Nenaghgal Wishes you a Happy Halloween

Sophia and I had grand intentions of getting our pumpkin done last night but we fell asleep in front of the fire after XFactor. Must be the time change as well! Anyway, this morning I was totally full of energy so immediately got busy baking muffins and making Butternut Squash and Apple soup. I'll have that recipe up later in the week. Then I helped Sophia with her pumpkin - I cut open the top.

And she gutted it.

The babies - Sugar and Frida finally settled down after they'd been tearing around the kitchen all morning. I felt like I was in a zoo. Of course the fact that it was raining outside did not help as I could not kick them outside.

Here's Mr. Pumpkin 2011. We seem to be into doing these big mad eyes in recent years. I love them.

My carrot banana muffins turned out well and I delivered packets of them to my neighbours. The recipe is from the November 2011 issue of UK Country Living. The only thing I omitted was the walnuts.

After they were cooled I popped them onto my large Nicholas Mosse cake stand- don't they look great? This is the classic Old Rose pattern which everyone seems to love.

It was a busy weekend- yesterday Sophia and I went down to Kilkenny to see Donal Skehan's demonstration for Savour Kilkenny which was great. There was a fantastic buzz in the air down there and afterwards we walked through all the stalls and got our lunch. I'll have more up on my blog later in the week. So inspiring!! Hope you all are having a great bank holiday weekend.

"Love Irish Crafts" - Meet Pethouse Designs

I have not abandoned my "Love Irish Crafts" blog campaign I can assure you- but I am definitely not featuring them weekly. One reason is that I need to find some more companies to feature- not that this is a problem because I am continually surprised and delighted by all the creativity here in Ireland but what is surprising is that I am offering FREE publicity -here on my blog, via Facebook for Nenaghgal and Twitter and yet I have to find people to feature. I went to Showcase in January armed with business cards and a press release about this blog campaign emphasizing that this was free -no advertising necessary, no spend and yet....the response was minimal. Now that I am commuting 3 hours a day for my new job, which I absolutely LOVE by the way, my blogging is suffering but the ideas continue to simmer away on the back burner!
You can imagine my delight when Peter from Pet House Designs actually EMAILED me earlier this week about being featured on my blog.

I've fallen in love with this inventive and colourful range of pet houses for dogs, cats, hens, birds, bugs and rabbits and there are also plans for pig houses too. Launched only on St. Patrick's Day of this year, Pet House Designs is a real "Mom & Pop" business. The "Pop", Peter is an architect who has had to reinvent himself by designing and creating these delightful houses. "Mom" is an avid environmentalist and their kids give the thumbs up or down on colours and design.

What I love is that Peter and his wife have not only thought about the design of these houses but their Eco friendly emphasis impressed me as well. Your pets will not be housed in pressure treated timber (which usually contains loads of toxic chemicals). Pet House Designs used environmentally friendly paints from Little Green which have low VOC content and have been tested according to European Standards for "Toy Paint Regulations" - if the paint is good enough for toys and kids- it's certainly good enough for our pets.

Our dogs, who are really indoor dogs, don't really need a house but I so love the colours and design that the Mega Max would look pretty sweet in our garden and I think Sugar and Frida should cuddle up nicely inside. Who knows, they might enjoy spending more time outside!

I love the birdhouses too. Pet House Designs is on Facebook or you can go directly to their website. Or ring 087-2438199 or email at info@pethousedesigns.com.

What do you think? Is your pet worth it? I bet it is!

Nenaghgal Comments about Food for Blog Action Day and Visits Lemon Leaf Cafe in Kinsale

Today is Blog Action Day and because it coincides with World Food Day- the topic is, of course, on food. This is a topic I don't have any problem discussing but I've been thinking of the angle I was going to take all week. Food is an important part of our lives and for those of us who are lucky enough not to worry about where our next meal is going to come from- we do, without realizing it, take it for granted. I consider myself and my family so lucky that we do not have to struggle with this in our lives. And we are also lucky in that there are so many fantastic food producers here in Ireland so we are additionally spoiled for choice. Many years ago, we went through a very tough stage in our lives when both my husband and I were out of work- we had to cut back to the bare minimum on our food budget and I remember that while it was very tough- we adapted for the time we needed to. I wouldn't relish going back to really cheap loaves of white bread and eating loads of chili, beans and rice to fill us up but we did it and we saved a considerable amount of money. This experience taught us all a great deal and now we are still careful in how we spend our money. Going out for meals is saved for special occasions or when people visit from America. And because we go out so seldom I find my husband and I expect things to be top notch not just for the food but also for the service.

When my parents visited at the end of August, Sophia and I went down to Kinsale with them for the weekend. We stumbled across the Lemon Tree Cafe and had a fabulous dinner there during our stay. I loved the simple furnishings, atmosphere and the menu had a wonderful selection of delicious dishes. You can find the Lemon Tree Cafe on Facebook.

