Vlog Tutorial: Cooking Beef Olives (German Rinderrouladen)

One of the things I really enjoy about this time of year is getting back into cooking really hearty meals, especially for a Sunday dinner. On Sunday just gone, I was cooking beef olives, a dish that you never really hear of any more in Ireland or the UK but which is really popular in Germany. 

The first time I ate it was on my second visit to Germany with The Bavarian. His mother cooked them for us for Sunday lunch and I was hooked. Luckily my big fat German cookbook, a present from my au pair family years ago, has a great recipe for beef olives (Rinderrouladen in German), so I quickly learnt to make them myself.

Per person you need:
One escalope of beef (approx. 200g)
Salt and ground ground black pepper
1/2 tsp mustard
3 slices of streaky bacon, very thinly sliced
1 cornichon or 1/2 a gherkin, sliced lengthwise thinly
3-4 slices of onion in rings

Take a look at my little video to see how to cook the recipe.

Hello Cinderella (My Vlogging Premier)

I've been called many names in my life, from my two-year old cousin calling me Snu-la to an American customer mishearing me on the phone and calling me Cinderella. So it naturally occurred to me that many of you reading my blog may have absolutely no earthly idea how to pronounce my name. I can't really blame you. I'll admit it is not the most common of names, nor it is easy to remember how to spell. So I thought it might be nice to share with you the proper pronunciation.

Firstly though, here is a guide to what my name is not:
 - Vanilla (for years I kept the fax message from the UK sarting "Hi Vanilla")
 - Flonula (what my au pair family thought my name was due to a typo on my letter of application)
 - Viola (my work mate called me this for 2 years!)
 - Fiona
 - Xionnuala
 - Sionnuala
 - Fin-you-la (my son's best friend calls me this)
 - Fan-lu-na (ok, it was a child calling me this, but still)
 - Fee-nula 
 - Vee-nula (my father-in-law's attempt at correct pronunciation. It took a while to get past that).
 - Fee-oh-nu-a-la (the go-to pronunciation for most non-Irish people)

Fin-ooh-la (as in ooh la la, but without the last la!). Got it? Good.

P.S. I'm not so sure I'll be doing much of this vlogging craic. I haven't really got the flair for it, have I? (You can be honest).