Tis that of Jamie Oliver. His ‘USA-style’ pancake recipe produces small, fluffy, lighter pancakes that are so yummy. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 115g/4oz plain flour
• 1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
• 140ml/5fl oz milk
• a pinch of salt
• drop of vanilla essence (my addition)

Method

1. Separate the eggs – whites in one bowl, yolks in another
2. Add flour, baking powder and milk to the egg yolks and mix to make a smooth batter
3. Add vanilla essence (optional)
4. Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff white peaks
5. Fold egg whites into the mixture

The Southern Smash

So today the boy and I eventually decided to head into town and find some nice grub and have a bit of a wander for ourselves. While considering retreating to the Westbury for a cosy sneaky pint I had the geeky brainwave that the Marble Bar in the Westbury was offering a deal on cocktails via FourSquare.

So I checked in while around the corner, had the good fortune of securing mayorship and thus unlocking their offer – buy 1 cocktail and get 1 free when you check in as mayor.

After settling into the cosyness of said bar I was pretty much sold on the idea of having a yummy cocktail anyway but the prospect of getting two of them for a tenner made it a little cosier.

The Southern Smash is now my favourite cocktail, just delish – Southern Comfort, honey syrup, fresh lime juice and fresh mint with ice and ginger ale.

That was my first time making use of an offer on FourSquare. And it worked. It enticed me into the place, got me spending my dollars while introducing me to a tasty new treat and reminding me how comfy the Marble Bar is. It did feel a bit weird/awkward/geeky presenting my iPhone with this offer at the counter and despite the staff not really getting what it was they went with it and honoured the offer anyway.

Win win win.

Double slanket - oh yes.

Happy Pancake Tuesday*. Here’s my favourite pancake recipe – it’s dead simple but it gives you lovely, fluffy, light little pancakes that are just nyom. (*correction – turns out that Pancake Tuesday isn’t till next week.)

State of the Internet infographic via Mashable. God I’d love to open an infographics gallery I love them so much.

Guesslist gets a spring clean – looking tasty.

There’s going to be Chaos at Wordcamp Ireland and I just can’t wait.

Some fantastic internship opportunities with Absolut Fringe, one of my favourite festivals in Dublin.

456 Berea St have discovered that sIFR’s default CSS causes issues for some screen readers. Here’s the skinny and the fix.

Anyone giving or taking up anything for Lent? Could you give up the Internet for 40 days?

Poser!

Irish Blog Awards needs judges – sign up here.

St. Patrick’s Festival is all go and looking for volunteers.

Carluccio’s to re-open after landlord agrees to cut the rent – nice one Carluccio’s!

Congrats to the Science Gallery on getting nominated for European Museum of the Year. LoveLab opens to the public this Thursday, members-only launch is on Wednesday and you can get signed up for ‘membership plus’ for a reduced price of €20 until February 10th.

The awesome Sabrina Dent is organising the 3rd annual Ladies Tea Party for Blog Awards weekend. Follow @LadiesTeaParty for the skinny.

WordCamp Ireland is starting to look truly awesome – I’ll see you there!

Donal Skehan‘s stew = win.

Open evening this Thursday at the Dublin Institiute of Design. Pop in and you could win a wee course.

Been looking at web app development frameworks for Safari on iPhone lately. If you want something other than Dashcode, check out the iUI Framework and JQTouch. May blog properly about this later on in the week.

You’ll be able to submit nominations for the 2010 Irish Blog Awards soon. Blogging may be dead but long live the Blog Awards.

My buddy Jenn combines two of her loves, writing and good beer, to create a new beer blog fresh from Colorado.

Via Damien, “No, Your First Impression Isn’t Wrong: Android ISN’T As Nice As The iPhone“. Read here and no, this isn’t Andriod bashing nor iPhone ass-kissing.

Finally, congratulations on getting through the first week of the year – arguably the most difficult first week of any new year we’ve had in a long time

Quite proud that this shot made Pix.ie’s longlist for 2009 Photo of the Year. I took it with my compact while cursing and dreaming of a Canon 450D. Hopefully that dream will become reality this year.

2FM has a new schedule and Rick is slotted in from 12 till 3. So far so good, velvety voice.

The first Irish Stew Championships hits Sligo this March as part of the ‘SÓ Sligo‘ festival.

Andy Clarke on why ignorance is bliss and continues to sing the praises of designing ‘in the browser’.

I want to learn to dance this year. Just no idea what type. Dance Ireland kick off all sorts of lessons this month.

Mr. Mulley is giving an workshop in Online PR on Jan 23.

Got a good business development and online head on you? Come work at X Communications.

X Comms logo gets Lego treatment

X Communications (the lovely place I work) is trying to get a nice snappy URL sorted for the company Facebook page. We’ve got 65 of the 100 fans needed to be eligible so if you think you might like to help us on our way click here, log in & become a fan.

If you’re choosey about who you fan or just wonder who X Communications/X Comms are, here’s a bit about what we do…

X Communications designs & builds websites, primarily on the Kentico content management system. They’ve been doing it for nearly 15 years from Dublin city centre and have picked up a few lovely awards along the way – check it out!

Some of our latest work can be seen on the funky McDonald’s Ireland homepage (featuring some cool parallax motion effects done with JavaScript and PNGs), the new EU Matters website, the 2009 Shoreditch Festival website and the new website for the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII).

If you want to find out a bit more about the projects, check out our blog. If you’re on Twitter, why not come say hi to us @xcommunications or drop us an email to info {at} xcomms.ie

Garlic from China

I like to buy Irish if I can, especially when it comes to food stuffs. My dad is a dairy farmer & from that background alone I have an appreciation of the importance of supporting local food producers. Ireland produces some fantastic food from beef to cheese and all sorts in besides. This and the fact that one of Ireland’s biggest retailers, Dunnes Stores, have been advertising with the slogan “the difference is, we’re Irish” for the past while has irked me on examination of some of my purchases there recently.

Garlic comes from China. Mangetout (which I had to chuck due to some kind of caterpillar having made the journey within) came from Kenya. Herbs came from Thailand. I wouldn’t have questioned the origin of the garlic in particular had it not been for the awful quality of it.

I’m not naive enough to expect or presume that because Dunnes Stores is an Irish retailer using “Irishness” as a means of attracting Irish consumers that they should stock only Irish goods. It’s impossible. But I can’t help but question why more fresh products such as the ones specified above are not of Irish origin. Is it really cheaper & easier to ship the stuff from the other side of the earth? Is it all down to seasonal availability?

Good vs. Evil

Farmers markets have taken off around the country in the last few years including in my hometown of Ballyvaughan and on a whole they appear to be thriving. It’s of fantastic benefit to all involved – the producers, the consumers and the community. There’s a list of all the Farmers Markets here on the Bord Bia website. If you haven’t been before then I’d say give it a try & you’ll probably never want to set foot in Dunnes, Tesco or M&S ever again.