Thérèse Island
Thérèse Island
Oh My God I got a lovely surprise yesterday.
My better half, Stephen, made the most fantastic discovery.
So I’m going to use the royal ‘We’ and say that We have discovered that I have my very own island!!
How could I go along for 28 years of my life and not know that there was such a place as “Thérèse Island”?
A Desert Island named ‘before me’ (well it wasn’t named ‘after me’). And it’s even spelled exactly as my name should be spelled (with the acute accent & grave accent – Thérèse: sorry to be pedantic).
It’s in the Seychelles, a tropical paradise which I’ll have to make a concerted effort to get to before I die, but preferably, much sooner than that 
Wikipedia describes it like this:
Therese Island is a small 179-acre (0.72 km2) islet off the western coast of Mahé in the Seychelles. It has white sand beaches, 700 m with numerous coconut palms. It has two rocky peaks which resemble a giant’s staircase, the tallest, Thérèse Peak, being 160 meters above sea level. There is a reef protecting the south shore of the island. Thérèse Island, along with its sister island Conception Island, is part of Port Glaud district of Mahé, the main island of the Seychelles.
The Seychelles & Thérèse Island Map
Even though the island is uninhabited, it is frequently visited by tourists and is noted for its watersports including scuba diving, snorkeling, water skiing, sailing, windsurfing and deep sea fishing.
There is an open air restaurant on the island serving Creole cuisine.
Doesn’t it sound like pure Heaven?!
And C’Mon, seriously, uninhabited but for a restaurant that serves Creole Cuisine???!!!
Could this place be more My Island?
I ask ya…… And I just LOVE Creole food. Tante Zoes in Dublin is one of my most favourite restaurants.
Anyways, I think it’d be worth your while to do a search and see if there is anywhere in the world named for you!
Love & Hugs for the weekend,
Therese xxx
The Organic Supermarket
My excitement yesterday was palpable. Like a kid on Christmas Morning! I took delivery of a big brown box from The Organic Supermarket in Blackrock and opening it up to see a wide range of proper fruit & veg was a great feeling. You may think I’m a bit sad to get so excited about something so silly but Food is my passion and I do believe that if you’re going to spend money on anything, it should be on the good quality food that you fuel your body with.
The carrots are wonky and the bunch of beetroot is dirty, they’re not perfect supermarket grade specimens but they are perfect to me. I ordered a family veggie box (more than we need but I wanted to see what variety that had) and a family fruit box for the same reason.
In it there were: Apples, Oranges, Red Grapes, Bananas, Pears, Pineapple, Cherry Tomatoes, Courgette, Red Pepper, Sweet Potato, Beetroot, Carrots, Parsnips, Leeks, Onions, Potatoes, Ginger, Garlic, Brocolli & Cauliflower.
One word…..WOW!!
I probably won’t be getting the same size fruit or veg boxes again but I’m excited to get Organic Irish Produce delivered right to my door.
The Organic Supermarket have an online store which makes ordering easy. They deliver to every County in Ireland for €6.50 and if you order more than €100 worth, delivery is free.
The Organic Supermarket
White Cocopop Buns
In a fit of nostalgia over The Snowy Period that gripped the nation a few weeks back, I bought myself a huge box of Cocopops!
Why I hear you ask?!
Well, when we were kids, Mam would go shopping on a Saturday in a rickety old mini-bus with all the other women from our estate(we didn’t have a car) to do the weekly shop. When she got home, our treat was cramming ourselves into the sitting room to watch Airwolf with a big bowl of Cocopops. God be with the days!
Anyways, I often go through these fits of nostalgia then a few weeks later I’ve a half eaten box of Cocopops (or whatever I’ve succumbed to this time) and I’m left wondering what to do with them!!
Believe it or not I don’t actually like to eat them for my breakfast.
This time I had a brainwave!! How to use up leftover Cocopops – Cocopop & White Chocolate buns!
It’s the same process as Rice Krispie Buns but the colours are reversed.
