Of all European lands I venture to say that Ireland is the most mystical, and, in the eyes of true Irishmen, as much the Magic Island of Gods and Initiates now as it was when the Sacred Fires flashed from its purple, heather-covered mountain-tops and mysterious round towers, and the Greater Mysteries drew to its hallowed shrines neophytes from the West as well as from the East, from India and Egypt as well as from Atlantis; and Erin's mystic-seeing sons still watch and wait for the relighting of the Fires and the restoration of the old Druidic Mysteries. Herein I but imperfectly echo the mystic message Ireland's seers gave me, a pilgrim to their Sacred Isle. And until this mystic message is interpreted, men cannot discover the secret of Gaelic myth and song in olden or in modern times, they cannot drink at the ever-flowing fountain of Gaelic genius, the perennial source of inspiration which lies behind the new revival of literature and art in Ireland, nor understand the seeming reality of the fairy races.
- W. Y Evans Wentz, The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, 1911 (via The Sacred Island)
On the last Friday of January my Dad had a few days off work so I was trying to think of something we could do for the afternoon. I had the idea in my head a few weeks ago that I wanted to climb Carrowkeel, not having done so before. Sligo is richly adorned with remenants of our pre-historic past and I'd like to explore as much of it as I can.
Carrowkeel is a Neolithic (Stone Age) passage tomb cemetery in South County Sligo (I live to the North). The tombs are between 5400 and 5100 years old, so that they predate the Pyramids by 500-800 years. Carrowkeel is one of the big four passage tomb cemeteries in Ireland. This whole area, a good chunk of County Sligo was one of the most important centres of neolithic Ireland. (more info) On a clear day you can see the whole landscape of Sligo, due to its height, and sometimes you can even see as far as Croagh Patrick in Co. Mayo.
There isn't really a 'typical' Irish day, but a great number of them involve grey skies and rain. When we climbed it was a 'typical' Irish day. The mist hung heavy about us, sticking to the wool of my coat and skirt and blurring my vision. I wore a sensible pair of boots, my Dad had his wellies. It was very muddy, but it was only us and the sheep ascending the mountain that afternoon.
My umbrella wasn't quite up to the challenge of Carrowkeel
The only other living things we met on our climb were sheep and rams, like this fellow here
When we got to the summit and alighted by one of the cairns, even though I couldn't witness the famous aerial view of Sligo due to the heavy fog, it did make it all the more atmospheric. It was one of the rare moments that you did genuinely feel like you could be one of the only people on earth, it felt so far removed from civilisation. Though the evidence of past civilisation was there. Looking around, you almost expected to see spectres moving silently through the mist. The mood reminded me of Andrea Arnold's adaption of Wuthering Heights.
Walking downhill was tricky, trying to recall your path through a carpet of thick heather is as difficult as it sounds. The wind whistled in our ears and the mist lay heavy upon us. We plodded through the mud on the way back to the car, we were glad to make it back to the 21st century as we shook the rain off our coats.
It is a pity that the OPW (Office of Public Works) don't provide more information on the site, onsite. However it is quite easy to find, and if you are visiting Sligo, it is a short detour off the main Dublin road into Sligo, and is well sign posted. I hope to make it back during the summer.
Skirt - 1950s St. Michael, made from Yorkshire wool and cashmere; Jumper - 1960s Pringle, Scottish wool. Book - Noblesse Oblige edited by Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh, picked up at the Temple Bar book market a few years ago.
I wrapped up in my woolens for the day. I had just finished reading The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters by Charlotte Mosley (highly recommended!) and my outfit was inspired by the Mitford mood I was in at the time, as well as by necessity!
To warm up, my Dad and I went to 'A Casa Mia' in Sligo town for a treat, before going to see Lincoln in the Gaiety cinema. I blogged about the meal, from a vegetarian point of view, at Sligo Bites.
Our very simple table setting for Christmas
Sweet potato, hazelnut and spinach en croûte, served with red wine and juniper gravy, from the Cornucopia cookbook.
I made this dish for Christmas last year, and loved it so much I had to make it again. It's a lot of work, as well as being very rich and filling, so making it once a year is enough for me!
I'm going to share the recipe with you here, because I can't find it anywhere online. It seems a shame not too. Of course, all credit for the recipe goes to Cornucopia.
Red wine & juniper gravy
1 large onion
2 carrots
Leaves of a head of celery
1 leek
3 field mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic
2 bay leaves
10 juniper berries
2 tbsp plain flour
A few stalks of thyme
A few stalks of sage
1 heaped tbsp of tomato puree
50ml shoyu/soy sauce
1 heaped tbsp unrefined brown sugar
200ml vegetarian red wine
Salt and pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
500ml water
Roughly chop the onions, carrots, celery, leek, mushrooms and garlic.
