Elephant & Castle

Elephant & Castle Website

Elephant and Castle is a long time favourite of mine. Its right in the centre of Temple Bar (Tourist Zone) and so is always busy and if you get a window seat you are sure to be entertained by whats outside the window. Either the buskers or the characters that hang out in this area.

A friend of mine was over visiting from Toronto so I decided to meet her here. We hadn't a table booked and even though it was Sunday we were told we would have to wait a half n hr so I decided to show her some of the sites. Took her to Trinity College, down Grafton Street (Shopping street in Dublin) and walked around Temple Bar.

The reason people go to Elephant & Castle is because they make the original delicious chicken wings that everyone in the world loves including myself.
I did recommend to my friend to order some too. We decided to get a basket each and some fries.

 I have to say this time I was disappointed. I know that I have potentially overloaded on them over the yr and this could be my problem but to be honest I don't think that was it. In Toronto we used to have wings every Tues in Louis Wings. $5 for 1pd of wings and fries....Louis Wings
The wings themselves were very big and possibly there were too many.

Normally if I go somewhere I don;t like it, I don't go back but I will go again and maybe share a basket this time because as you can see they are big....

Christmas dinner

I know I normally review restaurants or places to visit but I thought why not talk about my Christmas dinner?!

This year myself and my husband offered to cook dinner in our house for my husbands family. There are 5 of them so we had to cook for 7 of us altogether.

My job was the veg and my husbands was the meat. I had ordered 5pd breast only turkey from my local butchers and then we got a nice unsmoked ham from Dunnes Stores.

This is how the meat looked.... Drool

He brimed the turkey over night so the meat was so moist. He then placed streaky bacon over the top. He made the ham the night before by boiling it and then after that scored the fat and put honey, brown sugar and cloves on top. 

For the stuffing I used a friend from work's recipe and OMG.... Amazing. I used 16 Denny Gold Medal Sausages skin removed. Popped them in the pan. Added onion, herbs and some mash potatoes. 20 Mins before we served food I popped it into the oven. This was by far the best stuffing I have ever had.

Now my veg. I parboiled the potatoes and then coated them in goose fat, I then left them over night covered. Roasted them the next day for 30 mins. I pealed the carrots and parsnips and again parboiled them. Put them on a tray and added honey to them. Roasted them for 20 mins. 

You can't have Christmas dinner without Brussel sprouts which are my favourite veg. I peeled them and cut them in half. Fried them in bacon and Dairygold butter.

I cut up a head of read cabbage. Fried off bacon and apples chunks for about 10 mins. Added the cabbage to the pan with a cup of balsamic and let that simmer away for about an hr. I got this recipe from Jamie Oliver http://www.jamieoliver.com/r

I also made some roast potatoes. We had an amazing meal and day.

Lovely Food Co - Terenure

http://www.lovelyfood.ie/

I have been to this place ssssooo many times I have never actually posted a review of it!

Terenure has so many cafes/restaurants its hard to pick your favorite but this place has to be the best.

They have a small menu but what they do, they do well. Although menu is small and the kitchen is tiny!!!

I went here with my mother this time for a spot of lunch. Normally I would go for the Pulled Pork sandwich but as I wasn't that hungry I decided not to. I did however recommend it to my mom and she was not disappointed. (I always recommend this) Its Pulled pork, Coleslaw & apple chutney in a brioche bun. This comes with a salad but if you are there during the week, it comes with Fries for €10.
I went for the soup of the day as I wanted something small but alas they don't do anything small. Today's soup was Mushroom, it was not too thick and the mushrooms were blended well.

After lunch we decided to get some cakes to go and what a selection. We went for a gluten free slice, rice krispie square and malteser cheesecake. The chose of cakes is amazing. They do a massive selection of gluten free food and cakes, all cakes are made on site everyday.

In the evening Tues - Thurs they also do 2 courses for 2 people with a bottle of wine for €50. I recommend booking that as it fills up pretty quickly.
On a Monday night they also do a cooking class which I haven;t gone to myself but is quiet popular.

The original cafe is Terenure but with that success they have opened one in Drumcondra.