Food news and lite bites

New cookbook

The new ICA cookbook is available in the shops. It contains lots of useful recipes given in by ICA members from all over Ireland. ICA members can purchase the book from Central Office or An Grianán at a reduced rate but there is a charge for postage.

Farmhouse cheese and beer weekend

Bord Bia is delighted to announce the second year of the Farmhouse Cheese and Craft Beer Weekend which takes places this October bank holiday weekend with nearly 30 planned events taking place nationwide from Thursday 25th until Monday 29th. The events, ranging from cheese and beer tastings and pairings to talks and demonstrations, will take place in breweries, restaurants, gastro-pubs, off-licences, farms and farmers markets around the country.

Smyth’s Bar will be hosting talks and tastings of craft beer and farmhouse cheese in the market quarter, Limerick on Friday, 26th October.
On Saturday 27th and Sunday, 28th, a number of talks and beer and cheese tastings will be held at Country Choice in the Limerick Milk Market.

For full details of events taking place during the Farmhouse Cheese and Craft Beer Weekend and for a range of pairing suggestions visit, please see www.bordbia.ie/cheeseandbeerweekend.

Footballers and chef combine for fundraiser

Newcastle West Rovers FC will host a tasty fundraiser on Wednesday November 14 at 8pm in the Courtenay Lodge Hotel, where award-winning chef, Neven Maguire; will join in the club’s fundraising efforts by demonstrating a range of easy to prepare home-cooked meals which are bound to suit all tastes. All money raised through ticket sales will go to Newcastle West Rovers pitch development fund. The club has recently purchased a field which will eventually be a state of the art football facility. €25 tickets are available locally or from the venue.

A gift from your kitchen

This Christmas, don’t pour all your savings into buying presents for family and friends; put your heart into making them treats from your kitchen table instead.

Gifts From Your Kitchen is a beautifully illustrated guide to making a variety of gifts and to packaging them attractively, too. From fudge to face masks, biscuits to body scrub, mother of five Deborah Nicholas shows you how – from a few raw ingredients and blank sheets of paper – you can cut your budget for gifts in half, and still leave your recipients feeling more spoilt and appreciated than ever.

Learn how to make biscuits, cakes, sweets, herbal teas, fragrant gifts, pickles and preserves, flavoured syrups and cordials – and how to present them in cupcake boxes, gift bags, mini storage drawers, pillow boxes, decorative jars and much more.