The June roundup: this month I have been loving…
I’m a lucky old bunny. I get sent all sorts of stuff to try out and invited to some really nice places. This month was awash with lovely smelling things and sweet treats too. Here are my top recommendations for June:
Persil’s new range of washing up liquid
The range comes in four different smells: Apple Fizz, Lemon Burst, Pink Blush and Orange Crush. The pink one is obviously the best colour (cough), but the Orange Crush has an amazing smell. My favourite by far.
I thought the fragrances were lovely – I could see that some people would think they were overpowering, but I’d much rather my kitchen smell gorgeous than of old baked beans, frankly. The new bottles cost £1.00 for a 500ml bottle, which I think is good value too.
Garnier’s Ultralift Challenge
There was much hilarity comparing my wrinkles to those on the card (you’re supposed to choose the picture resembling your wrinkles, and then see if they improve over the time of the challenge – demonstrated below by the lovely Davina): ‘you’re number 10, Mum!’. ’I'm bloody laughing you berk, they’re LAUGHTER lines’. Luckily, I didn’t have any crows feet when I finally looked sensible, so found it a bit difficult to compare, whatever my horrible children might have insinuated. I did, however, think the cream was really nice (although maybe it was a bit rich for me as I found myself a bit shiny by lunchtime). Garnier’s UltraLift Day Cream is £9.18. Check out the website for details: http://www.ultraliftchallenge.co.uk/
The Oy! range for teenagers from Green People
We were divided over the smell (‘kind of fruity and minty and a bit like hospitals’ was the Death Wish Child’s opinion, although I actually liked it), but you can’t fault their green credentials (they’re free from all those nasty chemicals, preservatives and synthetic fragrances) and the efficacy of the products. Ain’t no zits on us! I’d particularly recommend the Unisex Wash & Shave £11.25 for new teenage shavers.
Check out their website here: http://www.organicyoung.com/home/1233
The gorgeous First Aid Beauty range
Fresh in from the US of A is the rather lovely new range from First Aid Beauty. I especially loved the 5-in-1 Face Cream SPF30 (£28) and the 5-in-1 Eye Cream Age Delay (£22). They smell nice, even though, spookily, they’re chemical- and fragrance-free, made my skin feel really soft, and the SPF got a really good workout as I tested this while I was in Dubai. Not greasy in a hot climate either.
Very impressive and I’m loving the retro packaging (apparently it’s known as ‘apothecary chic’, dahling). Available in selected Boots stores and from www.boots.com.
Seek them out!
Shark Steam Mop available from JML
I was dubious that I’d actually find much use for this little steam cleaning thingy, but then we moved house, and it got a proper testing cleaning all our wood and slate floors before we moved out. It was great fun to use (the teens were in stitches as you kind of have to pump it up and down to get the steam out), but hey, anything that encourages teenagers to steam clean floors is fine by me.
Our verdict: impressive! When you’ve got animals, sometimes just mopping the floor isn’t enough. This clever little thing is filled up straight from the tap and then the steam really gives the floors a thorough going over. It’s even got an attachment so you can go over carpets too. Priced £99.99 and available from JML and Argos. Click on: http://www.sharkclean.co.uk/
Rowntree’s New Sharing Bags
The Death Wish Child favoured the Jelly Aliens, The Mad Professor stole the Sour Faces, but they’re both wrong. The Very Berry Jellies are LUSH and the best ones by far. And I don’t care what they’re called, I didn’t share them. So there.
Hugs, dinner, Waitrose, oh and prawn and courgette pasta with fresh peas
So we’re home, then.
The last few days have been a bit of a whirl, what with the drunken madness that was the Cybermummy Conference this weekend, but we’ve got everything into the storage locker (the last few things were just hurled in, to be honest) and my long-suffering mum is looking after us until we move in to our new pad. The Ninja Cat of Death was very good on the way over – apart from constant growling and moaning in the back of the car, there was no ‘poo of shame‘ like last time. She was less than impressed to meet my Mum’s cat and dog, but we kept her in for a few days, and now she’s happily roaming the upstairs, coming in and out of the windows like she owns the place, and giving my mum’s poor labrador Ellie a swift backhander if she steps out of line.
So far, from my wishlist, I’ve done the following:
1. Hugged my Dad (and had a nice glass of wine and a chat with him too – AND seen the swish new orange tractor)
2. Hugged Ellie. She still smells and is still hairy. But I love her.
3. Been out to dinner with the hubster (we had really great food… and two bottles of wine *cough* – more of this later)
4. Been for cocktails with my lovely friends (what is it with me and ‘the claw’? Can I not pose for a photo without it?):
5. Been to Waitrose. Happy, happy days. I walked round like a grinning lunatic and came back with all sorts of loveliness. I’m going to have to rein myself in though or otherwise I’ll be bankrupt by the end of July. Still, they had some gorgeous prawns and FRESH PEAS!! I spent a very enjoyable afternoon sitting in the sunshine in my mum’s garden shelling peas and sipping cold white wine. Bliss. Oh, and here’s what I made for tea:
Prawn and courgette pasta with fresh peas
Serves 4 generously
Good quality dried pasta (I generally reckon on 100g dried pasta per person)
1 pack large raw prawns
2-3 courgettes
As many peas as you can be bothered to shell
Splosh double cream
So first get your pasta on. Use the biggest saucepan you have and make the water ‘as salty as the sea’ (not sure where I read that, but I always repeat it to myself when cooking it – I’m a bit sad like that). Linguine works really well here, but I didn’t have any, so ‘tubes’ it is (I’m sure there’s a technical term for ‘tubes’, but you know what I mean).
When the pasta’s well on the way, slice the courgettes and fry in a heavy-based frying pan with a little garlic-infused rapeseed oil. When they’re just starting to turn golden, pop in the prawns (you need to be careful not to overcook prawns or they get that horrible crunchy texture).
When the prawns go in, pop the fresh peas in with the pasta (they’ll only take a minute or two).
Now add a generous splosh of cream (double is better as it’s less prone to splitting, but you could use creme fraiche too. Generously grind over lots of pepper too.
When the pasta and peas are just cooked, drain and add to the frying pan. Toss everything together and serve immediately, with a good grating of Parmesan. Noms.
This is also lovely with crab (a pot of fresh stuff or a tin of white crab meat) and some fresh, chopped chilli.
Dear Mr Avis… a letter from Cybermummy 2011
Dear Mr Avis
It’s me, English Mum.
Remember me? I’m the one who reversed over a bollard in the ‘bloggerbus’ you gave me when my friends came over?
Yup, that one.
Thank you very much for sponsoring me to attend Cybermummy 2011. I had such a great time. I met loads of people that I talk to on Twitter, I listened to Erica talk about monetising and working with brands…
I listened to Taralara talking about her amazing gallery:
I met my lovely chums from Disney, and loads of new people from HP and Ubisoft, Three and Cuticura… I sipped Sancerre with my buddy Helen from the Knackered Mother’s Wine Club, and the lovely chaps at Naked Wines…
I met Cara Freckles who had travelled all the way to Cybermummy clutching a gorgeous chicken that she’d knitted me…
And at the end of the day, I went with my mates and had amazing tapas and a few cocktails…
BUT…
I might have accidentally forgotten to pick up the lovely Fiat 500 you were giving me for the week.
In my defence, I’d driven straight off the midnight ferry and hadn’t got home until 6am. I was quite tired, and still had a whole van to unpack and a whole storage locker to fill up. My feet were a bit sore and I was a teeny bit pooped.
I’m really sorry, but I had a fab time anyway, even though forgetting to pick up the car meant that I had to get the tube, and the Central Line was closed, and I had to walk a long way too.
I know what you’re thinking…
Serves me right.
I had a good time though.
Thanks again!
Lots of love,
English Mum
xx
Review: Seabrook ‘goodbye salt, hello flavour’ crisps
We’re big into snacking. I am, however, aware that an awful lot of snacks contain far more salt that is healthy, especially for the kids. So when Seabrook Crisps wrote to us and said ‘would you like us to send you some of our new lower salt crisps?’ our response was a resounding ‘too right!’.
The crisps arrived in an enormous tube and, always wishing to provide you, dearest reader, our finest service, we dutifully munched through about ten bags. Here’s what we thought:
Initially, it’s a bit of a shock to dive into a bag of crisps and not get that really salty hit. What we did notice, though, is that the actual flavours really shone through. The buttery baked potato flavour was really unusual and completely yummy. Both the caramelised onion flavour and the tomato ketchup flavours were, we thought, slightly too sweet – but again maybe you get used to them being less salty after a while (plus, Charlie completely disagreed with us and declared the tomato ketchup flavour his favourite). Our favourite by far were the Mediterranean tomato flavour – full of big herby flavours and still with that baked potato base coming through in the background. Yum.
The verdict? All in all, we thought they were really clever, with interesting flavours and the bonus of 90% of the salt removed. Okay, so sometimes nothing beats a bag of Ready Salted, but these are a great healthy alternative, especially for people trying to cut salt out of their diets. Highly recommended.
Goodbye Dublin…
And the bare bones of a fanlight
Over a hungry door
And the air soft on the cheek
And porter running from the taps
With a head of yellow cream“Dublin” by Louis MacNeice
Teenagers and exams: five bits of crap advice and one quite good one
Okay, first up with the crap advice then:
1. For some reason, during exams your average teenager will turn into an eating machine of epic proportions. Your healthy and carefully planned dinners will be scarfed down, oh yes, but it’s also worth visiting your local supermarket and bulk-buying white sliced loaves, revolting plastic cheese, those Pepperami things that look like they’re in a little condom and make your breath smell like dead people, Chilli Heatwave Doritos and 5-packs of Snickers and gallons of milk – all of which seem to be prepared into epic snackage at some time during the night (judging by the state of the kitchen in the morning – akin to that of an explosion) and consumed in near-darkness in the teenager’s lair while immersed in a book that appears to have had the edges chewed by some kind of rabid dog.
2. When you receive a phone call ten minutes before an exam from your teenager which, roughly translated, sounds like this: ‘OHMYGODMUM…CAN’TREMEMBERBLOODYANYTHING, I’M SO GOINGTOFAIL!!!’ , the correct response is a gentle and encouraging salve for the troubled hormonal teenaged soul: ‘you can do it! You’ve studied loads. I believe in you.. ‘ etc. Fight the urge to say ‘you get in there and get a bloody A or I’ll break your legs, y’hear me?’.
3. When in receipt of a text from the school that says: ‘X left an examination early today, contravening school rules and therefore not putting in the expected effort.’, it’s best not to:
a: imagine your offspring rushing from the exam room in tears after realising with horror that they can’t answer a single question, deciding that they’re done with education and want to join a commune in Israel and embrace their inner child.
b: secretly congratulate yourself for having produced a rebel who rides the highway of society without a helmet (or something), whilst simultaneously pressing the speed dial button in a vain attempt to ask him what the sodding hell happened.
c: imagine doing said teenager considerable physical damage with some kind of axe or mallet when they finally answer the 75th phone call and mutter ’oh the exam was a piece of cake. Nobody told us we couldn’t leave early. Soz, I left my phone in my locker’.
4. Similarly, when discussing said ‘piece of cake’ exam that mysteriously only took an hour to complete, it’s best to refrain from asking several times whether they went over their answers properly and whether they’re REALLY sure that they didn’t miss out a page. The resulting eye-rolling, tutting and swearing will just add to the overall stress levels.
5. When the teenager, in between mouthfuls of yet another dinner that would feed a third world nation for a week and gulping from a whole pint of milk, explains to you that he totally blanked and couldn’t remember the name of the author of the book he’d been studying for English over the last two years and that it didn’t really matter ‘cos I won’t lose too many marks I doubt’, it’s probably best to count slowly backwards from ten. Do not, I repeat, do not:
a. point out that the book has spent a large amount of time on his bedside table over the last two years
b. point out that he’s been resting his milk on it so much that it has rings forever embedded into the cover encircling the name of the author whose name escaped him in the exam
or
c: point out that the spine of said book, WITH the name of the author pointing towards him, must probably have been the last thing he saw most nights before drifting off to peaceful slumber. It’s done. Move on.
The good one:
If all else fails, throw cash at the situation.
Every child is different. For some, it’s praise, for others it’s freedom. For mine, it’s cold hard cash. After months of yelling ‘shouldn’t you be revising?’ at his headphone-encased head planted in front of the Xbox, the magic words that saw him drop the controller like hot sh*t and rush upstairs faster than you can say ‘Call of Duty’ to revise were, well, let’s just say financially motivated.
Don’t judge me.
Well not until you’re the parent of a teenager.
And hey, look on the bright side: just two more years until A levels!
*Le sigh*
Thanks Dad
For all the things you’ve given me:
A good example.
A hideously bad example
A love of food and wine
An appreciation of the ridiculous
A fabulous Grandfather for my sons
A hatred of politics (!)
Madame Tussaud’s, Whipsnade Zoo, the theatre, the cinema, a thousand restaurants
Paella and donkey rides of terror down precipitous mountains…
Enough ridiculous presents to sink a ship
‘I love you, Dad’. ’Thank you’.
41 extremely silly birthday cards
A million hugs, several hundred very cross lectures
A knack for the complaint letter
Bruises from a lifetime of squeezed legs (just above the knee – hurts like a bitch)
Perfume: musk and floral and green and exotic
Enough belly laughs for several lifetimes
Curiosity about the world – a love of travel and new experiences
Airports and taxis, coaches and trains
A hatred of practical jokes (the coffee in the ear is probably a lot to do with it)
A pain in my arse… a flea in my ear…
But always a letter to the boys, an email, a phone call, a snippet from the newspaper that I’d like… a reminder that you don’t forget about us.
You make me laugh, you drive me mad…
Happy Fathers’ Day, Dad
This is an entry for Tara Cain’s gallery. For more interpretations of the theme ‘Dad’, click here
Review: GOSH Extreme Art eyeliners
I’m a tad cack handed.
Wait, who am I kidding? That’s an understatement. I’m as ham-fisted as a man with a large leg of ham in his fist. When the lovely peeps at Superdrug asked me to try out a liquid eyeliner, then, you can imagine I was a little alarmed – even more so when they mentioned it was ‘semi-permanent’. Argh!
They come in some really nice colours – 12 in all from bright aquas, golds and glitters through to black. I opted for a nice sensible dark grey, thinking that if I splodged it all over myself, people would think I was rocking a smoky eye. It’s a cute little thing and, I reckon, it looks a bit more expensive that its quite reasonable £5.99 price tag.
So. Ease of use, then? Hmmm. Initial attempts were not promising. I got it looking alright on one side, only to bugger up the other eye. It’s quite difficult to get off (well, it’s kind of designed to stay put, to be fair), but with practice, and a handy pot of waterproof make-up remover, it’s actually very good. On the days that I got it right, my metallic grey sweep of eye liner made me feel rather cool and edgy and stayed all day, through Irish rain and forgetting that I had it on and rubbing my eyes (I’m always doing that- I’ll look in the mirror several hours later and realise I’ve just walked round Tesco looking like someone’s smacked me in the eye).
The verdict? It’s a nice looking eyeliner, true to its ‘semi-permanent’ word and the colours are gorgeous. If you’re a first-time liquid eyeliner wearer, I’d suggest having a few practice runs and wiping mistakes off quickly, because once it’s dry, it’s staying put. Excellent for evenings out, holidays and weddings, I would imagine, where you wouldn’t want a few tears ruining your make-up. A month on and I’m applying mine with a flourish and loving the look. I’m actually thinking now that I’d quite like a brighter colour too.
GOSH Extreme Art eyeliners are available from Superdrug stores nationwide and www.superdrug.com, priced £5.99.
You can find GOSH cosmetics on Facebook too.
How to make a cake: a step by step guide
My fellas aren’t bad at cooking. I’m pretty sure that if they were let loose into the big wide world right this instant, they’d be able to cook themselves decent food, know how to shop for ingredients, and appreciate (if not exactly adhere to) the rules of nutrition. Not bad for 13 and 16, I reckon. Like most fellas, though (*cough*), they’re not particularly keen on baking. Well, they want to do all the complicated posh things (your honour, I would draw your attention to exhibit A: the birthday meringue) but a basic sponge cake doesn’t hold a great deal of interest. I don’t think it’s because they can’t – it’s just that they don’t. Still, if I had a quid for every time somebody said to me ‘I can’t make cakes’ or ‘I wish I could bake – it always goes wrong’, I’d be… well, not exactly rich, but I’d have a big pile of pound coins.
So here we are, then: a step by step, foolproof guide to the perfect light, spongey sponge cake, complete with tips, dos, don’ts and ABSOLUTELY DON’Ts thrown in for good measure. I’m not saying this is the ONLY way, but it’s a great way to start. And once you’ve got your baking confidence, there’ll be no stopping you.
Ingredients
It goes without saying that the best ingredients will make the best cake. Baking is a feel-good endeavour. A sponge cake made with lovely ingredients, and lots of love, will be the best cake in the world. I know I’ve said it before, but don’t bake when you’re tired, fed up or in a hurry. It’ll go wrong – well, mine always does anyway.
Eggs
Fresh, free-range eggs with those startling golden yellow yolks will make better cakes than those awful, sad, battery-hen ones.
Butter
Likewise, gorgeous fresh farmhouse butter will make a cake taste much better than horrid, greasy margarine. Okay, it might be higher in fat, but hey we’re making a cake. If you don’t want fat, don’t eat cake! Moderation in all things, I reckon.
Flour
You don’t have to have self-raising flour. In fact, self-raising soon loses its raising power if it gets old. It’s easy to make your own self-raising with plain flour. Just add a level teaspoon of baking powder per 100g of plain flour.
Sugar
Plain old supermarket caster sugar is fine. Don’t use granulated if you can help it as the grains are a bit too big and you can end up with a gritty texture (you could always give it a whizz in a grinder or blender to break down the grains). Golden caster sugar is less refined than the white stuff – it’s lovely (if a bit more expensive) and gives a subtle hint of toffee too.
Temperatures
Room temperature eggs will whip better and incorporate more air into your mix, as will softened (not melted) butter. Take everything out of the fridge a good hour before you intend to start baking. If you need to bring your butter up to room temperature quickly, cut it into squares and plop it into some tepid (not warm) water. It’ll soon soften up.
Measuring
The easiest way to make a plain sponge cake is to just weigh your eggs in the shells (this sort of cake is also called a pound cake as it used to contain a pound of each ingredient – how anyone ever ate a cake that big, I’ll never know). Whatever the eggs weigh will be the measurement you use for the butter, flour and sugar too. If you want to make it a chocolate cake, take out 1 tablespoon of the flour and replace it with cocoa powder (not hot chocolate powder – that’s different). Giving it all a quick sieve will remove any lumps and incorporate more air.
Mixing
Here we go with the basic method, then…
First weigh out all your ingredients. It’s easiest to crack the eggs into a separate bowl after you’ve weighed them. You never know when you’re going to get a bit of shell dropping into your cake mix.
So say your eggs weigh.. 180g. Weigh out the same amount of butter, flour and caster sugar.
First, cream the butter and sugar together. You want it really light and fluffy, which is a sign that there is lots of air incorporated, so keep going until it’s considerably lighter in colour. You can do this in a food mixer, or just with a wooden spoon.
Now start to add in your eggs… dribble them in a bit at a time giving the mixture a good beat in between each dribble. Don’t worry too much if it starts to look a bit curdly. You can always add a spoonful of flour to bring it back to a creamy consistency. If you’re adding liquid (ie vanilla essence or lemon juice), now is the time.
Once all the eggs are mixed in, just fold in the sifted flour (and cocoa if you’re using it). Remember just to give it the minimum amount of folding. You’re not making bread so you don’t want to work the gluten too much and lose the lightness.
Next, spoon the mixture into a prepared cake tin.
Cake tins
Any old medium sized cake tin will do. I find that this amount of mixture is perfect for two 22cm tins, or one 26cm tin (remember it’s the depth of the cake mix not the size of the tin that governs how long it will take to cook). Cake tins are measured by their diameter (the straight measurement from one side to the other, measured through the middle). I have Bake-o-glide cut ready to fit my favourite tins, but baking parchment is fine too. For a circle, just take a square of parchment bigger than your tin, fold it in half, then keep folding the outsides in (keeping one point which will be the middle of your circle) again until you’ve got a triangle. Hold the triangle point roughly where the middle of the tin is, then nick the end off at the outside edge of the tin. When you unfold it you’ll have a rough circle. You can also just brush the surface with butter, then add a tbsp of flour and shake it all around the tin, tapping out the excess. Smooth over the surface but don’t worry too much.
Baking
I use the middle of my oven and as it cooks slightly unevenly, I turn the cake around half way through cooking. A cake this large will take anything from 30 – 45 minutes at 180/gas 4 – depending on how wide/deep your tin is.
If you think your cake looks done, gently touch the top of the cake – if there’s any wobble, or it feels really soft and leaves a dent – leave it a bit longer. You can check by popping a knife into the middle – if it comes out clean, it’s done.
Leave your cake to cool on a rack, then you can ice, decorate or fill as you fancy.
Ganache
If you want to make ganache to fill or cover your cake, just melt half a large bar of chocolate (about 100g) in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (just a couple of inches of water – you don’t want it to touch the bowl). When it’s melted, just whisk in enough double cream to get a nice spreading consistency. If you chill it down now, you can whip it go make it more airy too. Up to you.
Buttercream
Buttercream’s really easy to remember as it’s just double icing sugar to butter. Add a splosh of milk, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and whisk until light and fluffy. It makes great piped swirly things on cupcakes too.
So what’s next?
Once you’ve got to grips with making cakes you can start tweaking the recipe a little – maybe adding vanilla…dried fruit… lemon zest… chocolate chips or some chopped nuts… You can make two smaller sponges (reduce the cooking time) and sandwich them together with jam or cream, or layer them up with some yummy ganache or buttercream… the sky’s the limit! For an easy pudding, try using brown sugar, for a more toffeeish flavour, and adding chopped dates. Serve warm with a quick toffee sauce made by melting 100g each of butter and brown sugar, then adding about 100ml of cream and stirring and bubbling until you have a lovely sauce.
Off you go, then.
Goodwood Festival of Speed: 30th June to 3rd July 2011
As I’ve mentioned before, as a family we’re completely car and motorbike mental. This year we’re definitely going to be heading to Goodwood for the Festival of Speed. We’re going for the the usual mix of cars, superbikes, F1 racing teams and planes, and also for the flippin’ awesome Goodwood Hill Climb, which I’ve wanted to go and see for years. I’m also secretly harbouring a bit of F1 driver lust – apparently – shhhhh! – Lewis and Jensen are going to be there in their cars. Squee!
De brevren are going to be checking out the Young Driver experience, sponsored by SEAT. Amazingly, they’re going to let my children loose in the latest SEAT Ibizas (I know, they’re mental – in fact as long as they’re between 11-16 they’re allowed behind the wheel). Behind the fun, though, there’s some potentially life-saving experience. They learn everything from starting and cornering to handling an emergency stop, all supervised by a qualified instructor. Mine will love it.
To celebrate SEAT’s sponsorship of this year’s Festival, they’re giving away hundreds of tickets for the event, including 20 family tickets (that’s for two adults and two children) plus two Young Driver session passes. All you have to do is ’Like’ the SEAT UK page on Facebook and enter your details on the Goodwood tab.
There are different tickets are up for grabs:
Thursday 30th June – that gives you access to the The Moving Motor Show (plus, 2 lucky entrants will also get a bonus prize of a coveted drive up the famous Goodwood Hill Climb. WANT!).
Or, you can apply to win family tickets for Saturday 2nd or Sunday 3rd July – which give you access to the Festival, The SEAT Club House in the Goodwood Action Sports arena and 2 SEAT Young Driver Experiences.
Anyhoo, head over to the Facebook page for more info and I’ll see you there (I’ll be the one blending in just behind Jensen). The competition ends Monday, so get busy.
