The Knorr recipe challenge: roast chicken with creamy tarragon sauce

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The very generous and lovely people at Knorr recently sent me a parcel of goodies and challenged me to cook up something lovely using the ingredients and their new stock pots. The ingredients came beautifully packed from Forman & Field and, amongst other things, included:

1 Rhug organic chicken

2 shallots

Biddenden Ortega white wine (from Kent!)

A bunch of tarragon

A bunch of parsley

I also used a Knorr chicken stock pot and a couple of tablespoons of sour cream.

On to my recipe, then. Frankly the chicken looked so beautiful: plumptious breasted and yellow skinned that I decided to simply roast it, then make a delicious sauce to accompany it from the ingredients. There were mushrooms in there, but the Death Wish Dude is a mushroom hater, so I had to leave them out. Feel free to add them in if you like while you’re frying the shallot.

This is a lovely way to serve a roast chicken and different from my normal ‘stick a chicken up its bum’ method,( or ‘poulet avec citron au derrière’, to give it its full title - which, hilariously, Google translates to ‘chicken with lemon behind’).

First, then, roast your chicken. This one was quite small, about 1.5kg, so I just roasted it for an hour and 15 minutes (see my rule of thumb on the other post) at 190 degrees/gas 5.

By the way, if you’d rather do this with chicken breasts, just roast them in the oven for about 20-25 minutes (check they’re done by pushing on them - they should feel firm - or if you’re worried, cut them in half and have a look - you can always serve them in slices) and prepare the sauce in the same way.

On to the sauce, then. Drop a knob of butter into a heavy based saucepan and add in a finely chopped shallot. Fry gently until translucent then add in a glass of the delicious English wine (drink the rest) and about 150 ml stock. Leave it to bubble and reduce right down to at least half, if not more. Finally, add in the tarragon (don’t use too much, it’s quite strong - a level tablespoon of chopped leaves is enough), and a handful of chopped parsley, then the sour cream.

Serve with the roast chicken, a fresh green salad and maybe some baby new potatoes.

Many thanks to Knorr. By the way, if you’d like to win one of these lovely seasonal boxes, leave a comment here or pop over to my Facebook page, where you can enter too.

 

**************THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED - THANKS FOR YOUR ENTRIES! *****************

Embarking on a holiday to Florida with under 5s

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Florida is famous for beaches, sunshine and, of course, the theme parks. Children and adults alike will love the chance to be able to explore the world-renowned resorts of Disney, Universal, Epcot, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and the others. All the theme parks are great at catering for families, especially those with young children who may be too small to ride on a lot of the rollercoasters.

Each of the Disney parks has several great attractions for young children. Head over to Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom to ride on Dumbo, the Flying Elephant. This gentle ride is a lovely experience and kids will love being able to control how high their Dumbo can fly. Also in the Magic Kingdom is The Barnstormer. This junior rollercoaster is a great ride for any little daredevils in your family as it has a few twists and turns!
If your child loved being able to fly on an elephant, you could try Cinderella’s Golden Carousel, a charming old fashioned merry-go-round where the children can sit on horses, and there is an option of a bench carriage if they prefer. Fans of Nemo can go and visit Epcot and search the seas to find him in a ‘clamobile’ . From there you can visit the seas with Nemo & Friends Pavilion, home to one of the largest man-made ocean environments in the world.

Kids love seeing their favourite characters come to life, so why not head over to Hollywood Studios to see Playhouse Disney, an interactive live performance that combines awesome effects and puppetry and gives your children the chance to sing and dance along with Mickey!

If you want a slightly more relaxing break, there are plenty of beaches in Florida for kids to run around on, making sandcastles and splashing in the waves. Clearwater, Florida is home to some beautiful white beaches and is very family-friendly. Children of all ages will love the chance to be able to jump aboard a pirate ship on Captain Memo’s Pirate Cruise. Or visit Destin on the Emerald Coast for a quieter and more relaxing family-orientated beach.

Cosmos’ holidays to Florida give you the freedom to tailor your trip to your family needs. You can choose to spend your entire trip exploring the theme parks or opt for a Twin Centre holiday and split your time between two different parts of Florida. The possibilities are endless and you can guarantee that you and your family will never have a dull moment in the Sunshine State.

Cosmos Holidays are a leading UK tour operator. Find out more about Disneyland holidays with Cosmos by visiting their website.

 

‘I’m going to stab you with a fork.’ Text conversations with English Dad

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English Dad doesn’t really do texting, which is a shame because we spend a lot of our time apart.

Well, he kind of does texting, but text conversations with him usually go something like this:

Me: ‘I just don’t know what to do about the bins. It’s really windy here and if I put them out I don’t want to be chasing down the road after them Benny Hill styley. But if I don’t put them out then I’m worried I won’t wake up in time and miss the bin men tomorrow morning…’

Him: ‘Yes.’

So imagine my dismay, then, when I was given the honour of filling out a MASSIVE form on his behalf, knowing that he was out with his mate Johnny and that I’d have to confer with him by text. The conversation, dearest reader, went something like this:

Me: ‘I need date you started there’

Him: ‘F*ck knows’

Me: ‘OK don’t worry I’ll work it out’

Me: ‘Then I need a personal reference and a next of kin’

Him: ‘You next of kin. What’s a personal ref?’

Me: ‘It can’t be me. It’s someone to give you a reference’

Him: ‘Your Dad’?

Me: ‘He’s not your kin’

Him: ‘For the reference then?’

Me: ‘OK I’ll ask. Now what about next of kin. Jesus.’

Him: ‘I don’t think I’m related…’

*LOST SENSE OF HUMOUR KLAXON*

Me: ‘Oh FFS. Pick a sodding next of kin before I tear this form up’

Him: ‘Lover, next of kin is you. Why do you keep asking?’

Me: ‘OMFG it says ‘NEXT OF KIN, NOT SPOUSE’ on the form!!!!!’

Him: ‘I don’t understand, lover. Next of kin can only be you because you’re my next of kin’.

Me: ‘It says not spouse it. Are you winding me up?’

Him: ‘Johnny D says make it him’

Me: ‘I want to stab you with a fork’

Him: ‘OK then my Mum. We still think Johnny D is best though’.

Me: ‘Sigh’

Creamy herb and lemon linguine with chilli pan fried Halloumi

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We’ve got a bit of a thing for Halloumi at the moment. I love its squeaky saltiness. The delicious, almost bacony savouriness of the cheese makes it a perfect foil to something a bit creamy, hence our favourite combo of herby, creamy lemon pasta topped with crisp on the outside, soft on the inside cheese…

You will need:

Linguine or spaghetti

1 pack Halloumi cheese

Pinch of dried chilli (optional)

1/2 pack green beans

1/2 lemon

About 200ml double cream

A couple of large handfuls of herbs - I used parsley, basil and mint

So get the linguine boiling in loads of salted water. I use a whole pack for the four of us but then we are really greedy. Use less if you’re going for arty dinner party rather than ‘fat bird in front of the telly’.

Slice the Halloumi quite thickly and put the slices straight into a dry frying pan. Sprinkle with the chilli. Check periodically and turn them over when the first side is brown.

At about the same time as you turn, pop the green beans in with the pasta. Then, chop the herbs, measure out the cream and squeeze the lemon and have them ready.

When the pasta is ready, quickly drain it, whack it back in the pan and add in the cream, squeeze in the juice of 1/2 the lemon (or all if you like it zingy) and add in all but a spoonful of the herbs.

Toss it all together and pile straight into bowls. Teeter your now golden and crusty Halloumi slices on top and finish with the remaining herbs.

A fresh, summer delight which is, when you think of it, practically storecupboard-ready and ridiculously quick to cook too.

 

 

Five things to photograph in Berlin

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If you were asked in which European cities you’d find interesting architecture, art galleries, monuments, fountains and statues, you’d probably reply London, Paris or Rome. Berlin would probably be somewhere down your list.

However, when it comes to thinking about where to go on your holidays, Germany’s capital city is an extremely under-rated tourist attraction. Those who visit will discover a past unlike anywhere else in Europe. From its tree-lined boulevards and sprawling parks, to its historic buildings and network of waterways, Berlin really is a magnificent city with which to spend a few days.

It doesn’t cost much to visit the city either – particularly if you stay in one of the many campsites in Germany on Zoover.co.uk.

With that in mind, we thought we’d put together a list of Berlin’s five most important sights worth photographing. From the things you really must see to the most important palaces, viewpoints and memorials of the capital’s hidden places.

Photo #1 – Brandenburg Gate

Perhaps the most famous of all Berlin’s sights, the only remaining city gate of Berlin used to represent the separation of the city between East and West Berlin. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 the Brandenburg Gate has now come to symbolise German unity.

Made of sandstone and built in 1791, the Gate one of the finest examples of German classicism. On both sides, there are six Doric columns supporting the 11 metre-deep transverse beam, which divide the gate into five passages. Since October 2002 the Brandenburg Gate has been closed for traffic, including buses and taxis.

Photo #2 – Alexanderplatz

Alexanderplatz is one of the most famous squares in Berlin and certainly the largest.

Named after the Russian Tsar Alexander I, who visited the capital of Prussia in 1805, the square became a traffic hub when a train station was established there in 1882. Alexanderplatz took on its present form in the 1960s after it had been largely destroyed in World War II. During this time, Alexanderplatz was converted into a pedestrian zone with traffic being diverted round it via a four lane street. Also during this time the former Centrum department store was built as well as the Alex Passages and the Berliner Fernsehturm (Berlin TV Tower).

Photo #3 – Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie is a must-see - the scene of several thrillers and espionage novels ranging from James Bond’s “Octopussy” to “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold”.

The most famous East German-West German border crossing, Checkpoint Charlie was a a transition point for the members of the Allied forces. In 1961 it was the scene of a famous tank ‘stand-off’ between the USA and USSR. Nearby you can find the Berlin Wall Museum - Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, which has a replica of the first Allied guardhouse set up on the median strip of the Friedrichstraße.

Photo #4 – Charlottenburg Palace

The Charlottenburg Palace is the largest palace in Berlin and is the only surviving royal residence in the city. Built at the end of the 17th century and expanded in the 18th century, it includes exotic internal decoration in both Baroque and Rococo styles.

Behind the Palace you’ll find a large formal garden surrounded by woodland. Designed in 1697 by Simeon Godeau, who was behind the design of the gardens at Versailles, it’s the perfect place for a leisurely stroll.

Photo #5 – The Reichstag

The final sight on our list has to be The Reichstag – a scene of so many important moments in history. Built in 1894, it was the scene of the declaration of the new Weimar Republic in 1918. On 27 February 2025 (under mysterious circumstances that still have yet to be explained), the Reichstag was set on fire, paving the way for the Nazi Regime to take hold.

After being destroyed in WW2, the Reichstag was rebuilt in a much more simplified form. Between 1994 and 1999, the Reichstag was redesigned and expanded with today’s glass dome by the British architect Sir Norman Foster while retaining its extensive, historical dimensions. The dome, which initially generated a lot of controversy, has since become one of the landmarks of Berlin. Since 1999, the German Bundestag has been convening in the Reichstag building.

So there we have it – five of the most sought-after photos from Germany’s capital city. If you’re planning your holiday, why not give Berlin a whirl?

 

Review: Reza’s Indian Spice: Eastern Recipes for Western Cooks by Reza Mahammad

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I’m going to start this review by saying that Reza Mahammad is a Really Nice Person. I’m not going to let this fact cloud my judgment at all - I just thought I’d let you know.

I’ve been a fan for years, since I used to watch him on UKTV Food when I lived in Ireland. He encouraged me to have a dabble with Indian cookery and brightened up the TV with his infectious laugh. Since then I’ve followed his television career and absolutely loved his recent series for the Food Network: Reza, Spice Prince of India.

I was delighted, then, to be offered a review copy of Reza’s Indian Spice - Reza is adorable on Twitter: friendly, fun and chatty - exactly how a good foodie celebrity should be. He even expressed delight at a photo of my recent attempt at pakoras (I’m ashamed to say I was delighted, and rushed, laptop in hand, downstairs to show the kids: ‘look, I’m tweeting with Reza!’).

Reza now lives in France, and this French influence is evident in some of the recipes, for example paupiettes of lemon sole enhanced with a creamy, saffron scented sauce. Delicious. Other influences are Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and, of course British. There are classic curries, show-off dinner party dishes and a’Quick and Chic’ section which on its own warrants buying this fabulous collection of recipes.

My boys liked the spiced meatballs in tomato sauce so much, I’ve cooked it three times already, and on my ‘to do’ list to try next are the scallops with coconut and ginger, lamb pasanda with green mangoes and the sumptuous white chocolate, cardamom and rose panacotta (I want the photo of this dish blown up and hung on my kitchen wall, its so beautiful).

All of this is written in Reza’s easy to read, chatty style (I abhor stuffy, bossy cookbooks). So often I pick up a cookery book and think ‘urgh - I cook all this stuff every day, in one form or another’, but this gorgeous-looking book has so many different ideas, so much inspiration, that I feel I’ll come back to it for dinner party recipes and midweek suppers for a long time to come.

Reza’s Indian Spice is published by Quadrille Books and is available now, priced £17.00 hardback.

UPDATE:

And true to form, look what arrived on my Twitter feed this morning *happy sigh*:

The School Trip: no booze, no snogging, and dealing with adoring ten year olds

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So the Biology A2 level syllabub (yes I thought that was a creamy dessert too) includes a trip away for a week. A field trip, but not in a field, by the sea.

Yesterday, we attended the pre-trip meeting. We sat in a little gaggle at the back (because we’re the ‘cool’ parents - it’s the equivalent of getting the back seats in the bus): me, Mr and Mrs Marsh (parents of the adorable Marshes, The Prof’s mates), and various other mates and mums.

It was a bit boring, frankly, apart from the startling slide show which they ran in the background with pictures of last year’s trip: people in wellies, people wading in the sea, people inspecting something they’d just picked up off the beach, a teenage boy in a bikini, the hostel where they’re staying….

WAIT! A BOY IN A BIKINI?

That woke me up. Not exactly sure why that was in there but I’ve spoken to the Prof and he swears that there’s no bikini mentioned on the packing list so we’re all good.