Cover the base of a large pot with a generous splash of olive oil, over a medium heat.
Add all the chopped vegetables, the bay leaves and juniper berries.
Stir briefly to coat with oil, cover with a lid, reduce to a low heat and leave to sweat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure nothing sticks and burns.
When the stock has fully sweated, add the flour and cook over a very low heat for five minutes, stirring continuously.
Add the thyme, sage, tomato puree, soy sauce, water and a good twist of black pepper.
Cook gently for 30 minutes, stirring occassionally.
While the gravy stock is cooking, in a medium pan gently heat the sugar over a very low heat. When melted, add the wine. The sugar will crystallise but will melt again.
Simmer the sweetened wine for 10 minutes to burn off the alcohol, and then set to one side.
Place a fine sieve over the wine/sugar pot and pour the gravy stock into it. Stir and press with the back of a ladle to squeeze as much liquid from the mixture as possible.
When finished, discard the vegetables and whisk the liquid so it mixes. This can be prepared the night before and heated on the day. It will keep for about 3 days in the fridge.
En croûte filling
3 medium sweet potatoes (500g)
400g hazelnuts
2 bulbs of garlic
EV olive oil
25g each fresh sage/thyme/parsley (or a small bunch each)
600g red onions (divide into two batches of 300g)
125ml vegetarian red wine
80g breadcrumbs
250g baby spinach (washed)
Half teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 free range eggs
Salt and pepper
Preheat over to 180c. Puncture skin of sweet potatoes, place on a baking tray and roast until soft (about 40-45 minutes).
Set aside to cool and remove the skins, slice them lengthways into quarters. (I left them whole and it looked quite attractive when the pastry is sliced).
Meanwhile, place the hazelnuts on a tray and roast in the oven for 8-10 minutes.
Set them aside to cool and then rub vigrously to remove the loose skins.
At the same time, roast the garlic. Slice the tops off both bulbs, pour in olive oil, ensuring all the cloves are coated, add salt and pepper.
Roast garlic in oven until soft, about 30 minutes. Set aside to cool.
When cooled, squeeze the soft flesh out, discard the skins afterward.
Chop the fresh herbs very finely and thinly slice the red onions. Set 300g of the onions to one side.
Cover the base of a large pot with olive oil and place over a medium heat. Add 300g of the onions, coat with the oil. Place lid on the pot, reduce to a low heat and allow onions to sweat for 15 minutes.
Add the red wine to the pot, and reduce over a low heat for 15 minutes, to burn off the alcohol.
Remove from the heat and stir in the breadcrumbs, and most of the finely chopped herbs (keep aside a small bit for garnishing at the end.) Season to taste.
Coat a frying pan sparsely with olive oil, place over a high heat and add half of the baby spinach. Add some salt and pepper and wilt the spinach until no moisture remains in the pan. Repeat with the remainder of the spinach.
In a food processor, grind the remaining 300g of raw red onions, the flesh of the roast garlic, the wilted spinach and the nutmeg.
Add one egg and half of the roasted hazelnuts, blend for one minute.
Add the second egg and blend for another minute until completely smooth.
Add the remaining hazelnuts, pulse for a few seconds until just roughly chopped. Season to taste.
To assemble:
You can make all of the above the night before to save on time, on the day
When you are ready to assemble, preheat the oven to 180c and prepare an egg wash by whisking 1 free range egg and a pinch of salt.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out your pastry into a 34 x 26cm rectangle, with the longest side facing you.
Transfer the rolled pastry to a large baking tray, with 8 cm of the pastry flopped over the side of the tray. This is the side that will fold over the filling.
Leave a border of 3cm around the pastry so it won't bubble out while it bakes.
Cover 15cm of the pastry with the herb and onion stuffing.
On top of the onions, place half of the spinach mixture on top of the onions.
Nestle the sweet potato batons lengthways into the centre and cover with the remaining spinach mixture.
Cover this with the reaminder of the pastry, ensuring it is securely sealed on all sides, brush the pastry all over with egg wash.
Slice an attractive pattern in the pastry, and grind some black pepper over the pastry.
Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, allow for 10 minutes rest after removing from the oven.
Slice, serve and enjoy!
We had ours with roast potatoes and grilled vegetables. My meat-eating family adored it. I think its set to become my Christmas tradition.
