December/New Year Nosh

Yes, I am paying the price for all this gorgeousness and calorificness as I pound the roads trying to claw back a pound or two but you know what - it was worth it and I enjoyed every morsel - so there!!!!!

My lovely Yule Log

covered in marzipand and dark chocolate, filled with a sweetened chocolate chestnut puree.

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Our delicious and attractive Christmas day breakfast, lovely creamy scrambled eggs with eggs from my brother, strips of smoked salmon and rye toast, washed down with some prosecco with fresh orange juice.

Christmas Dinner starter, Oysters Rockefeller and Oysters Kilpatrick - I will post the recipes for these divine bites later! For anyone who doesn't like the texture of raw oysters (like me!) these are a revelation.

Our Christmas dinner dessert - a Christmas pudding bombe, the Italian meringue encased a vanilla ice cream enriched with Christmas Pudding, dates and brandy. The base of the pudding was a disc of sponge and just before serving some hot chocolate sauce was inserted with a squeezy bottle under the meringue. Oh. My. God!

Stephen's day dinner was kept light, gently poached lobster, some Dublin Bay Prawns, smoked salmon and Marie Rose sauce. 

This was followed with a selection of gorgeous cheeses enhanced by serving them on the lovely slate cheeseboard I won on a fellow food blogger's site - Mona's blog is fab! Check it out here . The slate cheeseboard and knife were coutesy of Slated.ie

A light lunch over Christmas - Scallops with Jack McCarthy's black pudding and a drizzle of Highbank  Orchard Apple Syrup and a few slivers of fried chilli on top - nom!

And we had a wee bit of dining out, with a couple of Billy's colleagues and their other halves we went to Chapter 40 in Killarney and had a fantastic meal, really top notch nosh, flavour and presentation were faultless! These guys produce art on a plate!

My starter - Crab - potted,doughnut, cone!

My main course - Seafood - Vegetable Tempura, Crab and Grapefruit  Salad (Oh MOMMA!!!!!)

My Dessert - Doughnuts - Pistachio Ice Cream, Cappuccino Mousse  

The following night was New Year's Eve and we were at the Station House in Blennerville which is our favourite local restaurant in Tralee. We had a lovely night there, great food for superb value. An amuse bouche, starter, sorbet, mains, dessert, tea/coffee and a bottle of wine thrown in for €49 per person, AND a magician on tap between courses to keep diners amused!

I had the confit duck leg served on a bed of sublime red cabbage which I totally enjoyed - I'm a divil for going for seafood when I'm dining out so it was nice to try this for a change.

And to end 2011 we bought a new table and chairs - looking  forward to getting the new kitchen to match them in 2012 - fingers crossed!!!!

Dining out in November

November saw a nice bit of dining out for me, first off myself and 4 of the lovely ladies I work with took ourselves off to The Old Convent in Clogheen for a night of fine dining, chat and craic.

Here's "the Girls" Kate, Mary, Phil & Sheila.

Dermot's food as usual was superlative and I was so glad that the girls enjoyed it as it was their first visit to The Old Convent. I adored the the course that started our meal - Ummera Smoked Duck Breast with Parmesan toast, and High Bank Orchard Apple Syrup. (So much so that I tracked down said syrup once I got home, managed to get it at the local farmer's market here in Tralee. Superb stuff!) The ladies and I are planning our return visit for 2012!

 Dermot's second dessert - chocolate heaven!

Then Billy and I went to the Tom Doorley event at The Brehon in Killarney, a lovely night where we were regaled with some fun and informative wine related anecdotes by Tom, while sampling the lovely food offered by Danú restaurant at The Brehon. The main was lovely lamb wellington, with roasted shallot, potato fondant, broad beans and a wine jus.

The night was unbelievable value at €45 per person and that included an amuse bouche, a starter, a veloute, the mains, a goats cheese panacotta and then a deliciously chocolately dessert and petit fours and tea/coffee and 3 very generous glasses of wine and a glass of port.Amazing value!

The following night we were off to Killarney again, this time to Treyvaud's restaurant for their annual game night, we were looking forward to this and trying a few new tastes. The Santa-esque gent here in Mr Treyvaud Senior who comes out of retirement for this event every year. The buffet table was laden down with all types of terrines, pates, sausages, salamis, salads etc, and it was from this we helped ourselves to the starter.

Then we had a Wild game consomme.

From the menu for mains Billy chose Roast Breast of Pigeon and I went with the Pheasant, loved my pheasant, Billy's pigeon I could live without but he ate it happily.

The meal ended with Xmas pud with a divine Brandy sauce.

The cost of this was a very reasonable €50 per person.

I saw somewhere that they also do a seafood night, will be checking that out in 2012!