Halloween Tricks or Treats!

Unilever Kitchen are the guardian of loads of house hold names such as Knorr, Hellmans, Colemans, Flora and so many more.  I was invited to take part in a Halloween Challenge to make something using products included in the hamper they sent me.

I wanted to make a few things that would please a crowd after Trick or Treating on Halloween evening. When I grew up in America Halloween was a big deal however when I was first in this country hardly anyone celebrated.  But hurrah, it is now popular and there are loads of Halloween celebrations around.

What could be more autumnal than Sausage and Mash but with a difference. 

I marinate my sausages (mini sausages) in a mixture of 3 Tablespoons Colemans wholegrain mustard and 3 Tablespoons runny honey and leave in the bowl for at least 45 minutes. 

 

 

Pop onto an ovenproof dish and cook in a hot oven until cooked and sticky.

Meanwhile, whilst the sausages are cooking boil potatoes in salted water and cook until soft. Drain and mash until fluffy with a knob of Flora buttery, salt and pepper, a drop of milk and Helmann's Mayonnaise with lemon.

Serve the sausage and mash in little individual pots ready when the trick or treaters come home.

Something sweet: Ginger cupcakes with ginger icing.

 

 

I used the all in one method to make the cup cakes.  In a large bowl add all the ingredients:-
115g tub Stork
115g Castor Sugar
2 eggs
140g Self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
55g stem ginger chopped
2-3 Tbsp ginger syrup

Mix well until smooth and pour into 12 prepared cup cake cases.
Bake in a pre-heated oven 180o, 160o Fan, Gas 4 for 15-20 minutes.
Allow to cool before icing with:-

85g tub Stork
225g icing sugar
1 Tbsp ginger syrup
Pipe on to each cupcake and then decorate with a bit more chopped stem ginger.  Grate dark chocolate over the tops

My final piece for this Halloween is a Giant Spider Web Cake!

Cake mixture:-
230g tub Stork
230g Castor Sugar
4 eggs
185g Self raising flour
95g Coconut flour
4-5 Tbsp milk to bring a dropping consistency (using coconut flour you need a little bit more milk to get the right consistency.

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl, pour into the cake tins.
Bake in two prepared round cake tins in a 180o, 160o Fan, Gas 4 oven for 30 minutes.
When cool ice with a coconut icing with a bit of black food colouring. (I used a whole tube of Dr Oetker black food colouring and only got grey!) I added white squeezy icing to make a giant spider's web.

If you are not too scared of the spiders cut and serve!

Thanks Unilever Kitchen for the starter hamper and the inspiration to create. I was not paid to write this piece and as usual all opinions and photos are my own.

Innovative Product of the Year 2014 - Knorr Gravy Pots - What's in your Gravy Boat?

Knorr has recently been awarded Innovative Product of the Year for their gravy pots. These little pots come in Beef, Chicken and Onion gravy and are really so easy to use and save you time and effort.  They were launched in 2012 and are the perfect way to make a gravy for your 'anytime' roast dinner.

I was sent everything that you need to make a fantastic Roast Beef Sunday lunch and of course some gravy pots.

I added the meat juices from the pan to the gravy and for water used the water from cooking the vegetables but this is not essential.

With our roast dinner today we were given a rare treat. Mr R was watching a cooking program on TV and announced that it was National Yorkshire Pudding Day today and offered to make the yorkshires to accompany our roast beef! Well I couldn't really turn him down!

We enjoyed our roast dinner, a beautiful roast beef, vegetables and Yorkshire pudding with a bottle of Claret from Aldi which I had been sent last week.

 

You can't beat the traditional roast Sunday lunch and Knorr make sure you make the most of the important part - the gravy!



Thanks to Knorr for the gravy pots and the rest of the lunch.  I did not receive any payment to make the lunch or write a post about it. All opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.

 

 

Pic-nic Challenge - Its British Pic-nic Week 17th - 23rd June 2013

In honour of British Pic-nic Week (17th-23rd June 2013) Unilever Kitchen have issued a challenge to come up with a fantastic pic-nic item using one or all of the products they sent to us. The products came wrapped in the most fantastic pic-nic basket with all the plates, cutlery etc needed to go for an amazing meal al fresco.

We were asked to make a fantastic pic-nic food using one or more of the products enclosed.  I decided to make a couple of things and dips to match for a real backyard pic-nic with the grandsons when they visited over the weekend.

For the oven baked crispy chicken goujons I crumbled a Knorr chicken stock cube up and mixed it with a little olive oil to make a paste.  I smeared the chicken goujons with the stock cube paste then I dipped the chicken goujons into flour then beaten egg and then seasoned breadcrumbs. Baked in the oven on a piece of stoneware they cooked evenly in about 12-15 minutes at 190oF.

 

 

For the dip I mixed Maille au Miel (Dijon mustard with honey) with an equal amount of Greek yoghurt.  This makes a lovely creamy dip with a honey tang and goes really well with the chicken goujons.

I also made a satay style dip as an alternative my mixing peanut butter with Hellman's Mayonnaise and Colman's Sweet Chilli and Mango Sauce.

I decided to make a boiled egg sandwich with a difference! First of all the bread for the sandwich.  I made a 1lb loaf of wholegrain Beer Bread from My Secret Kitchen.  Although it is called Beer Bread you don't need to use beer, any fizzy drink will do and I used lemonade in mine. When the bread was cool I cut off the top horizontally and take out some of the insides (save these to make crutons for a salad).  I lined the bread with lettuce and spread some Flora Buttery on the top piece.

I was given some goose eggs recently which I hardboiled (along with 6 hens eggs) to use in my egg sandwich. 

I peeled the cooked egg, sliced them in half and took out the yolks.  To the yolks I added some Colman's English Mustard and Hellman's Mayo, some paprika and salt and pepper.  I refilled the hollow in the boiled eggs and placed the two halves together again.

Carefully place the egg into the lettuce lined bread, top with sliced tomatoes or cucumber - optional, and put the lid back on. This is then an easy to wrap sandwich which can be cut up or sliced when you get to your dining destination.

The hens eggs I hard boiled also had the yolks taken out, mixed with mayo and mustard and seasonings and served them in their halves (we always called the deviled eggs when I was growing up). (Note the radishes from the allotment!)

No pic-nic would be complete without quiche and armed with some ready to roll shortcrust pastry I made a couple of small quiches.  The quiches contained onions, celery, bacon, eggs, mayonnaise with dijon mustard and some milk.

To finish up our feast we had a lemon drizzle cake which used Flora Buttery instead of butter.

So to sum up my pic-nic take one pic-nic basket, one red blanket and one backyard.  Add two grandsons, some sunshine, a little white dog who wouldn't sit still for a photo, a Unilever challenge and some sumptious food and ENJOY!!

The dog eventually had a photo taken but note there is no Unilever Kitchen products in his dinner!!

Thanks Unilever Kitchen for your #PicnicChallenge!!

Knorr takes Mr R to Gravy Heaven!! & a 'Pop-Up' Competition

Knorr have done it again.  Recently they produced little gel pots of stock that you just pop into what your are cooking and they gently melt and give the dish a concentrated hit of stock.

But now Knorr have just launched their gel Gravy Pots!!  One of Mr R's favourite things is gravy and he often makes a quick instant gravy to put on a dinner he finds too dry.  So in order to make his day I have decided to treat him to sausages, mash and gravy for his dinner tonight.

The little gravy pots are a concentrated gravy that you pop into a saucepan of warm water, whisk until dissolved and bring to a boil for one minute.  That's it and presto real beef or chicken gravy!

I received both beef and chicken gravy pots to try and look forward to using the chicken one.  The beef gravy tasted rich and beefy and not at all like those instant just add hot water, weak and watery gravies.

Want to try some beef gravy pots for your self? All you have to do is enter my 'pop up' competition.
I have a pack of four pots to give away.  In order to win them you must do the following:-

1. Follow my blog and let me know in a comment that you have done so.
2. Follow me on Twitter @Walpolegirl and let me know that you have done so or that you already follow me in the comment box below.
3. Follow @Knorr on Twitter and let me know in a comment below that you have done so or that you already follow them.
4. Share this post on Facebook and let me know below that you have done it.

This is a quickie so I will pick a winner on Sunday 09 December 2012.