I find many memories revolve around food in our family. My mother is a fabulous cook, my grandmother was as well and I am trying to create food memories in our own small family. When my parents visit from America, we often go out for meals but we also make lots of meals at home. Many of them are simple such as a home-made soup with some home-made brown bread and some cheeses. We often make risotto dishes or roast a chicken.

This was a local cheese wrapped up on a pastry and then heated - the cheese oozed out onto the plate and the balsamic drizzle just made the dish.

I've always loved mussels and these were particularly good and local. They came in a wine/cream sauce.

I had this huge Caesar salad as well with loads of a bacon on it and good slivers of Parmesan cheese.

And my father had this lasagna. I found all the dishes very well presented, great portion size and everyone was happy with what they ordered.

The next big family meal I am looking forward to is Thanksgiving. Here in Ireland we celebrate this American Holiday every year with all the family that lived in America. I love it because it is non-religious. We enjoy the traditional Thanksgiving turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and vege. I love having cold turkey and stuffing sandwiches for days afterwards.

Food creates good memories for me and my family. We use food to celebrate milestones, birthdays, new jobs, anniversaries, visitors and much more.

How does food play a role in your life?

Nenaghgal Savours the Ideas in jamie Magazine

Above: Tomato Carpaccio with Raspberries and Burrata. Photographed by Dan Jones, Food Styling by Georgie Socratous.

As a former magazine editor, I'm addicted to magazines. It's a hard habit to break. I particularly enjoy food magazines and one of my favourites has to be jamie because the team does such a great job of combining fantastic recipes and images but also putting a whole travel spin into each issue. The styling is also stunning - I can almost smell the dishes. Take for example this Tomato Carpaccio above- look at the colours, the simplicity of the shot, the minimal propping. So inspirational.

In the same September issue was a story on Vintage Sardines photographed by David Loftus. I loved the shot above of all the cans and their designs.

Basic Roast Chicken - again perfectly styled to my taste. Those chunks of sea salt on top and the vintage board- we know it has been carefully planned but it feels so natural.

Above: Lamb Shoulder with Coco De Paimpol Beans, Lemon Confit and Olives - also photographed by Dan Jones and styled by Georgie Socratous.

There are not enough hours in the day to cook all these fabulous recipes!

This issue has a French theme and one of the things I do want to try is making a Croquembouche- Jamie tells readers that anyone can make one!! It's tempting to try and would certainly make a serious statement piece for my next gathering. There's also a food guide to Paris and tips for cooking with kids. Been a fast fan of this magazine every since it launched.

What about you? Do you read it?

Nenaghgal Checks out the Tableware at Fota House

Just a short little post for a Saturday.....During the trip I make to Fota House in early September we also toured through the house. While walking around, I found myself fixated on some of the porcelain pieces on display. This tureen (above and below) was particularly beautiful.

I liked this one, below, too but found it's colour less exciting. You know me and colours!!

In the dining room the table was set with these interesting plates- they felt slightly "Pompeian" to me. What do you think?

In the kitchen of the house, I adored these gigantic serving platters. If I had a bigger kitchen, I'd have these hanging on my walls on display.

Always a fan of stripes- I really fell in love with this one. Oh to stumble across one of these in a car boot sale! I think I was drawn to these because I've been thinking about shooting food so much lately and I visualized using these in my own photography and food experiments!

Nenaghgal's "Love Irish Crafts" Continues...She Interviews Alix Mulholland from Bog Standard-

There are not enough hours in my day to feature and talk to all the talented people I find throughout Ireland. I'm lucky enough to be working full-time in the Irish Craft industry now - all my blogging paid off! Of course, my own blog has suffered a bit but I can assure you, everyone who has been in contact and is waiting to be featured, you have not be forgotten. Without further adieu, I wanted to introduce you to Alix Mulholland of Bog Standard.

I talked to Alix about her business - she told me, "I'm a firm believer in the working to live as opposed to living to work school of thought. I've always dreamed of starting my own business doing something I knew I would enjoy. I studied Business Management at university in Glasgow over 10 years ago and in my final year I submitted a business plan for a quirky gift ware company called Bog Standard...it was just the beginning and I had a lot of work to do.

Initially my research took me across Ireland several times and whilst I revelled at the variety and quality of local crafts product, I saw enough leprechaun key rings and Guinness memorabilia to last me a lifetime! I was surprised at the shortage of style conscious home fragrance gifts that were truly local. And so I set about he development of the core range of candles and soaps with gorgeously evocative scents reminiscent of Ireland, all beautifully packaged in colourful boxes. "

In 2001 - Alix jumped headlong into the business working on creating a product range that would work well in popular tourist spots but also suit large retail stores in towns and cities. And like many small businesses, work began at her kitchen table. In no time, her small house was overrun by piles of soaps and candles. Soap was stored in the bath but no place was left empty- the spare bedroom, hallway and even the bottom of the staircase doubled as her office with a fax machine strategically placed to receive incoming orders. With a bit of luck, she was soon able to take premises nearby and she now works in a converted mushroom factory outside Carryduff in Co. Down. This beautiful hidden spot is surrounded by fields and lakes providing wonderful creative inspiration for this growing enterprise.

