Kenmare Bay Hotel & Resort, Co. Kerry

Baked Salmon with Herbs & Caramelised Lemon Slices

4 Fillets of Salmon

3 small lemons, thickly sliced

50ml olive oil

4-6 fresh bay leaves

few sprigs each fresh rosemary , thyme, basil, sage and parsley

2-3 lemon grass stalks, cut into large pieces

1 head garlic , halved horizontally

1 tsp peppercorns , mixed or black

Rub the Salmon Fillets with olive oil, salt and pepper. Lay three large pieces of foil over a large baking tray, overlapping the long edges.

Heat oven to 200 C

Heat a little oil in a non-stick frying pan, then fry lemon slices over a high heat for 2-3 mins until golden. Season; allow to cool slightly.

Scatter a handful of herbs and lemongrass over foil, then place the salmon on top. Tuck caramelised lemon, herbs and garlic around and inside fish, splash over a little oil and scatter over salt, peppercorns.

Fold the foil around the fish to make a shallow tent. Cook in the centre of the oven for 15-20 mins, depending on the thickness of the salmon. Remove from the oven and rest the fish for at least 10 min, still wrapped in foil.

Drain the juices into a small jug.

Serve with caramelised lemons and a drizzle of the juices.

Spring is definitely in the air in Kenmare. The birds are singing, the sun is shining and everyone is smiling! Which is good to see, with all the doom and gloom around at the moment.

Talking of smiling, we have plenty on offer at the Kenmare Bay Hotel to make you smile. Our family Easter breaks are fantastic value, whether you are looking for a family getaway or a quiet couple of nights by yourselves. They’ll be plenty going on in the town over Easter with live music and great craic.

Take a look to at our Heritage Break. We are offering reduced price tickets to visit the award-winning Bonane Heritage Park, which is just 15 minutes from the Hotel. The Park recently won the National Award ‘Pride of Place’ in the environment category and is well worth a visit. Check it out on www.bonaneheritagepark.com.

If golf is your thing, then we have the package for you. Stay with us for 2 nights on the Peninsula Pass package. This pass includes 3 stunning golf courses – Dooks links, Ring of Kerry Golf & Country Club and Skellig Bay. Have a look at their website on www.peninsulapass.com then book our package from just €264 per person, which includes 2 nights’ B&B, 1 Dinner and the golf pass.

If you are looking for horse riding, pony camps for the kids and other outdoor pursuits, then look no further then Eclipse Equestrian & Activity Centre. This fabulous place is just 20 minutes from the hotel, in the heart of the Kerry countryside, surrounded by moor land, forests, lakes and streams. Take a look at what they offer on www.eclipseireland.com.

Kenmare is really an ideal location as a base for exploring so many different activities. Within easy access, you’ll find not only all of the above, but also fishing, walking, indoor kids’ play centres, pet farms and much more. Then of course there’s Kenmare town itself which mustn’t be overlooked. It’s a very special town offering a huge range of award-winning restaurants, pubs, cafes and unusual shops. The atmosphere in the town is lovely with warm and friendly people waiting to welcome you and make you feel right at home.

Kenmare Bay Hotel is but a short stroll from the town via a pathway. The hotel has everything in place to cater for family breaks; leisure centre with children’s pool, kids club, outdoor playground, restaurant play area, special kids menus and children’s drop-in playroom. There’s something for everyone at the Kenmare Bay Hotel & Resort and its environs. Come and visit us and let us know what you think!

Finally, if you are planning on getting married in the near future, then don’t miss our fabulous wedding fair on Sunday, 26^th April, from 2.00 – 5.00 pm. There’ll be a bridal fashion show, a whole range of wedding suppliers, entertainment, wedding dishes tasting and wine tasting. We’re getting quite a reputation for our wedding fairs so come and see what all the fuss is about! This year, we are hosting our Fair in association with weddingsonline.ie and B Magazine.

Whatever reason brings you to the Kenmare Bay Hotel & Resort, you are most welcome.

