IT’S MOTHERS DAY tomorrow — flowers, chocolates, mugs and pretty cards with cute little messages all have a feelgood factor and show our lovely Mums we are thinking of them on Mother’s Day but how about giving a real surprise?

OUT of the blue a few months ago, I got an email from an enthusiastic girl who had just started a new business called The Cookbook Club based in Dublin, but also online. She went on to give me some background in her inimitable breathless way.

ONCE AGAIN recently the spotlight was turned on independent, grass-roots food producers as the winners of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild Food Awards 2011 were unveiled.

The combination of cheese and beetroot is particularly delectable.

Pat O’Neill from Enniscorthy in Co Wexford produces hand-crafted, dry-cured, tender, well-flavoured bacon and ham, low in salt, with no phosphates and no added water — just pure tasty bacon.

WE BADLY need a reason to celebrate, so let’s join the revellers and merrymakers all over the world and really enjoy St Patrick’s Day.

FOR many people getting out the kitchen for a couple of weeks is the sweetest part of a holiday — well away from the tyranny of having to cook every day. Of course, I love eating out but I also love to cook particularly when I am in a place where the food and culture is different.

I BET lots of you have a book token or two or tucked away somewhere since Christmas, so before they get lost here are a few suggestions for cookery books that have caught my fancy in the past few months.