A Week in the Country

This week’s poem, My Dairy Cow Katie, comes from reader, Fiona McMahon.

She loves to chew on the cud does my Katie,

Whatever is on her mind I do not know,

Is it her youngster Rachel with a toothache?

Is it her friend Ruth with tender hoofs?

Is it the bull Tom in the neighbour’s field?

Is it myself that she loves?

Whatever it is, it has my Katie chewing on the cud.

Her coat is thick like my granny’s wool blanket,

Her teeth are cream like my cousin Jimmy’s,

Her eyes twinkle like the stars at night,

Her ears hear the low rumbling of tractor engines in far fields,

Her legs jig when the bull Tom is chasing her,

Her tail swings gently like a clock pendulum,

Her sense of smell is that of my great auntie Mary, who could smell the whiff of a drink on a man a mile away.

She enjoys the sound of Daniel O’Donnell in the milk parlour,

She is as precious to me as the Mrs is my Katie,

She follows me home over the pastures many a day and night,

But my Mrs never lets Katie in the house,

Oh my dairy cow Katie, how I do love you.

Shane Smith

Cavan-born pastry chef Shane Smith produces drool-worthy content over @chefshanesmith ; we can almost taste that blackberry lemon sponge or those strawberry jam doughnuts just by looking at them. But even better, Shane also shares his most popular recipes through IGTV, ranging from sweet apple turnovers and chocolate peanut butter whoppie pies to savoury courgette and goats cheese muffins and rosemary sea salt focaccia. Definitely one to follow for foodies.

When a recipe calls for “finely” chopped fresh herbs, it usually doesn’t mean “pulverised”. When I’m chopping fresh herbs, I do a few different things to get the best possible results. I use a very sharp knife, because fresh herbs will blacken if bruised and a dull knife will bruise them. I “chiffonade” flat leafed fresh herbs like basil, flat leaf parsley and sage – this means to lay the leaves on top of each other, roll them up and thinly slice into ribbons. For other fresh herbs, I roll them into a bit of a ball and shave bits off the ball, so as not to over work them. Chives can be chopped with a sharp knife or snipped with sharp kitchen scissors.

7

The number of years that should be the maximum term of a loan for machinery or livestock.

I always ask my 6 yr old son what the favorite part of his day was when I tuck him in. His nana got new, recliner sofas which he sat in for the first time today.
He said it was the best day of his life.

— Claire Cullen Delsol ???? (@DelsolClaire) October 11, 2020

From our My Country Living feature, Ronan Hughes.

Some people have ideas, but they’d never follow through. I followed up my thoughts and took a risk, it was a risk, especially at my age. I said ‘Here goes’