The 3-ingredient cookie

An excellent version with oats, bananas, dried cranberries and grated orange zest.

Have you heard about those three-ingredient cookies consisting of nothing but bananas, oats and an optional fill-in (chocolate, raisins or nuts, for instance)? No added sugar. No added fat. Suitable for vegans and all those on lactose-free, casein-free, gluten-free*, egg-free, dairy-free diets. Take 2 minutes of prep work and need about 15 minutes in the oven. That's less than it takes to unpack your regular grocery bags, so they're super-quick as well.

* You need to make sure you use certified gluten-free oats, also called 'pure oats'. 


I came across the recipe in The Burlap Bag. As the author Lauren notes, even if you eat all of those, you've basically consumed 2 bananas and a cup of oats, so this qualifies as health food in my opinion. They are soft and slightly chewy. They're not the best-oat-cookies-in-the-world (these are!), but they're pretty moreish and satisfying. Flavour- and texture-wise, these remind me of those soft apple and oat drops I've been making, just much quicker and simpler.

My two older kids love them (Karoliine, our youngest, is still to young to have any solids), and the grown-ups are pretty fond of them, too:

 

So here's the recipe. Again, a huge thank you goes out to The Burlap Bag for this great 'cookie' idea. Come autumn, I'll try their Autumn 2-ingredient Cookie, using pure pumpkin pureé.

Use really ripe bananas for making these - the riper your bananas, the sweeter the cookies.

3-ingredient oat cookies
(Kaerahelbeküpsised)
Makes about 16 bite-sized morsels

2 ripe medium-sized bananas
200 ml (4/5 of a cup) of quick-cooking oats
a handful of either raisins or dried cranberries (craisins) or chopped dark chocolate or chopped walnuts

Pre-heat the oven to 170 C/350 F. Line a cooking sheet with a parchment paper or simply grease your cookie sheet thoroughly.

Peel the bananas, place into a bowl and smash with a fork. Add the oats and the add-in (I love the tiny seedless currant raisins):

 

 Mix till combined. Take about a teaspoonful of the mixture at the time, form into a ball and transfer onto your cookie sheet.

 

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool slightly and enjoy!

Other foodbloggers making these:
Anne @ Anne's Food (9 March 2013, in English)
Martiina @ Tegemisi. Toimetusi (4 March 2013, in Estonian)
Gaili @ Tsheburashka (3 March 2013, in Estonian)
Kätrin @ Kätrin kokkab (13 March 2013, in Estonian)
Karen @ Kafka na praia (2 April 2013, in Brazilian Portuguese)

More moreish oatcake recipes:
My melt-in-your-mouth oat cookies
Cheesy oatcakes
Peppery oatcakes
Oatcakes with ginger
Apple and oat drops

Two years ago: Estonian Soda Bread Recipe
Four years ago: Raisin Fruit Soup Recipe (Kissel)

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Anais and Jefferson and The Kit and a Blind Tiger

Anais and Jefferson

A wonderful musical evening yesterday with new discoveries, amazing performances, and the promise of two more potentially great gigs in the next couple of months. We went to the Blind Tiger Club in Brighton which I think is a lovely venue but Dave is generally unimpressed by. Plusses are bunting, sparkly lights and Crabbie’s Ginger Beer; minus is mostly the seating which isn’t very comfortable unless you’re first through the door, but at least there is some.

The gig was Vermont singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell who is back in the UK to finally promote the album, Child Ballads, a collaboration with Jefferson Hamer which has been three years in the making. Their painstaking work was obvious in every note and everyone in the club was transfixed from start to finish. The pair have selected English and Scottish folk songs and brought them ‘back home’ with gorgeous Americana harmonies and guitars. I love the recording which we’ve had on the iPod for a while, but seeing the work performed live was breathtaking. Both Anais and Jefferson are so talented and their voices blend together perfectly. I hadn’t seen Jefferson before and he’s certainly worth a look - almost as beautiful as the lace-up leather boots Anais was wearing! The recording seems to favour Anais more but the gig was a definite partnership. If they’re coming anywhere near you over the next couple of months (and the gig isn’t already sold out!) make sure you get yourself a ticket. This one’s a real treat.

