Not that the tyranny of putting food daily on the table will have disappeared.  With that in mind, we have been busy little bees putting classes and demonstrations together to inspire you and help to answer that perennial question "what shall we eat tonight?" Checkour website course listing for more information.

 

Apologies for mentioning the C word so early, but if you are already planning the office Christmas Party, keep us in mind for A Christmas Night Out with a Difference.

And now for something completely different I would like, dear readers, to relate a story with an interesting human aspect, with which our family was involved, albeit in an oblique way, food and cooking comes into it.
 
About a month ago, we had a visit from two members of the Priour family, father and son from Texas. They came bearing a present of a recipe book "Real Ranch Recipes", more of it later.
Gary and Michael Priour, direct descendants of Thomas Hart came to see us on a quest to find out more about their ancestor, Thomas Hart, who died in 1798, following the uprising.
 
He was married to a Howth woman, Elisabeth Carr, they had two children, a daughter and a son called Thomas. When Elisabeth returned to Howth with her children as a widow, she sought and was given help by the St Lawrence family. Her son, Thomas, struck up a friendship with a boy of the same age who was a regular visitor at the castle, Edward, the Earl's nephew. Later, Thomas was bought a commission in the water guard in Howth which set him up in life; he then moved to Cork and then Wexford where he married and had a daughter, Rosalie, before immigrating to Texas in 1830. Rosalie married a Priour and kept a journal which was passed down through the family, and this is how Gary found us.
 
When he was visiting the house, he said he was very moved to walk in rooms and passages where his ancestor would have played as a boy. He also felt that his family history influenced him to choose a career running camps for disadvantaged children. It is extraordinary how an act of kindness can transcend generations.
 
We are now getting slowly to the food and cooking angle of this story.
 
After an idyllic childhood growing up on the 7000 acres ranch on the Frio River in Texas, Oma Bell Perry had a vision in which her land would shelter children who had lost their families. Her dream became a reality when after teaming up with Gary Priour and another established youth camp, she donated her family land and the Big Spring Ranch for Children was born. This "recipe "gives the measure of the woman she was.
 
To Preserve Small Children:
Take a large grassy field, ½ doz.  children, 2 or 3 dogs, a pinch of river and some pebbles. Mix the children and the dogs well together and put them in a field, stirring constantly. Pour the river over the pebbles, sprinkle the field with flowers. Take a deep blue sky, spread over and bake in the sun. When hot, remove and set in the bathtub to cool.
She also saw that children need a tie to the past, so she created a multi-generational village with foster grandparents in cottages where wisdom and skills were passed on. Teaching how to cook was one of them; the cookery book brought by Gary I mentioned earlier, is a collection of recipes from the kitchens where the children were being taught by, and working along with their foster grandmothers.