Alix continued to tell me what inspires her, "We are lucky to have a lovely wee family cottage in the heart of the Mourne Mountains in Newcastle, Co. Down. From our cottage it is clear to see why Ireland holds such a special place in the hearts of people the world over. It's from here with its ever changing vistas that I got my inspiration for Bog Standard, a range inspired and created in Ireland so everyone may enjoy a little piece of it's unique beauty. Lush green patchworks of fields, windy twisty country roads, higgledy piggledy dry stone walls, long sandy beaches, moist mist and rain...never far away. In essence, we've tried to "bottle"all that is lovely about Irish life and landscape and share it. Where ever you travel in Ireland, you can't fail to be seduced time and time again by the beauty, sights and smells of this land. "

The way Alix describes Ireland is exactly how I feel about this amazing place. I couldn't have said it better myself.

In closing she told me that while the Irish gift market is extremely competitive, she loves what she does and feels incredibly lucky to be able to make a living out of something she enjoys doing. It hasn't always been easy and is incredibly tough at times especially with a young family - getting the balance right is not so simple.

It never is easy for entrepreneurs but they are a breed unto their own and there is something in entrepreneurs that they seem to have this incredible will power and amazing juggling ability that makes them succeed.

I see Bog Standard range throughout the country, most recently in Kilkenny Shop on Nassau Street where they have a fantastic display. Alix, I'd say you are on the right track......keep going!!

Nenaghgal Heads to a Bord Bia Workshop with Irish Food Bloggers to Get Tips for Photographing Food

Above: Taking advantage of the natural light, Jocasta sets up a shot. Sharon does the food and prop styling.

On Friday, 9th September, Bord Bia hosted a workshop for Irish Food Bloggers. (for a list of current members head over to the Irish Food Bloggers Association (IFBA) website) The mission of the day? To help improve the image of Irish Food. Why is that a problem you ask? Well, just try this simple experiment - Google "Irish Food Images" and just see what turns up. I tried it just before I posted this and I can tell you what turns up- disgusting "stereo-typical" images of Irish stew which looks to be honest like it came out of the pig slop bucket.

Above: Donal Skehan shows us how to set up a simple "set" for photographing food at home. Backgrounds and surfaces can be easily changes to suit each image.

The mission of the day was to offer tips to Irish Food Bloggers on better ways to photograph food for their blogs. Help came from the likes of Donal Skehan- Ireland's Kitchen Hero, Jocasta Clarke a photographer from Dada Studios, Sharon Hearne Smith, a food stylist and home economist, Kristin Jensen, freelance cookbook editor - she also writes the blog, Edible Ireland and Dinner du Jour and Damien Mulley from Mulley Communications.

Donal talked us through some key points on lighting, lens choices, F-Stop, ISO, setting up an area to shoot and much more.

Sharon talked about "styling" food to be photographed- and showed us that after icing a cake, you look to find the best side, and then she went through the steps of decorating it with strawberries (using toothpicks to secure them to the top) and also gave us simple tips for creating steam and placing the ingredients for soup on the top by using a big pair of tweezers.

Jocasta Clarke spoke about working with natural light and how to filter the brightness and bring in spots of light to the image. All my years of working as a stylist in New York came back to me and I remembered the many shoots I did over the years working with photographers to get just the right light. Food photography is a bit trickier as food can look dull and old very quickly if you don't shoot it quickly so it's about having your area all set up ahead of time and then shooting immediately. I've got a lot to think about as I work on improving my food shots on this blog.

Damien Mulley added interesting points about tagging images and how Google works to pick up your blog. One is repeating the name of your blog in the title of your post so some of you may have noticed that I've started doing that- we'll see what the difference is in a month or so - which is how often Google scans through. The other one was labelling the images you are labeling so instead of numbering as I've been previously doing - each of these images have a description so if someone is Googling for example, Bord Bia they may in time stumble across some of these.

Kristen Jensen, a fellow American, gave great tips for writing recipes for blogs and for books. It was very helpful and when I truly get going in doing proper food on my blog I will have all these things to keep in mind. The thing is, I love cooking, and I do try to get as many photographs as possible in steps but I've got to fine tune it all a bit!

And, of course, because the room was full of food bloggers, they brought loads of homemade goodies to show off their cooking skills. I confess I did not as I was a work all day the day before and had no idea their was "cook-off" occurring on Twitter as to who was bringing what!

We did not need any more food anyway because as you can tell their was plenty.

Beautifully packaged.

Perfect presentation.

I've added a new area to my side bar of my blog so there is now a section for Irish Food Bloggers and many of those I met on the day are up there but do need to add more. I think it is important that we all help promote each other where and whenever possible. We all have different approaches and styles and so there is plenty of room in the market for us all.

I didn't take loads of photos on the day because I was so busy taking notes but it was a fascinating day and I'm now yearning for a bigger and better camera so I can have high resolution images that who knows, could turn in to my second book! In time..............

Be sure to go directly to the IFBA website to see a list of all the talented food bloggers in Ireland - we need to spread the work around!