This Is The Kit

Anais and Jefferson were preceded by Bristol’s This Is The Kit performing a set of their own songs. Quirky and lyrically interesting, after a slightly nervous start we both were impressed with their singing. Briefly checking them on Facebook, I think the band performs in a variety of combinations around pivotal Kate Stables, and we saw a duo of Kate and Rozi. I wouldn’t necessarily travel especially to see them again, although I’d support a local-to-me gig, but I will be keeping an eye on their future work and will probably download at the weekend if there’s an album available.

The aforementioned potentials started taking shape when I got home from a drab day at work. Dave reminded me of April’s Pete Mulvey gig at Lewes Con Club which we had looked into but not yet got around to booking. I very much like his album and he’s got a great voice, but he’s apparently sharing the bill with Birds Of Chicago who I don’t yet know at all. More research required so I’ll be on YouTube if you need me!

Then as we were rushing to get ready, Dave also mentioned that Rachel Ries is playing in the Brighton Festival Fringe in May. We saw Rachel once before, last year at the Blind Tiger Club in Anais Mitchell’s Young Man band. I’ll be interested to see more of her work, and she is sharing the bill with Brighton’s Emily Baker who I think is really good. Emily played support for a fun Amy Wadge gig at The Greys, several years ago now, and I’m definitely up for hearing how her music has evolved and discovering what she’s doing now.

So that’s Pete Mulvey in Lewes in April and Rachel Ries/Emily Baker at Brighton Festival Fringe in May. Please don’t go buying the last tickets for either until I’ve got mine!

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Grilled mackerel with potato and chorizo hash

Doesn't this look like something wonderfully light and spring-like? We've had couple of beautifully sunny days here in Estonia recently and I do believe now that this looooong and greyish winter will end, eventually.

Here's a simple lunch or dinner idea, using new potatoes, cooking chorizo (you can choose a spicy or milder one, it's up to you) and fresh mackerel. Flavoursome and filling!

Grilled mackerel with potato and chorizo hash
(Grillitud makrell chorizo-kartulipadjal)
Adapted from DeliciousMagazine.co.uk
Serves 4

500 g new potatoes, skin on
2 whole mackerels, filleted into 4 either by you or your fishmonger
2 Tbsp olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, crushed
a small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
100-150 g cooking chorizo, cut into smaller chunks
salt and black pepper

Wash the potatoes thoroughly, then parboil in salted water until just tender. Drain and cool slightly.

Put the fish fillets into a shallow dish. Mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, crushed garlic, chopped parsley. Pour over the fish, then season generously with salt and pepper.



Peel the cooled potatoes, chop into smaller pieces.

Pre-heat the grill to high.

Prepare the potato and chorizo hash. Heat a large frying pan and cook the chopped chorizo over a high heat for about 2 minutes or until the oil starts to run. Add the chopped potatoes and cook for another 8-10 minutes, stirring every now and then, until the chorizo and potatoes are golden and crisp.

When the potatoes and chorizo are cooking, lift the mackerel fillets from the marinade. Place onto a grill rack and grill for 7-8 minutes, until the skin is golden and the flesh is cooked through.

To serve, spoon the potato and chorizo onto warmed plates, place the fish fillets on top, drizzle with some herb oil and serve immediately.

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Pork with Black Olives recipe

Pork with Black Olives

I'd like to share this favourite dinner recipe of ours. It's a simplification of a Spanish dish. We usually serve the quantity below as two portions for dinner, but then don't have anything else with it. I have also served it as four portions with a carb side dish when entertaining.


Ingredients:
175g pork tenderloin fillet
1 tbsp plain flour
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
1 small onion, fairly finely chopped

400g tin chopped tomatoes
200ml chicken stock
100ml white wine
90g black olives, pitted and halved
2 tbsp dried parsley

We usually get a whole +Sainsbury's tenderloin fillet when I cook this meal, and keep half for next time in the freezer. Slice the fillet into 1cm thick slices and flatten them out with the heel of your hand (or a meat mallet if you've got one).
Mix the flour, salt and pepper together into a bowl and dredge the pork slices. Go easy on the salt because the olives will add a salty taste to the dish later on.
Heat a couple of glugs of good quality olive oil in a large deep frying pan and brown the pork slices. Remove them from the pan and set aside.
Add a little more oil to the pan if needed and lower the heat. Fry the onion until softened but not browned. Add the tomatoes, chicken stock and wine, and bring to the boil. I like the Napolina tomatoes and use Kallo organic stock cubes.
When the sauce begins to boil, lower the heat again and return the pork to the pan. Make sure all the slices are submerged and leave on a slow simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally to make sure the sauce doesn't stick.
Add the olives to the pan with a generous couple of tablespoons of parsley. Stir and leave to cook for about another half an hour before serving. I probably only put about 60g of olives into the actual dish. We buy them from the deli aisle in a 90g tub but, strangely, several always vanish between halving and cooking!

