least one of us will be rid of that queasy rumbling feeling of panic in our tummies.

To find out more about Dingle Hampers, visit www.dinglehampers.com

Breathing is always important, especially when it's time for the annual Dingle Food Festival

Breathe, Sharon, breathe.

I'm suffering from mild hyperventilation at the moment because it's finally arrived: the Dingle Food Festival starts tomorrow and that means that today is officially my busiest day of the year. I ought to be mixing  batters and baking and icing cakes now but the reason I'm sitting at my computer is because I've got so much work to do, I don't even want to start. 

Those of you who've been reading my blog for a while will remember that I was ambitious for last year's festival and made ten different types of cupcakes as well as my ever-popular brownies.

Well, this year I'm going one better. I'm making eleven kinds as well as a range of cake pops - which are new to my stall and, as I haven't practiced them very much, may end up looking so unpresentable that they'll go into the bin - a possible but hopefully avoidable outcome!

This year's flavours are:

White chocolate and raspberry

Cookies and cream

Banoffee

Carrot 

Lemon meringue 

Black Forest Gateau

Guinness and Baileys

Chocolate and coffee

Chocolate and peanut

Ginger and lime

And mixed berry cheesecakes

My cake pops will include a Madeira cake base and a chocolate cake base flavoured with orange, Baileys, raspberry or coffee covered in either dark or white chocolate and topped with rose petals, pollen, chopped hazelnuts, candied orange peel or chocolate shavings. If they work out, they'll look fabulous. If not, then the bin it is!

There's so much to look forward to at this year's festival - if you're lucky enough to be a visitor and not a stallholder.  If I'm able to break free from my stall or the stove for any length of time, here's what I'd like to go to:

• Some of the workshops, which include chocolate making with Benoit Lorge; rearing and curing a pig with Fingal Ferguson of Gubbeen Farmhouse Products and Ted Berner and Ivan Wheelan of Wildside Catering; hen keeping; foraging; and 'coffee from around the world' with Mark Kingston from the Golden Bean.
• For Food's Sake: a series of thought-provoking talks, film screenings and discussions - all about food.
• Come Dine with the Penguins: a seafood feast served in the penguins' enclosure at Oceanworld Aquarium.
• And, finally, the wonderful taste trail where 55 businesses in the town play host to some of the area's food producers and serve creatively cooked local food. There's seafood in Curran's Bar, a kangaroo BBQ in Finn McCool's Surf Shop, Píog pies with a pint in Hannie Agnes' Bar, Terayaki salmon skewers with warm sake shots at Fish at the Marina and so much more. 
  
  So, who is coming to Dingle this weekend? If you are, do call by and say hello. I'll be manning my stall at the market on Holy Ground from 9am to 2.30pm tomorrow and from 11am to 4pm (ish) on Saturday and Sunday. The rest of the time, I'll be breathing - or should I say baking!