Let me tell you……De-Lish!! Yum Yum
My Super Duper Guacamole
Hass Avocados
I didn’t always love them. My love affair with them only began a few years ago when I tasted some kick ass Guacamole in California, but that relationship has since blossomed.
There was a time when I was at my thinnest (and my unhealthiest) that I wouldn’t have touched an Avocado with a barge pole. They’re high in fat you see.
But what I failed to realise at the time, and what my slimming club did not tell me (why would they?? – slimming’s their aim, health’s not their game) was that they are brimming full of good unsaturated fats, Vitamin C and B Group Vitamins and Fibre which is so important when you’re losing weight as it keeps you fuller for longer and helps keep things moving if you know what I mean.
The fat in Avocados is great for your hair and skin and you can even smush it up and use it as a face pack – mind you I’ve never actually tried that one.
I prefer to take Avocado internally in the form of gorgeous Mexican accompaniment GUACAMOLE!! Riba Riba
This goes so well with Fajitas, Enchiladas, Chilli, Tortilla chips, Baked Potato, Sambos…..anything really.
And the homemade stuff is cheaper and better for you than the shop bought stuff.
I’d recommend the Hass Avocado. It’s a shorter, fatter fruit with a dark brown knobbly skin. This has a smoother texture and has more flavour than the Avocado Pear which has a longer shape and is a brighter green colour.
To test an Avocado for ripeness (and it must be ripe before use) you simply press the flesh at the tip, where it would hang off the tree. If it gives under your finger, it’s ripe and ready to use. You can of course buy them if unripe and put them into a brown paper bag with a banana and it’ll ripen faster. But be sure if you’re buying them hard that you leave yourself 3-4 days in advance as you need to give them time to ripen. So back to my Gorgeous Guac
Ingredients:
1 Ripe Hass Avocado
1 Garlic Clove, peeled & chopped
1/2 Chilli, finely chopped
Juice of half a lime
1 Tomato, skinned de-seeded & chopped
(optional: chopped scallion or red onion)
Plenty of freshly ground Salt & Black Pepper
1. Cut the Avocado in half, running the knife around the stone and twist the two cut halves to part them. Remove the stone by tapping it with the bottom end of the knife (near the handle) and twist. Scoop out the flesh and mash with a fork.
2. To skin the Tomato, make a cross in the bottom of the tomato and plunge into boiling water for 30 secs. Then remove, place in cold water and skin.
3. Add the Garlic, chilli, tomato and lime juice. Stir and season. Make sure to taste and adjust seasoning as required.
4. Enjoy!!
God Bless the Avocado
3 Things
Hello Readers,
Apologies for not posting lately.
But on this, the alleged most depressing day of the year, I blog to you with a warning that this will be a very short one. Christmas is a distant memory, for many pay day is still 2 weeks away and the next holiday is a figment of our imaginations. Depressed? Yes? Well, I am. That’s why I haven’t done much writing in the last week. I haven’t felt the ability to sit down and write a single word.
But today, I’m making myself, and there are only 3 things I want to tell you about .
1. I have so many cookbooks that I been given that I can’t even manage to even look through them for you (Rachel Allen – Home Cooking, Nigel Slater – The Kitchen Diaries, Gino D’Acampo – Buonissimo! and many more) but I managed to throw together a quick recipe from another new one – Good Mood Food by Donal Skehan.
Tahini Noodle Toss. It was a big hit. Stephen brought some to work with him the next day and I had enough for 3 lunches. But on a side note – It’s a lot more delicious warm that cold. I’m dying to get stuck into more of his recipes. But have to find my get up and go first.
2. I’ve recently discovered that my humble little village of Kilcock has it’s own website. Imagine my delight on discovering this, as I’m all for promoting and using the amenities in your locality. I was in touch with Heidi Jermyn of Cookie Web Consulting who set it up and runs the website as I was sending her a few photos of the snow in Kilcock for her to put up on the gallery. Well, I had a good look through the site and it’s worth checking out if you’re from the locality (or not for that matter). www.ourkilcock.ie (find link under “Therese Recommends….”)
3. So I’m all for supporting local business and like to spend my money in the locality if I can. However, I only think you should support these businesses and services if you believe you are getting value for your money and you think that there is good quality in what you are buying.
Like any business, if you don’t provide quality and value for money, you won’t last very long. Well, yesterday we went out for Sunday brunch in our locality (I won’t name names, don’t want to get into trouble) but the food we got was well below par and not what we were hoping for. As I said at the time, “This is food for people who don’t actually like food”. We were so very disappointed, we don’t think we’ll be going back. There are other places for us to try but I do want to spend my money in my local town. Come on local business, pick up your game!
Thanks for letting me rant on this very depressing day.
I’ll be back with gusto in my next post (in the meantime check out my photos on ourkilcock.ie)
Therese xxx
Therese’s Cook Club
Hello Fellow Snowbound Readers,
I’ve a question to ask you…..Have you ever heard of a Cook Club?
Well, it’s like a Book Club but with cooking a meal for the members of the club instead.
The beginnings of a Cook Club maybe?
Well, personally, I think it’s a great Idea. And the article on it in the Weekend section of the Irish Independent yesterday confirmed that for me.
The basic idea is that it’s a cheaper and more fun way of socialising. Generally, you can have as few or as many people in your Cook Club as you like but usually about 6 -8 people are invited. Each week, or month a different person takes on the role of host/hostess.
Or you could just get together as a group once a month and have each person bring a different course or dish and have a buffet style evening. It’s up to the group to decide on the format.
In these “tightening our belt” times, we all have to find a cheaper and more cheerful way of entertaining ourselves and I think this is a great idea!
So, do you want to be in my Cook Club?
I think it could be a real laugh so if you’re interested, leave me a comment or send me a mail through the contact me section at the top of the site.
I’m really excited about this and I hope that you are too
Let it Snow????
My God this weather is unbelievable!!
I hope that wherever you are in Ireland (or anywhere in the world for that matter) that you are well, keeping warm and not venturing out on the roads unless absolutely necessary.
I am blessed, in a way, that I’m not working outside the home at the moment because the roads are lethal around Kildare. I’m staying put, save to walk down the town to get supplies or to walk Penny. But if you do have to brave our ungritted national roads – I feel for you, I really do! Stephen’s working from home today because the roads are so treacherous.
Please, please drive, walk or cycle safely and if you’re stuck at home make the most of it.
So far this week I’ve gotten writing done, taken the decorations down, gotten the dog walked, ironing done etc. Maybe it’s not so bad being stuck inside!!!
Speaking of walking the dog, we’re just back from a biggun! 2 & 1/2 hours long.
And yes, I must be insane. It was foggy, snowy, icy and eerily quiet but very beautiful. The frozen canal is strange to look at given it’s such a huge body of water that is frozen solidly, but when it’s frozen so thick that it can hold even my weight easily, I have to feel sorry for the ducks and swans who can’t get out onto the water. Where do they go?? The horses and sheep in the fields look so sad and morose searching for any unfrozen grass to be had. Mind you Penny had a ball staring them out of it and trying to get a rise out of them. Poor unfortunate animals.
So it begs the question, what is the weather like where you are??
Stay warm all,
Therese xxxx
Sunday Brunch Apple Pancakes
Happy Sunday!
I hope your 2010 has begun well and that you haven’t made a Resolution to lose weight or get fit like we’re all supposed to come January.
Even if you have put on a few lbs over the festive season all because you genuinely enjoyed yourself and had fun – you should NOT feel guilty!
Once you get back to your normal routine and start to eat what you usually eat again (as long as that’s not chocolate, sweets & crisps) those extra lbs will fall off in a few weeks anyway.
And if you’re ever going to listen to me, please please stop weighing yourself. Make that your New Year Resolution. Go by how your clothes feel. Weighing yourself is a recipe for disaster and manic depression. Trust me, I know.
Anyway, onto my new recipe for Apple Pancakes. They’re fabulous especially for a Sunday Brunch.
This is a simple way to remember the quantities for pancakes off the top of your head. Firstly, how many people are you feeding? If it’s 2 of you a normal tea mug will do. If it’s 4 – a larger mug is needed but the ratio is always the same:
Ingredients:
1 Level Mug Self Raising Flour
(or plain flour with 1/4 tsp sieves baking powder)
1 Level Mug Milk
1 Small Egg
1 Large Eating Apple – unpeeled & grated
1 Dessert Sp Sugar (optional depending on amount of fruit used)
Method:
1. Whisk flour, baking powder, milk, egg & sugar in a bowl. Use an electric Whisk to get out lumps.
2. Grate Apple into batter & Stir in.
3. Get a large non-stick frying pan and heat up with a small knob of butter (or tasteless oil like sunflower or veg).
4. When the oil/butter begins to shimmer test a drop of the batter in the pan. If it sizzles slightly and dries out straight away it’s ready.
5. Use a ladle to spoon batter onto pan. Control your heat. If they begin to smoke or burn. Turn the heat down & take pan off the heat for a moment.
6. The pancakes are ready to flip with a spatula when the edges around the top have dried out and little holes begin to form. Gently flip.
7. Have your plates warming in an oven that has been turned on low for 5 mins. As the pancakes are ready, transfer them to the warm plates & repeat the process.
8. Serve these with good Irish Honey. The honey goes beautifully with the apple.
**I’m forever having to makes up recipes from whatever I have in my fridge & cupboard. I came up with these pancakes because I had 2 cooking apples in my press that I had to use up. Cooking apples break down more & are a little more tart in flavour so I added more sugar, approx a tablespoon. And don’t forget to peel.
**You could substitute any fruit for the apple here. A mashed banana, grated pear, strawberries or blueberries. But trust me on the Apple!!!!!
Enjoy these and go out for a walk. Then throw the Celebrity Fitness DVDs in the bin…
Love, Therese xxxx
Letter to my 18 year Old Self
Dear Therese,
You’re 18 right? And it’s just about to become the new millennium – the year 2000 – just imagine!!
This letter is from you, in 10 years time, when you’re 28 and and the decade is almost over. On December 31st 2009, I’m writing this letter to you to give you some much needed advice so that you don’t make the same many, many mistakes I did along the way. Trust me you need this advice cause no one else is going to give it to you!
At this stage you’ve just started college. You put Arts – Maynooth on your CAO Form because everyone expected you to go to College but you had no idea what to study as all of your career suggestions were dashed. English, History & Sociology? Therese C’mon seriously? The only reason you’ve decided to study English is because you got an A1 in Honours English that you weren’t expecting. That is NOT the right reason to study something. As for History & Sociology. Well it’s like choosing the least objectionable subjects and saying “yeah I don’t mind getting a degree in this”.
Therese, trust me when I say you and I both know you don’t want an Arts degree. It will get you absolutely nowhere and where the English will maybe help you with your writing, the other subjects will get you nothing. In fact, you’ll spend the 7 years after your degree realizing you’ve forgotten everything you spent so long learning!!
You will spend the next 3 months wanting to quit college because all of your friends have left and you never made any other friends. Listen to that little voice inside yourself and leave. Your talents lie elsewhere, you just don’t know where yet.
Go to a professional career guidance counselor (which you should’ve done in secondary school) and ask for help. If you ask your family what to do they will all convince you to stay in college because you’re the only one to ever do a degree. That’s no reason to stay. And quite honestly, aren’t you just a little bit sick of people asking your family what you’re studying and for them to reply “Art I think!” or “Therese what are you studying again?…..it’s an ology of some sort, isn’t it?” Trust me, that will continue through your whole degree.
Don’t go to anyone for advice from whom you haven’t gotten encouragement or good advice from before. Most people are not giving you advice for YOUR good, they’re giving you advice from their perspective, as in what they would do or what they think is right! It’s all twaddle…..listen to yourself. What do you want?
Any career you’ve showed interest in the past was rejected, you were told you wouldn’t be able for it or you didn’t have the gumption or the strength to do it. Do you remember the time you said you might like to be a nurse or the time you said you may want to be a chef? Exactly……
THERESE, my dear girl, you were on the right track. You just didn’t get the right advice or encouragement. You do not want to work in an office trust me. There is nothing glamorous or noble in being treated like poo on a shoe from a long list of bosses that will ultimately make you sick, stressed, depressed and angry.
You need to be doing something hands on or working for yourself. Trust me when I say that you won’t be happy if you continue on the the path that you’re on. The only thing that lies ahead of you is a long line of rubbish jobs where you’ll be treated badly and will end up very unhappy.
Take a tip from me…..you’re quite a good cook and not too bad at writing. Maybe you could try something along those lines. You don’t know it yet but food will become your best friend and not an enemy like it is at the moment. You’ll lose all of that weight you put on over the years and come to understand how wonderful and fulfilling food can and should be. There is a whole culinary, gastronomic world out there for you to explore. Also, you keep saying when I write that book……you will eventually write that book!
Don’t go back to college to study things that you think you should be doing because chances are those little ventures of yours won’t succeed and you’ll learn some very hard lessons along the way.
Don’t go back to study nursing – you can’t afford it and it’ll all end in tears, much as you might be desperate for it to succeed and find yourself actually quite good at it and enjoying most of it. Also, you might end up loving technology and your laptop (yes you will own a laptop) will become your best friend……but that doesn’t mean you have to jump in head first and study what makes them tick!!!! That is not for you.
You will find someone amazing to share your life with, that’s certain, someone who you love and who loves you back (which is most important) so hold out for it and it will happen, don’t doubt it. And don’t think you have to accept anything less!
Where your family is concerned, if you know what’s good for you and if you don’t want any unnecessary hurt or pain in your life you’ll listen to me when I say……do not put yourself in the middle of other people’s arguments, mind your own business and ignore everyone elses dramas. If not, you’ll be sorry.
So here we are 10 years on and half of your life is working out very well and the other half needs a little tweaking, but that’s because you’ve always taken the advice of your favourite poem “The Road Less Traveled” by Robert Frost. You’ve spent 10 years taking all the tiny little slip roads and boreens, thinking to yourself “hmmm, this road looks a little bit interesting” then half way down, you realise there’s a mammoth sized fallen Redwood Tree blocking your path, making you turn back and go down the gritted and safe main road again.
You don’t have to take every little avenue off that road! And please don’t spend your life applying for jobs you don’t want and doing interviews for jobs you have no real interest in……you’re just wasting precious time.
But Therese, there are lots of things that will happen that are wonderful and good but I won’t ruin the surprise by telling you now.
Just know this…….if you don’t heed my advice you’ll be sitting there on New Year’s Eve 2009, staring down the barrel of a new decade with a completely clean slate…..having to start from scratch. Where that can be a great place to be starting out from, it’s also a very scary place to be starting from. Scary and terrifying not having any idea whatsoever what the future holds for you.
Life is good in many, many ways and there are many blessings in your life. But there are many ways that if I had’ve had my own advice to listen to….I could probably have saved you and me an awful lot of heartache.
Don’t feel guilty about anything, Live Life and do what YOU want to do,
Love, 28 year old Therese xxx
So here’s to 2010!
I have no idea what the future holds for me. I have nothing planned. No holidays. No jobs. No events. The year is literally a clean slate. It’s exciting but very very scary.
But I just have to remind myself that this time last year I didn’t know I’d finish my book, meet, be taught by and have dinner with Marian Keyes, start my website & blog, get rejected by lots of agents & publishers, get a wonderful Golden Retriever called Penny, and start and quit college yet again.
But I have my Stephen, Penny and my blog and that’s enough for the moment and for the 1st Jan 2010.
What’s going to happen this year I wonder……….
Happy New Year Everybody,
Love Therese xxxx