Saturday with Gina Daly: 'There's so much you can do without spending a lot'
Along with her husband Karol, Gina Daly is one half of The Daly Dish, social media sensations and award-winning cookbook authors.
I usually wake up around 8.30am with a little foot planted in my face.
Our toddler Gene, 3, is usually the guy who wakes us up and we’ll spend a few minutes playing in bed before getting up.
On a Saturday, Karol will usually make breakfast – it’s always nice to get a whiff of fresh coffee and toast drifting up the stairs.
We’ll head downstairs where he will have the breakfast ready, and, after calling our two teenagers Holly, 16, and Ben, 14, about a hundred times, we will have a nice family breakfast.
It’ll always be an airfryer breakfast, so sausages, bacon, pudding, hashbrowns and toast.
We live in Meath but one of our favourite things to do on a Saturday is to have a ramble around Dublin.
It could be 10.30am, 12pm or 2pm by the time we get everyone in the car.
We’ll have a coffee and then we’ll get some Doom Slice pizza or a Chiya kebab and take them over to the courtyard of Dublin Castle.
Gene’s ritual is that he waves at every single tourist – God help them if they don’t wave back – he’ll chase them for a wave or a smile.
It’s a great place to watch the world go by and also for him to have a little bit of interaction with people.
Every time we go in there, there’s something different on.
Recently, there was an exhibition on the history of the Gardaí with motorbikes and helmets so Gene was in his element.
It’s not about days when you have to spend a lot of money or to pay into a play centre – there are so many things you can do without spending a lot, whether it’s visiting the ‘Dead Zoo’ or the National Gallery.
If we’re not in Dublin city we might visit Trim Castle – there are donkeys in the field there and a lovely walk along the Boyne.
Before Gene came along we might have stayed in the city a bit longer on a Saturday evening but obviously things are different now and everything happens in the afternoon.
We enjoy the spin home, although Karl will force us to listen to his music choices.
He’s a musician and was in bands for years so he could be enthusing about anything from rock to classical music - you never know what he’s going to be playing!
If we weren’t in Dublin, we’d love to be in Paris. We went there on our honeymoon and have been back many times with the kids too.
Obviously, the kitchen is my happy place at home.
Dinner in our house on a Saturday is a bit of a roulette depending on who’s in the house – it could be three of us or it could be seven, depending on the kids, their friends, boyfriends, girlfriends…
I tend to make enough food to feed whoever is around – it’ll usually be a fake away or homemade kebabs.
I’ll do big sharing platters and then people can have whatever they want.
Don’t get me wrong, there are also days when I can’t be bothered cooking and we’ll have a takeaway or chipper chips.
It’s wind-down time for Gene – he’s like a Duracell bunny and would keep going but he’ll have his bottle and be asleep by about 8.30pm or 9pm.
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We have a big couch that we can pull out for movies. I’m more of a rom-com girl and Karol is more of a Texas Chainsaw Massacre kind of guy so there will be murder when deciding what to watch.
We might have a cheeky glass of wine and then we will play Scrabble or Cluedo usually with our daughter.
I’m not a huge fan of Scrabble, though, because my mother was a Scrabble expert and when she passed away I didn’t really have the heart to play it. Karol is a cheat when it comes to games so every week there’s chaos!
He is a big music fan and might be somewhere for a metal gig but I’m just happy out on the couch with Gene – I prefer my own peace and comfort to being in a pub on a Saturday night.
Anytime I have time to myself , I’ll be colouring in an adult colouring book. I have years’ worth of colouring pencils and markers.
It’s my hour or two to myself when new recipes will pop into my head. It could be 1am or 2am before we get to bed.
I have to tidy up as I can’t go to bed with a messy kitchen.
I might have been blessed with 1, 2 and 3 that evening in which case I will spend the night kicking my legs and running away from people in my dreams!
- Gina and Karol Daly, aka The Daly Dish, have just launched their latest cookbook, The Daly Dish Airfryer: Deadly Dinners Made Fast & Easy, published by Gill. Follow them on Instagram at @thedalydish.
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