New Wordpress Site!

http://honestlyitseasy.wordpress.com/

Woo hoo! Check it out!

We are being very technical!!!!

xxxx

RockNRoll Bride - School of Rock - Workshop - Blogging!

We were fortunate enough to be able to attend a ‘School of Rock’ Blogging Workshop run by the rather fabulous Kat Williams just before Christmas. She blogs about alternative weddings and so much more, she really is an inspiration and so lovely with it as well.

Please if you have some time visit her pages, actually no scrub that, you must go and check out her pages, I don’t know what I did before I discovered her site!

http://www.rocknrollbride.com/

http://www.facebook.com/rocknrollbride

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocknrollbride/

http://pinterest.com/rocknrollbride/

http://twitter.com/RocknRollBride

The workshop was organised in partnership with Cherry Sorbet Creative, for more information on them please check out their website http://www.cherrysorbet.co.uk and twitter http://twitter.com/#!/cherry_sorbet and held at Drink, Shop, Do http://drinkshopdo.com/Drink,_Shop_%26_Do/Drink,_Shop_%26_Do_%E2%80%94_Home.html in Kings Cross, London. This is a gorgeous little shop and cafe which I will deffinately be returning to. It's a must stop shop if you are ever in the area!

Obviously I don’t want to go into everything she spoke about as I believe the School of Rock is planning on going on tour this year. When this happens if she is anywhere near you I encourage you to sign up and go along it truly is an invaluable workshop in my opinion.

Considering the workshop lasted for 2 hours the amount of information and inspiration you come out with is incredible! It covered everything I could have hoped for and much more. There was a great mixture of people there, of all levels, from the relative newbies like myself to people who had been blogging for a few years. I could have sat there for a whole afternoon soaking up information like a sponge but unfortunately I had a train to catch so missed out on more chatting and a drink in the pub afterwards. It did mean however that I could read over the fabulous notes that went with the workshop (alongside my scribbled notes) on the way home. Next time I will book a much later train back for sure! Thank you to everyone who made me feel so welcome!

Apologies for the delayed posting of this blog but ideas have been whizzing around our heads regarding our blog since going on this workshop and its going to take a little while for us to get our heads around things and crack on creating our ‘Honestly Its Easy’ Brand, but you will over the next few months hopefully notice a huge improvement and those improvements will start with us moving away from Blogger and onto Wordpress. Apologies for any disruption this may cause whilst we are learning how to use it etc but the end result will be better, clearer and more user friendly and we are going to post on a more regular basis we hope!

Anyhow, we are off to put some ideas into Practice!

Lets see what 2012 brings for ‘Honestly it’s Easy!’

All the best!

Claire
xxx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

2012 Shows!!!

Just a short note to let you know about some of our favourite shows that are on this year together with links to the individual websites for more information etc, if you would like to add any please feel free to do so in the comments section at the bottom of this blog post! More the merrier!

16-18 March Stoneleigh
http://www.theediblegardenshow.co.uk/

6-7 May Losely Park Guildford
http://thegrowyourownshow.co.uk/

10-13 May Malvern Worcester
http://www.threecounties.co.uk/springgardening/

13-17 June 2012 Birmingham
http://www.bbcgoodfoodshowsummer.com/
together with BBC Gardners World Live

15-17 June Malvern Worcester
http://www.threecounties.co.uk/threecounties/

3rd - 8th July 2012
RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show
http://www.rhs.org.uk/

29-30 Sep Malvern Worcester
http://www.threecounties.co.uk/malvernautumn/

All the best!

Claire
xxx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

Our Home Made Christmas Presents Received

Woo hoo! first blog post of 2012!! How very efficient of me!

Here is Our Home Made Christmas Presents Received blog to follow on from our 'Given' blog a few days ago.

Considering the time restraints with this little project I think we all did a jolly good job!

From mum and dad we got a chicken clock, here's a picture of it sat next to my brothers VW home made version he got from them.

