Spring Greens

Lets just ignore the snow on the daffoldils today shall we? Here's a recipe by Hugo Arnold for Food & Wine Magazine. Shot by Cliona O'Flaherty and styled by yours truely x

WILTED SPINACH WITH LEMON ZEST & CRISPY CAPERS

2 tbsp olive oil

1 kg spinach

2 lemons

2 tbsp salted capers, well soaked

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large saute pan or wok.

Add the spinach, season with salt and pepper and toss in the hot oil until just wilted.

Scoop out of the pan onto a serving plate and sprinkle the lemon zest over.

Gently squeeze the capers and saute briefly in the remaining oil until just coloured and crispy. Sprinkle over the spinach and serve.

Denny, what makes a house a home?

Denny again! I worked on the animated TV ad that kicked off the Denny 'Home Is' campaign back at the end of last year. You can see the ad here on Denny's Facebook page. Here's a behind the scenes snap too...

Curb Appeal

We have finally managed to get a snap of a Dublin bus with the Denny sausage ad on. God knows they were everywhere recently but we just never had the camera out in time! Might sound boring to you, but very exciting to team Denny!

I can't take the credit for the find...thanks to Brendan from Denny for sending it on. And, nobody was killed in the process. To be honest, I think it was parked up in the bus garage when this was taken! Anyhow, Denny sausages...great curb appeal too...uuuummmm

sweet smell of spring

Here are some snaps from a photo shoot last week. Luckily for me it was in my house, so for once I wasn't hauling loads of gear around. That makes me happy! The change in the weather and number of daylight hours makes me even happier...Spring is here...and Easter chocolates aren't too far away now either. Thanks to photographer Jack Caffrey for the cheery shots.

Happy Paddys!

Don't be caught dead without your issue of Country Living this week!!

In Shooting Mood

It was lovely to get back to photo shoots last week, particularly as my first one was with the girlie gang! Photographer Cliona, assistant Aoife, designer Jess from Wonderland and I had a good girlie gossip and giggle (while getting on with some serious work too of course).

never work with kids and animals is the saying....cliona and Jess moving le chat out of the way. again.

cliona and aoife doin' their thang

not so happy to be back to lugging gear around. cliona gives up on it all too.

Gourmand Cookbook Awards

Huge congrats to chef Neven Maguire for the award he collected in Paris at the recent Gourmand International Awards. 'Homechef' won the best chef cookbook for Ireland which is a great achievement. I'm still trying to burn off the calories from eating every recipe in the book last year when testing, but I can vouch that everything is most definitely worth trying!

Also, congrats to Ely restaurant who's cookbook came 2nd in the world for best book on matching food and wine, as well as best book in Ireland for matching food and wine and then best wine book for Ireland too!

America on Ice

Well, I'm home! I had such a fantastic time away - lots of work but with as much play as possible squeezed into the gaps. More about that later though. Back home, shopping day hazards include traffic jams, not being able to track down stem ginger when you need it and supermarket car park door dents (don't get me started on that one!). Anyhow, not so in sleepy Easthampton. Just Snowmageddon to deal with...

Runner Jess is so desperate to get to work she abandons the car and heads on foot!

Production Manager, Katy, couldn't wait to get there either...come snow, hail or icicles

Assistant Producer, Xanna, on the hunt for sun as ever. The only thing coming is a snow plough!

Luckily for me work was a wellie walk next door to home