Stop me if you’ve heard this before..
‘It was a hot afternoon
the last day of June,
and the sun was a demon..’ – dooby-dooby-dooby-do..
If you recognise these lyrics, the tune’s going to be in your head for the rest of the day – sorry about that!
For those of you too young to remember, may I suggest that you stick ‘Bobby Goldsboro, Summer the first time’ into your search engine and have a listen – it’s alright, you can thank me later..
Anyway, it was a hot afternoon, in the last week in June, and I needed a cool drink. If I was going with the lyrics of the song, I’d be offering up a Mint Julep here – and if you have mint, a sugar syrup, bourbon and ice, you’re sorted – but I’m sticking with what I know here..
My pal Anne – for just our second socially-distanced lunch since Lockdown – had agreed to venture into my back garden to seek a little shade.
We had a non-alcoholic Hugo, https://eatingforireland.com/recipe/cocktail-hugo/
made with this year’s Elderflower Cordial https://eatingforireland.com/recipe/homemade-elderflower-cordial/
and a bunch of Apple Mint kindly given by my neighbour..making something already cool and delicious into something perfect.
But now it was mid-afternoon – ‘the last week, etc’ – and I wanted something else!
Then all of a sudden my sister-in-law’s Iced Coffee popped into my head and absolutely refused to leave.. Picture this, if you will – Cold coffee, milk, and Ice-cream, whizzed together and topped – if you like, and I do like – with another scoop of Ice Cream..
Enough said. The memory of drinking this in Australia, in 35 degree heat, in January, many years ago, was enough to send me scurrying out to the freezer, praying that I had a box of Vanilla ice-cream in there somewhere.. And hey presto, after digging around for a while, Australian Iced Coffee was back on the menu!
https://eatingforireland.com/recipe/dorothys-iced-coffee/
Check out the recipe for my niece Claire’s Vegan and dairy-free version at the bottom of the recipe! She used Almond milk for her version, and I suggest a dairy-free ice-cream in the recipe too..
I’ll be using my new eco-friendly metal straw – these are old pictures – for this afternoon’s jug of Iced Coffee!
So go on! Treat yourself! We only get one day like this every year.. 
I started writing down recipes in an old copybook when I was about 16. With 6 children at home, my Mother was always glad of a hand in the kitchen, and really allowed us to experiment - as long as we washed up afterwards, and left the kitchen immaculate! Having a tidy kitchen has followed me through my life, as has the habit of writing down my favourite recipes; except that these days I write them for my website, and add photographs when I can. The website really started when it occurred to me that my daughter might like to have these recipes when I've forgotten them. In my early days of cooking for family and friends, I used to phone my Mum all the time to ask her for the recipe for some of our favourite family dinners. She rarely had a recipe to hand - I think, like me, she made a lot of it up as she went along.. So welcome to Eating for Ireland - these are the recipes that my friends and family having been eating these past 40 years.. yes, I truly am ancient! They are tried and tested, and have worked for me for all that time - I have updated them as new ingredients became available - I really hope you'll find something that you can make into a family favourite of your own. You don't have to tell anyone where you found these great new dishes that you're serving up - it can be our little secret, but I'd really love it if you could give me a sneaky 'follow' on Facebook and Instagram.. So off you go - have a good rummage around, you're bound to find something new! My sincere thanks to all of you who have found a recipe that you liked and dropped me a line to tell me - I really do love to hear from you! Happy Cooking! Becks xx