The parade and flights might be cancelled, people are scrapping over toilet paper, the jammy kids will likely be off school until Easter but it’s not all a pain in the arse! Send a bit of Ireland to your loved ones abroad this Paddy’s Day thanks to Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and The Paddy Box.

Available to order now while stocks last, the limited-edition Cadbury Paddy Box is FREE to order, with customers paying only €20 for delivery anywhere in the world.

To mark our National Holiday, Cadbury has released Cadbury Dairy Milk packaging as Gaeilge – the ‘Cadbury Bainne Déiríochta’. Cadbury has also teamed up with The Paddy Box to create a special limited-edition ‘Cadbury Paddy Box’, filled with the nation’s favourite Cadbury goodies, produced in Ireland. 

The Cadbury Paddy Box features all of the Cadbury Dairy Milk 8-square range, including Cadbury Dairy Milk, Golden Crisp, Mint Crisp, Wholenut and Turkish. To order the limited-edition Cadbury Paddy Box, simply visit http://www.thepaddybox.com. I’ve already shipped one box off to the bro in Vancouver. Get in there before they’re gone!

Lá Fhéile Pádraig ……sona nigh do lámha!

This month Cadbury Creme Egg are bringing you a brand new eggsperience with a unique pop-up in Dundrum Town Centre. The Cadbury Creme Eggstra-Vision Café will be open from Thursday 27^th February to Sunday 1^st March in the Town Square. Brought to you as part of Creme Egg EATertainment, the world’s first chocolate VOD (video on demand) platform.

Lucky ticket holders can expect a cracking time as they reminisce over their childhood days in an old-school video store and enjoy a delicious three-course Creme Egg-stravagent menu with friends. There is one sitting available daily, with Thursday 27^th and Friday 28^th February at 6.30pm and Saturday 29^th February and Sunday 1^st March at 1pm.

Tickets to the Creme Eggstra-Vision Café are available to over 16’s only fromeventbrite.ie/o/cadbury-29601197003 fromTuesday 18^th February at 10am. Spaces are limited so booking is essential. There will be very limited availability for walk-ins throughout the week and while entry is free, guests will be able to make a donation to national mental health charity Aware, who is the charity partner of Mondeléz Ireland.

Creme Egg EATertainment is inspired by the nationwide consumer debate on ‘how do you eat yours’? CremeEggEatertainment.com is host to a wide range of cinematic short films and viewers can also unlock ALL-YOU-CAN-EATertainment by scanning a Cadbury Creme Egg. Viewers may also be in with a chance to €10,000!

To keep up to date on all the latest Creme Eggstra-Vision news, visitwww.facebook.com/CadburyIreland or @CadburyIreland on Instagram and Twitter. #CremeEggEATertainment

I originally posted this on the blog I lost through no way to pay with Google Wallet from Ireland but thankfully I can still access the archives.  It’s funny reading back through the posts then. So clueless but I had a ball doing it. You get to a certain age and don’t see any difference between you and the you five or ten years ago until you come across a photo, an old friend or a diary (which that was of sorts) and see just how much you have changed.

Quick synopsis. I was early twenties and working in TV and film. My cousin in London invited me to stay with him to give working there a go. Best thing that ever happened.  After a hard initial graft walking the streets to meet producers and agents, I got myself some work and made some great friends. My cousin loves to cook and promptly fattened me up in my first couple of months there. My favourite was an Indian dish he made. I didn’t know much about cooking, let alone the vast array of dishes from India, so I just called this Jason’s Curry. Sundays were often a big pot of Jason’s Curry and a watch of Kal Ho Naa Ho, Kuch Kuch Kota Hai or some other Shahrukh Khan classic.

When I moved back to Dublin, I made it for friends and family. It didn’t go down so well because it turns out myself and J have asbestos constitutions and laced it with a ton of green finger chillies. Wusses!

Looking at Indian menus here the closest to Jason’s Curry was somewhere between an Aloo Chana and a Chana Masala. Minus the chicken and a buttload of chillies that J would add in.

It’ll serve four good portions or six small to medium portions which is preferable if you’re planning on serving other courses as it’s quite filling and heavy.

It’s easy to make a ton of variations on this. Add in chicken, potatoes, whatever.

If you don’t like coriander I got bad news for you son. I got 99 substitutions but coriander ain’t one. Team Coriander!

You will need:

Basmati rice (that’s my choice, any will do)

1 tin of chickpeas in water (drained)

1 400g tin of tomatoes

Goooood squeeze of tomato purée

Green chillis – I use 3 to 5. Use 1 or 2 if you like it normal spicy

80g bag of fresh Coriander

1 jar of simple pasta sauce

1 large onion

Cumin powder

Curry powder

Garam Masala powder

Hot Chilli powder

Naan bread

Now, I know most recipes will call for frying off the spices with the onions at the start but I am very lazy and this is in no way claiming to be an authentic recipe so all you lazies follow along-

Chop your onion and chillies, throw into a decent sized pot. Drain the chickpeas and chuck into the pot.

I got an egg in my arse a while ago to attempt a bread.

After googling I found Pane Bianco from here. Doesn’t that look goooooood?!

The yeast I had was mostly useless as it had been opened a while, although I got a bit of a rise out of it.  And with all the ingredients it was bound to have some good flavour going on, si?

This was my first time in memory using the dough hook attachments on my hand mixer. I don’t know why I was so surprised that it helped so much, but I was so proud of the springy little baby ball of dough that emerged! It LOOKED like bread dough whoop!

Anywho, I followed the instructions (properly for once) and a very decent loaf resulted. I’ll try again with fresh yeast once I remember to buy it. But, hey, if you don’t have any at home, go for it anyway. It’ll be a bit flat, so pass it off as twisted foccaccia, heh heh.

Since my family won’t be together for the bb Jebus’ birthday, I hosted a surprise dinner last weekend-mostly for myself as I’ll be having a vegan dinner on the day and wanted my fix. The traditional main course is a no brainer so it was just a starter and dessert to think of. This Christmas Tree breadstick is all over Pinterest via the It’s Always Autumn blog, so decided to give it a go.

I got a pack of ready to roll pizza dough from Tesco, which made a neat size that fits on any oven tray. The ones I saw on Pinterest were large ones but being limited with oven space this was fine. If you’re hosting a party for more than six people it won’t go very far. I was feeding five, and this was a grand little bite, although not a real starter, but I planned on stuffing everyone with the main, so is a good option if your guests aren’t too fussed by a starter or not.

I’d also planned on a cheat’s dessert by buying a choc swiss roll and covering with choc icing to make an easy Yule Log, but I’d used all the cream for the potato dauphinoise and frankly, couldn’t be arsed to look up another icing method when it came to it. But there you go, perhaps I’ve saved you a few steps for a festive dessert. The mother came with a tin of her mince pies so we didn’t miss out on a treat.

I recreated the recipe from It’s Always Autumn, minus the grated cheddar because I forgot to add it, but it wasn’t needed in my opinion.

Also, I think the 2 tablespoons of butter is excessive below. Two teaspoons of butter melted is sufficient for brushing over the tree.

I made my tree ahead of baking time, covered it in foil on the counter and it was grand. I wouldn’t think it would be too happy hanging around in the fridge prior to hitting the oven. It doesn’t last once it’s baked and you’ve brushed the herbed butter over it though, you’d want to bake and brush right before serving.

For shaping, the vid link here is really helpful. I just cut a christmas tree triangle, spread the spinach dip to the edges and plonked the reamining parts over it as you can see below. So not as neat but it’s finger food for gin sake, just whack it together and get it in the oven.

Other commenters have substituted the spinach dip with pesto and all sorts, but the spinach dip is DELICIOUS. Give it a go. It was my first time making it, and it takes seconds to thaw in the microwave, squeeze the water out and blend with the cream cheese etc. I always thought frozen spinach would be a pain in the arse to squeeze the excess water out of, but nein. Don’t waste paper towels or your tea towel, use your hands. Go for it!