Eurovision Party!

I LOVE the Eurovision! Sure, it’s cheesy, cringey and camp at time but it’s good fun for all the family. I have fond memories of watching it as a child and now that I’m an adult I love the fact you can have a big old party! I had one last year at a friend’s house and while I unfortunately can’t go all out again this year, I thought I’d share some of my ideas so you can host your own!
Fancy Dress
I love fancy dress parties and Eurovision is a great excuse for you. You can either dress as past acts or else dress up people from the countries.

Past Acts

ABBA (short skirts, long hair, hippish)

Johnny Logan (white suit!)

Gina G (short sparkly dress)

Bucks Fizz (rip off skirts!)

Ruslana (Wild Dances song, Xena Warrior Princess vibe)

Lordi (scary monster masks and costumes)

Scooch (air hostess)

Cliff Richard

Michael Flatley (Not a contestant but sure ya know!)

Terry Wogan (or Marty Wheelan!)

Countries
Spanish senorita
French mime
Irish Leprechaun
Irish dancer
Scots kilt
Dutch girl with clogs
Heidi
Gladiator
German beer maid
Russian doll
German Lederhosen
French Maid
French can-can dancer
Viking
Matador
Greek God/Goddess
Mafia
There’s always someone who won’t dress up, throwing on a funny hat or mask will suffice! Terry Wogan mask was found here.



Food
If you want to go all out and have some food, buffet style is ideal. Again, try and represent different countries with different foods. Not that difficult thanks to the likes of Aldi and Lidl!


Some suggestions
Italy: Lasagne, mini pizzas, pasta salads
Belgium: Chocolate, paté, waffles
Greece: Lamb kebabs, feta cheese, pita bread, baklava, Greek salad
UK: Pork pies, Cornish pasties, sandwiches, scones, fish and chips, shortbread
France: Quiche, baguettes, cheeses
Germany: Sausages, Black Forest Gateaux, Pretzels
Spain: Paella, tortilla Española, Chorizo
BBC lists some recipes ideas here and here. I also got some of my ideas from this site here, which is great for Eurovision party ideas!

Drinks
Bucks Fizz! Though anything goes here really. Wines from France and Spain, beers from Germany, English and Ireland, spirits like vodka (Russia, Sweden and, Poland), English gin, Irish and Scottish whiskey, Liquors and other drinks such as Baileys (Ireland), Pimm’s (England) and Jagermeister (Germany). It’s safe to say Europe has the drinks aspect of things covered. You could mix up cocktails, the BBC 2008 Eurovision guide as some listed here. Or you could throw together a quick punch in the form of sangria.

Decorations
Flags and maps! This website has flags, you could search for an updated list of countries playing in the final if you wanted to put in some extra effort. You could also search eBay and other party sites for flags, bunting and maps. If you have kiddies going to the party, maybe you could get them to colour in some flags before the party begins? You can camp things up a notch with some disco balls and glitter too!

On the Night
BBC website has scorecards which you can print off and give to each guest so they can give each entry their own marks. One way to add some competition is for everyone to choose a country to support at the beginning of the night (either by drawing countries out of a hat or by just choosing). It can add great excitement when it comes to the scoring section of the night. If you want you can also have a prize for the person who has chosen the winner.
If this is a child-free event, then Eurovision is really the perfect excuse for drinking games. If you Google Eurovision drinking game, you’ll probably get a good few hits, here’s one website I found. Another way I searched was through Facebook (I think there’s a Facebook drinking group for nearly anything, I found one for RTE News!). Anyway, this was my favourite Eurovision drinking game found on Facebook. Or you could make up your own rules, I’d love to hear some of them!

After party
So the Eurovision is over for the night, what to do now? Why, stick on some past Eurovision tunes and dance that’s what! (or you could have a karaoke contest too!) Here’s some suggestions
Making Your Mind Up - Bucks Fizz
Hold Me Now - Johnny Logan
Ooh Aah (Just a Little Bit) - Gina G
Hard Rock Hallelujah - Lordi
Boom bang-a-bang – Lulu
Waterloo – ABBA
All Kinds of Everything – Dana
And here’s a snapshot of my Eurovision playlist.

The good ol’ BBC have some playlists suggestions as well, or you could of course also splash out and just buy the Best of Eurovision CD!

I also made a list of general cheesy Euro pop for when we got sick of Eurovision stuff. Bands like Aqua, Vengaboys, songs like Macarena, Saturday Night etc. If anyone wants a picture of that playlist, I’ll gladly upload it.

I think the best advice really is to have fun. I really wasn’t this organized last year but everyone had fun. One of the best costumes were the last minute ones. If you do have a party, let me know! I’d love to know how it went!

I got some of my ideas from these wonderful sites
http://blog.alism.com/the-eurovision-party-pack/
http://www.joel.co.uk/eurovision.php
http://www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision/party/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision/2008/index.shtml

Pig Cake!

Sorry about the huge break, I personally blame the two Bank Holidays coming after each other, work and my boyfriend coming back from Oz. I got side tracked big time!

