So do you have a credit card?  Not being fantastic with money, I’ve always resisted.  But with the better weather on the way, we’re all tempted to splash out – maybe on a few new summery bits for the wardrobe, or even a nice holiday to grab some guaranteed warmer weather.

Barclaycard have announced a nice range of new offers.  And as I don’t currently own a credit card, I was tempted by the offer for new customers of 0% interest on all purchases for the first three months: a perfect way to afford that holiday, and an incentive to pay it off as quickly as I can too, thus making it a nice easy introduction to owning plastic.  The card has an APR of 29.9% (5 percentage points lower than the current Capital One Classic) and new cardholders will be offered a manageable starting credit limit as well as text and email alerts to help them manage their account.  Not so scary after all, then?

If you’ve already got a credit card, there are some other offers that might suit you better, such as

·         22 month 0% balance transfer with £30 off the transfer fee (for transfers over £2,500)

·         15 months 0% interest on purchases and balance transfers

·         Low fee (1.6%) balance transfer for 17 months

David Chan, chief executive of Barclaycard Consumer Europe said:

“We’re very excited to be offering even better value and such a huge amount of choice to new customers; from those wanting to manage their money better, to those who are seeking to build a credit history.”

If you want to take advantage of the deals, you’ll have to move fast, though.  The improved deals will close to applications at midnight on 31st May 2012.

To find out more and for full details of cards and to apply online, just click here.

Sponsored Post

Viral video by ebuzzing

I am pretty blessed.  I have a great bunch of friends.  I’m rather proud that my friends are all clever, funny, incredible supportive and all very successful.  Take Erica, for example.  I first met Erica on my first ever blogging trip – we’re both members of the ‘Disney 7′.  We all bonded over mojitos and have stayed firm friends.  At the time it was such a big deal that a company were sending bloggers away on a trip that it was even mentioned in The Times.

Now, blogging is a much more popular pastime, but starting a blog can be hard. Occasionally I get emails from people asking how to get started.  The conversation normally goes something like this:

Me: ‘Okay, well, y’know WordPress, right?’

Wannabe blogger: ‘No’

Me: ‘Erm oh. Well, you kind of need to… erm…  Well, there’s a dashboard, see, and you can upload posts and then, erm…’

And there you have it: ‘how to blog’ by English Mum. It’d be a pretty crap book.

Luckily, then, the aforementioned lovely Erica has come to our rescue.  Now a hugely successful ‘Mumpreneur’ who runs courses helping other mums start their own businesses and is the joint owner of ACE Inspire which provides remote courses and produces eBooks on business blogging, social media and online marketing, she still writes Littlemummy.com (when she has time!).  Erica has come to our rescue and written a fabulous book: Blogging – The Essential Guide with her business partner, Antonia Chitty.

I think it says a great deal that even though I’ve been writing this blog for six years, I still learned loads of new things.  For a complete beginner, this book is a blogging bible, with chapters on creating your blog, ideas for blog posts, loads of hints about community, sensible words about plagiarism and disclosure, etc.  But more than this, there are some really clever sections on things like podcasting and eBooks.

So if you’ve ever thought about starting your own blog (I’m a pretty good advert for blogging, I reckon – it’s taken me around the world and given me a million and one brilliant opportunities), you should definitely buy this book.  And if you’re already blogging, it’s invaluable for fresh ideas, as a great reference tool and for some really good, down to earth advice.

Blogging – The Essential Guide by Antonia Chitty & Erica Douglas is out now.

So with both the Death Wish Dude’s birthday and the Mad Prof’s coming up in quick succession, I was rather pleased when the chaps at gettingpersonal.co.uk asked me if I’d review their lovely website.  Here are my top picks for personalised presents that are fabulous pressies for boys:

First up for the Death Wish Dude, chocoholic extraordinaire, I thought this personalised chocolate bar would be spot on:

You can’t beat a bit of chocky on your birthday, and chocky with your name on turns it into something special.  He’ll love this.

Next, I thought that the photo phone covers were really cool.  I was thinking that I’d suprise him by turning one of his action ‘seconds away from death’ photos into a cover for his iPhone.. maybe this one?

And now for the Prof…  he loves a bit of Top Gear, so a poster revealing that he’s really The Stig would go down well:

… and this personalised superhero mug would make that morning cuppa extra special:

Oh and finally… I know this was supposed to be about the boys, but if anyone’s thinking of buying me a pressie, I’d LOVE this gorgeous slate cheeseboard:

My verdict, then?  A nice looking, easy to navigate site with tons of ideas for pressies for all ages.  Delivery is cheap (£2.99 and free for orders over £30.00) and checkout is quick and efficient.  Highly recommended.

There’s a real sea-change in my cooking at this time of year.  I want brighter, fresher meals and newer, interesting flavours.  And while the weather over Easter left a lot to be desired, it also left me a bit of time, while waiting for my slow-cooked lamb, to wade through the enormous pile of new books I’ve received recently, to find the best ones just for you (you’re welcome).

First up, then is Bill Cooks for Kids.  I love Bill Granger’s food, and he certainly fits the ‘brighter, fresher’ theme very well.  His new book is jammed full of really great, interesting recipes to cook with children and I love that there are some more complex flavours in amongst the more simple cakes and biscuits: spaghetti with cherry tomatoes, ricotta, spinach and Pecorino is easy to cook, but Bill makes it much more interesting (and appealing to adults to) by roasting the cherry tomatoes with garlic and red onion first.  If you’re looking for simple, fresh suppers and rainy-day baking, look no further.  A great book with Bill Granger’s easy style and bright, stylish photography.  Loved it.

Bill Cooks for Kids is out 10th May, currently priced £6.79 on Amazon.

Claudia Roden’s new book, The Food of Spain, is nothing short of a magnum opus.  This absolute feast for the eyes took, apparently over five years of research, and it shows.  Roden travelled extensively around Spain to bring us delicious, traditional dishes from every region, plus interesting commentary and fascinating notes on ingredients.    This book is a MONSTER.  I’m only about a third of the way through but so far I’ve marked so many pages of incredible food – I’ll be working through it for a while.  The papas arrugadas y mojos canarios reminded of my Disreputable Dad, who adores the salty Canarian potatoes, while the almond ice cream takes me straight back to the Majorcan holidays of my youth.  I can’t wait to dive into a proper paella and the Catalonian chocolate and almond cake looks utterly sumptuous.  With gorgeous photography and Roden’s trademark attention to detail, I reckon this is a must-buy for anyone who adores food.

The Food of Spain by Claudia Roden is out now, hardback priced £15.00 on Amazon.

Donna Hay is another writer who consistently produces beautiful, inspiring cookery books and her new offering, Seasons, doesn’t disappoint.  The photography is gorgeous and the recipes, while being garnered mainly from her eponymous magazine, will be new to most of us here.  As it’s (obviously) split into seasons, this is the book to grab NOW for inspiration for fresh new dishes for spring.  The coconut bread (made with buttermilk and ground almonds) is an absolute delight and the pan-fried salmon with fennel salad has already been bookmarked for one of this week’s suppers.  My one complaint is that the book is so massive, it’s difficult to perch somewhere in the kitchen while you’re cooking!  It’s actually quite magazine-like in its feel (if not its weight!) and I love Hay’s choices of recipes – from easy midweek suppers to gorgeous dinner party blowouts.

Seasons by Donna Hay is out now, priced £14.48 on Amazon.

Last, but my no means least, and actually quite Claudia Roden-like in its delivery, is my surprise of the season: Cooking from the Heart: A Jewish Journey Through Food, by Hayley Smorgon and Gaye Weeden.  This is another epic tome, but if you’re a bit of a food buff, like me, you’ll adore reading the stories of the Jewish people in the book (who all ultimately ended up in Australia) and sharing in their stories and family recipes.  You know me: I love a bedside book with proper food stories, and this is one to get lost in.  There are plenty of what you would consider classic Jewish dishes, but lots of fabulous fusion too.  Utterly adorable and addictive: buy it for someone you love.

Cooking from the Heart is available now, priced £22.63 on Amazon.

WHAT a weekend.  There were so many great (and funny) moments I hardly know where to start.

First up, the the lovely chaps at Hertz UK offered to lend me one of their new Family Collection cars to go to the opening of the new Legoland Hotel this weekend.  Bright and early Friday morning, a SPACESHIP was delivered.  I kid you not.

After some initial teething problems, like waving the nice delivery chaps off assuring them I’d be fine, then realising it didn’t actually have a key and I had no clue how to start it (turns out you post the key fob into a little slot on the dash – you do not, as some wag on Twitter suggested, have to shout IGNITION ON!, but nice try though), I got on really well with it.  The enormous beast took up my entire driveway and in a spectacular piece of teenager Tetris, I managed to fit FOUR of the fully grown and very gangly blighters into the boot.

Offski, then, to Windsor and the new Legoland Hotel, conveniently placed right at the entrance to Legoland, where a whole bunch of the media’s great and good gathered to celebrate its opening weekend.  There were LOADS of celebs there: we spotted Zoe Ball, Dom (from Dick and Dom), Michael McIntyre, Vic Reeves and his gorgeous wife Nancy Sorrell, Warwick Davis and a host of other people that kept us in permanent ‘hey, don’t I know you?’ mode the whole weekend.

We met up with fellow bloggers Laura and Tara and their families and headed for the bar (as you do).   In the restaurant we bumped into Tim Minchin.  Instead of looking a bit awkward, both boys dived in, held out a hand and said hello (proud Mum moment there).  He was utterly lovely and chatted to them for ages.  Later he played football with them outside and they were absolutely made up. Isn’t it amazing when you meet people you really like and they turn out to be really nice in person?

The food was a good, solid buffet selection, with a carvery, a children’s section serving all the usual suspects, and a salad bar.  I wouldn’t say it was amazing restaurant fare (my beef was very well done and a bit leathery, and the pannacotta poured out onto the plate like yoghurt), but we all ate well.  We were all a bit taken with the lego cake, but sadly didn’t get a slice.

We were on the fourth floor in an ‘adventurer’ room.  We were really impressed with the decor: a map for a carpet, lego creatures climbing the walls and a very posh bathroom (sorry about the picture – I did the classic ‘GET OUT OF THE WAY, WOMAN! thing in the mirror).  It was compact, but the Prof is 5’9” and there was plenty of room for him in a bunk and the beds were mega-comfy.

The next day saw us up early (and hungover) for a big cooked breakfast before setting off for a bit of celeb-stalking around the park.  We walked around the Star Wars exhibit, spotted Manta Rays on the Atlantis Submarine Voyage, whizzed around on The Dragon (this did nothing for my hangover – luckily Laura was the holder of the headache pills, as well as the map), did the Digger Challenge and zapped away on Laser Raiders.  The boys took a final drenching on the Vikings River Splash and we headed for home, leaving the smaller dudes with more energy to enjoy the park.

What a fabulous place.  And the icing on my dragon cake?  This tweet from Tim Minchin:

About the Legoland Hotel:

The Legoland Hotel is now open for business with prices starting from just £248 for a family of 4 for a themed bedroom, including breakfast, 2 days into the Park and loads of added extras!  Book early (the hotel is already fully booked on several dates through March, April May and even into June).  For more info, go to legolandholidays.co.uk

About the Hertz Family Collection:

The Hertz Family Collection launches on 4th April.  Hertz Family Collection offers a variety of cars with ample room for passengers and luggage, plus 5-star NCAP safety rating: total reassurance for your journeys with family or friends.  For more info, check out Hertz’  new blog: HertsTravelGuide, or go to  hertz.co.uk

Notonthehighstreet.com

I love all their personalised  gifts, LOVE the fact that they have a whole section of ethical gift ideas, and also love love love the fabulous memo board they sent me, which now takes pride of place in my office and is practical as well as beautiful.

Still on my WANT list is the wall mounted herb rack and all the lovely gardening bits and bobs (I’m determined to have beautiful, scented pots on my patio this summer).

Carte Noire Instinct

The Death Wish Dude and English Dad are both addicted to coffee.  They adore our Tassimo machine, but we try to keep it for special treats, as ten or more cups of coffee a day start to become very expensive!  The DWD pronounced that this new Carte Noire coffee is ‘as good as filter’, which is a pretty hefty claim.  It certainly smells nice (I’m more a coffee in cake person).

On a purely practical level, I also like that they do the coffee in packs as well as tins… I like to use my own containers and I think the move towards less packaging is great.  Thanks to the lovely chaps at Carte Noire for sending us this.

Next up is albelli.co.uk who have all sorts of fab products for photos.  They offered to put one of my favourite photos in a frame, and I chose this lovely Dubai beach shot that I’ve used as a background on Travelling And Arriving.

It’s finished in a shiny acetate and already has the fixings to hang on the wall attached (as well as some little rubber ‘feet’ that means it hangs level on the wall).

I absolutely love it.  It takes pride of place in my office and every glance transports me back to that sweltering beach.

Whooga Boots

Yup, I know what you’re all thinking, they’re Uggs.  And yes, they really are, as it turns out that ugg is not just a brand name, but an actual type of boot.  Whooga make uggs with gorgeously thick sheepskin in a nice range of colours and styles and offered me a pair to try (and compare to my beloved Uggs).  I chose a pair of short, black ones and they’re so deliciously comfy (you wear them with bare feet, and no, they don’t get stinky because the thick fleece allows lots of air to circulate – they don’t get ridiculously hot either) that they’re rarely off my tootsies.  The care tips are really helpful and when disaster struck and I whooshed an entire bucketload of water and Milton fluid (I was whitening pilot shirts if you must know) over them, I had no choice but to rinse them.  Dried carefully, stuffed with lightly scrunched newspaper, they were as good as new.  I was impressed.  I’ve since treated them with some suede protector, just in case.

Personal Planner

This lovely planner came from Personal Planner.  They’ve sorted it so that it starts from Feb 2012 and it’s even got my name written on the front!  Inside it’s just as pretty and it’s got a week to a page with plenty of room to write appointments.  There’s also little squares for ideas, notes and things to do.

When you order one you get to pick your own colours, text and picture for the covers too.

I’ve got a gift card to give away for a personal planner. If you’d like to win it, just mention it in the comments.

I’m a massive Soreen fan and they sent me some of their fabulous new snackage: first up is the new Malt Toastie Loaf, which is already sliced, meaning that you don’t squish it while you’re slicing – a Soreen hazard (of the best kind.  It’s still really low fat and is fab for breakfast, priced at £1.39 for a loaf.

And then there’s the little snacky packets of loveliness that are the 5 packs of Malt Snackers and Fruity Five Snackers – little individual packs of slices of either the traditional Soreen Malt Loaf, or their ‘Fruity Five’ loaf which has all sorts of raisins, cherries, orange and stuff in.  Both yummers but I’m afraid I’m a traditionalist.   The Soreen Snackers are exclusive to Asda, selling at £1.28 for a pack of five.

And finally, I have to give a massive big up to the fabulous chaps at Polaroid, who, on hearing that the poor Death Wish Dude had squished his cool shades and broken the arm off them, sent him a fabulously cool new pair.  Check out these bad boys (they’re called Horizon):

Even better, they sent me a pair too, so both of us are going to look ‘hawt’ all summer long.

Thanks guys, you absolutely rock!

We’ve had a bit of an up and down relationship with the Village Gate. We went there en famille (and we’re a grande famille, trust me) for my Mum’s birthday last year and had an excellent time.  The place is absolutely gorgeous: a typical village pub revamped in a really clever, stylish way.  The menu was great – creative and varied, the service fast and friendly and the food was as good as the menu promised.

So when we got an email through offering a table on New Year’s Eve for £30 a head we jumped at the chance and booked.  The whole evening was a bit of disappointment, to be honest.   Even though the restaurant was relatively quiet it took 45 minutes for our starters to come out (by which time we’d already finished one bottle of wine and frankly, were a bit past caring about the food), and then waited nearly as long for mains which were a bit disappointing.  My sea bass was okay, but the tiny portion was full of bones  and the crab crust made it difficult to catch them before you put them in your mouth, resulting in a bit of embarrassing hiding behind the napkin and fishing them out.

The desserts were disappointing too and to add insult to injury, we were charged £35 a head, not the promised £30.  I emailed several times afterwards but never received a response.

But then, just when we’d given up hope, a new General Manager appeared on the scene.  He’d read our email, he said, and would we please come back for a meal ‘on the house’ so he could show us what the restaurant could really do?  ’Too right’, we said, leaping at the chance in an ungainly fashion.

And I’m happy to report that John (who is lovely, and very passionate about his food) has totally turned the place around.  For one, it was packed (always a good sign), not just with diners but with people just in for a drink, giving the place a delightful background burble of happy conversation and chinking glasses.  The menu is still fabulous – the Death Wish Dude and his dad were delighted to discover that the whitebait was still on the menu – and I was happy to see that John tries hard to source a lot of his produce locally (obviously not the whitebait, unless they came from the Grand Union Canal…).  They also have creative gluten-free options.

My starter of bubble and squeak was topped with a perfectly poached egg and some delicious crispy pancetta, and was smothered in creamy hollandaise.  It was absolutely massive, but that didn’t stop me polishing off the whole thing.  The whitebait, I am assured, was delicious too.

For our mains, the Death Wish Dude and English Dad went for 28 day dry-aged Aberdeen Angus sirloin steaks which were cooked perfectly to order and were melt-in-the-mouth tender.  The Prof went for beer-battered North Sea haddock, generously served with nice fat chips and a creamy pea and mint purée.  All yummy.  I went for the slow-roasted pork belly with a sweet potato dauphinoise, parsnip crisps and apple sauce.  It was absolutely delicious, with tender flesh that pulled away in gorgeous flakes and an amazingly crisp crackling.  Top drawer.

We were really a bit stuffed for the desserts, but the boys managed to force down a few of the ice cream flavours.  All in all, we were delighted, and although we only paid for the drinks, we agreed that we would happily have paid for the whole lot.  The service was friendly and attentive and John was around to give advice on the compact but very interesting wine list.  We’ll definitely be back.  Maybe even en famille.  Brace yourself, John.

The Village Gate is in the beautiful Chiltern village of Wendover in Buckinghamshire.  If you pop in, tell them English Mum sent you.  Thanks to John and his staff.

There’s an awful lot of hype surrounding bread at the moment, what with the ‘Fabulous Baker Brothers’, Henry and Tom Herbert’s recent TV show (and the shock news that one of their loaves sells for over twelve quid – I kid you not – over £20 if you want it couriered), and lots of people reverting to the more traditional kitchen skills of baking their own bread, making butter, etc.

I do make my own bread, but it tends to be a batch of sticky iced buns if I’m feeling like a baking session, or an easy Irish soda bread on a Sunday morning, so when I was asked to review Bread Revolution I was really interested.

Duncan and Patrick own The Thoughtful Bread Company in Bath and really want to encourage us all to bake (or at least buy) proper bread.  There are all sorts of wonderful recipes (don’t miss the Cider and Apple Bread), and great step-by-step guides to mixing, kneading, shaping, etc, plus loads of interesting stuff about ingredients.  The one that fascinated me, though, was the sourdough.  Basically, you make a sourdough ‘starter’, which ferments and becomes your very own living, breathing yeasty friend who lives in the fridge.

Ours was called Fluffy (someone on Twitter told me to give it a name – apparently this helps you ‘bond’).  It’s relatively easy to make (a mix of live yogurt, skimmed milk and bread flour), but you do have to remember to feed it, otherwise it dies.  We had a little wobble when I opened up mine to find mould all up the side of the tub, but I managed to rescue it, and with a new, sterilised pot, Fluffy thrived.  The boys (find them on Twitter @thoughtfulbread) were really helpful, and shared my immense pleasure and pride when my very first sourdough loaf came out of the oven.

Seriously, I don’t think there are many things quite as satisfying as baking your own bread, and having Fluffy in the fridge ready to go whenever I want to bake makes me more determined than ever to keep going.  That, and the chewy-crusted, soft-doughed gorgeousness that is a fresh-from-the-oven sourdough loaf.

What a wonderful book.

Bread Revolution is out 1st March priced £10.59 on Amazon.  Here’s a vid of the boys in action:

I get sent quite a few things, and generally my neighbours are very good at taking parcels in for me if I’m not around.  The agreement is reciprocal and often sweetened by the odd freebie here and there.  Today, though, when I dropped round to my neighbour, clutching my ‘your parcel has been left at number 2′ card, he seemed rather reluctant to hand over the parcel.

This may have had something to do with the fact that my parcel was labelled ‘Cartmel Village Shop Puddings’, and contained not only one of their famous Sticky Toffee Puddings, but a rather promising looking Sticky Toffee Apple Crumble too.  All this pudding love is, in fact, dearest reader, because I’ve been invited to join the Cartmel Village People Pudding Panel.  Not an easy title to pronounce, admittedly, but I’ll suffer it because, well, the hours are good and the remuneration is paid in pud!

On to the task at hand then:

The crumble was easy to bake (just stick it in the oven for 20 minutes) and first impressions were pretty good – the crumble topping was a golden brown with sticky toffee sauce bubbling up at the sides.

There followed a ten minute family debate on whether crumbles should be more fruit or more topping.  I obviously won the argument (I favour more crumble than fruit) and I’d say the ratio of this particular crumble was just about right.  Digging in, we found nice little chunks of apple coated in lovely sticky toffee sauce.  The apple had a really appealing tart edge to the flavour, meaning that the whole dish wasn’t overly sweet, plus the crumble was nice and crisp on top, with the added bite of some oats, if I’m not mistaken.

The packaging says that it serves four to five people, but if you’re a greedy family, I’d say more four than five!

Our verdict: yum.

Next up, apparently is Lemon Drizzle.  I’ll be watching our neighbours very closely.

For more information, click on cartmelvillageshop.co.uk

So you know when you shop at Tesco you get a Clubcard, right? And this Clubcard gives you points and those points give you vouchers? Well, this time, when we got our Tesco Clubcard vouchers, we decided to check out Clubcard Deals, rather than just use the vouchers to pay for shopping (I know some people who save them up for big celebrations like Christmas and Easter too, which is a good idea).

What I didn’t know is that for every £10 voucher, they give you FOUR TIMES that amount in restaurant vouchers. We chose Pizza Express and because we were going to invite English Grandma too, we used £20.00 worth of vouchers, worth £80.00 in the restaurant. It’s quite easy(you fill in some details, they send you the vouchers, and you take them into the restaurant where you pay for your meal) and the small print is pretty minimal (you can’t pay for drinks with the vouchers, you can’t get change and they can’t be used as a tip) and that’s it – the vouchers come in the post within 5 working days of your order being placed.

We love our local Pizza Express, and this meal didn’t disappoint.  Hot tip: try the ‘Etna’ pizza – it’s got that fabulous N’duja spicy sausage that everyone’s raving about and it’s completely lush.

You can spend them on mobile phones, hotel breaks, insurance…  you can even put them towards your next Virgin Holiday.

So what do you spend yours on? Anyone got any great tips?

Click here for more information on Clubcard deals

Oh, and here’s a video that explains everything about Clubcard deals.  Happy viewing x

Sponsored Post