THIS week it’s back into the kitchen to cook up some Easter treats. First I’ll make a simnel cake with a fat juicy layer of almond paste in the centre. I’ll decorate the top with balls of almond paste to represent 11 of the 12 apostles.

ONLY THE most foolhardy of tourists opt to drive in India, it takes a particular kind of daredevil personality to negotiate the tangle of cars, tuc-tucs, scooters, motorbikes, rickshaws, push bikes and gaily painted trucks with an occasional camel or bullock cart as well. The cows are sacred so they just amble nonchalantly through it all unruffled by the endless tooting of horns.

ICONIC American food writer, Colman Andrews’ beautiful new cook book has just been published. Colman fell in love with Irish food and hospitality when he ate bacon and cabbage, and apple tart, in Peter and Mary Ward’s kitchen in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, in 2002.

TRAVELLERS are forever seeking the perfect little place far from the madding crowd. For some it’s a deck chair under a huge umbrella on a palm-edged beach in the Caribbean. Others seek adventure, ancient monuments or a glimpse of endangered wildlife. I myself am in search of tranquil surroundings, cool crisp linen, freshly squeezed juices and of course good food.

WILL THIS chilly weather ever end? Anyhow, let’s cheer ourselves up with a big pot of bubbling stew.

DURING these recessionary times we’re racking our brains to come up with thrifty ways of having fun and improving our quality of life without breaking the bank.

CLOSE to a hundred people crammed into our local village hall recently for the inaugural meeting of GIY (Grow It Yourself) Shanagarry, east Cork.

I’M CONTINUALLY surprised by how thrown waiting staff in many restaurants seem to be if one asks about the provenance of the food. They immediately seem to go on the defensive and it can take three or four attempts to find out the source of a piece of meat, fish or cheese.

LOVE is in the air and there are a few things more alluring than the smell of something delicious cooking in the oven. Doesn’t matter how sexy you are, they soon get fed up with burnt burgers and greasy chips.

COMING up to Christmas lots of newly published cookbooks arrived on my desk. There were so many that I simply couldn’t manage to mull over each one.