"The Mixing Bowl, Second Helpings" Cookbook launched for Our Lady's Hospice

In 2011, Our Lady’s Hospice & Care Services, Dublin, launched a cook book called The Mixing Bowl, which contained a collection of recipes contributed by the residents and clients of the Extended Care Unit (ECU) and the Community Reablement Unit (CRU) in Harold’s Cross. The cookbook was a great success and sold 9,000 copies, raising over €95,000. Six years on, they are now delighted to bring you the sequel!

The Mixing Bowl, Second Helpings is a special collection of tried and trusted family recipes that have been generously shared by 67 patients, residents, volunteers and staff of Our Lady’s Hospice & Care Services. A longtime volunteer at the Hospice, Cepta Lyons, spent two years working with staff and patients to bring the book together.


With 77 recipes and beautiful photographs, the eclectic mix in the book includes typical family favourites served from breakfast through to supper time, in homes all around Ireland for generations and still today.

Some of the featured recipes include:

  • Una and John Fletcher’s Lemon Butter Cake, a recipe that has been part of their repertoire throughout the 57 years of marriage they have shared.
  • Patricia Betts’ Boatman’s Stew, so named in honour of her father, Patrick, who created it while working as “Master” on a coal barge on the Royal Canal.
  • Alice Victory’s Speedy Banoffee, which although now has been safely tried and tested, it once caused the ruin of her kitchen as a result of an exploding can of condensed milk!


Charity patron and renowned chef Neven Maguire shared his recipe for ‘Chicken Thighs Braised in Cider with Sweet Potatoes’ saying, “This is one of my all-time favourites, one that I find myself returning to again and again. It has tons of flavour but takes very little time to get in the oven compared to traditional casseroles".


Neven added, "This book is a beautiful collection of firm family favourites that every home should have in its kitchen. It contains not only the recipes of meals enjoyed by families throughout the country but the memories of the moments that have accompanied them. This is the type of book you pass down to a son or daughter and I’m very proud to be supporting such an important book for such a worthy charity.”

The Mixing Bowl, Second Helpings costs €15 and is available in all good books shops nationwide. 

It is also on sale in Our Lady’s Hospice & Care Services in Harold’s Cross and Blackrock or online at www.lightupalife.ie/product/mixingbowl/

Zack