Carrot & Pecan Nut Cake

With Cream Cheese Icing

4 eggs

295 ml vegetable oil

400 g white sugar

10 ml vanilla extract

250 g all-purpose flour

9 g baking soda

9 g baking powder

3 g salt

5 g ground cinnamon

330 g grated carrots

120 g chopped pecans

 Icing

115 g butter, softened

225 g cream cheese, softened

480 g confectioners’ sugar

5 ml vanilla extract

120 g chopped pecans

Method:

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Grease and flour a 9×13 inch cake pan.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla.

Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

To Make Icing: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

Christmas is always a lovely time in Kenmare. It’s quiet and peaceful, compared to the madness of summer, but there’s still a great buzz about the place. The town looks pretty and festive, with the Christmas lights on, the beautiful crib set up in the park and the attractive shop window displays. Always a lovely place for a short stay, Kenmare is somehow more special at Christmas with the quirky, unique shops for that unusual Christmas present, the award-winning restaurants, the lively pubs and the quaint cafes.  For a special afternoon treat, you really must visit Kenmare’s latest attraction; Cupan Tae offers you beautiful lace tablecloths, fine bone china teapots and cups, a whole array of different flavoured teas and delicious home-made cakes.

The Kenmare Bay Hotel, whilst closed weekdays at the moment, comes alive at the weekends. We have 4 weddings in December and 4 Christmas party nights. Our special New Year’s package includes tickets for our fabulous Gala Dinner where we’ll help you welcome in 2009 with champagne at midnight.

There’s every good reason to take a family break at the Kenmare Bay over the Christmas period. We have some fantastic offers on, both in the hotel itself and in our Holiday Homes and Lodges. The children will be well catered for with our kids clubs, restaurant play area, special children’s menus, kids drop-in play room, outdoor playground and of course our fabulous Leisure Centre with a 20m pool and a children’s pool. It’s the perfect time for a family getaway; the Kenmare Bay Hotel & Resort and the town of Kenmare provide everything you will need for an enjoyable and relaxing break.

The Hotel will be closed from the 5^th January until the beginning of February, at which time we will open fully and will be gearing up for the season ahead. There are so many special offers on at the Kenmare Bay, you’re spoilt for choice. If you like horse-riding, we have the package for you; if you want to ‘Look Good and Feel Fabulous’, we have that covered; looking for a great value golf break? Look no further. Or if you just want a relaxed and pampered break with your Mum or best mate, we’re happy to oblige. Check out the ‘Specials’ web page for a detailed list of all our offers.

Finally, if you’re still looking for that illusive present for a special person in your life, take a look at our range of vouchers on our ‘Gift Vouchers’ web page. Easy to order, easy to package, bound to please.

All that’s left for me to do now is to wish all of our guests – past, present and future – a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We thank you for choosing the Kenmare Bay Hotel and we look forward to welcoming you back during 2009.

 Andrew Rees

General Manager

Mulled Wine Recipe

Ingredients

1 lemon or orange

6 sticks of cinnamon

12 whole cloves

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ginger

1/8 teaspoon allspice

red wine

¼ cup sugar

Method

Combine the spices and citrus in a dry red wine, such a Burgundy. Add ¼ cup of sugar. Heat this through for at least 15 minutes, but don’t boil. A clean large coffee pot is a great method for heating the wine.

Use an inexpensive wine for this recipe, but don’t get something that tastes absolutely horrible.

Serve immediately with warm mince pies and lots of Christmas goodwill.

One day in accommodation:

No one believes them when I tell them, that working in accommodation, is like working as a shrink…

The only difference is that I only see them after, not during the “sessions”.

Believe me or not, a house can tell you a lot about a person or a family.

No! We are not going through the rubbish, but we are the ones,

who are going into the Houses & Bedrooms, first thing after the guests leave.

Some Guests are messy, others are neat!

The other excitement is to fight against time…. After check-out,

you have only couple of hours before check in, so its full steam ahead!

Once I wake  up in the morning, my day starts off well.

I get a list of rooms, when I arrive telling me which holiday homes &

rooms are staying, departing & arriving. All the housekeepers know what to do, we have our set routines.

