Lime meringue pie: In which the DWC makes me a birthday surprise

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As you know, it’s one of our slightly less mental traditions at English Towers that the birthday person gets to choose whatever they like for their birthday cake. Usually, da brevren compete with each other to find the most complicated (The Mad Professor), chocolate-filled (the Death Wish Child), or retro (English Dad) recipes they can possibly find. And then, of course, when it’s my birthday, I just make whatever I fancy.

This year turned out to be a bit different. ‘I’m going to make your birthday cake’, said the Death Wish Child, confidently. ‘What would you like?’.

‘Well’, said I, ‘what I would really really like is lemon meringue pie. No, lime meringue pie, but don’t worry, I’ll help’.

‘Nope’, said the small confident one, while imaginary fireworks and laser beams went off behind him. ‘*I* shall make the pie’. So sit back and enjoy, while my wonderful offspring takes you through his birthday pie:

First you need a pastry bottom (although I suspect that I might already have one):

For the pastry, you’ll need:

200g cold butter

400g plain flour

Pinch salt

1tbsp caster sugar

1 egg yolk

4 or 5 tbsp cold water

Firstly, preheat the oven to 180/gas 4. It’s easiest to do this in the food processor (the pastry, not the preheating. That would be silly. And anyway, you’d never fit the oven in there), but you can do it by hand if you’re not as lazy as us.

Chop your cold butter into squares and add it to the flour, salt and sugar. Process it until it looks like breadcrumbs.

Now plop in the egg yolk and pulse slowly, adding tablespoonfuls of water until it just comes together.

Flour the work surface (and your trousers, and your mother, and the floor) and squish the mixture together into a ball. Roll it out to about 5-6mm thick, then roll it onto your rolling pin and unroll over your flan dish or baking tin (about 24cm should do it). When it all breaks apart, swear a bit and kind of patch it together. Nobody will notice. Push it in to the edges and trim the top.

Now to bake it blind: scrunch up a bit of greaseproof paper, then smooth it over the pastry and pour in some baking beans - you can use ceramic or whatever. I’ve got some old dried beans - for about 15 minutes.

Then take it out of the oven, remove the baking beans and put it back in to cook the bottom (ooer) for about another 5 minutes, then take it out and leave to cool. Turn the oven down to gas 2/150 degrees.

Meanwhile, make the lime curd. We use bottled lime juice in this house, but if you want to juice several limes, be my guest:

100g butter

6 tbsp lime juice (or for lemon curd, 2 lemons, zested then juiced)

150g caster sugar

2 eggs plus 1 extra yolk (keep the white for the meringue)

Take a saucepan and bung in the butter, juice, zest and caster sugar. Melt it all together slowly until the sugar is all dissolved.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk the eggs and yolk until well combined. Now, take your warm, limey, butter mixture and gently pour a little bit into the egg, whisking all the time, then a bit more, then a bit more, until you’ve combined about half of it with the eggs. Now bung that lot back into the saucepan and keep whisking and simmering until the mixture thickens. Make sure there’s someone behind you at this point shouting ‘WHISK! WHISK FASTER!’.

Turn off the heat and leave to cool. Remember to just stir it occasionally to keep it from getting a skin on. When it’s about room temperature, pour it into the pastry case and pop into the fridge to cool.

Finally, for the meringue:

4 egg whites

225g caster sugar

Whisk the eggs in a very clean bowl until they form firm peaks, then keep whisking while you add the sugar, spoon by spoon, until it’s all incorporated and the meringue is thick and glossy. Pile it all on top of the lemon curd and fluff it up a bit (or you can pipe it like my man here):

Bake in the very low oven (gas 2/150 degrees) for about 40 to 50 minutes, depending on how squelchy you like your meringue. If it’s a Special Birthday Meringue Pie, you can decorate it and add candles.

Then sit down with some pink champagne and blow your candles out, wishing with all your heart that you get to spend every birthday just like this, with the people that you love.

Thanks, Charlie xxxx

Thanks Mum! Win a wonderful hampergifts.co.uk pressie for your Mum this Mother’s Day

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Bedtime stories, making jam, just listening, washing up, endless lifts, changing nappies, wiping noses, birthday parties, cheese on toast, buying presents, roast dinners, being a fab grandma, cleaning, school runs, baking, saying no, saying yes, lending me money, giving me money, homework help, ironing, belly laughs, parents’ evenings, burying several hamsters, phone bills, pierced ears, holidays, cuddles, plasters, bedtime stories, sandcastles, sleepovers, sewing, rice pudding, kissing it better, hot buttered toast, lemon meringue pie, shopping, snowmen, goldfish, phone calls, camp fires, macaroni cheese, driving lessons, porridge and syrup…

What do you want to thank your Mum for?

If you’d like to win this fabulous ‘I love you Mum’ gift set worth £59.95 from hampergifts.co.uk for your lovely mum (or someone else’s lovely mum, come to think of it) this Mother’s Day, then just thank your mum for something/anything! in the comments section here (tweet your entry with the hashtag #EMthanksmum for an extra shot at winning) and you’ll be placed into the draw. Off you go, then.

This prize has been supplied courtesy of Hampergifts, who provide a wide range of Mothers Day Baskets and Hampers

Entries must be received by 28th March 2011. No cash alternative to this prize is available. UK only addresses excluding Channel Islands, PO and BFPO boxes.

*****This competition is now closed. Thank you for all your entries. The lucky winner is Hayley Chalmers. Congratulations Hayley xx *****

The Sensatori Resort, Mexico: our final destination, Chichen Itza

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Right, quick general knowledge quiz here: who can name the Seven Wonders of the World? Apparently (and I didn’t know this because I have the general knowledge of a small onion) the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World are all nearly gone. Only the pyramid at Giza remains. The rest, like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Colossus of Rhodes are long gone, so in 2001 it was decided by a swiss-based foundation (you can read all about it here) to choose seven new wonders. Votes were cast and in 2006, the 7 new wonders were chosen:

The Great Wall of China, India’s Taj Mahal, Petra in Jordan, the amazing statue of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, Macchu Picchu in Peru, The Colosseum in Italy, and…

Chichen Itza*

A hot, sweaty, bumpy, three-hour drive into the very centre of the Yucatan peninsula takes you to one of the most amazing places on earth. It takes your breath away. And that’s not because it’s so hot it’s like falling into a vat of soup. The place is awesome. And for all the hassle and annoyance it took us to get there, we wouldn’t have changed our trip for the world:

Over 1000 years ago, the Mayan civilisation at Chichen Itza (or ‘Itchy Pizza’, as it swiftly became known), was bustling and ground-breaking. Their calendar was created decades before anyone else worked out how the sun could tell us what time of year it was, and the great structures were built there before machinery and, amazingly, even before the wheel.

On the downside, human sacrifice was commonplace (even to the extent that during games in the massive arena, the captain of the losing side would also lose his head - shouldn’t imagine many people put their hand up for that particular role). Oh and by the way, the reason there aren’t many people in these pictures is because it was so hot, they were all vying for places under the surrounding trees. Hot. So hot you feel like you can’t move.

Our day there was amazing. And neatly rounded off a trip that was, quite simply, the best I’ve ever experienced.

For us, the highlight of this holiday (if we had to pick just one) was the people. From the taxi driver who told us that he knew a bit of Mayan as his parents had used it to talk so that the kids wouldn’t know what they were saying, to the amazingly friendly and attentive service in the hotel, through to the wonderful welcome we received in Chumpon at the jam co-operative. What a fabulous bunch the Mexicans are.

And that hotel: a white-suited butler who magically appeared to help you find the perfect sunbed spot (and vanished just as quickly), amazing restaurants, wonderful room service waiters who pandered to the Death Wish Child’s cheeseburger addiction with such enthusiasm (I once picked up the phone to order and was asked ‘ah, yes. No onions for the DWC?’)… the hotel is a modern miracle. Their devotion to sustainability, from equipping the maids with trolleys fitted with recycling boxes, to heating the pools with solar panels and even growing their own fruit, vegetables and salad in a massive hothouse is just incredible.

The perfect holiday recipe? A big slice of luxury with a generous splash of enthusiasm… a drizzle of creativity and a final sprinkle of excitement. All placed on a backdrop of the bluest azure and sparkling white. I’ll have what she’s having.

A massive thank you to the entire team at Thomson, from the lovely chaps in the press office, to the fabulous cabin crew and the wonderful on-site guest relations team. We’ll be back! xxxxx

Thomson offers seven night holidays in Mexico at the 5T Sensatori Resort Mexico in Riviera Maya, on an all-inclusive basis, from £1415 per adult, £718 for the first child, and £1058 for the second child, based on two adults and two children sharing. Departing on 28th July 2011 from London Gatwick airport, the price includes return flights, accommodation, transfers and all taxes and charges. To book visit www.thomson.co.uk/sensatori or call 0871 231 5595.

*I think the Pyramid of Giza is still in there as an honorary candidate

Carbon Trust have created an infographic that explains why business holds the key to meeting UK carbon reduction targets. If you click yes on this site, they’ll use your support to get more businesses to prove carbon reduction. www.carbontruststandard.com/cutcarbon

The Divine Women Awards, 2011: my nomination

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So the lovely chaps at Divine have long had my vote for not only making scrummy chocolate, but making it with very high quality and, more importantly, Fairtrade cocoa beans.

Recently, they sent me a ton of chocolate (YAYYYY! 7 bars! Keep your mitts off), and asked me if I would nominate someone for the Divine Women Awards, which are designed to recognise the efforts of women around the UK. Campaigner (and Colin’s wife), Livia Firth is on the panel and will be helping the search for the most Divine woman.

I didn’t have to think for long. My nomination is Keris Stainton. Author and journalist Keris has long been one of my heroines - I love her articles and she’s just the nicest, kindest person. We’re long-standing Twitter-mates, and I was lucky enough to snaffle a review copy of her amazing young adult fiction book ‘Della says OMG’ before it was published.

After the awful earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan, Keris was moved to start ‘Authors for Japan’. The campaign, that ended up raising an incredible amount of money for the Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal saw Keris galvanising her many contacts in the writing world into action - persuading them to donate items for an auction with all proceeds going to the appeal. The lots on offer weren’t just books, although there were some amazing ones: signed copies, original proofs and more, but incredibly generous offers too: the chance to be named as a character in a book…. coffee and cake in London with a literary agent (perfect for a potential author)… My own lovely Linda donated a place at a freelance writing workshop, plus several of her books. All this, I feel, a testament to Keris’s standing in the literary world generally.

I asked Keris (sneakily, via email) how it all came about:

“Authors for Japan came about after I saw the news about the earthquake and tsunami and found I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I woke up in the night and lay there, thinking about how lucky I am and how I wanted to do something to help. At first, I was going to just put a button on my blog, but then I remembered the wonderful Authors for Queensland auction and decided to try that instead. I was completely overwhelmed by the response - I basically had to put everything else on hold for over a week - and the total donated is over £11,000, which is just amazing. Aside from the amount of money raised, I’ve been so touched by how incredibly generous people have been - both the authors who donated and the hundreds of people who bid on the lots. It’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.”

Amazing and inspiring. Laydees and gentlespoons, I give you Keris Stainton.

So there’s my nomination. What about you?

ABOUT THE DIVINE WOMEN AWARDS 2011
Who is Your Divine Woman?

To mark the centenary of International Women’s Day and to celebrate the amazing achievements of women across the nation, leading Fairtrade company Divine Chocolate is joining up with ethical jewellers Ingle & Rhode to launch the first ever Divine Women Awards.

Divine Chocolate and Ingle & Rhode will be inviting public nominations in a search to find the most Divine Woman in the UK, between the 8th of March and 8th of April 2011. Livia Firth will be joining the judging panel to select the most Divine Woman from a shortlist following an open public vote on the Divine facebook page http://apps.facebook.com/DivineWomenAwards.

Please click ‘like’ on my nomination for Keris.

The ultimate winner will be awarded a truly divine prize of a bespoke pendant worth over £1,000, made with Fairtrade and Fairmined 18 carat gold from ethical jewellers Ingle & Rhode.

Paddy’s weekend: BMB vlogging, the Albert Hall and a very small dog

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Well it was all happening this weekend. We flew over on the eve of St Patrick’s Day (bit sad to be missing out on all the fun, but hey) so that I could attend the British Mummy Bloggers‘ video blogging workshop. There was sniggering. Lots of sniggering. This was mostly because I was catching up with old friends (and meeting lots of new ones):

Here’s the lovely Geeky Mummy, and my old (disclaimer: I don’t mean she’s old, I mean our friendship is old) partner-in-wine the lovely Helen from the Knackered Mother’s Wine Blog:

And here’s the lovely Laura, with Sandy Calico and… wait, is that Jay peeking in there?

And here’s Taralaraloo and Jay doing a bit of hard-core gurning (and yes, we were actually supposed to be paying attention at this point - apparently it’s something about lipstick and turning side on to the camera…):

Oh and then there was so much more - there was wine and laughter and lovely food at my lovely glam friend Tums’ house with Foxy too (sadly my pictures of her gorgeous Moroccan chicken didn’t come out, but trust me, it was gooood), and we went out to dinner with my Disreputable Dad…

…and then rushed off to The Albert Hall and saw the fabulous Classical Spectacular and jumped at the canons and waved our flags and sang along to Land of Hope and Glory, which was such good fun:

…and I went to see my lovely sis in law and got to meet my lovely niece Lu’s new doggy, Bella, the cutest and tiniest little dog in the world:

And we basically managed to speed-socialise with all our nearest and dearest in the space of one weekend.

Phew. Now I’m back. With 500 million emails to catch up on and chickens to clean out and a very disgruntled Ninja Cat of Death to placate (she hates it when we go away).

And then I’m going to have a lie down and a gin. Not necessarily in that order.

In which Tiny the hen is either a cockerel, or she’s playing a teeny vuvuzela

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So yes, yes, I know… two chicken posts in one week potentially makes me a chicken bore. But wait. I have exciting news…

With the departure of Mr Nutty, things have been a bit quiet round English Towers way, and then, suddenly, there was a funny, squeaky little noise in the garden…

The Death Wish Child grabbed the video camera and…

Turns out little Tiny the hen could possibly be Tiny the cockerel. Either that, or she’s cleverly concealed a teeny vuvuzela somewhere about her person.

Irish soda bread for St Patrick’s Day

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Happy Paddy’s Day!

I’m off home to see the folks for a few days, but seeing as it’s Paddy’s I thought I’d tempt you with a nice, easy and traditional recipe to celebrate.

The lovely Spudness from The Daily Spud runs a fantastic Paddy’s Day Food Parade, so pop over to Spud Towers to check out all the other recipes.

This is an adaptation of one of Rachel Allen’s recipes, but as usual I’ve had a little fiddle. I know. I can’t help myself. Soda bread is still the staple for many an Irish household, and this recipe is a great basis for all sorts of additions. You can add seeds, nuts, dried fruit (use only 1 tsp salt if you make it sweet), even chocolate chips.

It doesn’t keep well, being yeast-free, but if you slice it and freeze it, you can toast it straight from frozen (if it lasts that long). If you’ve never made your own bread this is a great place to start, as there’s no rising or kneading. And the mud pie element of this makes it perfect to cook with children too!

Traditional Irish Soda Bread

100g white bread flour

450g wholemeal flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp salt

400ml buttermilk (or mix whole milk with the juice of 1/2 lemon)

1 egg

2 tbsp oil

1 tbsp treacle

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees/gas 6 and oil a loaf tin. Now put the flour in a bowl and sieve in the bicarb (omit this step at your peril – nasty green lumps don’t give this a St Patrick’s day feel - they just look gross). Add the salt and stir it all together.

Now, measure out the milk and squeeze in the lemon, or just use buttermilk. Add in the egg, oil and – while you have a nice oily spoon – the treacle. Whisk this lot together until it forms a completely revolting-looking brown gooey liquid (persevere, the treacle takes time to mix in). Now, just slosh the liquid into the dry ingredients and mix into a big wet mud pie.

Flop your muddy mixture into a buttered loaf tin, then pop it into the preheated oven and sit back while your entire kitchen fills with the gorgeous aroma of baking bread. As usual, make sure the loaf is done by tapping its bottom (ooer) and making sure it sounds hollow, otherwise give it a bit longer. You might need to cover the top if it’s getting too brown.

Serve warm with lashings of Irish butter and a big blob of home made jam. Or, you can add a slice to the pan after you’ve been cooking the bacon and scoff it, dipped in runny egg of course, with your big durty fry-up. Mmmmmmm.

And finally, I’ll share with you the beautiful Irish blessing that my lovely friend Jen sent me today:

May luck be our companion

May friends stand by our side

May history remind us all

Of Ireland’s faith and pride

May God bless us with happiness

May love and faith abide.

Anon.

‘You’ll meet me halfway, so?’

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Poor Mr Nutty’s head situation isn’t getting any better. I started to leave him out at night (he prefers to roost on the top of the hen house with his missus), figuring that death by fox or having your head eaten by your bitches are pretty similar on the ‘ouchy’ scale.

What did become clear while we were away was that he was getting a bit miserable. Poppy’s Mum was worried as he’d stopped cockadoodledooing and seemed a bit listless. I bet it bloody hurt. When I could catch him, I was treating his head with antibiotic powder, but let’s face it, he was never going to mend whilst billetted with the mean girls so eventually I decided to pop an ad in an online ‘buy and sell’ marketplace.

My first phone call wasn’t promising. He sounded about twelve, was shouting at the top of his voice and kept leaving yawning gaps in the conversation:

Shouty Fella ‘WELL…’

(A lot of Irish people start a conversation with ‘well?’. I’m never quite sure of the appropriate response. For a long time I went with a very English ‘yes, I’m fine thank you’, but I don’t think it’s actually an enquiry into your health, so now I just say ‘well’ back and hope for the best).

Me: ‘Well…’

*MASSIVE SILENCE*

Me: ‘Hello?’

Shouty Fella: ‘I’M RINGING ABOUT THEM BIRDS. ARE THEY LAYIN’?’

Me: ‘Well one of them is’

Shouty Fella: ‘WHY?’

Me: ‘Well, the other one is a man’

*MINUTE OF SILENCE*

Shouty Fella: ‘ARE THEY RELATED?’

Me: I don’t think so - I bought them as a ‘breeding pair’. Surely they wouldn’t want to do that sort of thing if they were related…’

Shouty Fella: ‘I’LL COME HAVE A LOOK AT THEM, SO?’

Me (pacing kitchen and explaining where I am in Cavan): ‘I said I’d deliver if you’re local’

Shouty Fella:’ I’M FROM GALWAY’

Me: ‘Well that’s not exactly local, is it?’

*HUGE PAUSE*

Me (increasingly exasperated): ‘Hello?!’

Shouty Fella: ‘YES?”

What fresh hell is this?

Me: ‘I said IT’S NOT EXACTLY LOCAL!’

Shouty Fella: ‘YOU’LL MEET ME HALF WAY, SO?”

Me: Well, no, because you live in GALWAY. I was thinking more like if it was the next town…

Shouty Fella: ‘IT’S QUITE A WAY, SO?’

Me (losing will to live): ‘Cavan to Galway? Yes, yes it’s a very long way.’

*VERY LONG PAUSE*

Shouty Fella: ‘WHAT COLOUR ARE THEY?

Me (suddenly feeling the urge to match his volume): ‘The colour they are in the PICTURE on the WEBSITE. In the same advert where it says I live in CAVAN’.

Shouty Fella: ‘YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO DROP THEM TO ME, SO?’

Me: ‘No, no I’m afraid I won’t.’

Shouty Fella: ‘DO YOU KNOW A COURIER THAT WOULD BRING THEM?’

Me (silently banging head against kitchen table): ‘No, no I don’t. Maybe you could look into arranging it and ring me back if you get it sorted’.

Shouty Fella: ‘I’LL ASK MY FATHER’

Me: ‘Right, bye then’

*YAWNING SILENCE*

Shouty Fella: ‘BYE’

If he actually rings back, I’m going to kill myself.

A Yeo Valley surprise and cooking with yogurt

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Recently, the lovely chaps at Yeo Valley set me a little challenge: ‘fancy checking out a few of our products and then letting us know how you cook with them?’ ’No probs’, I said, ‘piece of cake’ (see what I did there?). So yesterday I had a call from a courier. Not your normal ‘yes, I’m just leaving Dublin - can I have directions?’ (you want an hour’s worth of directions? I hope you’ve got a big notepad), but a lovely friendly one ‘I’ve got some stuff for you from Yeo Valley - it’s refrigerated so I’m going to personally drop it to you now’. How’s that for service. When it arrived, my jaw did drop somewhat, though:

Er… wow.

After unpacking (and letting a delighted D next door take her pick), I moved it all into the garage and called Poppy’s Mum to take all the children’s yogurts and those cute little tube things (she looks after two little tinies). After weighing her down with butter, compote, pots and creme fraiche and fifteen minutes of hysterical laughter when I took the packing peanuts out to the bin and was caught by a gust of wind (it was like a packing peanut snow storm), my fridges looked like this:

Unlike Laura, there will be absolutely no lemon curduments. Anyone seen looking even remotely suspicious near the lemon curd ones will be prodded with a sharp implement until they back the hell off. I might even bare my teeth and snarl a bit. What? They’re my favourite.

So what will I be doing with all this lovely stuff? Well, I’m going to try Laura’s Lovely Lemon Curd Cheesecake, but with the Mango and Vanilla flavour instead (nomnom) and I’ll be making my talented friend Like Mam Used To Bake‘s gorgeous healthy home-made granola to stir into the little fat free blueberry pots of probiotic yogurt for breakfast. We’ll be spooning the rhubarb yogurt over a slice of home made lemon and almond cake, and freezing the strawberry one in an ice cube tray to add to smoothies with banana and milk. Their fruit compote is a new one for me. I’m going to be popping a spoonful in the middle of some vanilla breakfast muffins this weekend and eating them for breakfast.

I’ll be making Anjum Anand’s Bengali Yogurt Fish (from her I Love Curry book) with the Greek Yogurt (one of my favourite fish recipes) and of course my own easy peasy tandoori chicken with the fat free natural yogurt (yummy in the boy’s packed lunches with crusty ciabatta, a blob of mayo, some rocket leaves and a teaspoon or two of mango chutney). Talking of Indian food - I’ll also be making my Indian spiced courgette fritters and serving them with a cooling yogurt and mint dressing.

I’ll be using the creme fraiche to make my friend Erica’s gorgeous wild mushroom tagliatelle and the lovely fresh butter for all manner of cakes, biscuits and, of course, for spreading thickly on hot toast.

What an amazing selection. I’m very impressed. Now back to guarding the lemon curd. Go on, just try me. I dare you.

Review: Screenclick.com DVD rental

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We’re big film buffs. And one of the things we find hard about living here is that not only are we nowhere near a cinema, we’re nowhere near a video rental shop either. And on a Friday night, if there’s nothing on the telly, I don’t always find that I’ve got the oomph to drive half an hour into Kells to go to our nearest one.

I was recently offered a free trial of Screenclick.com - an online DVD rental company who basically post you out the DVDs you choose - you watch them, and then post them back free. Here’s how we got on:

After registering (it’s an easy form to fill in online), I chose my package from the following choices:

DVD only packages:

Platinum - €31.99 (unlimited 4 DVDs at a time)
Gold - €24.99 (unlimited, 3 DVDs at a time)
Silver - €17.99 (unlimited, 2 DVDs at a time) *most popular*
Bronze - €12.99 (unlimited, 1 DVD at a time)
Lite - €7.99 (limited, 2 DVDs a month)

DVD & Game packages:
Silver - €19.99 (unlimited, 2 DVD/Games at a time)
Bronze - €14.99 (unlimited, 1 DVD/Games at a time)
Lite - €9.99 (limited, 2 DVD/Games a month)

We chose a silver package with DVDs and games. After that, it’s just as simple as whizzing through all the titles on the website (you can click on genres, or new releases, or search alphabetically or just look at BluRays - whatever you like). We added a ton of films that we fancied watching into our rental queue (you can then prioritise your choices into the ones you want to watch straight away, the ones you want to watch whenever they become available, and low priority ones that you don’t mind when they’re delivered) and then just sat back and waited.

Our DVDs were delivered in groups of two (perfect for weekend viewing). We found that we watched them over a weekend, popped them back in the post, and then received two more in time for the next weekend, although obviously if you’re faster than us, you’ll be able to watch more DVDs. My initial reservation - that I would forget to return a film and be hideously fined (like I’m always doing at the video shop) turned out to be unfounded. There are no late fees, so if you forget to send a DVD back, it’s not a problem, but obviously it will delay delivery of the next film in your rental queue. This is great news for the boys - often a day or two isn’t enough to really try out a game, so it was great not to worry how long we kept them.

The verdict:

Our one criticism is that the choice of games wasn’t as up to date as the films - there were often newer games released that weren’t available on the site.

Apart from that? Excellent. And would I take out my own subscription? Absolutely.

We were really impressed. The teens loved it because they could log on to the account at any time and add any films they wanted to see. They also loved being able to try expensive Xbox and PS3 games properly before they committed to buying them. For just under 20 Euro a month it’s really good value too - especially compared to the amount of time you get the DVDs for in a rental shop and the petrol it takes to get there.

I liked never quite knowing what films were going to be coming in the post, but I do see that some people might find the fact that you can’t specify an actual film a bit annoying. I liked the surprise element - Friday nights are no longer boring!

I think if you sign up now there’s a free trial, so have a look at screenclick.com. Go on, off you go!

Edit: Further to this, the lovely chaps at Screenclick have created a special promotional code for English Mum readers: EnglishmumDVD

This code entitles you to a one month free trial on Movies Bronze or Movies Silver package (DVD and Blu-ray).

Standard Terms and Conditions apply. Members can change their package any time they wish (if you take on the Silver trial, you can downgrade before the end of the free trial if you want). You will not be charged if you cancel your account and return all DVDs before the end of the fre trial (as per Screenclick’s cancellation policy)

The Sensatori Resort, Riviera Maya, Mexico, part 3: welcome to the jungle

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So as you know, a big part of our visit to Mexico wasn’t just to doss about in the sunshine and stuff our faces - a bonus, but no, honestly - there was a serious reason.

Firstly, une petite leçon de géographie: imagine the Gulf of Mexico as a big ‘C’, starting with Florida, curling all the way round past Louisiana and Texas, following the coast of Mexico, and then finishing at the Yucatan Peninsula. Away from the hustle and bustle of the beach resorts, this is an area of dense jungle, dotted with isolated communities of Mayan people who can trace their ancestors right back to the Mayans who inhabited Chichen Itza 1000 years ago. The Mayans are reserved and shy - they still speak in the Mayan dialect and don’t really have a lot to do with the ‘outside world’. If you imagine that the actual resort of Cancun didn’t exist until the first hotel was built there in 1970, you can grasp just how isolated this area used to be. With few ways of earning money, the Mayan people are increasingly having to leave their families to travel to the resorts in order to find work. This is a devastating blow, as family, and the protection of their ancient traditions, is massively important to the Mayans.

Thomson and their sister company First Choice work closely with the Travel Foundation, a charitable organisation at the heart of many community projects all across the world, to support a community of Mayan ladies in a village called Chumpon in the heart of the Yucatan Peninsula in the running of their own jam production company. They also buy the finished product from the ladies to use in their own resort restaurants. We were invited to visit the ladies, to see the jam co-operative first hand. We were beyond excited.

Off we go, then… into the jungle:

Yuri, the manager of the Travel Foundation’s Mexico office, and the main support worker for the Mayan jam co-operative in Chumpon, meets us bright and early at the hotel. For some reason, I’ve got it into my head that Yuri will be a large, Russian man. We’re surprised, and delighted, to discover that Yuri is actually a gorgeous Mexican lady with a beautiful smile. She greets us like long lost friends and we set off with Rene, our driver, on our two hour trek into the jungle. We snooze in our air-conditioned luxury, heading south past the old Mayan ruins at Tulum, but start to sit up as the terrain starts to change and we head deeper into the jungle.

Arriving at the village of Chumpon, we pass old men dozing on the porches of small, single-story houses, scruffy dogs snuffling in the scrub and the wide-eyed stares of groups of dusty children. We step out of the air conditioning into fierce heat, where I manage to resist the temptation to faint dramatically and manage a really naff bit of video. Excuse the mad cat lady hair (I’ve left on the ‘right that’ll do let’s get inside’ bit at the end to show quite how hot it is!!)…

…and are welcomed inside the very neat white building that houses the jam co-operative. Yuri introduces us to the ladies, who smile shyly and offer us a gorgeous glass of Pitaya (Dragon Fruit) juice. The older ladies are all dressed in their traditional white dresses with beautiful embroidery all around the neckline. We chat to Amalia, who used to work in a hotel and speaks really good English. Amalia and Yuri show us the sparkly equipment that the Travel Foundation and Thomson have provided, including a brand new autoclave machine and jam jar filler. We also check out the immaculate, white-tiled restrooms and enormous stove. Sadly the ladies aren’t able to work as the power supply has failed and although they have a generator, it’s not enough to keep the fridges and freezers going and cook jam as well (they need a new generator, please nice Mr Thomson!!).

Thomson and the Travel Foundation have also provided technical help in the form of a consultant who came and taught the ladies about food hygiene, and even helped with that perennial jam-making problem: stopping the seeds all settling at the bottom of the jar!

We head out into the Pitaya fields to check out the cacti, walking past mango and papaya trees heavy with fruit. On the way, a tiny, beautiful brown-eyed girl attaches herself to Amalia’s leg - it’s her daughter, Ally, who is scooped up onto Amalia’s hip. The heat and humidity is stifling. I think the ladies think it’s quite amusing that we’re all red-faced and exhausted (Yuri tells us that it’s their ‘winter’ ahaha). Brace yourself for my next spectacularly awful video (is my voice really that squeaky?):

Here we all are in the pitaya field:

After inspecting the huge cactus field (there’s no machinery here and all the plants are tended organically and by hand), we head back in for more juice and another chat in the cool of the factory. We ask the ladies how Thomson’s support has changed their lives. They’re very grateful, they say, to be able to earn a living near their families - they don’t have to leave their children behind and can support themselves (there’s no welfare state here). Yuri translates that they feel they’ve learned so much, and are proud to be their own bosses. As we leave, Amalia rushes out with an armful of jars of their jam for us. We’re delighted and vow to tell everyone at the hotel restaurant to try their wonderful products. As we drive away, we wave madly at these lovely ladies (and little Ally) and feel so amazingly privileged to have been allowed an insight into their lives and incredibly proud of Thomson for giving a little back to this amazing country. What an awesome experience.

The ladies were absolutely lovely and I just want to say a massive thank you to Yuri from the Travel Foundation, and everyone at Thomson, especially Marc and Claire, for making our trip possible and for arranging this amazing visit. I love you all. Mwaaaah. xx

I’ll leave the last word to this mad blonde woman:

Next time: we’re on the road again to visit the archaeological ruins at Chichen Itza.

The Sensatori Resort, Riviera Maya, Mexico, part 2: face stuffing

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So you know me and food. I just can’t help myself. I am well known, amongst friends, for slapping their hands away from their food until I have taken an adequate picture. My family are used to this quirk and sit expectantly, knife and fork in hand, while I finish framing their plate. They’re well trained, bless ‘em.

So the food then. Oh the food. The fooooooood. On the resort, there were loads of restaurants: a basic all-day buffet of absolutely everything, a Mexican, a Caribbean, an Italian, a tapas, a posh, Heston-style snail porridge affair… add in a fabulous beach-side barbecue and 24 hour gourmet room service and you can imagine I didn’t stop eating from sun up to sun down every day. Off we go on our culinary tour, then. Close your eyes… (oh, but open them when you need to look at the pictures, natch):

Breakfast

There is something about an an enormous buffet that brings out my inner binge-eater. The main restaurant hosts a breakfast selection that is, quite simply, beyond my wildest dreams. Yes, you can have crispy bacon, sausage and egg if you want (there is a man who will do your eggs any way you like - I recommend an omelette with ham, chilli, cheese and mushrooms but that’s for another day), you can also have pastries, fruits, yoghurts, that weird European thing of having cheese and cured meats… any of fifty different types of breads, pastries and doughnutty things, hell there’s even a chocolate fountain, but you can also have proper Mexican breakfast. And just for you (purely for interesting copy, you understand), I throw myself headfirst into everything I can find:

Here, clockwise from left, you will find: sweet beans (kind of like baked beans, but home made, a tad smoky and much, much nicer), spinach with cream, scrambled eggs with green chilli, refried beans and tortillas with onion cooked in tomato and chilli sauce with a cheesy topping. Da brevren obviously question the sanity of eating spinach for breakfast, but hey, when in Rome I say.

Oh wait, and then after I’ve been to Rome, I still have a teeny hole, so I go to the pancake man, who makes me lovely pancakes. He practically forces me… honest… oh and then I have to walk past a man making those lovely sugary churro things, so I have to try one (it’s okay, I grab some fruit too, which cancels out all the calories)…

… and then I discover that those churro things are really nice, and I have to go back and try a few more. Just for research purposes, obviously…

After our mammoth breakfast, we waddle poolside, and remain there, replete and burping, until our breakfast has gone down enough for us to bob gently to the swim up bar for a morning margarita (what? we’re on holiday). After that, we have another margarita, or maybe a daiquiri, and decide where we’re going to have lunch.

Lunch

The Mexican restaurant is a big favourite. The Tequila mussels are flippin’ awesome, as are the quesadillas made with chicken, Manchego cheese, enormous prawns and mushrooms. This little beauty is a starter of spicy chicken tostadas: a mixture of shredded spicy chicken layered with blue corn tortillas and refried beans (the blue is a reduction of Blue Curacao, which contrasts superbly with the tongue-sizzling spicy chicken).

And this is grouper in a traditional achiote spicy rub with plantain, served on top of a lovely fragrant coriander mash:

The enchiladas are also a favourite: the tender chicken is flavoured with the same achiote spices, and there is cheese and a delicious spicy red tomato sauce… sour cream… green onions… (oopsy, drooled a little there):

The Caribbean restaurant is also beautiful. It has huge conch shell lights hanging from the ceilings that give the whole place a magical glow (this is the view from below):

…and some very worried-looking lobsters in a huge tank (shifty glances are thrown in their direction whilst ordering: ‘I’ll have the…erm… the lob… the… erm….’):

Dinner

It’s a toss-up between the tequila mussels again, or a return visit to the Caribbean restaurant… (don’t look at the lobsters!!) or wait, there’s the yummy tortillas in the Spoon restaurant too… decisions, decisions…

And don’t get me started on the desserts… peanut tart with white chocolate and Mezcal (a kind of agave tequila)…cakes… gateaux… Take your pick:

A word of warning, though. Do not, I repeat DO NOT eat the chillies that garnish several of the dishes. Tentatively nibble an edge and your mouth will burn with the fire of a thousand suns until at least the next day, regardless of how many frozen lime margaritas you devour.

A quick bath, then…

And it’s off to the mojito bar…

… where you can choose from over 30 different varieties. But don’t worry, if you drink too many, there are lots of beds handily positioned right outside the door.

So anyone fancy a trip to the jungle, then?

Oh, and don’t forget it’s Shrove Tuesday tomorrow! You can find my easy pancake recipe at Readyforten.com

Netmums Review: Simply Pure Non-bio Powder-tabs

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So as you might know, I am a member of the Netmums Blogging Network. Basically, we review all sorts of different stuff and this time it’s the hypoallergenic washing powder tablets, Simply Pure.

In a timely manner, the delivery of said washing powder tabs coincided with our return from holiday and the EU washing mountain that had accumulated on my landing. So I got my review head on, and dived in.

First up: the packaging is quite nice. The label is pink with a cute baby, which might actually have inhibited me from picking up the product off the shelves as my youngest ‘baby’ is actually 12. Still, as a sufferer of itchy, scaly skin, he was actually the one to benefit most from this product. Having looked at their website, I notice that they do a ‘sensitive’ one too, which I might try next.

The pot contains 30 little white squishy tablets (two tabs is about average for a load of washing, unless it’s heavily soiled or you live in a hard water area) which don’t seem to have any smell, but magically make your washing actually smell quite clean - how does that work?

I was pleased with the cleaning results on a low temperature and equally impressed with the credentials listed on the pack. Not only are they eco-friendly (a must for me), they’re 100% biodegradable, phosphate free, dermatalogically tested and approved by a raft of organisations including the National Eczema Society and the Vegan Society (? I didn’t taste one) as well as being awarded the European Eco Label by Defra.

The pot comes in at a pretty reasonable £2.89 (you can buy online at simplywashing.com and I notice that if you buy over £17 worth of product, delivery is free - oh, and there are load of other products too).

The Results

All good. Initially I thought I might not like a fragrance-free product, but surprisingly it doesn’t matter at all. I liked the fact that you just chuck the little tablets into the machine, and the youngest was itch-free. I was also very impressed with Simply’s eco credentials and thought they were good value for money.

Would I buy them again? Absolutely.

The Netmums Blogging Network is a unique community of parent bloggers from around the UK who have been handpicked by the Netmums team to review products and brands on their behalf. I am paid an expenses fee to cover my time but Netmums have no editorial control whatsoever about what I blog about. Being a member of the Netmums Blogging Network means that I get to try out products and brands and get my expenses covered but that I retain full editorial integrity.

The Sensatori Resort, Riviera Maya, Mexico. Part 1: getting there

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Where. To. Start.

I could regale you with stories of white-suited beach butlers, of 24hr gourmet room service (so personalised that the second time I rang they said ‘ah, yes, no onions in the burger for DWC, isn’t it?’), of the amazing Mojito bar (30 different varieties) and watching Pelicans clumsily dive into the azure Mexican Caribbean…

…but then you’d just switch off, or throw rotten veg at me or something. So instead? I thought I’d keep a diary of my trip, and now I can take you with me. Grab your suitcase, then…

Day 1

Dublin’s new Terminal 2 is a gorgeous futuristic marvel. There is a fabulous, sparkly mirrored bar, a Laduree wooden wagon (I resist a macaron thinking of my impending swimwear time) and tons of lovely posh shops. Aer Lingus is fabulously efficient and in no time at all we are whisked to London Heathrow. A quick wizz along the motorway takes us to Gatwick, and our overnight resting place of the fabulously swish Gatwick Sofitel.

We walk into an impressive central atrium. Glass lifts shoot up into the air on either side of us and fountains twinkle everywhere.

I am greeted with a rather sexy ‘bonsoir, Madame’ by suavely dressed reception staff. The place oozes Gallic charm and we are swiftly and efficiently checked in to our adjoining rooms.

There is a choice of three different restaurants: there’s Gatwick Oriental, serving a varied selection of Far Eastern fare, La Brasserie : a nice. laid back place serving classic French brasserie food, and Le Cafe serving a selection of pizzas/pastas etc. We settle on Le Cafe and our food is fabulous. My spicy crayfish tail pizza is delicious, and £65 for the four of us seems pretty reasonable to me.

Our rooms are modern, really nicely furnished and immaculately clean. The bathrooms stock gorgeous L’Occitane Verbena smellies (you can tell a lot by the products in a hotel bathroom). Sadly, we don’t spend a great deal of time there as we’re off early, checked out in seconds and through the very handy walkway straight into the North Terminal.

Day 2

A quick mooch around the shops and very shortly we’re up, up and away in a very swanky Boeing 767-300. English Dad is the aeroplane officionado and declares this one to be ‘quite new and well decked out’. I don’t know a thing about planes but am particularly taken by the turquoise leather. Our seats are huge (in fact, they seem just as big as the ones in Premium Class) and the crew are really lovely and friendly.

The press office has very kindly sent word ahead and we’re extended every courtesy (which basically pans out as the Death Wish Child disappearing from his seat on a regular basis and coming back weighed down with armfuls of Peanut M&Ms and Pringles). Gordon and his lovely team keep me in Mojitos the whole journey too. I feel like a celeb. Happy, happy bunny.

An easy journey means that the ten hours flies by (see what I did there?) and soon we’re peering out over the Florida Keys and then Mexico.

We’re met by a team from the Sensatori (A TEAM!!) and whisked into a private car for the short journey to the hotel, where we’re greeted with a blast of lemon-balm scented air conditioning and a chilled glass of champagne. I think I might faint.

It gets even better when we’re shown to our room:

And then, the long journey just gets the better of me. I’m afraid I succumb to a little sniffle when I walk out onto the balcony and see….

This:

Much, much more to come.

Plains, trains and automobiles

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Well, we’re finally home. Our total journey went something like this:

Car from Cavan to Dublin Airport

Flight from Dublin Airport to London Heathrow (we couldn’t get a flight to Gatwick)

Drive to London Gatwick

Stay overnight

Flight from London Gatwick to Cancun, Mexico

Flight back from Cancun, Mexico to London Gatwick (delayed 10 hours)

Miss flight back to Ireland and argue with unhelpful Ryanair about why I won’t pay £1000 to get on next flight.

*pause for hissy bout of hysteria*

Drive to English Grandma’s house in Hertfordshire

Stay there two days panicking about how to get home.

Get saved by wonderful friend who suggests sailrail.co.uk

Train to Milton Keynes, then Chester, then Holyhead

Ferry from Holyhead to Dublin Port

Taxi from Dublin Port to incredibly understanding Long Stay Car Park (who didn’t charge me extra).

But I’m back!

And oh, the wonderful things I have to show and tell.

For instance, we saw this:

And we ate this:

And we did this:

… saw lots of this:

And even shed a tear at this:

Much, much more to come. Once I’ve conquered the EU washing mountain and cleaned out the Nutties.

Stranded

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Hello!

Well, we had a fabulous holiday - I’ve got all sorts of photos, stories, mentalness and even a spot of Danny Dyer stalking to tell you about, but sadly, we can’t get home.

A delay of ten hours in Cancun meant that we missed our onward Ryanair flight back home and Ryanair wanted - wait for it - £1008 to put us on another flight, even with proof from Thomson that we’d missed our connection because of a delay. Soooo after picking ourselves up from the shock, we decided to go to English Grandma’s for an impromptu stay and regroup.

Thanks to a lovely friend on twitter (@NailishRambling I owe you big style), we discovered www.sailrail.co.uk and have managed to book train tickets to Holyhead PLUS a ferry ticket to Dublin port for less than £80 for all of us. Bless lovely Marc at Thomson who was also haring around like a lunatic trying to find us a journey home.

Two fingers to Ryanair *shakes fist at Michael O’Leary*, then, and I’ll see you all tomorrow. Mwah xx