Nothing beats a good ol' sing-song!

Friday 5:30pm - the time that one of my most challenging classes arrives. Imagine my surprise when this rowdy class of four boys were utterly enchanted and captivated by McFly's Love Is Easy and constantly requested to hear it again - they even remembered to say please! It just goes to show that nothing beats a good song! Oh all right I know I'm biased and that I have a deep love for McFly that has been firmly rooted since they appeared 10 years ago (10 years ago - cripes) but the point still stands, music is powerful!

After this revelation, I pootled off home to have an evening of chilled out cooking (and a fair bit of weeping as a mountain of onion was involved) and I stuck on an album from a band I wasn't familiar with but had been suggested to me by Amazon and Spotify. The album in question is Kodaline's In A Perfect World. This time it was my turn to be blown away.

I can't not love this cover - It reminds me of both my homes!

To anyone reading this in the UK, I realise I must be well behind the times! In my defence, it takes a fair wee while for music from the homeland to permeate over here, and I don't listen to the radio anymore (bar the odd Radio 4 program... yes... yes I did just admit to that!) To anyone not in the know, what I have discovered is that Kodaline are apparently a "Dublin-based Irish alternative rock quartet". Well that sounds grand to me!  Although it was Amazon that gave me the recommendation, I had iTunes pennies to use up, so hoisted myself over there for purchase and I am rather glad I did! My favourite track on the entire album (I ended up with the Deluxe version) is Latch. Love of the goosbump variety there, and it's not often I get that!

I find the whole alternative rock/ folk hybrid genre a difficult one. I want to love so much of the music, but some of it does nothing for me. I heard the Lumineers album and immediately thought of my sister and she loves it, but it doesn't light my fires in the same way. Kodaline have lit those fires and they're roaring away! What a delight!

As there was a request for more recipes on here, I will share with you what I was cooking as I made this magical musical discovery! There is no name for it really. Mum calls it a barbecue sauce, it could be called a sweet and sour sauce, but whatever it is it's very very yummy!

Random Saucy Goodness

Ingredients: 

3 decent-large sized onions
Olive oil
a small glass bottle of tomato ketchup (preferable Heinz)
White or cider vinegar
granulated sugar

Method:

1. Slice the onions. Now there IS a correct way to do this for this recipe. See the hast picture below and cut as indicated by the dotted red lines (I hope this makes sense!)

2. Splash some oil into a large saucepan or a wok and add the onions, breaking them up as you go. Drizzle a little extra oil over the top. 

3. Turn on the heat and cook the onions down till they are soft, stringy and opaque. Be careful not to burn them.

4. Add the tomato sauce, stir in, then fill the bottle with water, shake and add to the pan so you have all the tomato goodness and exactly the right amount of water! 

5. Let the mush simmer for a wee while, then add splashes of vinegar and spoons of sugar till is reaches a taste to your liking -  there are not instructions for how much to add. 

6. This can be eaten straight away or be kept for a good while in the fridge or frozen and it is always at its very best the day after it's made.