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  • It’s Time to Make Your Own Sloe Gin

    It’s Time to Make Your Own Sloe Gin

     

    It’s Time to make Your Own Sloe Gin

    I’ve finally done it! After years of thinking ‘Ooh I should do that!’, I’ve finally got my ass in gear and got everything together and have made some sloe gin, which should be ready in time for Christmas.

    Where do I get sloes?

    It’s Time to make Your Own Sloe Gin
    All the Sloe Gin Ingredients

    First issue I had was where on earth I would get sloes? I live in London, not exactly widespread countryside. My first point of call was to try some supermarkets, none of which had any in stock. I then asked the lovely people in Turnips in Borough Market, who hadn’t any either. In the end, I went to ebay and found 2lb s of sloes, ricked and vacuum packed in Wales for £15. Since I bought these, I notice that the price has gone up. If you need some, get in and get them quickly.

    The sloes arrived a couple of days later, vacuum packed, everything beautiful. I stuck them in the freezer overnight and separated the packet in two.

    Adding sugar to the sloe gin potion
    Adding sugar to the sloe gin potion

    Recipe for Sloe Gin

    When I was looking for a recipe, I decided to go with one Nigel Slater wrote in The Guardian in 2010.

    Here’s the thing, I’m not a gin drinker. Nope, not a clue do I have about what is a good gin and a bad gin. In his recipe, Nigel said not to spend a fortune on an expensive gin, so I headed to Lidl and got a litre of Finton’s gin for £15. with a standard bottle being 75cl, that meant I had to adjust the recipe. 33 per cent more.

    I put in the gin first, added the sugar then bashed up the frozen sloes a bit and put them in a jar.

    Here’s what I used:

    1 litre of Finton’s gin
    600g of sloe berries
    466g of sugar

    The Waiting Game

    For the first week, I stirred the potion everyday, this ensures that the sloes don’t clump together and the sugar gets a good chance to dissolve.

    Now, I’m still stirring the jar, once a week. I’ve chosen Sunday so I won’t forget to. After two weeks, I’ll admit, I’ve taken a lick of the spoon and there is a gorgeous sweetness battling against the gin. Now, myself and Talulah just have to sit tight and not touch the jars until at least Christmas. It’s going to be a yummy one!

    Sloe Gin - The Waiting Game
    Sloe Gin – The Waiting Game

    How about some Sloe Vodka?

    Once I had the sloe gin all sorted, I wondered what I would do with the leftover sloes. After a quick google, I decided to try sloe vodka.

    Our friends in Lidl have a Putinoff vodka which comes on 50cl bottles, perfect for the amount of sloes I’d left over. Adjusting the recipe to suit, I now have sloe gin and vodka sitting on my shelf.

    Sloe Gin - Bashing up frozen sloes
    Bashing up Frozen Sloes
  • Making New Traditions // Christmas in London

    Making New Traditions // Christmas in London

    Christmas in London

    I was asked by a well known Irish website to share my thoughts about Christmas abroad and what Christmas is like for me in London. For some reason, they didn’t publish it, so I thought I’d share it here with you.

    December 2016

    This will be my fifth Christmas living in London, I lived here for a year in 2002 and returned here in 2013.

    I’m really lucky, my work schedule has meant I’ve been able to home most years. I’ve only been away from home for one.

    This year, I’m heading home to Co. Meath. Christmas Eve is nearly a bigger thing in our household. All my siblings and my nieces and nephews gather in my parent’s house. Lots of food, lots of excitement and lots of noise!

    It’s funny! I try to get home as much as possible. This year, I managed to get home for a day in early December. Every year my Mum tells me that the tree isn’t up yet, they wanted to wait until I was at home to put up the Christmas tree. Surprise! It’s always up when I get there. The tree is a big thing at home. Decorations have been collected for decades.

    What I Miss about Dublin

    Being away from home, you definitely miss the build up to Christmas with family and friends. Even when I do get home, time is always limited so I try to squeeze as much in as possible.

    One of the biggest things I miss about Dublin is just bumping into friends and going for coffee. So when Christmas comes around, I try to meet as many as possible before they head off to have their own Christmas. When you’re at home, you often don’t notice the changes that happen in a city, so meeting friends in their new favourite haunt is a great way of keeping up and rediscovering Dublin.

    The Madness of Oxford Street

    Christmas Stall - London- nessymon

    I’ve been trying to stay away from the madness of Oxford Street. I’m not sure I have the energy to battle against wave after wave of shopper just to get one item of clothing in a sale. One of my favourite things ever is being able to walk down O’Connell Street early in Christmas Eve, with my arms stretched out wide and not hit anyone.

    It’s strange in ways. London is in another country but it’s just another commuter town for so many people. If I lived in Cork, it would take me longer to get home. You create new traditions in your own life, whether your at home or not.

    Trying to avoid the Oxford Street ridiculousness, one new tradition myself and Talulah have acquired is walking along London’s Southbank on the Sunday afternoon before Christmas. There’s Christmas Markets with craft makers stalls and mulled wine galore and carousels. If you wander to the Tate Modern, the market is slightly quieter there. It’s lovely walk and usually at this time of year, London’s famous fog adds to the Christmas feel. The afternoon is completed by our now traditional Japanese curry and sushi.

    Christmas Stall - Southbank - London - nessymon

    Christmas Stall - Tate Modern - London - 2 - Nessymon

    Christmas Stall - Tate Modern - London - nessymon

    Londons Southbank Christmas - nessymon

  • Leaving Ireland // Flight FR118 Dublin to London Gatwick

    Leaving Ireland // Flight FR118 Dublin to London Gatwick

    This is the second time that I’ve lived in London, last time, circa 2001-2002, I lasted about ten months.

    Living somewhere different was a lot harder then, there was no Facebook, no Twitter, we had basic internet on our TV!! Yes, we used our TV to get emails. It was harder to find out what was happening in different areas of London, all you had was Time Out really. It was also harder to keep up with what was happening at home.

    This week marks my second anniversary in London this time round and last Saturday I made a trip back to London. Two years ago, at the same time, I made the trip to London to start a new job. It’s never easy leaving loved ones but at least we’ve internet. Calls on landlines don’t cost a small fortune, you can What’s App, Facebook them, on the train, at work, Ireland’s not as far away as it once was. But London’s still not home.

    I try to get home once every six weeks or so and one upside of this is that I love planes. I love the clouds and how each trip is the same but different.

    Last Saturday evening, I loved the colours as we took off from Dublin Airport, the orangey colour of the sun against the clouds was amazing. Later into flight, the sky was so red that my phone couldn’t handle the colours.

    Here’s what I saw leaving Dublin.




    Here’s pic I took later on in the flight.


  • Home: Fregoli Theatre Company (video)

    Home: Fregoli Theatre Company (video)

    Fregoli Theatre Company are doing something kind of different. They went out onto the streets and asked people some questions about ‘Home’, what home meant to them. From the answers they received, they are now putting a play together entitled ‘Home’. Really cool idea.

    Here’s a video of some of the answers, which was made by the ultra talented Jenny May Finn.