KCW (Monday): French Onion Soup

So yesterday I decided I would start getting through the long list of things I wanted to try and make and set myself the challenge to make at least one a day. And the weather that day influenced my decision on what to begin with. With the wind howling and the rain lashing down, I decided to start with French Onion Soup.

I wasn’t always a fan of onions. Growing up I hated them, usually because they would always be sneakily added to my food, like in burgers. The only way to get me to eat onions as a child was to cover them in batter and deep fry them (in other words, onion rings!). This slowly changed when I went to college and was challenged to try new foods by two of my housemates in second year. And now I can’t get enough of onions!

This new found craving of onions has made me want to make French Onion Soup for months now. Not only was it my first time making the soup, but also the first time tasting the soup. And boy did it satisfy!

Made in various mugs and bowls as I don’t have the proper serving bowls. And also served without Gruyere cheese (which as far as I understand is sacrilege, so forgive me!). It was so so yummy, I think it’s my new favourite soup! I can’t wait to make it again, next time I will be sure to have Gruyere cheese!

French Onion Soup

Serves: Roughly 4-5

Ingredients:

5 Medium Onions

25g butter

1 tablespoon oil

Salt and Pepper

1 glove garlic

Baguette

Gruyere cheese

500ml rich stock (I used half chicken,half beef)

1 Dessertspoon of flour

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C. Peel and chop onions. I chopped mine into chunks instead of strings. Crush and dice garlic

2. Melt butter and oil in large saucepan. Add onions, stir to cover them all in butter and oil. Allow to ‘sweat’ at a low heat, stirring occasionally. ‘Sweating’ is the cooking of vegetables in butter and oil at low heat to extract the juices and flavour without any colour change. Continue to sweat onions for 1-12, until soft but not brown.

3. Caramelise stage: Add garlic (and about 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, to help get brown colour. I forgot!) and continue to cook until onions have caramelised (turned a golden brown) without burning.

4. Stir in flour and cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir in stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

5. Cut baguette into slices and toast. Put a slice or two of the baguette into a bowl or mug, add some soup, place another slice on top and then cover with grated cheese. Gruyere works best but I used a mixture of mature cheddar and mozzarella. Place into a tray and pop into a pre-heated oven until cheese has begun to melt. Enjoy!

Kitchen Challenge Week

So I’ve kinda been avoiding writing any new blog posts. I don’t know why, I guess the longer and longer I left it, the harder and harder it got to think of something to write about! Hopefully now that I’ve started writing again, it won’t get to that stage again.

To help myself get into the swing of things again, I’ve decided to set myself a challenge: To make at least one new dish a day in the kitchen. I have a big list of dishes I’ve been wanting to try out and this is the perfect excuse! Stay tuned for my first post, French Onion Soup!

I have some stalkers…

 

There seems to be an abundance of swallows around my house and I often look out my window to see twenty or so of them there, sitting along the roof. However, they are getting cheekier!

And not just one, but loads!

  

It’s like a scene for Hitchcock’s The Birds! But I love looking out and watching them. It reminds me of when I was 10 in Fourth Class, when my class and I got to take turns to watch birds outside the classroom window thanks to out teacher being a keen bird watcher.

Local Tourist Part 1

Kat from thedemuremuse.com hit the nail on the head when she commented being a ‘local tourist’ on my Staycation post. That is what I have spent a good chunk of this summer doing, exploring my local surroundings and tourist attractions. It’s always something you aim to do but never get around to. It’s such a shame too, cos when people ask you what there is to do when visiting, you can usually rattle off a number of different places of interest to visit. Which naturally leads to their next question ‘Is it any good?’ and the reply is usually I don’t know, I’ve never been/haven’t been there since I was a child.

One of the most popular tourist attractions in Ireland is The Cliffs of Moher in Co.Clare. I’ve been there a few times before and all recent enough. But when a friend said she wanted to a do a boat tour along the bottom of the Cliffs, I leapt at the chance!