Enjoy!

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Musings on Storytelling Sunday and my name

Storytelling Sundays mask

Last weekend, I went to the first Storytelling Sunday, a series of workshops led by Sally-Shakti Willow. I didn’t really know what to expect from the session, but I like stories and hoped there might be some good advice I could use to improve my writing. As someone who usually stays on the perimeter at these kinds of things, I certainly did not expect to get as involved as I did or to have such an emotional reaction to the work. Just over a week later and, like an excellent play that stays with you after the curtain has fallen, the workshop is still very much in my thoughts. I keep being drawn back to mull over the issues that affected me so strongly.

Sally-Shakti is a lovely woman, warm and kind, and the atmosphere she created for the workshop was like a supportive bubble with only the group inside. Sounds odd, I know, but it really worked and I believe feeling so safe was the catalyst for allowing myself to open up. The workshop explored our names, how we feel about them and how well we relate to them. I don’t like my name. It doesn’t fit me. I tend to use the abbreviated ‘Steph’ but, as this is such a short sound, I have learned I need to say the long ‘Stephanie’ when I first meet new people, otherwise they mishear and I end up embarrassed, repeating myself. So as we zoomed round the group, I said ‘Stephanie’, the word left hanging awkwardly in the air. It’s my name, but it’s not me.

I was surprised that a good half of us felt disconnected from our names so my quandary is not so unusual! We looked up the words in baby name books to see if an ancient meaning might provide a connection. Stephanie means ‘garlanded’ or ‘wreathed’ or ‘crowned’. I’ve never been a woman who particularly decorates herself and the thought of being crowned? Well, that’s really not me either. A new friend, Suesie suggested hidden depths, perhaps I haven’t yet found my ‘thing’, the talent that will earn my wreath. This did resonate quietly at the time although I didn’t consciously pick up on it until several mulls later. I spoke about my Mum, relating her explanation of why my sister and I have unusual names (hey, I was storytelling!). Mum was a teacher and didn’t want to be reminded of previous students when she spoke about her own children. She ignored the names of children she had taught and, in the 1970s, Stephanie was much more unusual than it is now. She was aware that I might not like it though, so my middle name was ‘plain’ Jane in case I wanted something simple instead. However, using a different name to your given one is difficult to enforce and requires a strength of character that little me didn’t have. You have to repeatedly correct people and I wasn’t comfortable with that level of attention. Stephanie stayed.

I talked over the workshop with my partner, Dave. Interestingly, he’s fine with his first name, but has issues with his surname, which has a silent ‘e’ on the end. He believes he should keep the ‘e’ as it was important enough to his ancestors that they kept it, but he finds endlessly repeating ‘with-an-e-on-the-end’ to be wearying and is also uncomfortable with the extra attention it brings. At Dave’s suggestion, we tried an exercise of using our middle names and found it a fun but weird experience. Ourselves as Dave & Steph are very different to how we imagined Hugh and Jane would be. Try it yourself!

It was thinking about my Mum spending ages poring over names for her baby that choked me up at the workshop – and is doing so again now as I relive the experience by writing about it. I know she put a lot of effort into trying to get our childhoods right and effectively complaining makes me feel ungrateful. At least my name is generally pronounced correctly. My sister is Adrienne - that’s with an Ay (for ‘orses) sound at the beginning, not an Add, and hit the last syllable, not the first. Yes, this could be a lot more difficult.

I have started to understand that perhaps it is not my name that’s really causing the problem here, but the person I think of when that label is used. I recoil because I don’t like who I used to be and I still see her. I need to start seeing the person I am now instead – the one who is becoming confident, who has medals for running, who is discovering art and jazz and shoe shopping! I think as I become happier with myself, I’m probably going to find that my name is more relevant to who I am now. So, at the end of this long, self-indulgent essay, we have the reason for this blog’s title, Stephanie Jane. It’s my name and I am going to find a way to marry the two of us – that name to this woman and this woman to that name.

