In February, Julie’s cookbook brewed up a storm.
Some teachers go over and above – and that’s something Portlaoise College teacher Julie Cunneen has done by publishing a cook book for Junior Cert Home Economics students.
The Killenard native, along with her long-time friend Brenda Fallon-Hyland from Galway, have recently launched ‘Now you’re cooking!’, a recipe and evaluation for the Junior Cert Home Ec cycle.
And it has been endorsed and supporter by Neven Maguire no less, who wrote the foreword for the book having been impressed by a draft copy that was sent to him.
Julie Anne had been toying with the idea for a couple of years as she wanted students to be able to “cook for life but also be prepared for the Junior Cert”.
“We pitched the idea to Gill and McMillan and they loved it,” she explains. “With the new Junior Cert cycle, the practical exam in the Home Ec is now worth 50% and there was no tailor made resource made specifically for the course.”
The book is comprised of over 50 useful recipes with each having an accompanying evaluation.
The two women first got to know each other while training in the famed St Angela’s Home Economics teacher training college in Sligo.
Julie Anne then taught for ten years in St Aidan’s in Tallaght before moving closer to home to Portlaoise College.
“We wrote it over a couple of years. I’d write a bit, Brenda would write a bit and we would test it. We had numerous long meetings and phone calls.”
Julie Anne admitted it was “a really proud moment” to have to published and is “excited now to use it as a teacher”.
The book is available to buy straight away in shops and from the Gill website and is priced at €12.95.
SEE ALSO – For more 2020 Remembered stories, click here
