For the August bank holiday weekend, myself and Sofie decided, very last minute, that we'd spend our three, free days in the lovely, little harbour town of Carlingford, which is just under two hours, north of Dublin. I had visited Carlingford before on a family holiday, but I had forgotten how peaceful it is.
We stayed in a really nice newly refurbished stone cottage just outside the town, on the grounds of an old farmhouse. Now we were all set for a relaxing couple of days, but there is one thing that gets to me when I stay away from home and that is DRIPPING TOILETS! I cannot sleep if all I can hear through the silence is a slow drip. So of course, what did we end up with? A dripping toilet! So at about 1am the first night we arrived, I was lying in bed when it was decided enough was enough, I was going to take matters into my own hands. I went into the bathroom and ripped the lid off the cistern to see if I could fix it, unfortunately it was a dual flush toilet so when I pulled at the lid, I broke the seal and water came flooding out! Panic stations! It was too late to ring the owners and the water kept spilling out, so I got to work effin and blinding, in true blue peter style and tried to seal it back up with cling film and tin foil. If you are ever in the future trying to seal a toilet, let me be the one to break it to you gently that, the combination of cling film and tin foil does NOT work. To cut a long story short, I manned up, inspected the broken part, turned the seal inside out and fixed the problem! Phew!
Now I hope that didn't put you off the food because that's coming next. Dripping toilets aside, we had a truly relaxing, enjoyable and romantic little break. We woke up to the view of a field full of horses, ate outside for breakfast, cooked some great meals and even climbed a mountain!
We also popped up to Sainsbury's to have a quick nose around and I picked up two great little ingredients which I used while we were away. The first being Maldon smoked sea salt, which I think is new in their range, it smells great, and a bottle of Avocado oil which is apparently extremely healthy and has a very high burning point, making it great for cooking!
Easy Quick Roast Chicken Dinner
I can make a roast chicken in my sleep at this stage, so when it gets to that stage with a recipe, I tend to start experimenting. This is my solution to making a roast chicken even easier than it already is. By cutting the whole chicken into seperate portions, you do all the hard work before the cooking, which means when it comes to serving, all have to do is plonk it on a plate! No worries!
Serves 4
1 whole chicken cut into portions.
A good handful of rosemary sprigs.
5 carrots, cut into rough chunks.
2 red onions, chopped in rough chunks.
4 cloves of garlic.
2 tablespoons of olive oil.
1 tablespoon of sea salt (smoked, if possible)
1 tablespoon of ground black pepper.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.
Pinch off the leaves of half the rosemary and chop finely with the garlic, sea salt and black pepper.
Place the chicken portions on a large baking tray, drizzle with 1 tablespoon of oil and toss to coat.
Add the carrots and red onions to the tray.
Rub the garlic and rosemary onto all the ingredients on the tray until they are all coated.
Push the remaining rosemary sprigs onto the chicken portions and place in the oven for 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
Enjoy with a tasty salad.