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Talking Buzz Lightyear Toy Review

Toy Story is one of those films that never fails to make me smile. I remember the first time I saw it when I was younger and thought how fantastic it was. My younger brother loved it too and as he was a lot younger than I was he really believed that his toy came to life when he left the room. Now I have children of my own and my brother is a lot older, we both still love nothing better than sitting down with the boys and watching the Toy Story movies. There are many Toy Story toys available to buy. Recently we were sent a Talking Buzz Lightyear Toy from the Disney Store to review.  

The figure is 22cm tall and has poseable arms and legs. He has a retractable helmet visor and wings too. He speaks 15 phrases from the film and our favourite is definitely one of his most famous if not his most famous phrase and even James can now say "Too infinity.... and beyond". He comes with 2 x AA batteries.

The toy is made from very durable materials, he is strong and sturdy and is definitely built for lots of play. The toy is suitable for children aged 3+.

This talking toy is exclusive to Disney Store and priced at £25. He is the perfect toy for any Buzz Lightyear fan. 

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Seed and Sultana Flapjack recipe

This post is intended as a destination to which I can point all those who peer suspiciously at my breakfast on the bus, their exclamations of "you made it yourself?" seeming to imply that baking is some form of dark art that simply wouldn't tolerated in their house!

The breakfast in question is a wedge of flapjack with added mixed seeds, sultanas and chopped banana. It is very simple - as is most of my cooking - and the longest part of the recipe is the leaving-it-to-chill-in-the-fridge stage which it is quite happy doing unsupervised.

Ingredients:
100g butter
3 dessert-spoons of Golden Syrup
150g porridge oats
75g sultanas
75g mixed seeds (pumpkin, linseed, sesame, sunflower, chopped nuts, ...)
1 over-ripe banana, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to about 190C and grease a baking tin. I use a loose-bottomed 8" round cake tin like the one pictured below, but any tin of similar proportions would be fine. The loose-bottom is very helpful when removing the flapjack once cooled, though I expect a tin with springform sides would work just as well.

Put the butter and Golden Syrup in a saucepan over a low to medium heat and leave until the butter has melted. The saucepan needs to be large enough for ALL the ingredients. And ideally, the Golden Syrup needs to be Lyle's - cheaper ones like the +Sainsbury's version work ok, but they don't quite taste the same!

In the meantime, weigh out the dry ingredients and chop the banana. The sultanas can be swapped with pretty much any dried fruit if you prefer. I have used chopped apricots, chopped dates and cranberries, all of which have been nice but sultanas are usually cheaper! For the seeds, I used to buy the Omega Seed Mix bags from Julian Graves until the shop in Eastbourne closed down. I now make my own mixes with the tubs from ESK.

When the butter is melted, take the pan off the heat and mix well until combined with the syrup. Add the banana and stir to coat and separate the pieces. Add the oat-seed-sultana mix and stir until everything is coated - it will darken in colour and stop looking 'dusty' when ready.

Empty the saucepan into the baking tin and smooth to a flat surface. Put into the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden-brown on the top.

Remove from oven and push flapjack down with a spoon to condense it. This helps make the bars easier to eat on the run. Leave until cool, then remove the sides of the tin and put the flapjack into the fridge to chill for at least a couple of hours.

When chilled, cut into segments - I get eight from a batch - and wrap individually in clingfilm. If kept in the fridge, the flapjack lasts for about a week.
 

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Another blog?

Another blog?

Yes!

If you don't know me, I already write for Theatrical Eastbourne, a daily blog of all things cultural in the Eastbourne area. This takes an hour or two of my time pretty much every day so the thought of embarking on another such enterprise might seem overkill. It probably is, but I am finding there are are things about which I would like to write that don't fit within the confines of Theatrical Eastbourne. Sometimes I just want to write for the hell of it.

That's what this blog will be for.

And it's going to start with the revelation of a guilty pleasure!

