Yeooooooooooo!
Or not to yeooo? This month our first ever TV ad was aired during episode 3 of Derry girls! If you catch up with us on Instagram, you’ll have seen my pathetic attempt at a yeooo during our voice recordings, luckily my Dublin accent is a bit better than my yeooo so thankfully that made the cut instead.
No trips away this month unfortunately! We’re now on the 6 month count down to our wedding so it’s time to start eating a little better & penny pinch so we’ll be cutting down on the trips away & the nights out for the next while.
I'll be posting up some hopefully 'healthier' recipes on Instagram (@thechefsmissus) in the meantime, like my pistachio & white chocolate granola & lemon & ginger shots.
We did visit a couple of wonderful Belfast restaurants in April though, we visited Cú on the Lisburn Road at the start of April for Taco Tuesday, we ordered so many tacos the chef had to stick his head out to double check the order was right 😬, we thought 12 portions of tacos was reasonable for 6 people, we're just glad our pals are on the same wave length as we are! The food was unbelievably good, I can't wait to revisit to try out their full menu, they also had some fab cocktails which were thoroughly enjoyed. After visiting Cú we dandered up the Lisburn Road to The Crafty vinter & to our delight discovered they offer £1 corkage on a Tuesday & Wednesdays, so I’ll definitely be back if not for £11 bottles of wine it’ll be to try out their Enomatic wine machines, the only appropriate type of vending machine is a wine vending machine, right?
Mark & I had a little midweek date night to the comedy club at the empire which was most definitely an experience & one we'll absolutely be back for! We called into Liquor on the Dublin road after the comedy club for some cocktails, such a cosy little cocktail bar with an expansive cocktail list, so there's definitely something for everyone.
I took my Bestie to try out her first ever Indian, we visited Bites of India on the Ravenhill road, a great little award-winning family run restaurant which is also BYOB, they have such a big menu it would be hard not to find something you'll love. We ordered some bits to share, I always find that much nicer than sitting down to one big curry, we went for sweet & sour crispy paneer, paani poori - deep fried crispy flatbreads similar too poppadom's served typically with tamarind, chilli, potato, chickpeas & onions, murgh methi malai - a chicken curry cooked with fresh fenugreek & coconut milk, pilau rice & of course garlic naan. This little Indian restaurant never fails & you can always clearly tell why its award winning.
I was also very kindly given some samples through work this month, we're teaming up with hearty growers again & our lovely Leanne has been designing some beautiful new packing for their mushrooms, so of course they needed a test run.
After harvesting my mushrooms I decided to go for a simple mushrooms on toast, I fried my hearty growers mushrooms in a little butter, salt, pepper, thyme & popped them on a slice of toasted sourdough slathered in some Ballylisk triple rose cheese, a locally made brie type cheese which I honestly think is closer to butter than cheese but it is absolutely divine & drizzled over a little honey.
Alastair from Irish black butter also dropped us in a few sample pots of his black butter & I couldn’t resist making some vegan cinnamon rolls, a super easy recipe - although I make them the cheats way;
Starting with a roll of ready rolled puff pastry (see I told you I was cheating) I spread it liberally with Irish black butter, sprinkle with sugar & cinnamon & roll them up, from the short edge if you want big fat cinnamon rolls or from the long edge if you want lots of little ones, & bake until golden, you can brush with a little plant based milk before baking to give them a little shine. Of course, a proper cinnamon roll isn’t complete without icing, typically American cinnamon rolls are topped with a thick cream cheese frosting but for this vegan adaption I just added a little vanilla extract & water to some icing sugar & drizzled it over the top.
With the nicer weather coming in I've been replanting our garden with some veggies, this year we've got tomatoes, lettuce, herbs & my favourite, peas. I love eating garden peas straight from the pod, such a great snack, especially when you've grown them yourself - so I hope you're all excited for my upcoming garden updates 🙈
