My Nut Roast

I rarely bake much these days, though there have been times when I was very active practising my culinary skills by throwing together a Soda bread every two days for years on end and some nights making Salmon Mornay or a red wine laced Bolognese for supper. 

For desserts I made a rich bread and butter pudding with a teaspoonful brandy and enriched the milk with a tub of double cream. Then there were other favourites like egg custards and semolina puddings that I thoroughly enjoyed for they were so delicious even when eaten cold. 

I even discovered how to make my own clotted cream from Irish milk

that tasted exactly the same as the Cornish and all through those years I never realised that it would bring about my Waterloo and that a new eating habit would have to be introduced.

All was not lost. One recipe remained, one dish that has proved to be as viable now as it was then. The Nut Roast and I have made so many that I am able to adjust the recipe to suit myself. 

Ingredients:

Walnut halves two handfuls roughly crushed.

Cashews two handfuls some crushed others halved.

2 large onions chopped up and sauté in Olive Oil.

Tomato puree about a tablespoon.

2 packets of Stuffing - I use Lidl’s deluxe range.

5 or 6 cloves of Garlic chopped. 

Baked Beans - 1 large tin of Heinz.

Black Pepper - lots of it.

Herbes de Provence - 1 tablespoonful.

NUT ROAST

First peel and chop the onions and try not to cry. Warm the cast iron pan, add oil and chopped onions. While they are cooking bring to life the stuffing in the mixing bowl. Crush the nuts, I use a roller on a bread board and when satisfied throw them into the stuffing. Add the baked beans and their liquid, plus tomato puree. The onions, if soft can now be added. Stir them into the stuffing, now peel and chop the garlic and add to mix along with Herbs de Provence and black pepper.

Finally I taste the mixture to determine the texture and flavour prior to cooking. Spoon mixture into a nonstick baking tin and level the top gently. Cook in a pre-heated oven Gas mark 4 for approx 40 minutes. Test the same as a cake - if the blade comes out clean it is done, if not leave for a few minutes longer.

Place finished nut roast on a wire rack and allow to cool before removing from the tin. Consume with fresh vegetables and enjoy.

A Spring Return

As many of my followers are aware I had a mild TIA - transient ischemic attack,  a few days ago. This put me into hospital for four days and my route there was because my pipe fell out of my hand three times in succession, for each time that I picked it up from the floor and stood up, down it would go again. I became aware that all was not right with me so I trotted down to the studio to sit with her Ladyship and eventually brokered the subject that perhaps a trip to my GP would be a good thing to do.

Arrangements were made and we were given appointment for 4pm that day, not too long to wait, although in the surgery that time spent in the waiting room seemed horrendous - I am not good at waiting, not good at all; you might even think of me as being an impatient patient :)

My BP was extremely high as stated in comments on my recent blog, that being the case my lady GP told us to go directly to A&E at the nearest hospital which was about six miles away. We did as we were told, the waiting room only had two spare chairs and eventually I was seen by a Doctor and returned back to the waiting room, with a warning given to my wife that if I turned a funny colour or started acting oddly to ring the bell. We sat there until eleven pm when I was put on a trolley and given loads of caring attention. I slept fretfully, her Ladyship was given a comfortable chair and at eight thirty a.m I told her to drive home and get some rest.

The rest of my time there was spent in having a multitude of tests done,  he majority of which showed that I was healthy, apart from some clogging in carotid arteries - they supply blood to the brain. That sounded serious and the ward doctor explained to me that there were two procedures that would correct the situation; thus I returned home without having to consider any options because if you choose Life then either method is acceptable and I do choose life.

Today I had an appointment with the vascular specialist who with a big smile on his face told me that the clogging in my arteries was only slight, with a natural age related thickening and that he would not be performing any procedures on me.  He then said he would see me in six months time to do a  re-check and providing all was well he would not see me again.

I am delighted and with a spring in my step we left the hospital in glorious sunshine, revitalised.

Gerry Adams - a caring society

•  

 Bereaved mothers who have lost sons to suicide have pleaded with political parties to prioritise mental health.

The women, who have set up the Circle of Hope suicide support group on the northside of Cork City, issued their plea yesterday, as Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams met them and several other groups involved in suicide support programmes.

They told Mr Adams, and his party’s two candidates in Cork North Central, TD Jonathan O’Brien and Thomas Gould, how five young people in one small area of Ballyvolane and Dublin Hill died by suicide within a few months of each other in 2013.

Link for video:

Gerry Adams in Limerick - Irish Examiner

“It was a horrible year — one after the other. Our group came out of that,” said Lynda Haynes.

Her son, Corey O’Callaghan, died by suicide three weeks before his 21st birthday. Fiona Mackey’s son, John, took his own life a few months later. He was 14.

Ms Haynes said the pain never leaves, but having a support group, where people can talk and remember their loved ones, helps them cope.

“Everyone knew Corey. He was just an old soul. It was like he was here before. He gave his heart and time to everyone. He was so happy-go-lucky,” she said.

Corey left a note in which he said he had the best friends. “But he also said he had pain — pain we didn’t see,” said Ms Haynes.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams waving to some of the staff and children looking out the window from the Little Learners Educare room as he left following a visit to Togher Family Centre, Cork. Picture: Denis Minihane

“I think he just got tired. He counselled a lot of people. The one person he needed to help was himself.”

Ms Mackey said John left two notes for his family.

“He didn’t do this to cause us pain. It was to get rid of his own pain, but we don’t know what that pain was. Only for this support group. I wouldn’t be here,” she said.

Both women told Mr Adams they want politicians to commit to mental health awareness campaigns.

“Money doesn’t come into it. We fundraise ourselves. We just want them to commit to awareness,” said Ms Haynes.

Mr Adams praised the support groups and called for an all-island approach to tackling suicide, including the introduction of a sustained advertising campaign modelled on road-safety campaigns.

“These groups can take some succour from the fact that even though some of them have lost loved ones, they have saved a lot of other people by the work they are doing,” he said.

“There are people alive today who would otherwise be dead only for the advocacy work and awareness work they are doing.”

Statistics show 459 people — 368 men and 91 women — took their own lives in Ireland last year, but the real suicide figure could be as high as 1,000.

“Despite the fact that 644,000 people — one in seven adults — have experienced mental-health issues in the last year, successive governments have neglected the mental health area,” said Mr Adams. He said if Sinn Féin was in government, it would increase the mental health budget in year one by €35m, complete the rollout of suicide crisis assessment nurses, and reverse cuts to guidance counsellors.
By Irish examiner reporter Eoin English

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My own experience during the twenty-five years that I have lived in this part of Ireland, is that I have known several people from different walks of life who have taken their own lives and when the financial downturn came that number unfortunately grew.