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:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

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:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup