Saturday 20 December 2014

Salted Chocolate & Peanut Slab

A sinfully delicious food gift is always going to be a hit at Christmas time.




Sunday 7 December 2014

A Magical Christmas at Airfield

Nestled close to Dundrum village is a 38 acre working farm called Airfield. 



Sunday 30 November 2014

'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas'

Do you know something that’s just dawned on me, there hasn’t been an interiors post in a while. So here to make up for it, is a plethora of Christmas interior inspiration from around the web. Plus a few snaps from my own home.



Saturday 22 November 2014

Champion brunch | The IDI Awards

I have to say I fully intended this to be breakfast in bed…

Wednesday 19 November 2014

Baked Risotto | Family Friendly Food

Malcolm Gladwell (world renowned Canadian author, journalist and speaker), says in his best selling book ‘Outliers’, it takes roughly 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in a particular field. According to him natural talent doesn’t really play a significant part… So, in theory, you can become a master of anything if you put in the time, effort, and most importantly practice, practice, practice!

I have to say, I love his theory. It’s nice to believe that anything is possible. If you want to become the best pastry chef in the Dublin, a professional footballer, or even beat Murray at a game of Tennis - as the saying goes - ‘if you can imagine it, you can achieve it’, just don’t forget to put in the 10,000 hours!

In that case then, my baked risotto must just about be my masterpiece! I’ve made it so often I’ve definitely clocked up a lot of hours of practice. (I must also be a master at nappy changing – but don’t worry I won’t write a post about that!)


Monday 10 November 2014

Apple & Pecan Crumble

With the dark cosy evenings drawing in, crumbles are the ultimate home cooked comfort food. They’re unbelievably easy to make, and absolutely perfect for this time of year.



Friday 31 October 2014

Autumn and the City

Dublin is such a remarkable city.


Thursday 16 October 2014

The Favourite Five

‘If you want your children to be intelligent read them fairy tales’ - Albert Einstein


Sunday 12 October 2014

An Enchanting Weekend | Part Two

We spent the third day of our trip on the glorious turquoise beach in Cavalaire.



Wednesday 1 October 2014

An Enchanting Weekend | Part One

Last Thursday we set off for Cavalaire-sur-Mer in the South of France.



Tuesday 30 September 2014

Monday 22 September 2014

Birthday Celebration for Mum | The Recipes



Birthday Celebration for Mum | The Party

Yesterday it was time for another very special birthday in our house. This time a 21st. Every year on her birthday Mum turns 21 again. It baffles Ross, he can’t figure out how this can be (I completely understand how he feels, it’s funny when you end up being older than your Mum!). Regardless, 21, or another number ending in a zero, it didn’t really matter, it was an important birthday and we were all set to celebrate!



Saturday 13 September 2014

Chicken Tikka Masala | Family Friendly Food

It’s that time of year again when the kids go back to school, the evenings gradually start to get a little shorter, and the leaves on the trees look somewhat tired. Gone are the lazy days of Summer (well thankfully they’re not completely gone just yet- hello Indian Summer!) when it was perfectly acceptable for little ones to stay in pyjamas until at least 12, and when ‘just winging it’ was allowed. Don’t get me wrong I’m very accepting of routines, but still, I did enjoy those days of not running to the clock!


Saturday 30 August 2014

Painting Exterior uPVC Windows

When we first viewed our house over 8 years ago (yikes!) I fell in love from the moment I walked through the door. Of all the houses we had seen this one just felt like home. We put in an offer, it was rejected, and I was devastated. A couple of months later though, we were contacted by the estate agent and told the offer on the house I loved had fallen through, and would we be interested in placing another offer? We were… we did, and two months later we moved in with our first baby due to arrive a few weeks later! What’s meant to be, will be.



Tuesday 26 August 2014

Baking Days

Yesterday it rained and it didn’t stop. Today it’s still bucketing down, and the forecast isn’t looking good for the rest of the week. So it looks like we’ll get to do a lot of baking over the next few days, rainy days are baking days after all!


I asked Ross if he could bake any kind of cake today what would it be? His answer was a chocolate cake with toffee in the middle and icing on top. That would probably be my answer too if I was eight.



