Since we have our own garden we have been given presents of plants from many kind gardener friends and have even bought some in centres.
We havn’t been particularly vigilant about remembering what each plant was and have as a consequence ended up with a few surprises, nearly all pleasant.

In the spring Sile noticed that a small weedy plant was begininging to grow near the shed. She gave it the benefit of the doubt and didn’t uproot it.

It has now grown to a fairly magnificent size and is dwarfing and even smothering the smaller plants around it.
It is begining to look like it might form a flower.
Time to keep all children out of the garden I think!

I have long known (since my first visit to Germany in 1966) that the very best Cheese Cakes were the German Käse Sahne Kuchen and that these were made with Quark, the german equivalent of Cream Cheese/Cottage Cheese/Fromage Blanc/Fromage Frais/Mascarpone etc., etc.

To my delight I found some yesterday, and being made in Ireland too.

I was on a food trip with Myrtle Allen on behalf of Euro-Toques Ireland and we found the young Kingston family making delicious cultured milk products at their dairy farm in the hills over Drimoleague in West Cork.
Proper German Quark is one of their specialities.
They even make a sumptious cheese cake with it themselves which rivals those I tasted in Germany all that time ago.
Look out for Glenilen Farm Products.

Myrtle and myself with Alan and Valerie Kingston and their children.

By the way if , like me you have a fasination for words you will be interested in the following pinched from Wikipedia

“The name comes from the German Quark, which in turn is derived from the Slavic tvarog, (Polish twaróg, Russian tvorog, and Czech and Slovak tvaroh, which means “curd”).
In German, Quark may be used figuratively to mean “nonsense.” This usage is believed to be an inspiration for the sentence Three quarks for Muster Mark in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake,which itself inspired the name of quarks, elementary particles of which most of the material world is built.”

As our daughter Deirdre has returned home for a bit, at least her clothes have-she is in Berlin now and Athens next week-I have now expanded a little my house husband duties.

I couldn’t help noticing this morning, as I hung out her clothes, that the same daughter does seem to favour a certain section of the colour spectrum.

What can you fit in the back of a Megane estate and carry from the Ikea in Montpellier all the way to Dublin?

Answer, the following;

A bookcase and a set of drawers

A coffee table

A side table

A clock

A chest/ Seat

A Venetian Blind

A Chest of Drawers

These bedside lockers (not the bed)

This table and chairs (not the daughters)

And also about six cases of wine , a couple of suitcases, a driver and a passenger.

(I should perhaps add that all of the furniture was flatpacked
-as were the people by the time we reached home!)

Nice space M. Renault!

Yesterday our friends Petra and Donal took us off on a magical mystery tour.

They told they were taking us to a place a few miles west of Cahir in Tipperary and that was all.

We ended up driving up a narrow country bohereen and parking outside a gate which had a “No Parking” sign. No indication whatsoever that there was a national monument a few fields away.
(It’s Ok said Petra the owner told me I could park here anytime.)

We then walked a couple of hundred yards across a bog and ended in one the most bizarre national monuments in Ireland,
St. Berriherts Kyle.

The church site, which disappeared from all records until it was rediscovered in 1907, is a combination of early christian church, a vast amount (over 50 according to Killanin) of early Christian Grave stones and the remains of two early carved high crosses.

The OPW in an effort of conservation have put these stone artifacts into a rough church shape which is the way they stand today.

There is a large holly tree at the edge of this “church” which is decorated with rags, ribbons, rosary beads and various pieces of clothing which always speaks to me of a veneration which pre-dates christianity.

A couple of hundred yards further along bog walkway brings us to St Berriherts Well.

.

This is even more surprising, as it is really a little geyser or series of geysers which bubble erratically into a beautiful clear pool giving the area a feeling of being in an old holy place

While walking around the site Donal saw a beautifully made rush cross thrown casually into a nearby stream.
Apparently the place has never been excavated so very little is known of St. Berrihert other than that he was a 7th Century Anglo Saxon Saint.

A little bit further back towards Cahir Sile and I remembered a little church at the foot of tha Galtees which we had visited years before.

When we found this, St Peakaun’s Church ,we found a full scale excavation being carried out by the Archeological Department of UCC.

The church had the most beautiful carved windows and again about thirty early grave stones around it.

This part of Tipperary is a bit of a goldmine for Archaeology and I am sure that the mysteries of St Berriherts Kyle will soon be investigated.

I have been making brownies for ages, they are without doubt entirely sinful. What could be more evil or delicious than a combination of butter chocolate and sugar?
They are from America and like many American recipes they have an overload of flavour, in this case sweetness,but these are all the better for it,I wouldn’t change a thing in the recipe.

I don’t make them so much any more, It must be fairly obvious why if you look at the ingredients and the contours of my belly.

The version I used to use most in the restaurant is one for Dark Chocolate and Walnut Brownies. This still gets made in the Dwyer household at Christmas as an alternative to Pudding and, despite the stuffing of turkey et al it rarely lasts beyond Stephens day.