My mum went on a felting course last year and she put the things she learnt to good use on this bag, absolutely love it!

The best gifts I have to admit came from my brother and his girlfriend Katie.

The first of which was this creation;

I've wanted a bird table in my front garden for a while so this was just perfect, and Mr Robin our main front garden resident has already staked his claim on it. It will be interesting to see what other birds attend the garden over the next few months.

We also got this stunning chopping board - perfect for our kitchen and its chicken parafanalia!

Katie also made me some of her lovely soap. Katie makes all of her soaps at home and sells them (Helping Hands Company), she is a truly talented lady. For presents I got Cucumber and Mint soap, and Apple and cinnamon. She does many different types if you would like more information on her or any if her soaps please contact her at the following email address, katie.soaps@gmail.com

They make great favours at weddings etc for all of you that are getting married at some point soon! ;)

Son qall in all I love all of my presents that were made! Roll on this year, apparently the mission is home decorated festive jumpers!! Should be highly entertaining!!!! Maybe Mel and I should make each other one for gifts!?

All the best!

Claire
xxx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

Christmas Wreath - Home Made

We also made Christmas Wreath’s together this year, Mel, her mum Monica, my mum and our friend Jo. Last year we went to the wonderful Harriet from Flora’s garden workshop but this year we couldn’t make it due to work commitments etc.

So we thought we would give it a bash ourselves. We had a lovely lunch courtesy of my mum;

So courtesy of ebay we got some wreath rings, and used a local florist for the flowers and also foraged some materials. Some holly, foliage, fir cones etc.

Mel also had a little helper, her son the adorable Kenzie came along for the afternoon.

Considering we all had access to the same materials the difference in all of the wreathes was incredible, and we had a wonderful afternoon giggling, reminicing, gossiping, and being creative, here are the results;

And I cannot emphasise enough how great Harriett at Flora's Garden is, and if she is doing a workshop in your area do book and go along, you will not be dissapointed!
Here are her details;

http://www.floras-garden.co.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/FlorasGarden

http://twitter.com/FlorasGarden

All the best!

Claire
xxx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

Our Home Made Christmas Presents Given

In my previous blog I explained that my brother came up with the wonderful (kind of last minute) idea of making Christmas presents for each other this year because money was tight etc, if you didn’t read it here is a link to it.


http://honestlyitseasy.blogspot.com/2011/12/xmas-presents-2011.html

So Boxing Day came (we celebrate as a family on Boxing Day rather than Christmas Day, things get too complicated trying to arrange to see everyone on one day).
So for my mum I made a decorated mirror. I decorated it with fabric flowers that I cut out of material and clipped together with a brad and then attached to the mirror. Here is the final article;

My mum and dad camp a lot in their caravan, and dad likes to refer to the van on site in a pub fashion ‘George and the Dragon’. My dad had kept a drawing board that he had made for a project when he was at school many moons ago, so I recycled it and made it into the sign for him;

Nothing like a bit of recycling! For my brother and his girlfriend I created two sets of colourful plant pots with herbs in. One set was for inside the hose at this time of year and the other was suitable for outside. Katie (my brothers girlfriend) makes incredible soap – more about that in our next blog post. O some of the herbs will come in handy for her. Inside ones were Coriander, parsley and aloe vera, and outside were wild garlic, Bay, Chocolate Mint, Apple mint, and Silver Thyme. I put the names if the herbs on metal spoons rather than the plastic labels that never last very long.

I also made some hand warmers for everyone, simple to do, basically 2 squares of felt sewn together and filled with ceramic beans. Place in microwave for 2 minutes and you have hand warmers!

So that was what we made for everyone’s presents, stay tuned to our next post later on to see what we got in return.

All the best!

Claire
xxx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

A Festive update!

This time of year is always quite hectic but I thought I would just drop a quick blog around to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I will update the blog again in the next couple of days letting you know how my family got in with the whole mke your christmas presents idea my brother came upo with as my last blog post detailed, but I can honestly say I am very surprised at the quality of the presents that came out of the whole experiment. But we will not be repeating the event! ;)

We've been enjoying great food, great drink (including some lemoncelo at the in laws - deffiantly making some of that at some point!) but more importantly we have spent some great time with family and friends, which lets face it, is what Christmas should be about!

So from both Melanie and I, we wish you a very merry christmas and hope that 2012 is a very successful year for you, and we hope you continue to follow us both and our journey's via out blog and facebook page etc.

All the best!

Claire
xxx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

Xmas Presents 2011

I do echo Mel’s comments in the blog post above – things have gone particularly crazy over the last couple of months, I have managed to book an extra few days off work before the Christmas period to get myself back on track, so normal blogging procedure will resume and be much more regular in the future! I didn’t even manage to make the Good Food Show which Mel blogged about last time, which was annoying, but you have to pay the bills somehow!

So my wonderful, dearest brother came up with the idea that this year we should make our Christmas Presents for each other. Now, firstly I quite often make the Christmas presents I give out, because I think people appreciate the thought that goes into them and they are unique.

But this year I decided I was going to have a break, a bit of relaxation time in the lead up to Christmas as this year has been pretty hectic and next year is already looking chaotic! So over the last few months I've gradually been purchasing Christmas Presents.

Then my brother says 'for something different why don't we make each other Christmas Presents this year, it should work out a lot cheaper as well'.

This is the last time he gets a say in what we do/buy for Christmas. Because now that everyone else has to make presents it means that mine have got to be better than usual!

My brother and his girlfriend were very easy to sort out, my mum the same, but my dad is just a bit of a nightmare! He is exceptionally difficult to make for as I obviously cant's make him anything I have done before, so things like Whiskey Fudge, Jams, Chutney's, pickled onions and eggs etc are off the menu! We have finally figured out what we are going to do, but it will take more time than all the other present put together!

I do wish I could fill you in on everything we are doing but just incase any of the family end up reading this blog before the big day I can't post anything about it. You will however get fully updated as soon as the December 25th has been and gone.

Does anyone else make gifts for their families and friends for christmas, if so what do you make?

I'm also coming down with a cold, any natural remedies you can suggest would be very welcome, I really don't have time to be ill!!!

look forward to updating you all again soon - next week we are starting to gather things for our wreathes and table decorations for the festive period!

Deck the Halls - fa la la la la!!

All the best!

Claire
xxx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

The Good Food Show Winter @ NEC

Firstly I need to apologise for the sheer lack of activity on our Honestly its Easy blog. Claire is so busy being a pro photographer and my little family/work life has been a super busy month of birthdays and umm..well..I don't actually know, it's just flown past!

It was that time of year again, this weekend, when Birmingham NEC hosted The Good Food Show Winter.
Packed with stalls a plenty, many giving away cheeky tasters it again was a fab day out.
My hubbie to be always enjoys checking out each and every whisky stall and insists on trying every one in every flavour, slowly sipping and admiring and making the right "mmm" sounds. He honestly thinks he's is some kind of whisky conniseur! Hmmm.....

My mum loves checking out ...well...pretty much every stall, which is fine by me, wouldn't want to miss anything now would we?
We personally loved the craft stalls and of course the baking ones! And I have to say the turkey roll we purchased from Kellys Turkeys was LUSH!
http://www.kellyturkeys.co.uk

Mum was also chuffed when we met Janet Basu & Mary-Ann Boermans from The Great British Bake Off and managed to get a pic with them too. (Unfortunately the pic is on my mums phone, so will add later!)
They were trying to recruit for new contestants for the next series, I reckon my mum should have a go personally, she makes awesome cakes, but she isn't quite ready for Prime Time she told me!!! ha!
I did still pick up an application form and thought the other half of Honestly Its Easy might want a bash at it? Claire - What do ya reckon???

