My favourite flower, sow some seeds this July into a big plant pot and awarded with brightly coloured, cheer you up flowers. I collect petals, dry them, infuse in olive oil, to use as a balm for all kinds of skin problem and blemishes.
Calendula
Venison with basil miso sauce
Time to take Bruno out for having hot food, searing venison leg steaks. I made a simple purple basil, white miso, water, and Gomasio as a mild but fragrant sauce, also an easy way to increase the number of ingredients per meal.
Beetroot with pesto sauce
Harvesting beetroot from the third successive sowing of the year. I like to eat beetroot on a regular basis, as it has ingredient that improves elasticity of blood vessels. This one is steamed then mixed with pesto sauce, just to bring out the sweetness more.
Alfresco bbq dinner
Early October, still mild at 16 degrees, could be a final day to be able to sit outside to enjoy dinner. Simple bbq thick striploin, with boiled potatoes and salad with tomato and herb.
Restaurant Forest Avenue, Dublin
Need to go to Dublin for an event, I will always try to book a restaurant to enjoy a good meal. There are a lot to choose from in the capital, else where in the country is a desert.
Picked this one as it is within walking distance from the hotel, very good tasting menu, flavourful and excellent cooking techniques.
Rack of lamb with basil sauce
Easy enough to roast rack of lamb in the air fryer, just 20 minutes meat side up, turn over to rest for another 10 minutes, good pink result.
Serve with a roughly chopped basil, pine nuts, salt and olive oil sauce.
Air-fried crispy skin mackerel fillet
It is getting hard to buy mackerel this year, a result of over fishing in the past years. A nice surprise to find North East Atlantic Mackerel fillets in a supermarket.
Seasoned for a few hours, air-fried for 10 minutes, perfect crispy skin and very oily fish, a treat.
Deep red tomatoes and ripen bell pepper
Even though I had a slow start of growing season as May/June’s weather was odd, due to long daylight in Ireland, tomatoes and bell peppers are able to reach maturity. Deep red tomatoes and thick walled sweet bell pepper.
I steamed bell peppers whole to enjoy the texture and flavour. For tomatoes I tried drying then in air-fryer using warm up mode for an hour to concentrate flavour, worked well.
2026年10月3日 是年收成
外遊回來，菜園大豐收，大籃、大盤蔬果抬回廚房處理。九月底十月初仍然有十幾度，較往年暖和，植物尚未有大去的徵兆，看來會豐足、不假外求到十一月，和往年不同。
今年另一個嘗試，是在八月再下菜種，以綠葉菜為主，希望持續多吃菜葉。不似春初要先在室內溫暖地方發芽，可以隨手撒下，好意外，一直覺得不容易發芽的菠菜、西生菜、菊苣等，都輕鬆長大，又不早早抽苔，看來喜歡秋日天氣多過初夏。
又撒下在香港帶來的荷塘芥蘭、大蘿蔔，一直長不好，也就試試秋天長得如何。
見到菜園內無論香草、番薯苗、番茄、美女手指都長得肥大，表現好過炎炎夏日，也就證明光合作用，最重要是光源充足，溫度有十幾廿度就夠，太高溫連植物也覺得辛苦、不夠水喝。看來愛爾蘭日照長，秋季是大好種菜季節。
Tour of Lofoten, Norway 7/7
Drive down to the tip of Lofoten group of islands to join Holmen Lofoten hotel Kitchen on the edge 4 nights package. The hotel with scattered lodgings are converted old fishing huts where the owner lived with her parents in the earlier years, when cod fishing and drying was a serious business. We saw full moon on mid Autumn day and a faint Northern light.
Emphasis is on the dinners, starting with cocktails and snacks in the evening, followed by multi- courses meal with every dish paired with wines or drinks.
Daily activities included short hike, long hike, Rib boating to remote island, cooking demonstration, foraging, botanical display and making a wooden spoon.
The most memorable is the woodwork part, led by a very experienced artist who had a book about the process. There are a lot of skills to learn to make a ‘humble’ wooden spoon, something we use everyday. A lot of guests found the shaving and shaping of the spoon very relaxing.
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