It was exactly 1 year ago today that I sat down and tapped away on my laptop and published my first blog post. I really didn't know what I was doing. I wanted to try out a new hobby to pass the long winters nights to come and decided, "maybe I will try blogging". I had no idea of where it might lead and if I'm truthful with myself I honestly didn't hold out much hope for lasting more than a month. I bore easily and move onto something new and then something else and usually something new after that. But here I am, 1 year later, wishing myself a happy birthday and blowing out a solitary candle on a chocolate cake made with love, joy and pride.
I am proud of what I have achieved in the past year. I tried something new. I made mistakes. I sat for hours at a time trying to figure out something technical that baffled me. I figured it out. I taught myself lots of new things, small things, but new. I learned from others. I learned from myself. I persevered. I did it. Alone. For no one else but me. I introduced myself to new people, online and in the flesh. Me, the chronically shy woman met new people and spoke to them. So many lovely people.
Psssst, you are the lovely people, and I would like to thank you all. Thank you for reading my blog. Thank you for commenting. Thank you for complimenting. Thank you for encouraging. Thank you for trying my recipes. Thank you all so very much. I would especially like to thank all of the wonderful ladies of beaut.ie, the Irish Foodies and the lovely people of Bord Bia. Your support, help, advice and encouragement is truly appreciated. Blogging has become such an enjoyable hobby for me but each and every one of you has made it even more so and so as a little thank you I have a present for one of you.
Up for grabs is a copy of Baking Magic by Kate Shirazi. I think it is a beautiful book and would be equally loved by an accomplished baker or a baking virgin.
COMPETITION NOW CLOSED.
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTINUE TO LEAVE COMMENTS THOUGH!
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTINUE TO LEAVE COMMENTS THOUGH!
Happy Birthday!! Great being able to make your own first birthday cake
ReplyDeleteWoohoo, huge congrats to you!
ReplyDeleteThe year has just flown by!
Hope you're enjoying your holidays,
E, x
I got so excited I forgot to give my favourite memory - sorry! My favourite memory also happens to be my first baking memory, when I was almost 4 years old helping my grandmother to bake scones and soda bread for a family gathering. In hindsight, I was probably more of a hinderance than a help, covered with flour but I still remember enjoying a scone fresh from the oven smothered in her homemade strawberry jam feeling very happy with myself!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday!!! and huge congratulations on creating such a fabulous and heartwarming blog - I love popping on to read and your posts always bring a smile (sometimes a watery one) to my face :) Your warmth, personality and generosity shines through in your writing - long may you continue xxx
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! I really love your blog, the tone of it is so lovely and Irish and simple. And the food looks amazing!
ReplyDeleteI'm exactly where you were a year ago, as I just started my blog this week. Its all very exciting and I hope that in a year mine could be as half as good as yours!
xx polkadot
Happy birthday! I'm pretty sure I've followed you near enough from the beginning and have enjoyed every post! My favourite food memory? Ooh there are so many - stirring a big pot of bubbling jam with my Mum in our lime green melamine kitchen, baking fairy cakes on Saturday mornings, Sunday roasts with my family in Hertfordshire...
ReplyDeleteOK I"ll shut up now x
Happy Birthady Honey!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on a year of posting!
ReplyDeleteMy favourite food memory is of Sundays as kid. There were 10 children in my dads family and each sunday my brother and I would wander into my grandparents house (they lived next door) around the time we knew dessert would be served!!!
A block of HB icecream and one, sometimes 2 flakes, would appear and my grandfather would proceed to beat the flake with the back of a spoon. Depending on how many were present that day for lunch (if there were just 4 others it was a great day) would dictate how thick the slice of icecream was and just how much flake you would have.
Still can't look at a flake without laughing at the thought of my grandfather beating it with a spoon!
My very earliest memory, eating a Superquinn coffee slice with my granny at her kitchen table. I was only 2 and it was enormous but so good! She died a few months after that so a very precious memory. I do however blame her for my continuing love of cream cakes!
ReplyDeleteHi Lu,
ReplyDeleteThanks! It is pretty good being able to make my own birthday cakes, it is even better getting to eat them afterwards. :)
Emz,
ReplyDeleteThanks missis. Well not much can beat a scone fresh from the oven, & with homemade jam! Yum. :)
Hey Glam,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your very kind words. You didn't bring a watery smile to my face with them, I swear, that was just a bit of dust or something in my eye.
Polkadot,
ReplyDeleteYou're making me blush with your very kind words. Thank you. I'm looking forward to checking out your blog now. Good luck with it and I hope you enjoy blogging as much as I do. :)
English Mum,
ReplyDeleteThanks for that missis, means alot to hear that a blogger I admire so much enjoys my posts.
I was hungry by the time I got to the end of your comment. What I wouldn't give right now for a nice roast followed by some fairy cakes smeared with some yummy jam!