So I spoke about this on Twitter before, about how I wanted to make a pig cake for my sister’s birthday. That is, a cake in the shape of a pig, not made out of pork! For Christmas I got a giant cupcake mould and on the box there was a picture of a cake decorated like a pig.

So I decided to give it a bash. Except I never really stopped to think about what I was going to make the face of the pig look like. This then caused a mad dash around the pick ‘n’ mix section of the local garage! And resulted in a pig head cake instead of the entire pig!

The finished result! Now, I think he resembles a pig (vaguely), but my brothers and father thought he looked like a fat mouse! And proceeded to mock me over it. My sister was happy with it and that’s the main thing. And he tasted nice too!

On a side note, I think he looks a tiny bit like Mr Blobby sans ears!

Vodka Pasta!

 

Ever had a recipe just follow you around? One you keep seeing and then find yourself dreaming about? I’ve had that recently.

It started when I saw the Pasta Alla Vodka Recipe on The Pioneer Woman a while back. I was intrigued by it but put it to the back of my mind. I was reminded of it again though when I watched the recipe being cooked on YouTube by Laura Vitale, from Laurainthekitchen.com. Then on Wednesday, I saw it on Babaduck Babbles and was drooling at, even looking at the recipe on Thursday to drool some more. Friday I treated myself to Donal Skehan’s new book, Kitchen Hero and lo and behold, what’s the very first recipe in the book? Vodka Penne! So that night I made myself a dish and it was so good I made it again Saturday for lunch!

And one of the best things about it is it’s super quick and super simple to make!

Vodka Pasta

Serves 4

Ingredients

350g Penne

25g Butter

125g bacon, chopped (or pancetta)

1 onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped

4 tbsp Vodka

200ml Double Cream

3 tbsp tomato purée

Salt and pepper, to taste

Freshly grated cheese (parmesan is best, I only had cheddar)

Fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

Method

1. In a large saucepan, cook pasta as instructed.

2. Heat butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add bacon bit and fry for 3-5 minutes, until golden.

3. Add in onion and garlic to bacon and fry for 1 minute or so.

4. Add the vodka and allow to simmer for a minute before adding tomato purée and cream. Simmer gently for 5 minutes until sauce has thickened.

5. Test the sauce for taste and add salt and pepper accordingly.

6. Drain pasta and add sauce. Mix well to make sure the sauce clings nicely to the pasta. Place in serving bowls and garnish with grated Parmesan.

7. Dig and enjoy!

Adapted from Kitchen Hero by Donal Skehan (who in turn thanks Lorraine Fanneran of La Cucina restaurant in Limerick).

This sauce is beautiful, the right combination of creamy and tomatoey. It’s thick and clings to the pasta nicely. Don’t just use penne, in fact I didn’t either days I made it. First night I used Fusilli (a mixture of white and brown) and on Saturday I used Tripoline. And I’d just like to point out that while I may not have had any fancy pants Parmesan to use, the vodka I added was Grey Goose *increases fanciness of dish x10*. Though saying that, I don’t think it really wants what kind of vodka is used (correct me if I’m wrong!).

Go on, try it, you won’t be disappointed. I’m not the only one enjoying the craze these days, Mammy’s Kitchen had a bowl yesterday and was equally impressed as I was!

Things to Do Before You Die

 

There was an interesting post on Beaut.ie a couple of weeks ago about Ten Things to Do Before You Die. And it got me thinking. Not just about all the things I want to do and places I want to see. But also about the list I made when I was 11/12. I went rooting around my room and sure enough, I found the list! So here it is, all spelling mistakes corrected, all the things I have so far achieved bolded and comments in italics!

1. Learn languages (French, German & Spanish). I’ve bolded French as I studied it in school but it’s certainly rusty!

2. Pass my exams (Junior Cert and Leaving Cert). You can tell I wrote this as a young un as college exams never crossed my mind! But I am pleased to say I passed those too!

3. Travel the world. A work in progress

4. Dye Hair (Normal colour and wild colour). I’ve never had the balls to put a fun colour like blue or purple into my hair, though I really want to try it

5. Get a small tattoo. Not sure if I want to do this still

6. Stay in touch with all my friends. I wrote this list after moving after 5th class. And no, it didn’t happen then to be honest, except for a handful of people.

7. Get a good job. Again, work in progress

8. Bungee jump. I was certainly a more fearless back then, I’m now afraid of heights but it’s something I’d still half consider maybe possibly doing.

