SANTA is coming and the excitement has reached fever pitch in this neck of the woods. 

With only one-and-a-half weeks to go to Christmas, this week I am devoting my column to edible gifts, there are a zillion delicious suggestions I could make and you too can have fun in the kitchen, so why not decide to have a cooking party with a couple of pals.

CAN YOU believe it’s 25 years since my A Simply Delicious Christmas was first published, I had brown hair and red glasses and had just done my first Simply Delicious series on television. 

Remember mutton? Now in reality an almost forgotten flavour. So what exactly is the definition of mutton? 

AVE we Irish got a taste for spices or what! Thirty years ago, when I first started the Ballymaloe Cookery School, garlic was still considered by many to be daring and exotic.

ONCE a term on the 12-week certificate course, all the students pile into a bus. 

MICHAEL KELLY and his merry team of GIYers are definitely ‘ change makers’. Similar to Slow Food, this movement was born out of frustration and indignation. 

Guess where I’ve just been, Zionsville, Alabama. I couldn’t have found it on a map up to last week, but I now know it’s close to Indianapolis.

ALMOST every culture around the world marks Halloween, the Day of the Dead or All Souls Day in it’s own magical way, but despite the differences, the basic idea behind all these customs is to honour, remember and appease the dead.

IFEST, the first major celebration of Irish culture and food was held in Boston recently.