We are often waiting for the holiday home keys to come in as the guests vacate the holiday homes.

Finally the first one comes in, and a race starts between us to get to the house, then the cleaning starts!

Oh No, there is red wine spilled on the carpet…well-well,  we have two options, pour white wine on it, and neutralize, or just clean it with one of the carpet cleaner product.

We choose the second option. I take two steps back,

just to get a better view to see if there are no stains left, and I fall over.

Yes, someone forgot a suitcase. Someone will miss that, so I have call to reception, to contact the owners.

Finding phone chargers is a day-to-day thing and trust me, we could open a shop from them now,

if we didn’t try always to find the owners.

Finding someone is not always successful or they just don’t need what ever they left.

In that case we keep it for a year in a box (just in case!) after that we take it to one of the charity places

in town, or to the hospital.

After all the analysing, and of course, all the cleaning, our day is finally over.

We talk to the maintenance  if anything needs to be repaired.

Everyday when we leave, our last thought is that we did our best in our department to make everyone’s stay enjoyable, clean, and memorable.

Angela Pelles

Renew Beauty Centre

Tip of the month

As you all know Summer is setting in (well at least that’s what it is supposed to be doing) so our top tip for the month is to moisturize! “The key to hydration is through exfoliation”-that was drummed into us at beauty school and it works! Its common sense really, what is the point of lashing on moisturizer if it’s not going anywhere. Your moisturizer needs to penetrate deep down into the skin to hydrate it, so how do I get it to do that I hear you say? The answer is simple, through exfoliation! Exfoliate twice a week before bed-time is the best. You have two choices, First a Scrub which contains granules which removes dead skin, build up of dirt and grim-good for oily/combination skin types, Second is a Peel, you have a choice of a hydrating gel or cream that gently removes the build up of dirt and grim while hydrating the skin, good for dry/sensitive skins. You will find your moisturizer will absorb into your skin much better, plus you will use LESS moisturizer! Your wallet will love you for it. I can promise you your skin will be glowing!!

Here are some great home recipes for exfoliating the face and body:

Coffee Scrub for the Body- ‘This scrub is a great one for tackling cellulite. Caffeine is known for braking down the soft fat that causes cellulite. Use three times a week for best results!

Ingredients:                                                            

2 cups of coarsely ground coffee

½ cup of sugar or sea salt

2-3 tablespoons of massage oil.

 Method

¬     Mix all together in a bowl.

¬     Take a hot shower to moisten skin & open pores.

¬     Using circular motions rub the coffee exfoliate onto your skin, with strong, even pressure.

¬     Shower off and pat yourself dry.

¬     Apply a good anti-cellulite body lotion (My favorite is Estee Lauder Slimming body gel; this also has caffeine extracts to further stimulate the brake down of that soft stubborn fat!) Volia!!!  You are now glowing!!

By Amanda Arthur

For more information please contact Renew Salon at:

·     Killarney Court Hotel – (064) 37070

·     Riverside Hotel – (064) 39200

·     Kenmare Bay Hotel & Resort – (064) 42599

Peaches in Lemongrass Syrup

330g (11/2 Cups) Sugar

Juice of 1 Lime

2cm piece of ginger, peeled

6cm piece of lemon grass, sliced

1 Cinnamon Stick

6 Peaches

250g blackberries or blueberries

Combine sugar & 3 cups of water in a heavy based pot.

Stir over heat until sugar is dissolved

Add lime juice, ginger, lemon grass & cinnamon – simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes

Add peaches & simmer until peaches are tender

Remove peaches & peel, then return to syrup

Allow to cool

Serve peaches & a little strained syrup with a few blackberries & ginger cream

We have a very hectic start to our day in the front office. Our first priority is to get the night audit done, so as to start the day’s business. Usually the tours are up and about ready to settle their accounts at 7.00 am. Of course there is always a comment about the weather and the hope that it will improve.

The tours are usually gone by 8.00 am and we then have a bit of quiet time until our private guests check out. We spend this time greeting the guests on their way to breakfast, filing and tidying the reception area after the first busy hour of the day. Hanneke the Reservations Manager starts at nine; we hand over any queries from the night before and it’s at about this time the phone awakens and keeps us on our toes for the day.

