Hello! I'm Claire Mulligan and I live in Co. Monaghan in Ireland. It is a rural, undulating, green county full of small hummocky hills called drumlins. Our house overlooks a drumlin (formed by retreating ice during the last Ice Age- I know this because of my Geography Degree) (this is about the most useful thing I learnt from my Geography Degree!) Anyway back to the drumlins- the view up this small hill from what is now our dining room window was one of the reasons I fell in love with this house. It is peaceful and at the moment there are cattle grazing it and in the morning, if you are lucky, you will see a hare lolloping across it... Anyway the hill might be peaceful but inside the house it rarely is because we (my husband Kevin and myself) have three boys who range from 3 years to 9 years and collectively (in fact singly too) they make a LOT of noise. I also make a lot of noise because you really have to scream to make yourself heard over the din...Because I am feeding all those tummies I am very used to cooking and baking and I'm hoping to share some things that go down well with us, with you. When I do get some quiet moments (thank goodness for loooooong DVDs and the garden) I like lino-cutting and paper-crafting which all sounds rather grand and couldn't be further from the truth because my efforts usually resort in a snort from my husband and a more diplomatic "that's nice mummy. What is it?" from the children.

Early morning view from the garden