This is the recipe scaled down for normal families:

Dark Chocolate and Walnut Brownies

175g (6 oz.) Butter
175g (6 oz.) Dark Chocolate
3 Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla
225g (8 oz..) Caster Sugar
110g (4 oz.) Plain Flour
110g (4 oz.) Roughly Chopped Walnuts

Pre heat the oven to 175C, 350F,Gas 4

Line a deep swiss roll tin with tin foil.and paint with melted butter.
Melt the butter and chocolate together in a large bowl in the microwave at medium or over a pan of simmering water.
Beat the eggs,vanilla and sugar together until well blended and stir into the chocolate.Sprinkle in the flour, and the nuts and then stir well together.
Pour this out into the baking tin.
Bake for 25 mts at the set temperature.
They should look baked and be dry to the touch but still dark and moist in the middle. Better take them out too soon than when they will have dried out.
They will continue to cook as they cool.

Eat warm with ice cream .

Our friend Petra (she with the obtrusive finger, who looks well in pink) gave Síle a present of a cake for her birthday last week which was a terrific variation of the brownie, and, as she has permitted I can share this with you here:

Two-tone Fudge Brownie Cake

Brown Chocolate Mixture

60 g unsalted butter
100 g dark chocolate, broken
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup plain flour
vanilla essence

White Chocolate Mixture

60 g unsalted butter
100 g white chocolate (buttons)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup plain flour

1.
Preheat oven to moderate 180°C. Line a smallish cake tin with non-stick baking paper.

2.
To make brown chocolate mixture:
Stir the butter and dark chocolate in a small heatproof bowl, over a pan of simmering water, until just melted.
Beat the sugar, vanilla essence and egg in a medium bowl until combined. Stir in the chocolate mixture. Fold in the sifted flour.

3.
To make the white chocolate mixture:
Stir the butter and white chocolate in a small heatproof bowl, over a pan of simmering water, until just melted.
Beat the sugar, vanilla essence and egg in a medium bowl until combined. Stir in the chocolate mixture. Fold in the sifted flour.

4.
Ladle the mixtures into the tin (I put in the black first and the white on top, then swirled the two a bit with a fork).
Bake until just firm and allow to cool in the tin. Sprinkle with icing sugar if you like; I didn’t.

This was so good I got inspired to try another variation myself.

I have two of my daughters coming home tonight and this always spurs me to try and show off with some new dish for them. As Deirdre had already hogged the main course by insisting on making Nigella’s Mushroom Stroganoff I had to go for a dessert.
We have some rhubarb growing in the back garden so that had to be part of it (the truth of the matter is that I rescued one stalk from the slugs but that had to be celebrated)
I have been experimenting with Rhubarb this spring and at last have I think hit the perfect formula for a compote.

This is it:

Compote of Rhubarb with Red Wine and Vanilla

1 Bunch Rhubarb
225g (8oz.) Caster Sugar
300ml (½ pint ) Water
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Glass White Wine.

Put the sugar water wine and vanilla into a pot and bring to the boil.
Simmer for 5 minutes.
Chop the Rhubarb into ½ inch cubes and toss it into the pot.
Cook these together for just a few minutes, watching like a hawk. The aim is to make the rhubarb tender but not to let it go to mush. I have discovered that it is best if you take it off the heat slightly al dente and pour it into a cool bowl.

With this, my combination of brownie recipes would I think just be perfect and so I give you –

White Chocolate and Pistachio Brownies

175g (6 oz.) Butter
175g (6 oz.) Good White Chocolate
3 Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla
225g (8 oz..) Caster Sugar
110g (4 oz.) Plain Flour
110g (4 oz.) Chopped Pistachios

Pre heat the oven to 175C, 350F,Gas 4

Line a deep swiss roll tin with tin foil.and paint with melted butter.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a large bowl in the microwave at medium or over a pan of simmering water.
Beat the eggs,vanilla and sugar together until well blended and stir into the chocolate.Sprinkle in the flour, the nuts and the salt and then stir well together.
Pour this out into the baking tin.
Bake for 30 mts at the set temperature.
They should look baked and be dry to the touch but still dark and moist in the middle. Better take them out too soon than when they will have dried out.
They will continue to cook as they cool.

For about fifteen years now Sile has been singing in Madrigallery a local choir here in Waterford.
I am a great fan of this superb choir and have even been officially adopted as the choir’s official groupie.

Chorallen, a ladies choir from Lubeck in Germany, were known to Petra, one of the choir members, and she organised them to come to Waterford on a visit.
We all agreed to put them up for the week end they were here.

Our two wonderfully amiable house guests were Diana and Yvonne.
(Included in the photo is an impressive close up of Petra’s thumb)

They gave a most impressive concert on Saturday in the library, I was particularly taken by a song they sang from the 20s called Mine Kleiner Gruner Kaktus. But more of that later.

