WE’RE determined not to do doom and gloom. So, on the basis that a yummy little treat can cheer up even the grimmest day, we’re having lots of fun these days experimenting and making delicious Christmas presents for all our friends.

FROM New York to London, butchery classes are over subscribed — most recently a two-day butchery course organised by Teagasc at Ashtown also had a waiting list.

IT’S JUST possible that whoopie pies may be the next cupcake — ‘homey’ to look at, totally scrumptious to eat but mercifully less luscious icing than a cupcake.

IRELAND’S future is unquestionably in food production. At long last we are recognising the fact that Ireland is in an enviable position in terms of natural resources – we are an island nation on the edge of Europe with 400 million affluent consumers on our doorstep.

The big challenge for many a busy mum and dad nowadays is to feed the family with wholesome nourishing food on a diminishing budget. Of course it is possible, but it takes more time, energy and determination to ferret out fresh local food in season.

HALLOWEEN was a spooky time when I was child, we heard all about the banshee. People told ghost stories and we ate barmbrack and colcannon. It was all about fortune telling and divination.

THE whole wide world, it seems, loves sausages.

THIS weekend I was in Camelot – bet you thought it was an imaginary place. In real life Camelot is in beautiful, verdant Somerset.

SO MANY menus nowadays are utterly predictable, chicken, farmed salmon, steak and maybe lamb. Sometimes there is duck but it’s rare enough to be offered any wild food or game.

THE food world, and particularly those of us who love spices, are all a twitter on hearing the news that Indian cook and actress Madhur Jaffrey has just written another cook book.