Category: Recipes

Posted in Recipes

Roast tomatoes

Posted on by sheila kiely

Here’s a recipe for a simple side of roast tomatoes.
Especially good for tomatoes that are turning overripe and softening. (Unless they’re mouldy of course then it’s time for the compost).

Roast Tomatoes Recipe ⬇️

How good do they look?. I can’t wait to visit Italy again over the summer and see the tables laden with tomatoes being left to sun-dry outside.

  • Hot oven
  • Small tomatoes
  • oil
  • herbes de Provence
  • salt
  • roast 10 mins
  • & squash slightly with a fork before serving.
  • Recipe Ends ⬆️

Why would you throw an overripe tomato away when you can turn it into something so glorious? Or an overripe banana, freezes perfectly for future smoothies or banana bread. Sometimes a little imagination can redeem a waning ingredient.

x Sheila

Posted in Recipes

Spice it up – Recipe No. 2 for the summer is Ras el Hanout Chicken with Chickpea Mash. & also… how does your garden grow?

Posted on by sheila kiely
Ras el Hanout spiced chicken & chickpea mash – Sheila Kiely


Ras el Hanout chicken strips ⬇️

  • Chicken fillet cut into long strips or mini chicken fillets
  • Ras el Hanout
  • Heat some oil in a pan, add the chicken, dust generously with Ras el Hanout, turn over after a couple of minutes and dust the other side, one last turn and chicken should be done , cut through to centre to check white all the way through

Spiced Chickpea Mash ⬇️

  • The LIST
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 garlic cloves crushed or chopped
  • 1 tbsp crushed chillies or ‘easy’ chillies*
  • 1 tbsp cumin
  • 2 tins drained chickpeas crumbled – use food processor
  • Large handful chopped fresh coriander
  • The METHOD
  • Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the garlic and chillies, cook for a minute
  • Add the cumin, mix through
  • Add the crumbled chickpeas and the coriander
  • Mix well, heat through & serve
  • TO SERVE
  • Serve with lime wedges, Greek yoghurt & crusty bread
  • *easy chillies refers to jar of crushed chillies that are long-life, simple to use and stored in the fridge

⬆️ Recipe ends here

Well, the above are old favourites and I have shared these before. Ras el Hanout is a magnificently warming spice blend that will warm up your food and is perfect for enhancing summer dishes. I like to serve this with a side of mashed avocado splashed with lime though in Ireland getting hold of perfectly ripe avocados can be tricky and involves mostly luck!

At last the degrees have decided to start climbing and we have been gifted with some warmth and when the sun breaks through and clouds dissipate there is NOWHERE more beautiful than Ireland as it never gets too hot. We have brightness until 10pm which is magnificent and these stretched days will stay with us until 21st June. Each day awakens shortly after 5am and the darkness of winter becomes a faded memory.

Lawns are being cut and humming mowers and strimmers are a familiar background sound though it’s lovely to see that many gardeners are taking heed of the threatened bee population and leaving strips of dancing wildflowers, daisys, buttercups and dandelions to flourish.

So Instead of mowers I wish you a summer filled with nature’s sounds, chirping birds, buzzing bees, gentle breezes through the trees and meadows.

Slán for now, x Sheila.

Ras el Hanout spiced chicken – Sheila Kiely
Chickpea mash, made in minutes – Sheila Kiely
Sauce required? Sprinkle some paprika over Greek yoghurt, tadah- Sheila Kiely
Posted in Recipes

Summer eating & the living is easy – Irish baby potato salad

Posted on by sheila kiely
Irish baby potato salad by Sheila Kiely

Baby Potato Salad Recipe ⬇️

  • Boiled baby potatoes-chopped bite size
  • Chopped spring onion & chives
  • Salad cream
  • Salt & pepper

An Irish classic potato salad is made with salad cream, no BBQ is complete without it! Whether you’re a ‘Chef’ or ‘Heinz’ salad cream household is a personal choice & up to you.

As the summer holiday season gets underway it has so far been a very disappointing start for us in Ireland weather-wise and I had to turn the heating back on last week to ward off the cold. We’ll take the sunshine when we get it though and will cook and eat for the season. I’ve lots of summer recipes to share with you and you will find accompanying reels (videos) over on my Instagram for each of the recipes that I will post. I’m planning on one a week at least and the photo below shows some that I will be sharing.

I’ve often seen comments re recipe blogs where disgruntled readers are like ‘okay, I don’t want to wade through your life story before I get the recipe’ and with my blog being called ‘Gimme the Recipe’ that’s what I’ll be doing first. The recipes will be as succinct as possible and will generally be just a matter of combining some delicious ingredients with very little faffing.

We’re on a holiday weekend here in Ireland at the moment so I’m off to try and get the dog to walk the beach in the drizzle of soft misty rain that has decided to descend on West Cork today. It will be in the freshest of air and with a background lull of breaking waves. Life is good.

x Sheila

Selection of Summer Recipes by Sheila Kiely
beef wellington
Posted in Recipes

Valentine’s Day Ideas – a romantic spotify playlist, some delicious food…. and perhaps a good book to cosy up with ♥♥♥♥♥

Posted on by sheila kiely

You’ve left it WAY too late to book anything so what are you going to do???? Or maybe you never had any intention of going anywhere and just want to stay in and be good to yourself.

BE romantic.

Get some ingredients together to make some amazing food, set the scene with candles and put on a romantic soundtrack.

I can help you with the soundtrack – some beautiful tunes (21) are on my spotify playlist for the book – Good Enough Novel, my favourite is track no.17 The Promise by Tracy Champman. – click HERE for the most romantic spotify playlist in the world.

Another favourite is Feeling Good – Nina Simone – get a feel for the vibes from that chapter in the book by checking out my instagram reel for Chapter 20 – click below to view.

Wondering what to cook – can I suggest Fillet Steak with a Jameson Jus as featured in Chapter 6. For lots of other food options check out lots of other recipes right here on the blog through menus or search box.

Speaking of the book – it’s not too late to get hold of a digital copy of Good Enough or maybe even a paperback could be delivered on time too. (Currently available from various sources online and in Dubray book store in Cork City).

Or how about some Damien Rice Vibes

For dessert there needs to be chocolate and maybe something light like these Trio of Valentine’s Millefeuille Hearts

BlackCherry Millefeuille
Black Cherry Valentine’s Millefeuille Heart

♥♥♥Happy Valentine’s to you ♥♥♥ xx Sheila

Posted in Recipes

Berlin Book Tour & a Beautiful Hotel – Provocateur {Food, Travel, Romance – What’s not to love?}

Posted on by sheila kiely

So yes, I brought my romance novel Good Enough on a trip to Berlin just before Christmas 2021 and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip. My daughter had arranged a jam-packed itinerary for us and we had barely dropped the bags before we were out the door again for brunch and then heading East to see the wall.

Berlin is vast and the size of it really struck me. It does not have the intimacy of neighbouring capitals like Paris or Amsterdam but it is a mecca for the history lover.

Museum after museum and then the Christmas markets and shopping followed. Plus eating of course. There was lots of eating and we made it our business to sample local fare. As my first experience of German Christmas markets it superseded my expectations, bustling Christmas villages in effect, some with ice-skating, fully functioning restaurants and all with numerous stalls of Christmas paraphernalia and abundant food stalls.

For me, one of the highpoints of the trip was the hotel. Sheer decadence. After lots of walking during the day it was the perfect sojourn for the weary traveller. Chosen for its location I was a little hesitant at what lay in store for us as the website for the hotel seemed so risqué (or am I a prude?). It is fabulous. The rooms are luxurious, (I do love a well stocked mini bar) and the restaurant food was excellent.

Bar at Hotel Provocateur
Food at Hotel Provocateur
Sheila Kiely, author Good Enough

Located close to the underground ( U-Bahn at Konstanzer Str ) and within easy walking distance of Kurfürstendamm (the Ku Damm) where we explored every floor of the extravagant department store Kaufhaus des Westens (Ka-De-We) – which I can only describe as being like Harrods on speed, incredible. I can highly recommend Provocateur especially if you would like to stay somewhere romantic in Berlin.

xo Sheila