They gave another concert in Christchurch Cathedral on Sunday and were even better, this time Madrigallery also sang and they gave a most moving performance.
Their Crucifixus by Lotti is, by this critic, one of their best ever songs.

After lunch we took some of the choir to the Hook Lighthouse on the eponymous peninsula in Wexford.

We even climbed the lighthouse which gave us a great view of the rocks and stacks of the coastline there.

After the climb we went for a closer look at them

And discovered that the sedimentary rocks here were just teeming with fossils.
Note the neatly perfect scallop shell in this one.

We also did a small detour to the nearby fishing village of Slade to see a cottage we had rented for a holiday about 20 years ago.
(It’s the one with the Red Door-I think)

The Choir’s trip was finished in typical Irish style by a sing-song in The Munster Bar.
There Micheal and Tony did a fabulous Barber Shop “Adeline”

Cha O Neill, Waterford’s Lord Mayor, gave us a song also.

But the stars of the show were Teresa from Madrigallery and her twin from Chorallen who excelled in the Kline Gruener Kaktus.

This song became a symbol for the whole terrific week end and has wormed itself into my ear.
I even found the original version of it sung by the Comedian Harmonists here.
I am now starting a campaign to get Madrigallery to learn a version of this by our-hoped for- visit to Lubeck next year.

Post Scriptum.

Now a moment to eat humble pie.
Having been so rude about Petra’s finger in the picture I have found that the photos she took in the Munster are way superior than mine, so I have swapped hers for mine.
Thanks !

As I have already been accused by my daughter Caitriona of pre-empting her Japanese shots with my Flying Fish photo it is with some trepidation that I put up these pictures I took last week in Mount Congreve.
The truth is that I was already getting this ready BEFORE I saw her photoblog today– as anyone who knows how long it takes this old man to put a blog together will vouchsafe.
Maybe it is just a case of something in the blood or the diet which made us both get besotted with Acer’s at the same moment.

I took all these in Mount Congreve last week when I went out there with my brother-in-law Colm.
I had never noticed the Acer’s before but, as Colm is something of an expert, and started to admire them he forced me to look at them and I was conquered.
Come to think of it it is probably not too much of a coincidence as Japanese influences are everywhere in Mount Congreve.

Post Scriptum.

Ok, then I decided to write it all off as coincidence and I sat down to do the crossword in todays Independent, as is my wont.
First clue I read is;
Tree, one planted by side of river.(4 letters)

Now as we all know an ace is one and r stands for river, ergo the answer is?
You are there before me!
Acer.
Is someone trying to tell me something?

I had lunch yesterday in the new(ish) Mills Restaurant in Lyons village.

This seems to be a bit of a joint venture between chef Richard Corrigan and millionaire business man Tony Ryan.

The place has a marvellous selection of “Things”, it is a bit like walking into the set of Hearst Castle as depicted by Orson Wells in Citizen Kane.

There are wonderful 17th century Aubusson tapestries, a superb French fireplace, certainly removed from a chateau, a huge sliced section of Agate shields you from the kitchen and a resident waterfall just outside the dining room window provides the background noise.
I got the distinct impression that the designer had a brief to display certain items, whether they harmonised or not.
There were a few obvious lapses of taste, huge embossed Boys and Girls signs over the toilets and an incongruous shelf of books, by the yard, in the bar but the place was definitely fun.
I just hope that was what was intended.

The meal was a veritable curates egg.
We did start with the good, in fact the very good.
Just why the Salmon was a “Feminine Delight” the good lord knows but it certainly delighted this male.
This was a wonderful timbale of moist raw salmon in an intense tomato and saffron soup. Perfection.
The next course was perhaps the least successful.
Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to inject some toffee into some cubes of Foie Gras,then roll these cubes in toasted almonds and then serve this on some apple jelly, with a further garnish of sweet caramel sauce.
The lasting impression was of eating a bag of toffees.
Foie Gras does have a certain sweetness but this was a stunning overkill and the liver lost the battle, badly.
The next course was the Curates Egg.
The pigeon was superb, tender, pink, moist, flavoursome, perfectly cooked
(where does he get them) but they were accompanied by the “wet garlic”.
This was exactly as described, un cooked and unprocessed it killed every other flavour on the plate if touched. All the people on my table pushed it discretely to one side.
The next palate cleanser of granita and Apple jelly (our second jelly, is there a certain house preference here?) worked nicely.
Next course, a “Sugar Snap Tower” did not to my relief contain any peas but instead some more jelly. It was a clever clear tube of sugar stuffed with the jelly and some pear mousse. I rather liked it and loved the Piece de Resistance of the meal which was on the side.
This was a spoonful of marvellously intense mint ice-cream, certainly worth the journey.

The Petit Fours were declared by my neighbour to be the best ever and the coffee was excellent.

In a way the meal very much reflected the décor and was a mixed bag with some terrific touches.
Maybe it just needs time to find its feet.