All in all a fab day, managed to fill our little black trolley with items from spices & hot sauces to bee boxes & bark pencils for the boys!
I even visited one of the poshest portacabins I think i have ever had the pleasure of entering, it was like walking into a hotel bathroom! Even had hand lotion! http://www.andyloos.co.uk I salute you! I was very impressed!

Did anyone else manage to attend? What did ya think? What was your favourite stall or show?

Mel
@Tikobear
@Honestlyitseasy
http://www.quidco.com/user/1443956

Halloween Toffee Apples!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

My mum lent me her latest edition of Easy Food magazine and I found a great easy to follow receipe for Toffee Apples! Yum!
I made these tonight with great success, so thought I would share with you!

For the toffee coating:
225g demerara sugar
110ml water
1/2 tsp vinegar
2 tbsp golden syrup
25g butter

For the apples:
6 apples
6 ice pop (lolly) sticks

1. In a frying pan, add the sugar and water and dissolve over a moderate heat.
2. When it has dissolved, stir in the vinegar, syrup and butter.
3. Bring to the boil and cook without stirring until it reaches the stage that if you dropped it in cold water it hardens. This should take about 10 minutes boiling time.
Meanwhile while the syrup is cooking, pierce each apple with a wooden stick.
4. Once the toffee is ready, dip each apple into the hot toffee, turning it around in the syrup so that each one is fully coated.
5. Leave to harden on a lightly oiled tray or greaseproof paper.

Simples!

Enjoy!

Mel
@Tikobear
@Honestlyitseasy

Make ahead Christmas Presents?

With the cost of living constantly rising and people trying to save money anyway possible we have been thinking about how we can save money on Christmas presents. Christmas is my favourite time of the year, it’s not the presents, its the fact that you see and spend time with people and family you may not have seen for a while.

Every year we go to my parents for Boxing Day to celebrate Christmas with them and my brother and his girlfriend join us for the day. This year in an effort to save money etc we have decided that all of our presents to each other will be hand made!! I have a few ideas already but if you have anymore that you would like to share please let me know – all ideas are welcome!!

We aren’t the only ones thing in a festive theme, in November’s issue of the Good Food Magazine there is a special section on ‘Make ahead Christmas Gifts’, my favourite recipe from this section is

Pistachio and Cranberry Cookies

Makes 22. Prep 15 mins plus cooking. Cook 15 mins

175g/6oz butter, softened
85g/3oz golden caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
225g/8ox plain flour
75g/2 ½ oz pistachios
75g/2 ½ oz dried cranberries

1. Mix the butter, sugar and vanilla extract with a wooden spoon. Stir in the flour, then tip in the pistachios and cranberries – you might need to get your hands in at this stage to bring the mix together as a dough. Halve the dough and shape each half into a log about 5cm across. Wrap in cling film, then chill for 1 hr or freeze for up to 3 months.

2. Heat oven to 180 c / 160 fan / gas 4. Slice the logs into 1cm thick rounds, place on baking tray lined with baking parchment and bake for 12-15 mins. Completely cool on tray.

Make ahead
Well wrapped, these dough logs will happily freeze for up to 3 months, meaning you can include freshly made biscuits in your Christmas hampers without any last minute effort. Simply defrost in the fridge overnight, then slice and cook as above.

So has anyone got any other make ahead recipes or home made gift ideas they want to share?

All the best

Claire
Xx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

River Cottage Veg Everyday!

