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Try this wonderful and easy recipe for 5-minute chocolate mousse with only two ingredients: chocolate and water!

If you’ve worked with chocolate at all, this sounds completely counterintuitive, yet the method works. This mousse absolutely melts in your mouth, and makes for one incredible dessert, especially when spiked with Baileys.

Baileys Irish Cream Mousse
8 ounces chocolate, chopped (4 oz bittersweet and 4 oz semisweet)
3/4 cup water
3 Tbsp Baileys Irish Cream
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
Optional: unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

Set a large metal or glass mixing bowl over a slightly smaller mixing bowl filled with water and ice (the bottom of the larger bowl should touch the ice; I placed a metal bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes before placing it over the ice bath). Arrange six small cups or ramekins in a baking dish.

Place chocolate and water in a double boiler or in a heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Slowly melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until glossy and smooth. Remove chocolate mixture from heat and stir in Baileys.

Pour chocolate mixture into the large mixing bowl set over ice and whisk with a large wire whisk for about 4 minutes, just until mixture is slightly thickened (be careful not to over-whisk, or the texture can become grainy). When mixture is thick, divide evenly among cups (about 1/3-cup mousse per cup).

Cover cups with plastic wrap and let chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour before serving (or up to 4 days). When ready to serve, beat heavy whipping cream in a mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Spoon a dollop into each cup and dust with cocoa.

*If you prefer to make a nonalcoholic version, replace the Baileys with 3 tablespoons water. You can also flavor the mousse with cinnamon, instant espresso, etc.

Yield – 6 servings
Calories – 230
Carbs – 22

Ryanair’s March passenger numbers were up over one-quarter on last year’s total pushing the budget airline’s yearly figure over 90 million for the first time.

The budget carrier this morning said its customer traffic last month hit 6.67 million – up from 5.2 million for the same month in 2014.
There was a big increase in the airline’s load factor – the share of all seats it managed to fill – from 80% to 90% over the same period.
Davy analyst Stephen Furlong said the figures were above recent estimates and “an exceptional performance by any standard”.

“It is apparent that Easter falling in early April has helped volumes and presumably yields in the quarter,” he said in a briefing note.

The airline has predicted it will top 100 million passengers this year after rewriting some of its plans and policies, including lower rates on some charges like its much-criticised airport check-in fee.

Windmill Lane was demolished over the weekend. However, some parts of the graffiti walls were saved. The Windmill Lane studios are iconic thanks to a host of musicians who recorded there going back to the 1970s. Van Morrisson, The Rolling Stones and Sinead O’Connor are among the famous acts but the studios were best known for recordings carried out by U2, especially the Joshua Tree album.

The site was bought by Hibernia REIT in May of last year and it now plans to develop residential, office and retail units. The CEO of WK Nowlan REIT Management, Kevin Nowlan, said the developers are aware of the site’s history and plan to “take that into account”.

Over the years fans have visited the site and used graffiti to pay tribute to the bands. It’s understood that part of the graffiti walls will be kept in storage until it is decided where they should be put.

Hibernia REIT says it is considering the following options:

Recreating the wall in the atrium of the new Windmill Lane building as a testimony to the building’s past
Offering the wall to Dublin City Council, the band or any other interested party for reconstruction or reuse in an alternative setting
Giving the wall to a charity so that they can auction pieces of it to U2 fans around the world.

 

Hot Cross Buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday in Ireland. The cross on the top symbolises the Cross Jesus was crucified on.

There are superstitions in Ireland related to Hot Cross buns and Good Friday for example:

Hot Cross Buns made on Good Friday, have magical powers, they will not go mouldy, but if you keep a Hot Cross Bun from one year to the next your house will be protected from fire.

Ingredients for making Hot Cross Buns
•1lb plain flour
•2 oz caster sugar
•1 oz fresh yeast or 1 level tablespoon dried yeast
•¼ pint lukewarm milk
•1 level teaspoon salt
•1 level teaspoon mixed spice
•1 level teaspoon cinnamon
•4 oz currants
•2 oz chopped mixed peel
•2 oz butter, melted and cooled
•1 beaten egg

For the Glaze:
•2 oz granulated sugar
•3 tablespoons milk

For the cross:
•2 small strips of short crust pastry per bun

How to make Hot Cross Buns

Sift 4 oz flour into a bowl and add 1 teaspoon of sugar.

Blend the yeast with the milk and water.

Add to flour and sugar. Mix well and leave for 30 minutes or until frothy.

Sift remaining flour, salt and spices into another bowl.

Add the rest of the sugar, currants and peel. Toss lightly together.

Add to yeast mixture with butter and beaten egg.

Mix to a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl clean.

Turn on to floured board and knead for 5 minutes (or until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky).

Cover and leave to rise until double the size.

Turn onto floured board and knead lightly, divide into 12 pieces.

Shape into round bun.

Stand well apart on floured baking tray.

Cover and leave for another 30 minutes.

Cut a cross on top of each bun with a sharp knife and lay strips of pastry in each cut.

Bake in a hot oven (220 degrees C / 425 degrees F) for 20 – 25 minutes. Transfer to wire rack.

Brush twice with glaze, made by dissolving sugar in milk and boiling for 2 minutes.

Serve warm with lashings of butter

Makes 12 buns

President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and a parade of other top politicians are to descend on Dorchester today to speak at the formal dedication of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.

The kickoff, like the institute, is poised to be both a paean to the power and majesty of the legislative body as well as a celebration of Kennedy, the liberal lion who served as US senator from Massachusetts from 1962 until his death in 2009.

The new monument to a member of the state’s most famous political family is on Columbia Point in Dorchester, next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

The president, Biden, Governor Charlie Baker, US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey, Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston, members of the Kennedy family, and other politicians are set to speak at the ceremonies, a day before the $78 million interactive museum devoted to civic education is opened to the public.

Read More Here.

 

It’s one of the most significant historical buildings in Ireland and the country’s “best and earliest example of a Palladian villa”, according to the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage – and yet Bellamont Forest in County Cavan is on An Taisce’s list of significant buildings at risk, due to vacancy, water damage and neglect.

The house was completed in 1730 by Judge Thomas Coote and designed by the talented architect Edward Lovett Pearce. The estate was gambled away by descendant John Coote in 1874 and bought by the Dorman-Smiths, whose most famous member, Eric ‘Chink’ Dorman-Smith, served in the British army in both world wars before being sacked in 1942.

We would like to thank all our members for coming out for our St Patrick’s Day party, which was held at our new exciting venue, the State House. The event was sold out, over 400 guests took part in the festivities, and the evening was a great success by all accounts! We were delighted to have wonderful entertainment by Hogan’s Goat band and the Brady Kenny O’Brien Irish Dance Academy North/South Shore. We would like to say a big  thank you to Mayor Marty Walsh for attending the event and addressing the crowd.

We would also like to thank all our sponsors, without whose support the event would not be what it is today;  Crean’s Irish Lager, Deep Eddy Vodka,O’ Hara’s Beers, Burke Distributing, Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey, Enterprise Ireland, Irish Dairy Board, Bord Bia, IDA Ireland, Tourism Ireland, Irish Consulate Boston, and Silent Chef.

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Check out all of the photo’s on Facebook.

TICKETS ARE SELLING FAST FOR THE 2015 IRISH FILM FESTIVAL, BOSTON

Irish Network Members will receive an email today with codes.

This year’s lineup will offer a host of contemporary Irish films, intimate receptions with visiting Irish filmmakers, cocktail parties and a few surprises!

VIEW PROGRAM & BUY TICKETS HERE

 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all our valued IN members. We hope you have a wonderful day celebrating our Irish Heritage. Yesterday the IN Board had the pleasure of meeting with the Tanaiste, Joan Burton, to discuss economic and cultural links between Boston and Ireland. We thank the Tanaiste for her efforts in keeping the ties between Boston and Ireland a priority.

 

With St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in high gear, NECN delves into the business connections between Greater Boston and Ireland. The guide for the journey is Sean Moynihan, President of Irish Network Boston and VP of the Boston Irish Business Association.