After breakfast we start to get busy with check-outs until midday. As our guests check out we take time to enquire if they had an enjoyable stay. There are a lot nice comments made about our hotel, especially in relation to our new leisure centre, holiday homes, lodges, the comfort of our hotel rooms, close proximity to town and friendly staff. If there are any issues we do our best to address them so the guests leave happy with their stay. We say a sad farewell and hope to see them in the future.

The afternoon is spent in preparing for the arrivals that day. The key cards have to be assigned, and we make sure the special requests are done and we are organised for all the groups. At 3.00pm we cash up, and hand over to the receptionist on the late shift so they are up to date with the day’s events. The tours check in late afternoon; they are often American, Australian, Dutch, German and French. We do our best to communicate with all nationalities, and if we don’t speak the language we try to improvise in any way possible.

Between check-ins we take dinner bookings, any request such as extra towels, room service etc. Once we had to contact Kenmare hospital to get a wheelchair for a poor lady who had had an accident while stepping down from the coach. We do our best to ensure everyone has a pleasant and comfortable stay.

The rest of the evening is spent printing up the registration cards and filing the following day’s arrivals. We are always busy on the phone taking reservations and answering any queries people have. At the end of the late shift we cash up, tidy the desk and have everything ready for the person the next morning. There’s never a dull moment!

Mary & Sandra

Head Receptionists

Everyone’s talking about the weather. Sure what can we do about it? Well just ignore it and book yourself in at the Kenmare Bay Hotel & Resort! We’ve loads going on to take your mind off the wind and rain.

Firstly, we are bringing back the hugely popular Irish Country Nights, including Set Dancing. These will run throughout the summer months, every Wednesday evening from 9.00 – 11.00 pm, starting on the 9^th July. With music by The Breens and Autumn Gold, there will be plenty of different dances to keep you on your toes. If you don’t want to take part in the dances, come and watch – it’s hugely entertaining. Entry is free.

We’re delighted to announce that Eleanor McEvoy will be here in concert on Friday, 25^th July.  Eleanor is a recipient of the Big Buzz Award for Best Traditional Female Musician and is currently touring to promote her new CD – ‘Love Must be Tough’. Tickets are only €20 each (over 21s only) and the show will kick off at 10.00 pm, with doors opening at 9.00 pm. Don’t miss this opportunity to see one of Ireland’s top female traditional vocalists. Tickets are available from the hotel or Soundz of Muzic, Henry Street, Kenmare.

And as if that weren’t enough, John Spillane will be performing at the hotel on Friday, 22^nd August. John, who won the Meteor Ireland Music Award in 2006, is well known throughout Ireland. Tickets for this show are €20 each also (again, over 21s only). What an opportunity! Don’t miss these 2 fabulous artistes.

If you’re thinking about getting away for a few days, try one of our 4* luxury lodges, from only €79 per person, per night for a minimum of 2 nights. These lodges are the height of luxury. They comprise 2 double/twin bedrooms, both en-suite and so are perfect for 2 couples or a couple with older children. Our Standard Holiday Homes sleep up to 7 and are more geared to young families. Take advantage of everything we have on offer to keep the kids amused; the Leisure Centre with a gym, 20 m pool and kids pool; kids clubs, outdoor playground, kids menus, kids drop-in playroom and teen activity clubs. We’ve got kids covered this summer!

And finally, there’s no better time to book your visit to the Kenmare Bay Hotel & Resort. The beautiful town of Kenmare, with its award-winning restaurants, is hosting the Munster Fleadh Cheoil in July, from 15^th – 22^nd. This is a huge event with a wide selection of indoor and outdoor concerts, dancing, singing, céilithe and workshops. The Kenmare Bay Hotel is hosting a mixed Ceili on the evening of Saturday, 19^th July and then is proud to be hosting the closing ceremony for the event on Sunday, 20^th July.

So don’t let the cold weather get you down; come and enjoy the warmth and hospitality of the Kenmare Bay Hotel & Resort