9. Parachute. Again, heights. Again, maybe.

10. Zorb

11. Swim with dolphins. Not so keen on this, but I would still do it if I had the chance

12. Learn to drive and pass exam. Not only both of these but I now have my very first car!

13. Try to beat a World Record. Ambitious wasn’t I?!

14. Learn to fly an aeroplane. See the above comment

15. Design clothes and make them

16. Learn to use a sewing machine

17. Stay fit and healthy. Nope, can’t say this one has worked out but it can still be achieved!

18. Go to a concert. My first one being Justin Timberlake!

19. Be in a movie or TV show

20. Scuba dive

21. Go to the Ice Hotel. Still REALLY want to do this one!

22. Have a weird pet. Umm, no thanks!

23. Appear in a magazine

24. Become a vegetarian for a month. Something I often think about doing, just for the experience

25. Learn a martial art. I once won a free karate term, went to one and decided it most definitely wasn’t for me!

26. Go to a health farm/spa. Anyone want to treat me?!

27. Stop biting my nails and grow them. After years of trying, I have succeeded!

28. Go to a yoga course

29. Learn 1st aid. I’ve learnt basic 1st aid in TY, I would love to do a more in depth one though

30. Learn to belly dance

31. Adopt an animal. I think I meant more sponsor an animal, like in a zoo, but now if I was going to get a pet, I think I would adopt one from an animal shelter

32. Kiss the Blarney Stone. I’d forgotten this was on the list! I did it earlier this year on 2nd January

33. Learn to ski. Nowhere close to learning!

34. Go on a rollercoaster

It’s funny how your ambitions and goals change as you get older. Looking at this list, I see I was definitely more ambitious and more confident in myself. And a bit in vague (like travel the world, I only mentioned one place I specifically wanted to go to and that was the bloody Blarney Stone!).

I say my list has changed considerably. There’s still things on here I would like to do, but I know there’s so much more I want to do and more importantly, so much more I want to see in the world. I think I’ll make an updated list some time soon and post it here!

My Little Pony…

I walked out my home a few weeks ago and was greeted to this sight! I was quite surprised as there were so many of them but I thought they looked really cute and sweet.

Signs I’m Getting Old

Despite still being pretty darn young, recently I’ve had several things happen to me that has made me realise I’m getting old! Whether I like it or not. These include:
-Not getting asked for ID when buying alcohol in Tesco. Twice. This being Tesco who are notorious for checking ID, at least they always have been.
-Not wanting to go out on a Friday night and actually looking forward to watching The Late Late.
-Listening the Larry Gogan’s Golden Hour on 2FM and hearing songs from my childhood. I used to hate listening to it as a child, as I never knew any of the songs. Now I know most of them!
-Finding music is too loud when I go out. Especially on a Friday when I’d rather be at home watching The Late Late.
-Catching myself sounding exactly like my mother.
-I walk out of the supermarket and forget where I’ve parked. And then proceed to wander around the car park until I find my car

Irish Foodies Chocalong

White Chocolate Cake

I unfortunately couldn’t do the Irish Foodies Cookalong last Friday as I was so busy with work. And I was seriously stumped at what to make. If I had known a chocolate cookalong was coming up I probably would have made my Chocolate Truffles then! Nevertheless, as it so happened I had to make a cake for my parents’ 25th Wedding Anniversary so I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone. I also thought it would be a great time to bust out my Le Creuset heart shaped pan (the ending result didn’t look too heart shaped though!).

I based it roughly on a cake I made for my sister’s 18th, Ultimate Chocolate Cake from BBC Good Food but instead I decided to use white chocolate as I thought it was more suiting for a 25th Anniversary Cake!

White Chocolate Sponge Cake with Buttercream Icing

Ingredients

Sponge Cake

130g butter, room temperature

130g caster sugar

200g self raising flour

3 eggs, beaten

Vanilla essence

Buttercream Icing

150g icing sugar

75g butter, room temperature

Vanilla essence

White Chocolate Ganache

225g white chocolate

180g cream

25g butter

Method:

1. For the sponge cake, heat oven to 180°C. Cream the butter and sugar together until soft and fluffy. Add half the beaten eggs and flour and beat in. Add the remaining egg mixture with a teaspoon of vanilla essence and beat. Fold in the remaining flour gently until all is incorporated. If you find the mixture if a tad bit too dry, add a small dash of milk to moisten it up again.

2. Divide the mixture into cake pans. I used two, but one layer was rather large so if I were to make this again I’d probably divide amongst 3 pans. Bake in oven for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown and a knife comes out clean when inserted to the middle of the cake. Allow to cool fully.

3. For the buttercream icing, cream the icing sugar and butter together until smooth. Add a dash of vanilla essence and beat to incorporate. Cover with a damp tea towel until needed.

4. For the white chocolate ganache, heat the butter and cream in a saucepan until it comes to a boil. Take immediately off the heat and pour over the white chocolate in a bowl. Stir until all the chocolate is melted. I tried to cover my cake in the ganache straight away but it was thick enough so I’d leave to cool for a few minutes so it has a chance to thicken up.

5. To assemble the cake, sandwich the layers together with the buttercream icing. Spread the ganache over the outside to coat, allow to set and then apply the second layer. Applying a second layer will make the recently icing smoother and less likely to have cake crumbs mixed in it!

6. Decorate as you wish and then devour!

Of course, if you want to make this extra chocolatey, you can add some melted chocolate to sponge mixture or to the buttercream icing. Or you can use milk or dark chocolate. Beware though, the above recipe is rich enough without the addition of extra chocolate!

I plan on making a cake similar to this very soon but instead I want to make it a chocolate orange cake. Watch this space……