This Sunday sees the return of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall to channel 4, we at Honestly Its Easy are really looking forward to it!

http://www.rivercottage.net/

“Hooray! The brand new TV series of River Cottage gets underway this Sunday (16 October).
In River Cottage Veg, renowned carnivore Hugh - this week named OFM Food Personality of the Year - spends a summer without either meat or fish.
Acknowledging that he needs to curb his appetite for flesh focuses entirely on vegetables, and attempts to reboot his whole attitude to food.
In this first episode, Hugh makes peace with the pigs, and says goodbye to bacon sandwiches before heading out to meet David Bailey, one of the best vegetarian chefs in the country.
David wows Hugh with his Asian inspired cooking, and more importantly reassures him that there are good times ahead. On his return to River Cottage HQ, Hugh’s first challenge is to put on a full summer BBQ without so much as a sausage – let alone his beloved hog roast.
But a forage in the wild larder proves fruitful, providing delicious samphire for tarts and seaweed for rosti.
Hugh even manages to put the spit to good use, creating possibly the world’s most unwieldy kebabs.
All the recipes from the new series are taken from Hugh's new book: River Cottage Veg Every Day!
You can grab all those recipes and cook along with the man himself during the Channel 4 show this Autumn.”

http://astore.amazon.co.uk/rivecott-21/detail/1408812126

So I know what I will be doing at 8pm Sunday evening – let us know what you think to the series too!

All the best

Claire
Xx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

Foraging Mushrooms

A couple of weekends ago I went to see my brother and his girlfriend who have just moved into a new house on a farm estate. Whilst out on a Woodland walk in the estate I saw lots of mushrooms! Now I love mushrooms, but in the wild I’m really not too sure which ones are edible and which ones aren’t so I tend to leave well alone! I watched an episode of River Cottage a while ago and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall got mistaken which were edible mushrooms and which weren’t so I’ve got no chance!

At any rate here are a few of the mushrooms we found, the theory is I learn a bit more about mushrooms before going to see my brother again so I can forage to my hearts content!

For those people who are interested in learning more about mushrooms etc I’ve just ordered the following books to help me on my quest for mushroom knowledge, I’ll let you know if they are any good (only in my opinion of course!)

Mushrooms: River Cottage Handbook No.1
By John Wright

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mushrooms-River-Cottage-Handbook-No-1/dp/0747589321/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1318516108&sr=8-13

Field Guide to Edible Mushrooms of Britain and Europe (Field Guides)
By Peter Jordan

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edible-Mushrooms-Britain-Europe-Guides/dp/1847737463/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1318516065&sr=8-10

And whilst browsing for these books I also came across a new one from ‘the legend’ Alys Fowler which was published by Kyle Books (8 Sep 2011), not sure how I missed that one! But I’ve added it to my end of month buying!

The Thrifty Forager: Living Off Your Local Landscape

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thrifty-Forager-Living-Local-Landscape/dp/1856269124/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1318516108&sr=8-14

All the best

Claire
Xx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

The Great British Bake Off Final!

So last night saw the final of this years Great British Bake Off. If you’ve not been watching this series, you’ve missed a treat! To summarise 12 amateur home bakers take part in a bake-off to test all of their baking skills as they challenge each other to be win the title of the Great British Bake Off’s best amateur baker, they cook anything from classic Victoria sponges to pastries, to bread. I’ve loved every minute of this programme it’s been even better than the first series!

Big Congratulations to Joanne Wheatley who won the title last night but congratulations also has to go to Mary-Anne Boermans and Holly Bell the runners up. Personally I thought Holly was the winner but it was a close call.

Recipes from the contestants on the series can be found on the website http://www.thegreatbritishbakeoff.com/recipes/

You can view Joanne Wheatley’s blog, Jo’s blue AGA, at http://josblueaga.blogspot.com/.
You can follow Joanne Wheatley on Twitter: @joannewheatley

You can view Holly Bell’s blog, Recipes from a Normal Mum, at http://recipesfromanormalmum.blogspot.com.
There you can view her latest postings, beautiful celebration cakes, recipes and reviews.
You can also follow Holly on twitter: @HollyBellMummy

You can view Mary-Anne Boerman’s blog, Time to Cook Online, at http://timetocookonline.com/.
Follow Mary-Anne on twitter: @wotchers

There is also an Official Book to accompany the series

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1849902682/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thegreatbri00-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1849902682

It’s definitely on our shopping list!!

