Tips for Father's Day

Posted by Conor O'Neill on Monday, March 27, 2006

The traditional Mother’s Day treat in our house is to get a nice simple poached eggs on toast breakfast in bed which the kids can easily help with. This year, as wifey is up the pole, soft eggs were a no-no and hard poached eggs are pooh, so we needed an alternative.

On Saturday, in a flash of inspiration I checked out “Easy Entertaining” by Darina Allen. My lovely parents got this for me at Christmas. The “Darina” bit would make it instantly interesting to me, but the “Entertaining” bit would put me off. The only entertaining we do is giving people a laugh with our uncontrollable demon children in SuperValu when we go shopping. But this is a great book. Tons of very manageable recipes ranging from 5-minuters to multi-hour slow-cookingers. What I had remembered was her particularly good brunch chapter.

I found “Buttermilk pancakes with crispy bacon and maple syrup”. Wife looked very happy when I suggested it.

I did a bit of shopping with the two eldest for basics in SuperValu. I got the special bits in Urru (sadly lacking in Mother’s day specific treats for some reason) and we were all set.

The pancakes were a doddle to make and I’m completely incompetent at baking (yes, pancakes are baking in my world). These were paired with Gubbeen streaky bacon which has a very distinctive and enticing aroma (is it the juniper?). Canadian Maple Syrup finished it off. Wife rated it as the best Mother’s Day breakfast ever. Result.

Dinner was our old reliable spaghetti n meatballs as we wanted us all eating at the same time. All plates were demolished. I then rolled out my secret weapon - Murphy’s Chocolate Ice Cream with Glenilen Raspberry Mousse. Catherine argued with me that they did not go together. As far as she was concerned I was ruining a perfect chocolate moment with fruit. I disagreed and insisted she try the combo. Success, she loved it! They are effing fabulous together. I’m not even that big a fan of chocolate ice-cream but with the fluffy mousse it was awesome.

One downside was that both Oisín and Oscar tried some of the ice-cream. They both adored it - Ois licked his bowl, Osc licked the carton clean. There goes our cost base - they won’t accept HB Neapolitan from us any more.

I know what I want for Father’s Day.

[tags]Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Murphys Icecream, Glenilen, Urru, Gubbeen, Darina Allen[/tags]


comments powered by Disqus