Basically it was the same old stuff that was on the letters home: no smoking, no fraternising, no drinking, no wandering waist high in to the sea…

I amused myself by chatting on Twitter, until I accidentally dropped my phone and was rewarded by a stern look from my offspring. That’ll teach me.

The teacher warned them that they would be sharing the hostel with a class of primary school kids. He went into detail about dealing with adoring ten year olds and creeping around in corridors so that they don’t wake the little buggers up (nobody wants to be adored at 11pm at night, let’s face it).

One bit that did make me laugh, though, was the tick box on the bottom of the form:

”In the unlikely event that your child becomes ill during the trip, do you give permission for staff to administer:

Paracetamol
Ibuprofen (if so, adult or junior)
Travel sickness tablets
Plasters…”

Bearing in mind that he’s a 5’10 strapping 17 year old, I couldn’t resist. I ticked yes to all, but added:

‘and if he gets an ouchy he’ll need a cuddle‘.

 

Tenerife’s big attractions: Siam Park and Loro Parque

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Siam Park

First stop on our journey around the biggest attractions in Tenerife was the beautiful Siam Park. This Thai-inspired water park, situated at the south end of the island, was opened by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand (yes, really) over two years ago and features every single sort of watery entertainment you can imagine: from the Tower of Power, which whooshes you down 28 meters of near free-fall drop, through acrylic tubes in the middle of shark tanks (yes, really) to the more sedate artificial beach with waves that can top 4m (they break quite gently on the shore though so it’s safe for tiddlers).

We had a cabana (a snip at €800 for the day, although there are cheaper options) which allows you all sorts of special treatment, including all-inclusive service in the restaurants and a nice free minibar with snacks, and even WiFi:

…with an amazing view over the park and beach…

Also not to be missed is the amazing Mai Thai river – thought to be the largest lazy river in the world, and the kids’ own area, Lost City, with loads of watery fun including waterfalls, bridges and pools.

For tickets, try www.attractionticketsdirect.com - also look out for the free double decker buses that run from most of the major southern resorts.

Loro Parque

Owned by the same family as Siam Park, Loro Parque, up in the north of the island, started years ago as a parrot park (the owner has a real thing about parrots - you can still see parrot shows at the park today). Also Thai inspired (in fact, most of the main buildings were made in Thailand and shipped over for construction) the site covers over 30 acres and the parrots have now been joined by gorillas, white tigers and orcas, as well as many other species, all looked after at this immaculate, and enormous complex. We took a behind the scenes tour, seeing how the gorillas are looked after and watching the trainers sort the kilos of fish needed to feed the park’s six orcas. The place is spotless, and the standards here are very high. We were all mightily impressed:

My top tip is to do all the animal shows back to back as soon as you get to the park : sealion, dolphin and then orca. The shows are more crowded, but the atmosphere is fantastic and this then leaves you with the whole afternoon to tootle about the rest of the park. Don’t miss the gorillas (the pack is all-male and often takes males excluded from other groups from zoos right around the world):

The food is pretty darned good here too - we feasted on tender barbecued pork skewers with a delicious ratatouille and baked potatoes and they well surpassed your usual theme-park fare (all washed down with some very decent local red wine as well):

Don’t miss the beautiful white tigers (and the monkeys if you must - I hate monkeys), oh and the gorgeously pink flamingos (I do love a flamingo):

There are so many things to recommend, I almost can’t decide, but the aquariums are fascinating, and the penguin enclosure is fantastic and managed with some real skill (even down to plunging the little fellas into darkness during arctic winters):

The park is open from 8.30 am until 6.45 pm every day (last entry at 4pm) and tickets can be purchased in advance from the website. You can also buy a twin ticket that gives you access to both parks at a discounted rate (but bear in mind they’re at opposite ends of the island, especially if you don’t have a hire car).

I travelled to Tenerife with Monarch. Here’s some more information about travelling with Monarch to Tenerife:

Monarch, the scheduled leisure airline, operates year round flights to Tenerife from Birmingham, London Gatwick, London Luton and Manchester airports with fares, including taxes, starting from £58.99 one way (£99.99 return).

In addition to year-round low fares, Monarch also offers a bespoke “build your own class of travel” range of products and services both on the ground and inflight. All customers are allocated a seat at check-in; however seats can be pre-allocated on scheduled Monarch flights for £5.99 per one-way flight to ensure that families and groups are seated together. For customers looking for added comfort, extra legroom seats are also available offering up to six inches of extra space from only £24.99.

Customers travelling on scheduled flights can also avoid booking charges by paying for their flights using a debit card or a PayPal payment option (which can be funded by a credit card for free). There is a small 4% fee for credit cards transactions, with a minimum value of £5. This fee, which covers the airline’s cost of processing the credit card payment, is applied per transaction and not per person.

They can also take advantage of online check-in, which is available between 18 days and four and a half hours prior to departure. With a great range of tasty hot and cold meals that can be pre-booked or purchased onboard, flying with Monarch really couldn’t be simpler.

In addition to flights, Monarch also now offers a huge range of great value holidays, accommodation options, car hire and travel insurance.

For further information or to book Monarch flights, Monarch Holidays or Monarch Hotels, please visit www.monarch.co.uk

 

Review: Farmer’s Choice Free Range

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Over the long Diamond Jubilee weekend, we had several family get-togethers, so I was delighted when Farmer’s Choice offered to send me one of their frozen food deliveries for review.

What we got:

Topside 1400g
Diced beef 750g
Steak mince 750g
Chicken large
Diced turkey breast 750g
Diced lamb 750g
Minced lamb 750g
Leg lamb half boned and rolled 1400g
Diced pork 750g
Leg pork boned and rolled 2000g

How we used it:

For our jubilee party, I defrosted three packs of the diced meat overnight in the fridge, then marinated them in various different flavours (the lamb in mint and rosemary, the turkey in soy sauce, honey and garlic and the beef in spicy plum sauce), threaded them onto pre-soaked bamboo skewers and grilled them. They were all delicious - the beef went down particularly well.

I mixed the minced steak and lamb together with breadcrumbs, an egg, mustard seeds, cumin and coriander with some crushed garlic, salt and pepper, and formed them into burgers. Oven cooked, then stuffed into burgers with some Manchego cheese they were beyond delicious.

The chicken was defrosted and used in my patented ‘lemon up the bum’ roast chicken recipe for Sunday lunch. It was utterly delicious (see my note below).

What we liked:

The free range chicken was fantastic. I usually avoid frozen chicken as I think it alters the texture, but cooked from fully defrosted the whole free range chicken was plump and juicy.

Any gripes?

Not really, only that some information about how to defrost specific items would have been helpful. I had no idea how long it takes to defrost a chicken and had to defer our roast chicken dinner an extra day!

For more information, click on Farmerschoice.co.uk

 

Managing your energy online

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How long do you spend online? As a writer, blogger, Twitter addict and home-worker, I’d say I’m on the web pretty much constantly during the day. If I’m ironing and my Twitter feed bongs, I can’t help but go and check it out. And for home-workers and busy mums, I’d say that Twitter (or Facebook, if you’re that way inclined) is the equivalent of our office water cooler. It’s a place to go to take 5 minutes out - to relax and have a bit of fun and a gossip.

But while the internet can be a great time waster, it can be a huge timesaver as well. British Gas have just done some research that shows that mums manage their online time quite wisely. In fact, the research shows that managing some tasks online can save up to an hour a day. I especially liked the fact that 22% of busy mums admit to going online for routine tasks while on the toilet, and 10% whilst pushing a buggy (careful, there, girls!).

But while the research shows that Mums are using their online time quite wisely - the most popular tasks being buying presents (86%), managing finances (84%) and paying bills (84%) - I’m heartened to see that the younger generation are still happily wasting their time on the less important things in life, like social media (85%) and booking tickets for cinema and holiday etc (80%). Plenty of time for being sensible when they’re old and grey, I reckon (like the rest of us).

British Gas is doing its bit to help us busy ones by introducing a whole range of online tools so that we can manage our time (and our bills!) more effectively, including monitoring energy consumption, booking/tracking engineers and viewing and printing your bills. If you want to start managing your life more effectively online register now or go online to find out more.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll get back to my deadline, my pile of ironing and, yes, my Twitter feed.

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Imperfect parenting of teenagers. Here’s how we roll. Plus GREAT teenage parenting blogs.

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I remember writing an article for Tesco Magazine once about the similarities (the smells, the lack of patience and volume control…) between toddlers and teenagers, but I know which I prefer: for me, it’s teenagers. Yes, I know that with toddlers at least you know where they are and what they’re doing all the time, but the conversation’s not all that, plus they can’t make their own breakfast. I think the biggest thing is getting over the sheer TERROR of parenting teens: the having to let go, and not always know exactly where they are. It’s the lessening of control.

A tough one for us parents, no?

So what’s it all about, this teenage parenting lark? Well, here’s my view (and for God’s sake don’t think I know what I’m doing, I’m winging it like the rest of you)…

Well, firstly, it’s about TRUST:

My own particular way of keeping sane is confidence and trust. Sometimes feigned, admittedly, but, as with a smile, sometimes just faking it is enough to make it real.

Let me elaborate. The Death Wish Dude, skater boy extraordinaire, requires larger and more complicated skate parks in order to achieve the same level of thrill/skill/injury/bruises as he gets more accomplished. This means travel to London. Initially I went with him on the train, but inevitably, he wanted to go on his own, with his mates. A chat with another skatery friend’s parent elicited the following gem: ‘he went on his own once. He survived. And now he knows the way I figure he’s safe to go again’.

And there’s the rub.

It’s trust. Not just trust in them, but trust in the fact that you’ve taught them well, equipped them for life in general. And it’s instilling that trust you feel in him. So for my part that was taking a deep breath and saying to him: ‘yes, you can go to London. I know you’re sensible and can make good decisions. I know you’ll behave, and am pretty sure that in the unlikely event of a crisis, you’d make the right choices and be able to cope. Go for it’.

The result? Teenager, head held high, who knows his Mum trusts him and is instilled with the knowledge that he is old enough and sensible enough to travel alone into the Big Smoke.

It’s about LEARNING TO LAUGH:

This big and gangly lark is hard for them to deal with too - so when your enormous teenager has kicked your drink over with his foot, and as he’s pulling the sofa out of the way so you can clear it up, knocks his own drink over too… well, you’ve just got to laugh. And grab another cloth. What else can you do?

It’s also about DEALING WITH THE CURVE BALLS:

Don’t get me wrong. Occasionally it all goes a bit hideous. There’s been drinking. And vomiting. But hopefully how we handled it: massive chats, tears on my part (being told that you’ve let your Mum down is hard to hear), promises on theirs, and lessons learned on both sides, have enabled us to move on. And there’s been sensible drinking since then (I think the vomiting and massive hangover helps to get the message across - nothing that I did, particularly). But it’s not been swept under the carpet - it’s been mentioned, and even, now a few months have passed, laughed about. It’s all about life lessons, I guess. And who can say they were the perfect teenager? Certainly not me.

It’s also about the SILLY STUFF:

We have other ways of bonding too - massive hugs, silly laughs, in jokes, mental texts (the Dude’s ‘not going to the skate park today, the fair’s in town and I don’t want to get bummed by a carny’ is a recent favourite), and we have tons of fun. Don’t get me wrong, we insist on respect, but the odd jokey ‘Mum, you’re a knob’ keeps the status quo, I find.

The other day they were teaching me to do press ups. Turns out I can do one, well, I can do a half - the down bit, but not the up bit. It left us all in fits of giggles. My upper arms still aren’t toned, but we had a laugh.

The house is often full of teenagers, which means it’s a bit noisy and I often have to retreat upstairs, but they’re a lovely bunch. And having a laugh with The Marshes (the Prof’s twin best mates) who are ADORABLE fellas, and stumping up for the odd takeaway pizza and a few bottles of cider mean that we all keep a bit of closeness, even though if I even dare LOOK at one of them while they’re texting (‘MUUUUM! Don’t be NOSY!!!’) I get reminded that they need their privacy too.

And then there’s ACCEPTING WHAT YOU CAN’T CHANGE:

Whispered chats about the hot girl in year 11? Ignore. Jokes about porn? Well, they’re teenage boys. However much you try to believe different, you know they’ve seen it. They know my view on it (which is, in case you’re interested, that I don’t particularly mind it, but you have to bear in mind that those girls aren’t all willing, big chested, well-paid, girlfriends of Charlie Sheen, you know… sometimes they don’t even want to be there). If they’re watching the Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders doing lip dub to ‘Call Me Maybe’, you know they’re not watching because they love the song. Red blooded males and all that. Deal with it.

It’s about SEEING THE GOOD IN THEM:

During half term, the doorbell rang while I was in the bath. I yelled ‘get that somebody please!’ and my 14 year old son answered the door. Hearing him chat politely to the postie ‘god I bet you’re sick of all this rain’, made my day. They might be smelly, lazy and annoying, but it’s sunk in. They know when to be polite too.

And don’t forget, sometimes the off day is yours. And if you can appreciate when you’ve bitten their head off and, ten minutes later, they appear with a nice big gin and tonic, that they’re doing their bit too, well, I think you’re doing okay.

So that’s us.

Rules to live by? Probably not.

Perfect? Nope, but coping, with sense of humour intact and dignity more or less still in place.

Want to judge me? Go ahead. In fact, pop round. I’ll show you a house full of love, laughter, trust, fun and more hugs than you an shake a stick at. Not perfect, no. But damned well good enough.

Want to read more blogs from parents of teens? Try these:

Family Affairs and Other Matters

The Mum Blog

Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy?

Mums Gone To…

2 Teens, A Dog and Me

DD’s Diary

Diary of a Desperate Exmoor Woman

 

Glorious Gozo

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Ah, the Mediterranean – I can just picture the beautiful beaches and laid-back way of life. When I think of summer destinations, I always picture the Med. One place that’s on our list is the often overlooked Gozo, Malta’s smaller, but no less stunning, neighbour.

This small, relatively unspoilt island is the perfect place for a chill-out break. If you’re planning on visiting, I’d suggest making it a two-centre break by stopping at Malta too.

No matter how long the flight, travelling is an exhausting business. We get round this by booking an airport hotel, meaning we start our journey refreshed. We recently stayed at The Hilton at Gatwick and would certainly recommend it. Prices of hotels are surprisingly cheap, so this little treat need not break the bank. Also consider adding airport parking into the mix, and you’ll save even more.

If you’re setting off from Heathrow, try the Park Inn Hotel Heathrow Airport - it’s a great choice for flights out of the capital, as well as the Premier Inn Manchester Airport, both offering great rates and comfortable rooms.

So, back to Gozo. The capital, Victoria, is where the main action is in terms of nightlife and shopping. There’s plenty to see aside from shopping too, with the National History Museum a great visit for history fans, and the Citadella, a fabulous fortified city with a beautiful Cathedral and stunning architecture.

As far as resorts are concerned, the main one is Marsalforn, with its pebbly beach and shallow waters. Most beaches on the island, and indeed Malta itself, are pebbly, but this doesn’t take away any of the beauty. If you do prefer sand though, I’d suggest heading to Xlendi, where the beach is small, but sandy.

To me, Gozo is about relaxation, so if you want more action then maybe the main island is for you, however I think the great thing about Gozo is that it’s a little haven away from the bright lights. There is action if you wan it, but it’s more lazy bimbling than extreme sport. Perfect for us lazier travellers.

Most of the daily activities tend to be based around the sea, with boat trips my top tip for a great day out. I love boat trips and no matter where in the world we are, we always try and float around the coastline for a day, soaking up some rays. Just remember the sun-cream - the breeze can lull you into thinking the sun’s rays aren’t as hot!

If you’re into diving, then Gozo is a treat. The Blue Hole is a famous diving sight, with opportunities to view the underwater residents of the Mediterranean up close and personal.

Alternatively, stay on dry land and head to Ggantija Temples at Xaghra. This is an ancient UNESCO listed site, and the world’s second oldest religious structure. Another must-do is a jeep safari, which is a fun way to get out and see more, passing through villages and countryside.

In keeping with the laid-back way of life, night-life follows the same suit, so if you want bright and bustling, head over to Malta for the evening. Victoria and Marsalform both have a range of entertainment on offer, but none of it particularly hard core. I think this is a positive, and a great opportunity to sit with a delicious meal and a drink, watching the world go by.

For a break from the hustle and bustle of life this summer, head to Gozo.

 

Brunch: lazy weekend eating. It’s the new breakfast

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So when it comes to the weekend, breakfast has become a thing of the past, especially now we have teenagers in the house who don’t emerge until a) there’s a phone call inviting them somewhere exciting, or b) they smell bacon.

Brunch has become the new breakfast, and it’s a great opportunity for me to get baking (which also passes the time until everyone’s out of their respective pits).

What to cook, then?

Well, the aforementioned bacon happens to be a staple of our brunches. Free range and preferably streaky, it’s stuffed into crusty bread and piled onto teetering mounds of pancakes before being drenched in maple syrup. You can use any flavour yogurt for the pancakes, but if you’re planning on eating it with bacon, sometimes natural is best. If you’re going to eat the pancakes with fruit, then try Yeo Valley’s raspberry flavour. It goes deliciously with maple syrup for some reason. Dollop a bit more yogurt on the top too:

Yogurt Pancakes

2 eggs

150ml milk

150ml Yeo Valley yogurt

225g self raising flour

4 level tbsp caster sugar

So sieve the flour and stir in the sugar (f you’re using a sweetened yogurt, cut this down to 2 level tbsp). Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and whisk in the eggs, yogurt and milk to make a thick batter.

Next, heat a heavy-based frying pan and lightly brush the surface with oil. Dollop a couple of tablespoons of the mixture into the pan, trying not to let them touch, then wait until you see bubbles on the surface before flipping them over. The first one will be a disaster, it always is, but after that you’ll get light, fluffy pancakes.

Might I add that these also make a lovely dessert, served with some boozy fruit and a big dollop of creamy Greek yogurt.

To serve your brunch, pile the table high with bowls of fruit and yogurt, piles of gorgeous pancakes, a big tray of sizzling bacon and some crusty bread. Some of Yeo Valley’s fruity favourite muffins would be an excellent addition here too.

And then it’s completely permissible to go back to bed for a little snooze. Or is that just me?

Moving house, teenagers and, erm… bedroom habits

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So it looks like we’re on the move again. Not from choice, you understand, but the person who said we could rent their home ‘long term’ decided that ‘long term’ is a year. Oh well, onwards and upwards.

Big decisions are now afoot, though. Do we try and muster every last dribble of savings from every corner of the bankosphere (what? it’s a word), the ‘Rainy Day’ tin and down the back of the sofa and try and get a mortgage? Or do we just move on AGAIN and rent somewhere else? I’m not cut out for this nomadic life, I don’t think, and I find it all really stressful. Plus, as my Mum pointed out, people are running out of room for us in their address books and let’s face it, EVERYBODY hates writing over Tippex.

Another quandary are the sleeping arrangements. One of the houses we looked at had three floors, with two of the bedrooms on the top floor and one on the middle. ’I'd have the middle, obviously’, said the Mad Prof, ‘I need my privacy, being 17 and all.’ Dramatic pause. ’I'd also need a DOUBLE bed’.

Wishful thinking aside (bless him), should we be buying furniture just in case our teenager gets lucky and bags himself a girlfriend? We hit the tinterwebs, where he cruised the Silentnight website, for an hour, picking out enormous divan beds with built in accupressure pads (presumably for recovery purposes), whereas I was more keen on the practical divan beds with storage than furnishing his lovenest.

Mind you, as English Dad pointed out: when you think about it, given the amount of time teenagers actually spend in their beds, we should probably be spending more on them than anything else in their lives (certainly a decent desk and chair - waste of money there).

Thanks to Silentnight for allowing me to use their image.

 

Fresh summer chicken and pea risotto with pea shoots

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We have a lovely chap from a local farm who pops round regularly with fresh free-range chicken breasts and eggs. He’s a godsend as I freeze the chicken breasts in bags of two and they’re so handy for things like this easy risotto as I just pop the frozen breasts straight into the stock and let them poach while I’m stirring. By all means use fresh though.

Make sure your stock is well flavoured. I’m quite lazy and if I haven’t got home made I tend to bung in a couple of stock cubes. I’d been sent these Knorr pots to try and actually the herby one tasted (and smelt) delicious so I’ll definitely buy them again.

You will need:

2 litres stock (I used 2 Knorr Herb Infusion pots and one chicken stock cube)

2 large free range chicken breasts

2 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 onion

300g risotto rice

Couple handfuls of frozen peas

Pea shoots

So firstly, get your stock bubbling away in a large saucepan. Make sure the cubes have dissolved (another bonus with the stock pot thingies as they’re just kind of jelly that melts quite easily) and pop in the chicken breasts.

Put a pan on. I use a large saucepan with quite high sides - the thing with risotto is that you need to beat it about a bit to make it nice and creamy (it’s all about releasing the starch) so use something like that or a large saucepan so you can give it a really good mix.

Bung in your oil, then fry the finely chopped onion until it’s translucent. Now chuck in the risotto rice and give it a really good stir around. There is a school of thought that you should almost ‘toast’ the rice in the oil before you add any liquid. I don’t go that far, but I do give it a really good stir before adding my first splosh of liquid (you can obviously use a nice glass of white wine here, but my pernickety youngest doesn’t like the taste).

Now just keep stirring ENTHUSIASTICALLY until each ladleful of stock is absorbed before adding another. Don’t be in too much of a hurry. Enjoy the process.

When you’re left with your chicken breasts just nestling in a teeny bit of stock, take them out, chop them (checking they’re cooked through) and add them to the risotto along with the last bit of stock. Add in the frozen peas, stir and cover for a final 5 minutes with the heat off.

Finally, pop out to your tubs in the garden where you sewed your dried peas a couple of weeks ago, and pinch off some fresh pea shoots to garnish.

Yum. Summer in a bowl, people.

Pop and Go Knickers and portable gin…The very lovely and incredibly useful holiday review post.

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Being an international traveller of some repute, as I most undoubtedly am (not), I get sent all sorts of travelly type stuff to review. I thought, then, that I’d do you a little travelly reviewy type round-up thing and bring you everything even remotely useful in the travel stakes that I’ve reviewed recently.

Pop & Go Knickers

These knickers are MAGIC! Picture the scene: you’re on a crowded beach, towel wrapped awkwardly around you, and trying desperately to shimmy out of a soggy swimming costume and in to clean knickers without them filling with sand.

OR you find yourself in less than salubrious changing rooms and don’t want to chance dropping your smalls on the yucky floor: this, people, is the solution. These amazing knickers have little clips at the sides so you can change them whilst standing up. I reckon they’re the future of travel for us girls. You heard it here first. More info at: popandgoknickers.com.

Karrimor Global Equator 70 wheeled suitcase

My initial reaction, when opening the incredibly large and definitely body-sized cardboard box that it was delivered in (no, I wasn’t imagining storing a child in it, of course I wasn’t) was that it was a bit of an odd shape. It’s not noticeable in the picture but it’s a bit wider at the bottom than it is at the top. Handily, that slight oddness makes the bottom the perfect place to store all your bulky trainers, wash bags of smellies and bottles of gin, which then means that you don’t have the usual trouble of everythig being crushed up one end as soon as you stand your case up, as it’s all happily nestled there in the first place. Bonus.

I also worried, with it being quite a soft outer, that it wouldn’t be very durable, but it survived a flight to Florida, including being dragged around five different hotels and being chucked into the back of various jeeps and buses incredibly well, in fact, it came back looking completely unscathed. Something that you can’t say about many suitcases really.

It’s also pink and girly, which I love. And the handles are padded so it’s really comfy to carry, which I love as well. Top marks.

Elizabeth Arden

When they found out I was going to Florida on my travels, the lovely chaps at Elizabeth Arden sent me a beautiful tissue-wrapped gift containing a couple of items from their Sun Defense range. I used the Eight Hour Cream Sun Defense for Face SPF50 religiously as I suffer with pigmentation on my face and ALWAYS slather it in high SPF. I thought initially that it would be too greasy, but a quick blot left me with a non-sticky and well protected face. I also carried it with me to apply to exposed areas like shoulders and neck during the day too. I loved it.

The Eight Hour Cream Targeted Sun Defence Stick was in a handy and very cute little yellow container and was perfect for popping into my bag. It’s handy for applying to lips, noses and ears whilst out and about and wasn’t too greasy and didn’t leave nasty white marks either.

Martin Miller’s London Dry Gin

Last but not least, and perfect for travelling, were these delightful little bottles of gin, kindly sent to me by Martin Millers. They travelled all the way to Florida with me and dead handy they were too. Top travel marks, chaps!

 

In which our hero is poo at long-distance parenting and someone misses an exam.

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So when I was telling you about my recent Florida trip, I promised to tell you a bit more about the missed exam/screeching business.

Before I left, we all sat down and synchronised diaries. No stone was left unturned. And no teenager was scheduled to be left alone in the house for enough time to a) have a party or b) burn it down.

Picture the scene, then:

We’re all in the bloggerbus, tootling happily across Florida on our way to Cape Canaveral. My phone rings. It’s the school. This is not good. I’m in Florida, the boys’ Dad is training in Hampshire (after dropping them off at school early) and my Mum is in Venice. With a startlingly accurate sense of ‘oh shit’, I answer the phone:

‘Oh hello’, says Perky Voiced Lady, ‘it’s the school sixth form manager here’

Me: ‘Oh hello, how can I help?’

PVL: ‘Well, your son was supposed to be in a Biology exam this afternoon…’

Me: ‘WHAT?! What do you mean SUPPOSED TO?…’

PVL: ‘Ahaha well yes, that’s the problem. He hasn’t turned up, and the exam started ten minutes ago’.

Cue panic. MAJOR PANIC.

A quick mental tally of the facts brings up the following hastily-arranged pre-Florida plan: the Prof has a Biology exam Monday afternoon. He doesn’t need to go to school with the Death Wish Dude in the morning, so one of his BFFs who has just learned to drive is picking him up and taking him to the exam.

So what went wrong?

After promising to investigate, and leaving PVL to find out how long after an exam has started the candidate can still enter, I grab my phone and ring the boy. No answer. I ring again.

There’s a weird mumbled snuffling. And then, wailed, ‘Muuuuuuuuuuum… I missed my exam!’

This is bad. All sorts of hideous things rush round my head. Is he drunk? At 1pm? Has he been drugged? Been attending an all-night party?

I settle for the first thing that comes into my head: ‘WHERE THE *HELL* ARE YOU?’

Prof, still wailing: ‘I don’t knnoooooooow!’

Ah, well that explains it then. I’ve woken him up. The Prof is one of those weird, deep sleepers who talks rubbish for approximately ten minutes after you’ve woken him up. As a small child, he did lots of walking into cupboards and weeing in the laundry basket. I’m talking serious post-sleep discombobulation here, people.

The best thing, I find, in a crisis, is to shout. A lot. My shoutiness kicks in and I yell at him, while my fellow passengers stare and me and stifle small giggles: ‘GET DRESSED! GET OUTSIDE! YOU’VE GOT TO GET TO SCHOOL!’

I ring my brother, who is too far away to help. He rings my Disreputable Dad, who is nearer, and pretty good in a crisis, and mobilises him on a mercy mission to get to our house, pick the boy up and get him to school. STAT.

I ring the school back. They inform me that you can enter an exam within the first half an hour. He has about twelve minutes.

Cue Benny Hill music.

The boy rings back. He’s in the car with his friend. They’re racing to the school. And he’s really reeeeally sorry.

For the rest of the entire trip, I am teased mercilessly about my blogger bus shoutiness. This includes everyone yelling ‘WHERE ARE YOU?!’ if I fall behind while we’re walking along, and me replying ‘I don’t knooooow’ in my best Mad Prof voice.

Sooo it turns out, he got to the exam. he reckons he did okay, and, miraculously, even managed to finish. His mates had banged on the door and rung his phone (he had 20 missed calls) until they were going to miss the exam themselves, and had headed into school. Thank goodness they had the sense to tell one of the teachers.

Oh, and in all the excitement, nobody remembered to cancel my Dad, who spent twenty fruitless minutes banging on the door and shouting through the letterbox before giving up and going home. Sorry Dad.

Note to self: next time? Make better plans.

 

 

English Mum’s Holiday Snaps: the entries

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So you’ll remember, I’m sure, that the lovely chaps from Ice, a new and exciting loyalty scheme, challenged you all to show us your fave holiday snaps and grab the chance to win a family Eurostar ticket to the destination of your choice. Well here are the entries. And very nice they all are too. They’ve been making me go ‘oooh’ and ‘awwww’ all week. So now it’s down to Ice to choose a winner. Going to be a toughie, I reckon. What’s your favourite?

And congratulations to the lovely Babaduck who won the tickets!

My Florida diary, part 3: Myakka State Park, the Ringling Museum of Art and The Helmsley Sandcastle

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The next morning we grudgingly leave the fabulous breakfast burritos in the Sunset Café at the Sunset Vistas behind and head south down the gulf coast, through Manatee County and down into Sarasota, eventually entering the lush Myakka State Park.

Myakka is hot, hot, hot. We sit, quietly melting, waiting for our boat trip to start. But as soon as we’re under the shade of the boat’s canopy and slipping slowly through the water, it’s fabulous. And the breeze is wonderful. Our guide, Captain Dick (a Vietnam vet), is great - his talk is full of gentle humour (‘see those massive ugly black birds over there that look like vultures?’ We all nod politely. ’Well, they’re vultures’) and tons of interesting information. The river winds 14 shallow miles around the state park (the shallowness is one reason why we see the big gators - there are lots of areas in the river where they just can’t submerge).

We see wild pigs, all manner of cranes and herons, and - obviously - TONS of alligators. We even spot an eagle, stopping to eat his catch in a tree.

Every so often a fish pings up onto the deck of the boat (they seem very athletic, flipping about in the water) and John reaches for his trusty fishslice to flip them back in. At one stage our boat hits one of massive gators that slide ominously past us. There is a terrific thud. ’Don’t mind him’, John says, ‘he won’t feel a thing’.

This place is an absolute must-see. And park entry is really cheap at just $6 per car. People come here to bike, hike, kayak and camp, and we could see why, it’s a stunning place.

After the sweaty excitement of all this gator spotting, we head back to the blogger bus for some slightly more sedate tourism in the shape of a private tour of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, with Public Relations Manager, Scott Gardiner. Don’t be fooled by the title into thinking that the Ringling is some sort of stuffy musuem with creaky floorboards and dusty portraits. All told, the Ringling covers some 20 acres of gorgeous Sarasota seafront and includes, amongst beautiful gardens, John and Mable’s breathtaking mansion, Ca d’Zan (literally ‘house of John’), kept lovingly as it was when they lived there, along with the fabulous Circus Museum (including the amazing miniature circus, an epic reproduction of one of the enormous circuses pioneered by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from the War years, created by Howard Tibbals (who we actually bumped into while we were there!).

When I take the fellas back to Sarasota (oh and I will, I’m planning it already), I’ll stay at the Ringling for an entire day, have lunch in the beautiful gardens, and spend hours just soaking up the view from the terrace of the spectacular mansion. It really deserves to be savoured. The circus museum is tremendous fun as well and there are some amazing original pieces. We ran out of time, which was a terrible shame, but hey, an excuse to go back too.

Last stop for the night is the Helmsley Sandcastle. I was really looking forward to this proper ‘old Florida’ beauty as I’ve read about its original owners, millionaire philanthropists and property tycoons, Leona and Harry Helmsley (once owners of the Empire State Building). The Helmsley Sandcastle is now owned by the Helmsley Trust and was built in the late 50s, then added to in 1966. The hotel oozes vintage 60s charm and the endless white sand private beach is completely empty. The Helmsley has a private car and driver that will drop you in to St Armand’s Circle, then pick you up after dinner. The rooms are still 1960s in style, so it’s maybe not for you if you’re looking for uber-modern accommodation, but for me, this somehow adds to its charm, and the setting takes a lot of beating. I loved it.

For more information, check out the Visit Florida Facebook page.

I travelled to Florida with Visit Florida and Virgin Holidays. If you’d like to recreate my trip, here’s some information about a very similar seven nights in Orlando from £949

Seven nights in Orlando with Virgin Holidays, including scheduled flights with Virgin Atlantic from London Gatwick or Manchester direct to Orlando, two nights accommodation at the 5V Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek, two nights accommodation at the 3V+ Sunset Vista Beachfront Suites, two nights at the 5V Longboat Key Club & Resort and one night at the 5V Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Hotel, all on a room only basis with car hire included starts from £949. Prices are per person based on two adults travelling and sharing a standard room, price includes all applicable taxes and fuel surcharges which are subject to change. Prices are based on departures 12 – 14 Nov 2012.

Start your holiday before you’ve even taken off in the v-room at Gatwick Airport or Manchester Airport; Adults £20, Kids £12

Virgin Holidays is a member of ABTA and is ATOL protected

To book: www.virginholidays.co.uk, 0844 557 3859 or visit one of our 90 stores located in Debenhams and House of Fraser stores nationwide.

Union Jack cakeage and English wine tasting - a pretty fabulous Jubilee weekend

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So what a wonderful Diamond Jubilee it was, then. We didn’t do very much until the Tuesday when we had my big bro and his family round for some yummy food, wine and a mahoosive cake (see above) but we watched the festivities on the telly and moaned about the rain: very British.

Last night saw us finally visiting the lovely Neil Irvine at No 2 Pound Street in Wendover, Buckinghamshire. Neil and his partners all have a background in wine/hospitality and this lovely wine shop is always worth a trip if you’re in the Home Counties (or even if you’re not, frankly!). The shop prides itself in stocking unusual, quirky and interesting wines, and also boast a fine array of fabulous British foods too. Their cheese selection is wondrous and shortly due for expansion and the cured meats are fabulous. More of this later. Neil has been promising me a little English wine tasting evening for a while and we went along to visit him and check out his pick of the best that England has to offer. We weren’t disappointed.

What we love about No 2 is not only that it is a gorgeous wine shop and deli, but it’s a lovely meeting place too. While we were there several people popped in for a glass of wine (the wines by the glass are eclectic and brilliantly chosen) and a chat - they’re open until 11pm Monday to Thursday and midnight on Saturday!

On to the wines, then. I took the liberty of photographing the labels for you in case you’d like to give them a go. I took basic notes on each one - they’re a mixture of what we thought and what Neil suggested we might pick up during the tastings. Neil made us laugh when he said that up until quite recently, English wine traditionally had a kind of ‘beardy, corduroy, dandelion, elderflower’ kind of reputation, but now that’s changing, especially with our sparkling wine which is now beating Champagnes and winning serious awards.

Up first was Denbies’ Flint Valley (Non Vintage) £9.60, which was acidic, crisp and fresh, and with just 11% abv was nice and light too. A fabulous start.

A quick note on English wine pricing here as well: we’re never going to compete with your four quid a bottle types in Asda - what with minimum wage and small yields - think of English wine as you would an artisan-produced food product and you won’t go wrong. We found some fabulous wines and felt that they were all worth the money.

Next, we tried two types of wine made from Bacchus grapes:

The very delicate Welcombe Hills Bacchus 2010 £15.50: I thought I could smell elderflower and grass, and Neil suggested maybe blackcurrant as well. Delicious.

Cornwall’s Camel Valley Bacchus Dry 2011 £17.00 - richer (from being grown in Cornwall’s lovely microclimate) and almost exotic fruit tasting. Very dry. We were divided on these two, with exactly half of us liking the Welcombe Hills, and the other half lovely the more viscous Camel Valley.

Next we tried Stopham Estate Pinot Blanc 2010 £14.70: I LOVED this wine. There was a lot less acidity than the Bacchus wines (the appropriate term is ‘fleshier’ apparently!) - it’s much softer tasting. Again we were divided with some liking the more acidic Bacchus varieties, but I loved it. Easy drinking.

We took a quick break for some of No 2′s amazing food. We chose a cheese and meat platter and feasted on fennel salami from Monmouthshire, Shropshire black ham, air dried spiced beef, wild venison and cracked green peppercorn salami, Lincolnshire Poacher cheese (lush!), some gorgeously orange Shropshire Blue, some very strong and pongy but delicious Nuns of Caen, make in Herefordshire, and some delicious Bells Bloomin’ White (I hope I got that name right) which was creamy and rich with mould on the outside.

We then tasted a bit of a secret project. Element 20 £16.50 (calcium is the 20th element in the periodic table) is made from grapes grown by Denbies - 80% Chardonnay, 20% Bacchus. It’s fermented in oak barrels and tasted lovely with our platter of English cheese and charcuterie. You won’t find this in many places but it’s worth seeking out.

Onto the rosé now, with another wine from Welcombe Hills, this time their 2010 Rosé £13.20. This wine is England in a glass: I could really taste lush strawberries, cut grass and sunshine - it’s like a day at Wimbledon! Delicious. The Gusbourne Pinot Noir 20101 £16.50 was our last favourite - a very light red, it didn’t really stand up to our strong cheeses, but Neil assured us that it’s a lovely drinking wine.

And now a red. Again from Welcombe Hills, the Pinot Noir Precoce 2011 £16.00 (literally ‘precocious’) was a far deeper red. It tasted riper and really fruity and a lot softer too. Fleurie lovers would adore this. We loved it.

And finally, we started on the English fizz! We started with a bang by cracking open the very popular Camel Valley Brut 2010 £31.00 from Cornwall. This was a HUGE hit with us. This wonderful bottle of Cornish sunshine has delicious fruity flavours and is elegant and gorgeous - it’s lighter than champagne I think - a bit like Prosecco, and it’s been beating the likes of Bollinger in recent awards. Seek it out!

Nyetimber Classic Cuvée £29.00 from West Sussex is blended from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes and has just rebranded away from a classic Champagne-like look to a more English, quirky label. It has delicious, creamy bubbles and traditional Champagne elements of toasty, biscuity flavours. Lovely.

And last but not least, Gusbourne Estate Blanc de Blancs £29.00 is obviously Neil’s fave (you should have seen him pouring this with a massive grin on his face). In Champagne terms, Blanc de Blancs would be the most elegant, classic wine, and this doesn’t disappoint. A fabulous celebration fizz with a price tag competitive with the Champagnes it beats off with a big stick!

And finally, hiccuping somewhat, we hit the shop. What did we buy? Well, a lot of the Welcombe Hills wine: the 2010 Rosé, the Pinot Noir Precoce 2011 and the Bacchus 2010 white and also that delicious Stopham Estate Pinot Blanc. And we’ll be back. Oh yes, we’ll be back to hear more of Neil waxing lyrical about his beloved wines, and to share a glass (or four!) with him again very soon.

Massive thanks to Neil and all the staff at No 2 Pound Street for taking the time and making the effort to treat us to such a wonderful evening. And to my big bro and his wife for joining us.

 

 

 

 

Leaf free and lovely: avocado, apetina cheese and pear salad

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Ahhh summer is finally here. The garden’s like a jungle, the washing basket is overflowing, but I don’t care - there’s a sun lounger in the garden and that’s where I’ll be if you need me. Summer is also salad central, but I don’t know about you - I get a bit bored of leafy salads. The Death Wish Child won’t touch them with a barge pole either, so I have to get a bit creative on the salad front: something fresh and lively, but without the leafy element.

Happily, then, Apetina has challenged me to create a leaf-free salad, and this one will do you very well. We’re a bit addicted to Apetina (I used the classic cubes for this one), the slight saltiness goes well with the sweetness of the pear and the creaminess of the avocado. Add in olives and cherry tomatoes and it’s a colourful, healthy summer delight. Here goes, then:

You will need:

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 lime, juiced

1 red chilli, deseeded and very finely chopped

Handful of herbs: mint and oregano are perfect, chopped

Rapeseed oil

Apetina cheese

1 ripe avocado

Couple of handfuls of black olives

Small punnet of cherry tomatoes

1 pear (slightly under ripe is fine), cored and chopped

To prepare the salad:

Crush the garlic cloves with a little pinch of salt and pop the resulting paste into a jug along with the lime juice, chopped red chilli, chopped herbs and a couple of big glugs of rapeseed oil. Mix it all up and leave to one side.

Next, take your salad bowl and pop in the Apetina cheese, sliced avocado, black olives and cherry tomatoes. Lastly add in the chopped pear, then quickly pour over the salad dressing and toss gently.

And that’s it! Serve with crusty bread and a final sprinkling of fresh herbs. Delicious.

If you love this recipe, pop along to the Apetina recipe challenge on Facebook where every week Apetina will be featuring four salads and vote (for me, preferably, but hey, check out the others too). You could win a picnic hamper or - on the final week - a BBQ.

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Viral video by ebuzzing

English Mum’s holiday snaps: Ice’s family Eurostar giveaway!

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So this is very exciting!! In the run up to the peak holiday season, Ice, a new and exciting loyalty scheme, has decided to give English Mum readers the chance to win a family Eurostar ticket to the destination of your choice!*

About Ice

Ice is a flexible and generous loyalty scheme that rewards shoppers for buying from companies carefully selected for their environmental credentials. Ice identifies sustainable products and services, which range across a variety of sectors such as food, fashion, beauty, and of course travel, presents them to customers in a one-stop shop (www.myice.com), and rewards customers generously with Ice points that can be redeemed against future purchases. **

Customers will get the same or cheapest deal available from the retailer for the particular product or service they are purchasing, and will also collect Ice points to spend or put towards, other products available on myice.com. What’s more, customers can collect up to 11 points for every £1 spent, making it all the worthwhile.

About the competition

To be in for a chance of winning, all you need to do is send me your fabbest holiday photo and email it to me at english[dot]towers[at]gmail[dot]com, telling me who you are and where the photo was taken. Entries must be received by midnight on the closing date, which is 8th June, so basically you’ve got the whole of half term to send me your perfect holiday picture!

If you’re a blogger, please link back to this post, and if you’re a tweeter, please use the hashtag #englishmumsholidaysnaps

Extra points will obviously be awarded if you can get food in your picture somewhere :)

The small print:

*Eurostar is a brand partner of myIce.com and the family ticket comprises 2x Adult and 2x Child
tickets, up to the value of £400

** every Ice point collected is worth 1p

There is no cash alternative to the prize. The winner will be chosen at random after midnight, 8th June 2012.