All the Best!

Happy Baking!!

Claire
Xx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

Saving Money!

It is easy to save money, I'm not talking putting away £25 a month in a savings account with little return, I'm talking saving money on everyday items, earning "free" cash and receiving "free" products.

I love a good bargain (as you may have seen in one of my previous blogs re: freecycle!) and if I can help it, I won't pay full price on most things I buy. I always look for instore offers, money off coupons in papers/magazines and of course the internet.

The internet has many sites offering voucher codes or printable coupons, take today for example, I had a look on the internet site supersavvyme.co.uk and found a £2 off coupon for a stain remover (with both my boys at school now, stain remover is a must for their white school shirts!) This coupon was redeemable at either Tesco or Sainsburys (you choose which store you want it for). I chose Tesco. After visiting the store later this evening, Tesco had the prduct on sale anyway for £3, so with my £2 off coupon, I got the product for £1! Bargain!
I also had a coupon for cream cheese, Tesco was selling the product for £1.36, my coupon was £1 off - I paid just 36p for it! Double Bargain!!

My favourite sites for printable coupons are:
www.supersavvyme.co.uk
www.beforeishop.co.uk

Online voucher codes are brilliant too, you can save money on all sorts of things from restaurants to days out!
Just type in "voucher codes" in your internet search engine and it will come up with a whole list of online voucher code sites which list companies offering discount with a code!

One thing I also do when shopping online, I go through a cashback site called Quidco, this gives you a percentage of cashback for your purchases, which pays you into your Paypal account (terms apply)
This is now my little "pot" for my wedding fund, so hopefully during christmas I'll be getting cahsback on all my pressies!

I also joined a survey site and a product testing site. Basically I complete surveys on all sorts of topics, in return I accumalate points, once you get to a certain amount of points, I can exchange these for vouchers for places like amazon. This certainly helps during christmas as I save them up during the year!
The product testing site is exactly that, they send you products to test for a period of time and then you complete a survey to tell them what you thought about it! You get "free" products just for your opinion!

I learnt all the above from good ol' Martin Lewis, his website is jammed pack full of ways to save and making sure you get the best deal.
Check it out: http://www.moneysavingexpert.co.uk

Oh and before i forget, I bought a new book called Bubble wrap, banana peel, baby oil and beyond. It has over 700 ways of using everday household items for different jobs, from keeping your glasses mist free to de-icing your car! Interesting eh??!

Whats your fave way of saving money??

Mel
@Tikobear
@honestlyitseasy

Cake Stands!

According to an article on the front page of the Daily Telegraph today Cake Stands are making a come back! So in celebration I thought I’d post a few of my faves I’ve found!

It’s not surprising that we are seeing a big rise in the sale of cake stands, department store John Lewis has said that sales of three-tier cake stands are up 46 per cent!

With some great baking shows on the TV, to name but a few The Great British Bake Off, The Hairy Biker’s with Mum’s Know Best and Home Cooking Made Easy by Lorraine Pascale, baking is on the schedule almost every night!

Whether your cakes are beautiful rich Victoria sponges, indulgent chocolate, or dainty cup cakes, we love them all! Long live the cake!

4 TIER CUPCAKE DESSERT STAND NEW **HOLD 23 CUPCAKES**

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TIER-CUPCAKE-DESSERT-STAND-CUPCAKES/dp/B0041K5DV6/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1317624545&sr=8-15

Lakeland do a great range too and even do matching cupcake papers!;

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/search/ks_cake-stand/q02.r16.1?src=ggkit&gclid=CK3bwpD2y6sCFbEntAodQhOO0w

They have a fabulous Halloween and Christmas themed stand as well! We may even try and make one ourselves! Look out for it in future blogs! ;)

All the Best!

Happy Baking!!