Thursday 14 August 2014

Summer Holidays

Summer holidays… I absolutely love, love, love them! Family time, beach time, lazy days, eating out, all of these things for me equal bliss. People live for them all year round and this year for us was no exception. We’d worked hard and now we could enjoy a recharging two weeks basking in the sun together in Port de Pollença, Majorca.



Monday 4 August 2014

Decorating the Babies Room | Part Two

About six months ago my two ‘toddlers’ started sharing a bedroom. I’m calling them toddlers now as my twelve month old started walking last week - we’ve hit another milestone!
The age gap between them is beginning to feel smaller and smaller, so much so that they now feel more like twins. I know what you’re thinking. “That must be hard.” But no, I’m definitely finding it a lot easier.


Wednesday 30 July 2014

Blogging Bliss!

Last week while holidaying in Majorca, in between getting a bottle of water from the fridge and grabbing a packet of wipes to run to the balcony to clean a mucky face smeared with chocolate, I was told my blog ‘Maison Jen’ had been nominated for Best Personal Blog in The Blog Awards Ireland 2014.


I was absolutely delighted… knocked sideways at the time to be honest as I had no idea my blog had been entered, but thrilled. 



Sunday 27 July 2014

Decorating the Babies Room | Part One

Putting my two babies together in the same bedroom was a fairly big decision. Well it wasn’t really a decision, it was the only way we were able to fit them in!



Tuesday 22 July 2014

Vino de Verano | Summer Cocktail

Lazy summer days call for lazy cocktails. When the skies are bluer than blue and the temperatures are soaring I’m afraid I don’t want to be muddling or shaking or chopping… So here is the laziest of all cocktails and it’s unbelievably thirst quenching and delicious too!



Thursday 3 July 2014

HOMEMADE PESTO (Makes 3 cups)


Kids Pesto Lunch

The boys (8, 2, & almost 1) absolutely love tagliatelle with pesto, or ‘pasta with the green sauce’ as it’s known in our house!  



Wednesday 18 June 2014

'A Tall Iced Caramel Macchiato Please'

When I lived in America during college many moons ago I was crazy about Starbucks. It was long before the coffee chain arrived here in Ireland, so for me this coffee shop was the best in the world..!

My favourite drink was a tall Iced Caramel Macchiato (I’m sure I still say that in my sleep sometimes) and I was in heaven until the very last slurp.



Friday 13 June 2014

Time for Rosé | Part Two

I adore St Tropez, and funnily I’m not really 100% sure why!




Monday 2 June 2014

Sunny Days at Sea Lodge

So far this year we have visited Sea Lodge every bank holiday weekend, and we always bring good weather!



Friday 23 May 2014

Time for Rosé | Part One

I had such a brilliant four days in Cavalaire-sur-Mer in the south of France last weekend, and managed to fit so much in that I feel like one blog post just won't do this holiday justice. So I’ve decided to do two!



Friday 4 April 2014

A Cassoulet to Celebrate

This morning when I woke up, three innocent little faces were peering in at me. They were all silent, all wide awake, and I noticed that two of those innocent faces had a kaleidoscope of colours on their hands. A clue, that something involving colouring pens had happened while I was asleep. My first thought was uh oh! I knew Ross, the eldest at 7 was too grown up and sensible to colour on anything other than paper, but Callum, at almost 2… he can get very creative on floors and walls… Before I had time to think about where to look for those artistic creations around the house I was presented with two adorable homemade cards, today is Mother’s day! Not only that, David my husband as a mother’s day gift had designed an amazing logo for this blog, thank you David! There were a lot of creative things going on this morning while I was far away in the land of nod.



SMOKED SALMON & HORSERADISH CREME FRAICHE ON POTATO FARLS (Serves 8-10)






PATE ON PITA TOASTS (Serves 8 - 10)


CASSOULET (Serves 10)


PROSECCO & RED BERRY TRIFLE (Serves 10)


Thursday 20 March 2014

Soul Food at Sea Lodge

I love long bank holiday weekends. Who doesn’t?! And I particularly love the first long weekend of the year in March. The weather is starting to warm up, spring is in the air, and everything is waking up. My thoughts at this time of year turn to the anticipation of the summer ahead; longer evenings, trees and flowers blooming, and long lazy weekend meals outside. This weekend for me is a ‘New Year’s’ for the soul. And all my soul needed for the next few days was family, good food, and maybe a glass or two of wine!

Thursday 20 February 2014

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