A note to say: you may end up with twice as much onion and spinach mix as you need. I set this to one side in the fridge, and then remade this a couple of days later. I used shop bought shortcrust pastry for this, you can make your own, but this was much more convenient for me!
A bûche de Noël, with chestnut cream filling.
As you can see the glossy skin of the yule log came off in parts when I gently removed the baking parchment from the cake when it cooled. I added some festive glitter, and left it as is, excusing it as a 'rustic' look. You can add cream to the outside to conceal this, but I don't like very creamy desserts personally.
I made cranberry, almond and dark chocolate biscotti to give as gifts, by adapting this BBC Good Food recipe. It certainly made the kitchen smell like Christmas!
I hope you and yours are having a lovely Christmas, wherever you are. It's a difficult and stressful time of year for others, but you're never alone. I wish you all the best for 2013.
"We don't do fast food, we do good food fast" reads the manifesto above the kitchen of the charming Shells Café, located on the edge of wild Atlantic coastal townland of Strandhill. On the edge geographically, this 'on the fringe' mentality characterises Shells Café in Sligo itself. Beloved by surfers and locals alike, Shells unites a diverse clientele amongst the bustling four walls and chintzy tablecloths of the cosy café.
Get yer mitts around a hot cup of chocolate or the home roasted coffee (available by the bag to purchase) as you mull over the menu.
(How cool is that advent calendar?!)
Finn got the classic burger and chips, and boy, those chips! Home-cut and very crispy, as I like them! The specials are written on the blackboard, the soup changes daily, on this particularly evening it was curried vegetable, nice and warming for the cold evening.
They have a range of different specials every day, on my last two visits there I managed to miss the breakfast, which ends at 2pm. Their veggie breakfast is i n c r e d i b l e. See below, poor representation but I'm getting hungry just thinking at it, the homemade baked beans are out of this world!
As you go up to pay, I feel obliged to warn you that you are putting your wallet at further risk, as the tempting array of cakes at the counter are laid out, waiting for you to look over and make a selection.
The Shells Café cookbook is on sale at the till, or in all good bookshops. My dinner partner was so impressed he bought one as an Xmas gift.
Pictures thanks to Finn MacLeod!
Source
Glamour visited my hometown last weekend. Film Fatale hosted a screening of Some Like it Hot at The Model, as part of the North West Film and Music Festival. Guests participated in the evenings spectacle by togging out in 1920s and 1950s inspired gear. Before the film chanteuse Derby Browne sang a set of Marilyn songs. Afterward, The Andrews Sisters' Brothers played a DJ set with tunes from the 20s to 50s.
Derby Browne
Anna of Film Fatale
I relished the chance to do something different with my make-up and hair (a hairdresser called Mairead, based in Streedagh, Strandhill takes the credit for the hair). I'm currently reading Letters Between Six Sisters, a collection of letters between the notorious Mitford sisters from the 1920s-90s, edited by Charlotte Mosley.
Nancy, Unity & Diana Mitford
I've been looking at a lot of photographs of the sisters, included in the book, particularly portraits of the sisters in the late 1920s and 30s. Note the cupids bow lips, dark eye-makeup and tailored, slim eyebrows. I watched pixiwoo's Clara Bow inspired video for some professional inspiration and went at it! Of course I wasn't sacrificing my eyebrows, so I just drew them on with an eyebrow pencil.
I'm not used to wearing such heavy, dramatic make-up but when an event calls for glamour, I respond accordingly.
My dress is Noa Noa, my coat is Peter O'Brien from the 2009 A-Wear collaboration, and my earrings are last year's Topshop. The little black beaded bag was a gift, but it was from Accessorize.
Source
The view from my bedroom window at the start of the month, when it snowed.
My wee tree!
Snowflake and Nutcracker decorations I picked up at the Edinburgh German Christmas market with my friend Kerstin.
German Christmas market, photo taken by Kerstin.
The table set for dinner. Reindeer from Primark, Jesus (moneybox) from Paperchase. Elle magazines used for placemats (because I had none).
The starter was a Mushroom and Tarragon Paté, made by my friend Claire.
A table piled high with food, the vegetarian main was sweet potato, spinach & hazelnut en croute, with red wine & juniper gravy (that I had spent two hours preparing on christmas eve and boy oh boy was it worth it. It was delicious), from the Cornucopia cookbook.
I made the Hairy Biker's Chocolate Chestnut Pudding for dessert, which was delightfully creamy and rich! We had to wait an hour or so after our main to eat this, because so much as looking at a plate of food made me queasy. My friend Christina went all out and made a fruit cobbler and apple strudel!