Claire
Xx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

Home Made Bruschetta!

Not sure if anyone else is having this problem luck, but I have LOADS of tomatoes ripening all at the same time! Fab!
So what do you do with them? Before, I have made the usual chutneys and sauces, however i totally forgot about one of my favourite dishes.... Bruschetta!
I first tried Bruschetta at the Olive Garden restaurant in Calgary, Canada and was hooked. Loaded up onto warm Ciabatta bread with some garlic & parsley butter...Nom Nom!!!

It is one of the simplest dishes to make too, here's how:

5-6 Nice juicy ripe tomatoes - Diced
1 Large red Onion - Diced
2-3 Cloves of Garlic - Crushed
2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4-5 Fresh basil leaves - Chopped

Basically all you have to do is mix all the above into a dish, stirring well to distribute the olive oil & Balsamic vinegar evenly.
Simples!

(Some people like to deseed the tomatoes....I don't, I chuck the whole lot in, no wastage here!)

Load it up onto some Ciabatta and tuck in!

I have now made this a few times in the past few weeks and have had the thumbs up from every one of my friends. Its a great dish to serve at a BBQ / Party etc - You could definately class it as finger food!

However this is a very "garlic" dish (especially if you have garlic butter too) so be warned if attempting any tongue action, as you may get the finger!
At least you won't get attacked by Vampires though!!

There are many variations to Bruschetta, all of them can be found on the internet, from more tomato receipes to pepper varieties!

Let me know what you think if you try any of them!

Mel
@Tikobear
@Honestlyitseasy

Alex James’ Harvest Festival & Pulled Pork

www.alexjamespresentsharvest.com

We went to Alex James’ Harvest Festival last Sunday, it was a bit windy but fortunately the weather stayed dry, which helped us digest copious amounts of Aspell Cider, eat food fit for the gods and see Michelin star and celebrity chefs cook amazing food! What more could a girl ask for!! We were very fortunate to have seats at the Chef’s table as well. Where i devoured a dish of pulled pork which was to die for!

And in homage to the dish I have tried to re-create the dish here at home. I roughly followed the recipe from the BBC food website by Simon Rimmer from Something for the weekend;

oil, for greasing
2kg/4lb 6½oz pork shoulder
1 tbsp chilli flakes
1 tbsp mustard seeds
salt and freshly ground black pepper
200ml/7¼fl oz white wine vinegar
250ml/9fl oz cider
3 onions, finely sliced
6 cloves garlic, sliced
Preparation method
Preheat the oven to 170C/340F/Gas 3.
For the pulled pork, oil a baking tray and place the pork shoulder on top. Mix together the chilli, mustard seeds and salt and freshly ground black pepper, then rub the mixture into the pork shoulder.
Pour the vinegar and cider over, then scatter over the onion and garlic.
Cover with parchment paper, then wrap in foil and place into the oven to roast for three hours. Remove the parchment and foil, then roast for another hour.
'Pull' the pork by sticking a fork in the shoulder and shredding the meat into small pieces with another fork.

I also added some smoked paprika as well. I cooked mine in a slow cooker, It was cooking on low for nearly 24 hours. For a first effort it turned out really well, I only heard words of praise from Spen so that’s always a good sign. Next time I think I will add a bit more spice, although the meat was tasty and shredded perfectly some of the meat in the centre of the joint lacked a bit of flavour – definitely something to work on!

Claire
Xx

Twitter:
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@Honestlyitseasy
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Red Mite!!

Unfortunately our chook house has been attacked, an infestation you may call it, I call it War!

The dreaded Red Mite, the vampire of the night that sucks the blood of chickens causing stress, reduction in egg laying, anaemia and in some cases even death!

This is a problem I was hoping we would never encounter, however we have and in a BIG way!

They are called the silent killers, for the fact that during the day they hide away in the nooks & crannies of your coop waiting until its dark to feed on your chickens. They appear white until they have fed, then they turn bright red! (hence the name, Red Mite!)

Red Mite leave a grey dust in the crevices they live in, we had this dust, but because I use a white mite powder on the coop, I assumed this dust was that! I have learnt my lesson!

Our chooks are cleaned out reguarly, disenfected and treated with a diatom powder, but we still managed to be completely infested by this horrible pest! As soon as we realised, the war was on!

We began by dismantling as much of the coop as possible, and giving it a damn good scrub, concentrating on every nook and cranny.
After we left this to dry, we applied an insecticide spray (keep it away from the chooks as they must not breath the vapours) to every inch of the coop, followed by a complete dusting of Diatom powder, which was also applied to every chicken.

We also had to take off the felted roof and burn it, Red Mite LOVE roof felt and can hide and breed in it quite easily. The only option to get rid of the major infestation was to send them to the depths of hell!
We have now replaced the roof with plastic corrugated sheeting. Much easier to keep clean and no hiding places for the mites!

The coop is now back together, and looking very clean, however this is not the end of the war, no, every few days we have to keep on top of it, by checking reguarly for any stragglers we didn't manage to kill in the first instance as they can breed so quickly. The average life cycle of a red mite is around 7 days and in this time you can go from a minor pest to a huge problem!

If you think you have Red Mite in your coop, get on top of it now!

Products I used:

Insecticde Spray: Ready to Use Smite Red Mite Spray (Sold widely on the internet and good pet shops)
Diatomaceous Earth (Diatom Powder): A 100% natural powder for use on animals, pets and birds against external parasites (lice, fleas etc) and internal (worms), and for general good health. I bought mine from wiggly Wigglers (www.wigglywigglers.co.uk)

I have also started adding garlic (either fresh or granules) to the chickens water. According to research, Red Mite HATE garlic, so the hope is, if the chickens drink "garlic" water, when the Red Mite feed, the chickens taste of garlic, resulting in the mites going elsewhere!
I'm not sure if it works or not, but I might as well try it!

There are LOADS of internet sites dedicated to information relating to Red Mite so if you need any further info, google it!

Have you had Red Mite? What did you use to eradicate them? We'd love to know!

Mel
@honestlyitseasy
@Tikobear

TV Cookery Shows ....

Hello!!!

This blog s all about whats on the tv at the moment because I don’t know about anyone else but I am pleased as punch that ‘The Great British Bake Off’ is back on BBC 2. For those who didn’t see the last series the new series can be summarised as follows; twelve of the country's best amateur bakers take part in the second series of The Great British Bake Off, hosted by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins.

In this weeks episode the contestants make cupcakes, tiered cakes and Battenberg cake (Mary Berry’s recipe). Ever since watching the first episode last night I have been craving coffee and walnut Battenberg cake! You can view the episode here;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b013pqxw/The_Great_British_Bake_Off_Series_2_Episode_1/

In Mel and Sue you also have the perfect presenters – I can’t imagine any other paring doing such a great job!

Via the official website www.bbc.co.uk/food/campaigns/get-baking they are also encouraging people to get baking “its a great way to raise money for BBC Children in Need, so put on your apron for Pudsey and find out how you can help make a difference. Mary Berry answers your baking questions and you can download posters and bunting for a bake sale.”

The other BBC programme I have loved (unfortunately it’s finished now) is Rick Stein’s Spain, fortunately for all those who missed this absolutely wonderful series all of the programmes can be seen via the BBC iplayer

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b012m958/Rick_Steins_Spain_Episode_1/

I was lucky enough to be taken to Rick Steins restaurant in Padstow for my 30th Birthday this year and have to say I think he’s a bit of a legend!

I also caught Mexican Food Made Simple last night, again this is a new series Thomasina Miers presents on Channel 5, some great recipe ideas and the filming is very well executed.

So what shows are everyone else watching and loving?

Claire
Xx

Twitter:
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@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup