A Quick Roundup - February

Here are a few of the things I have been asked to review recently.

Perkier offer a cheeky little selection of tasty treats that are gluten free. They have individually wrapped snacks and single portions of porridge amongst others.

Asda had quite a large range of Valentine's Day products this year and here are just a few of the fun ones:-

Pidy have a range of entertaining pre-made canape holders. 

These little holders are made with beetroot and make your favourite canapes look very appetising.

Vol-au-vents are alway a good way to serve your favourite filling, creamed mushrooms, coronation chicken and much more.

The Spoonettes are so cute. Whatever you serve on them you can eat the spoons too!

Tesco's Chaource - a creamy French cheese, typical as those from the Champagne and Burgundy regions, that melts really nicely.  I used it in my potato recipe and in a bacon & macaroni cheese. Great in a baguette or with potatoes, and on any cheese board especially with a glass of cold Champagne!!

Easy to slice and melts really well.

These are just a few things I have received prior to last month.  I was not paid or required to write a favourable review and all opinions are my own.

 

Pancake Day for Mr R!

For Pancake Day (also known as Shrove Tuesday - the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent) this year I decided to give Mr R a pancake treat!  He really loves Old El Paso Enchiladas and we have every couple of months which gave me the idea to feature them as our savoury pancakes for dinner.

Instead of rolling them up with the filling and baking in the oven I put the tortilla wraps in an ovenproof stoneware dish flat out like pancakes and layered them with the cooked filling. The final pancake layer was topped with the remaining sauce and grated cheese and baked for 20 minutes to heat through and melt the cheese.

Prepped and ready to start cooking

Layered in pancake style and about to go into the oven

And then for pudding!!

As I am American I like the familiar American pancakes and am pretty much traditional in the way I like them.  Plain or with blueberries and only authentic maple syrup poured over.

Mr R is of course English so I also have to consider his pancake traditions and this year I decided to have both for our Pancake Day pudding.  I had been sent some Abra-ca-Debora sweet dutch pancakes which are super easy to heat in the microwave in 30 seconds and I provided a selection of toppings for Mr R and FIL to top their own.

Selection of possible toppings

For myself I had plain American style pancakes,

Mr R and his dad topped theirs with chocolate spread and whipped cream (crowned with After 8 mints)

and lemon curd inside topped with whipped vanilla bean cream

For me, a slight break from tradition and a spoon of whipped vanilla bean cream with my maple syrup!

 

A great way to celebrate Pancake Day!

 

I received some dutch pancakes from Abra-ca-Debora and some chocolate sauce from Sweet Freedom but everything else was from my trip to the supermarket or my larder cupboard.  I did not receive any payment to write this post and as always all opinions are my own.

 

 

The Flavour Pot is here - from Knorr

First there was the Knorr Stock Pot then the Knorr Gravy Pot - designed to make our cooking life a little tastier and Knorr keeps tempting us with their little pots to make life easier and dinner tastier! Their new product is here:-

Flavour Pots!!

I have been looking forward to introducing these culinary gems to you ever since I first tried them back in October last year but we were asked not to mention them until they were officially in the shops 01March 2014!

Here they are:- 3 Peppercorn (for a flavoursome steaksauce or stroganoff), Mixed Herbs, Garlic, Curry (13 traditional spices including cumin, cardamom and cloves) and Mixed Chillies.
 

There are no artificial flavour enhancers, colourings or preservatives and are gluten free and all suitable for vegetarians!

The friendly little Flavour Pots are stack of your favourite spices and oil to make adding your flavours to your meals as easy as it can be.  I guess my favourites are the Mixed Herbs (combination of thyme, oregano, rosemary and basil) and the Garlic (enhance any dish from a spaghetti carbonara to stuffed chicken and more) followed closely by Mixed Chillies.  You can use half a pot if you want a subtle flavour or the whole pot for a more intense flavour.

Vegetable and herbs ready to make a dinner

Basics for a Bacon and Vegetable Pasta Sauce

 

All ready for a creamy Three Peppercorn sauce

Spaghetti with a tomato and Mixed Herb sauce

The new Knorr Flavour Pots will be available in major supermarkets and the RRP will be around £1.59 for a pack of four pots.

I received these Flavour Pots from Knorr to use at home in my recipes.  I did not receive any payment to use them or write about them and as usual all opinions and photos are my own.

Judges - Kitchen Textiles

I have been trying to update my kitchen essentials to red and I was very happy to be sent the new range of Judge Cookware oven gloves and pot holders.  They come in a variety of colours and the red is really vibrant and looks fab in my kitchen.

You can see that I did need to upgrade!

These new ones have silicone where you meet the heat. I did think the silicone might be bulky but I was please to see just how soft and pliable it is.

The range is protective of hot surfaces and liquid, steam and thermal to 240oC/464oF and are machine washable and can be tumble dried on low setting.

I think this range will look great in my kitchen and will keep my hands and arms safe when I am cooking!

Thanks to Judge Cookware for sending me the samples.  I did not receive any payment and the opinions are my own.

 

 

 

 

A Blogger's Day Off

Sometimes food bloggers want a day off and the aim is to just have a quick meal, no photos or recipes to try to get. That was  the plan recently when I was having a day out with my family for my granddaughter's birthday.

I can see now the bad idea of going into London in half term but it was a little girl's birthday wish so I met them at the station and off we headed for the Natural History Museum.  When we got there, there was a half hour wait till they opened the doors again and the queue would take about an hour and a half meaning a two hour wait in a queue - no thanks!

Instead we headed into Central London for the Chinese restaurant we always go to which turned out to be closed for renovations!  What else could go wrong?

We had passed a Jamie Oliver Diner so armed with the reputation of Jamie Oliver we went inside for our lunch.

Either Jamie Oliver had never been there or it was qute a while ago but it was not quite up to his usual standards.

Our party consisted of three adults and one child.  Four meals, how hard would it be to get them right!!

We shared two starters and had one soft drink each. This is important as it fills in the picture of the price too.

My burger came with my son's chips (they were in a little bucket) and the waitress took them off my plate and swapped them to his plate.  My chips which were deep fried acavados (yes, they were weird) on my son's plate.  My daughter in law got her hot dog and no chips and had to wait ages for them.  When I asked the waitress (who by the way kept referring to us as 'you guys') for a slice of pickle she asked if I wanted another one! No I said just the one missing from my meal.

The child's meal was chicken lollipops and chips with a lemony creamy dip.  In reality it was a piece of grilled chicken cut into slices with chips and no dip.

When we came to pay the waitress asked if we would like to leave a tip with the credit card payment! No we didn't.  I wanted to give her a tip - Don't keep calling us 'you guys'!

The bill was just under £70.00 - three adults and one child, two burgers (both over cooked), one hot dog and one 'chicken lollipops' and four drinks.  A bit excessive for the quality and level of this meal.

This is not a restaurant I will be wanting to re-visit!  Just saying.

Hiding Antioxidants - in Cake!

I felt a little mischievous the other afternoon.  A friend of mine had been to the States and she brought me back a couple of cake mixes.  Plus I was wanting to try adding some Matcha green tea to a cake so guess what?? .... that's right!

I combined the dry cake mix with 1.5 tsp of the Matcha green tea. The tea is known to have amazing anti-oxidants properties (A post about the Matcha tea will follow soon).

Added 3 large eggs, 1 cup water and 1/3 cup vegetable oil. Pour evenly into two ready greased 8" cake pans and bake for about 25-30 minutes. Leave to cool in the pans for about 5 minutes then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

To ice the cake I mixed 250gm unsalted butter (softened at room temperature) with 500gm sifted icing sugar and 1.5 tsp Matcha green tea powder.  When thoroughly mixed I added 2 Tablespoons marcapone cheese and mixed in.

I was surprised at the dullness of the colour of the finished cake and icing as the green tea powder is such a bright green!

 

What is certain is the girls I work with really loved the taste, subtle banana with a background flavour no one was able to identify! Shall I tell them or not?

 

 



Tales of the Underground - Underground Cookery School!

I was invited to the Underground Cookery School in London to preview their cooking school along with 19 other bloggers and asked only that if we liked the evening we share it.

The cooking school is run by Mat Kemp since 2003, a few minutes walk from Old Street Station (on the Northern Line) in London. 

The cooking classes are aimed at corporate groups, hen do's, stag do's, family cooking get togethers and those wanting to learn the basics of cooking in a relaxed and helpful atmosphere.

On arrival we were offered home made canapes and chilled Prosecco then we were split into two groups and proceeded to make the meal we would later all sit down together to enjoy.

Our menu was Moules Mariniere,

Ballotine of Chicken with Leeks & Savoy Cabbage (see below)

and Apple Tarte Tatin.

We were shown how to de-bone a chicken

and went from this:-

 

To this,

then this,

on to this,

turning it into this,

and finally to this!! Tasted as good as it looks.

 

Thanks to Underground Cookery School for a relaxed evening with wine, food and blogger friends.  I was not paid to attend and all photos and opinions are my own.