Hi Manu,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for reading and commenting throughout the year, you have been great. :)
Hi Orla,
ReplyDeleteThank you! Sunday afternoons would be nothing without a block of HB ice cream. I used to love when we got raspberry ripple and I got a big blob of tangy raspberry syrup in my slice.
Claire,
ReplyDeleteI bought a Superquinn coffee slice a couple of weeks ago for the 1st time in ages. Soooo good. They were one of my mams favourites. I can imagine just how big a whole one would look to your 2 year old self. A delicious moment to share with your granny. :)
Oops, totally thought I had commented here. I shall repeat my intended sentiments: Happiest of birthblogdays, Tremendously glad you blog and twitter, beshta craic :)
ReplyDeleteHave I mentioned... You're like.. such a genius. Mint crisp pie. Nuff said.
Congrats m'dear :)
(This is extra right? Counts as overtime)
Oh oh oh oh, favourite food memory, totally forgot. Twas.. licking the bowl a few weeks before christmas when the christmas cakes were being made. Absolute gold, that stuff was. I highly suspect it was the amount of alcohol that found it's way in that I liked..
ReplyDeleteSarah,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind wishes. I suppose that could count as over time. Go on, I'll give you the rest of the day off for that.
I have very fond memories of Christmas cakes and puddings too. Licking of bowls is totally underrated imo. Sometimes it is more delicious than the finished cake. Well, until you get your hands on the finished cake that is! :)
My favourite food memory ! I've got so many but one that sticks in mymind: I was about 5 or 6 and lived in the flats in Ballymun at thetime. My primary school was literally a stones throw from the house andas my mam had my baby sister to look after it was quite safe to let mewalk home after school with my little friends. Well it was the 70's.One day I came home and my mam had had to run out to the shops forsomething. Being only 5 I was quite upset that there was no one in, butmam had arranged for the lovely lady who lived next door to look afterme in her flat til she got back. Kathleen had two little boys, one myage at the time. The 3 of us were good friends. I was still upset whenshe brought me in to theirs til my mam got back. The boys were havingtheir lunch and Kathleen sat me up with them and made me the boys fave -a chip butty ! It was the first time I had ever tasted a chip sandwich.It was made with batch bread. To this day I can still taste the doughybatch and feel the butter melting with the heat of the chips. Heaven.I don't eat too many chip butties these dsya but I can still recall thatfirst taste of one. Nothing like it.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on a whole year! I only started my blog in April and have already given it up for a wee while over the summer! Am back in the saddle now though. She says hopefully!
ReplyDeleteLove the blog, well done!
KittyKat,
ReplyDeleteThat is fantastic. You just can't beat a bit of batch bread. I sat beside an 80 yr old on a flight from Dublin to NY who returns here every year for a visit and he was telling us that his American children would be waiting for him to bring home for chip sambos that night.
Hi Karen,
ReplyDeleteThanks a mill. Love your blog and was glad to see you were back posting last week. Good luck with all of the wedding plans and the blog. Looking forward to reading more from you. :)
Congratulations on the big birthday! I've been thinking long and hard about my favourite foodie memory because there are plenty to choose from! I finally managed to pick one though...
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 5 or 6 my dad moved to Maine on the east coast of the states for his job. We stayed in Dublin but we used to go over and visit all the time. And every time we went, we would always go to eat in one of the lobster houses.
Obviously, as a 6 year old, I didn't appreciate that lobster is considered a gourmet fish pretty much everywhere other than Maine. I just loved the old-fashioned diners, which have you a big plastic bib before you started - and it didn't feel childish because even the adults got them! I loved fishing out the little scraps me lobster from the claws and dipping them into melted butter. for a while was pretty nifty at cracking the shells too!
Congratulations on a year of blogging! I'm getting close to that myself. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's hard but it's always enjoyable and that always comes through on your blog.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite food memory recurs every year, it's our Danish Christmas Eve dinner. I love sitting around the table with my family enjoying the meal together.
We always start off with a very traditional dish called Risengrød, a rice porridge, in which a lucky family member might find an almond placed there by the nisser (Danish elves who look after your house)and get a prize. Though in our house, it seems the nisser always put an almond in everyone's bowl!
Whenever I make risengrød at other times during the year, I always hope that there'll be an almond in it.
Aisling,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. Wow, such a lucky 6 yr old. I love lobster but it is a real treat. Think I need to get myself to Maine though! I love the charm of old American diners, they always have such a happy buzz inside which always makes the food taste even better than it already is. I'm crap at cracking the shells, I've only just mastered shelling prawns! :)
Joanna,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. Now you have really thrown a spanner in the works with your talk of elves! I have a weakness for elves and fairies and then you throw in Christmas!!! Maybe when I am queen I will find an almond in my Risengrod! :)