We left from Liscannor Bay, after getting a deal on the price of tickets and set off in the speed boat. I was glad I wore my jacket, as there was a good breeze when out in the water! We were lucky that it wasn’t raining though I say it would have still looked as beautiful as it did. To see the Cliffs from a different perspective was amazing, they looked almost majestic.

 

One of the most exciting parts of the trip was seeing the caves used the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince film.

 

Hopefully you can see from the above photo the colour of the water. It was incredible, a gorgeous emerald green that I desperately tried to capture on picture but couldn’t truly capture the brilliance of no matter how many pictures I took.

Another thing I loved about this tour were all the birds! Millions of them, on the cliff side, in the air and in the water. We tried to sneak up on some puffins on the water but they were wise and flew away.

The trip was well worth it and I was easily go back again, especially if it was sunset as I think that would be even more beautiful.

Cupcakes!

My sister passed her Leaving Certificate exams with flying colours this week and to celebrate, I decided to bake some cupcakes (not that I needed an excuse!).

In honour of her wanting to study French in college, I made them red, white and blue.

Madeira Queen Cakes with Vanilla Buttercream Icing
Makes: Roughly 12
Ingredients:
100g Caster Sugar
100g Butter
2 Medium Eggs, lightly beaten
Vanilla Essence
150g Self Raising Flour
75g Butter
150g Icing Sugar
Food colours if desired
1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy
3. Add half egg mixture and half flour and beat in.
4. Add rest of egg mixture and 2 drops of vanilla essence. Add in food colouring if using.
5. Fold in rest of flour until fully folded in. Add to cupcake liners and bake in oven for 10-15 min, until golden brown and a skewer is dry when placed into the centre and removed.
To make buttercream icing, beat icing sugar and butter together until mixture comes together to a smooth consistency, add vanilla essence and beat to evenly distribute.
To ice, wait until buns are cooled and apply icing with a spatula or using a piping bag and star shaped tip. And enjoy!

Staycation!

So I have been away for such a long time! And there’s a reason. I had planned to write up some posts last weekend but as a last minute surprise, my boyfriend decided to whisk me away on a weekend break! We went to Dungarven, Co. Waterford, where two of my college friends are from. We met up with them on Friday night and had a few drinks (some more than others so it seems!).

              View from hotel window

Saturday was a lazy day of relaxing. Luckily the weather was very nice! The day was spent shopping, visiting King John’s Castle and walking around the town.

  Dungarvan Harbour

Sunday was another beautiful day. We went to the beautiful Mahon Falls and walked about half way up.

                          Mahon Falls

I also dipped my toes into the water! Next we went to Cahir Castle, Co. Tipperary. I had been there many times travelling back to Kilkenny on a Sunday night last summer and the castle always intrigued me. We managed to tag onto a tour and hear the interesting facts about the castle. After that, we went to eat some food.

                    Cahir Castle

Last but not least we visited The Rock of Cashel. Contrary to what I previously believed, there is no rock or rock monument there that is The Rock of Cashel, but rather it is the rock on which the old round tower, cathedral and other buildings stand now. We managed again to tag along with another tour, which just tickled the history nerd in me pink!

               Cathedral and Round Tower

After a busy day of touring, we travelled the long journey home. I really enjoyed my ‘Staycation’, I thoroughly recommend it. I can’t wait to explore other areas in Ireland I’ve never been to before!

Cupcakey Crafts

It was a friend’s birthday yesterday and I decided that I would craft half of her present. A lovely of cupcakes just like me, there was no way I could resist crafting some cupcakey items!

It had been a while since I had crafted anything, so I was a bit afraid I would go wrong. Still I enjoyed it and hopefully I’ll continue doing some crafting! I’m a bit of a Jack of All Trades, Master of None when it comes to crafting, I like trying lots of different ones but there’s nothing I’m really great at.

Here’s what I made!

Cupcake Shot Glass

Cupcake Card

I made some other cards too. They’re not all perfect but I think they’re cute! I really wanted to keep the shot glass for myself (even though I rarely use them these days!).