I've just finished an audio book that I especially enjoyed. It was an abridged version of The Convenient Marriage by the queen of Regency novels, Georgette Heyer, and the best part of the experience is that it was read by Richard Armitage. You might know him as Guy Of Gisborne or Lucas North, or even Thorin Oakenshield if you had the misfortune to sit through The (bloody) Hobbit. You might not know him as a fabulous narrator. But he's really good - recognisably different voices, tons of emotion and definitely swoon-worthy on some of Heyer's more melodramatic lines!
The storyline twists and turns, throwing up a few surprises along the way. Unfortunately, being abridged the supporting characters' storylines are missing, but this does make for a fast-paced listen with lots of action. Expect abductions, highwaymen, duels and plenty of misunderstandings caused by English stiff-upper-lippedness!
This is the second Armitage-read Heyer I've bought and liked, the other being Sylvester, and unfortunately there's only Venetia left to hear. I'm rationing myself but am not sure how long I'll wait ...


Throughout this blog, the links that go to Amazon will earn me a few pennies if you buy anything during your visit.
Google Ads (when they appear) will also earn me a few pennies if clicked upon.
The links that go to Theatrical Eastbourne and other websites are unpaid.

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Beverly Hills Formula Dentist's Choice Toothpaste

I hate teeth, this is one of my biggest phobias and something I have lived with since being small and losing a baby tooth that had a small hole in it. I don't know why it started my phobia off as it didn't cause me any problems or pain but I can't stand to touch or look at teeth that have fallen out and leave all "tooth fairy" duties to someone else. For this reason I am very particular about my oral healthcare and try to look after my teeth the best I can. So far, in my nearly 30 years I have only ever needed 4 fillings and my Nana once told me you lose a tooth for every child you have so I think I have done brilliantly so far. Recently I have been trying some Beverly Hills Formula Dentist's Choice Toothpaste that I was kindly sent to review.

The toothpaste boasts a unique gum protection system that contains Vitamin E to invigorate and strengthen the gums, fluoride to protect the exposed root area, and Permethol to help reduce and stop bleeding gums, it also includes Panthenol, Q10 and Folic Acid to help promote healthy gum tissues.

The toothpaste can remove stains in just 1 minute. Dentist’s Choice Gum & Whitening Expert toothpaste is also proven to be less abrasive when compared with other leading brands of both whitening and regular toothpaste, protecting against tooth decay whilst restoring your teeth to a natural, white colour without using harsh abrasives or bleach.

By using Beverly Hills Formula Dentist’s Choice Gum & Whitening Expert toothpaste you no longer need suffer from inflammation, irritation and swelling of the gums. I found the toothpaste pleasant in taste and unlike some toothpastes it wasn't too strong. I didn't think my teeth were stained as I'm not a smoker or a huge tea and coffee drinker and always clean my teeth twice a day. But I was quite surprised by the result. My teeth looked brighter and cleaner.

More information about this and other Beverly Hills Formula products can be found at www.beverlyhillsformula.com. You can buy this toothpaste for around £3 in all good chemists both online and in store.

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Vtech MobiGo 2 Review

My boys are games mad, that isn't a secret and they love playing their handheld games consoles but for James this is a problem as he is still too little to play with them and he get frustrated when he sees his brothers playing games like Mario Kart and Lego Batman. So when we were asked to review the MobiGo 2 from Vtech I had one very happy little boy. The MobiGo 2 is an updated version of the very popular MobiGo. It is new and improved and is the perfect handheld gaming system for a preschool child!

It is compact & stylish in design and has a touch sensitive ‘finger touch’ screen for interactive play, this allows for children to learn and have fun at the same time.

New features include a stylus, motion-based game play and a microphone for enhanced game play. If you slide the screen up you reveal a QWERTY keyboard and 4-directional cursor, there are also eBooks, drawing activities and a picture viewer, so there is plenty to keep a small child busy.

James "making" his picture pretty

The MobiGo helps teach curriculum based school skills including English, maths, colours, shapes and more through fun game-play and is aimed at children aged 3 - 8 years old. It comes complete with a Cars 2 cartridge. Cars is a particular favourite in our house so this game went down a storm with James. You can buy other games cartridges for the MobiGo 2, games include Thomas and friends, Toy story 3 to Hello Kitty and Dora the Explorer but if you have a MobiGo then the cartridges will fit from that too.

The Mobigo 2 has a RRP of £59.99 but this may vary. You can purchase a MobiGo 2 from all good toy retailers both instore and online. 

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Fried fish in marinade (Baltic herring recipe)

Time for another Estonian recipe here on Nami-Nami. My mum celebrated her birthday last weekend, and this - "marineeritud praetud räimed" aka "praetud räimed marinaadis" - was one of the dishes I brought along to her party. You see, both my grandmothers - one 91, the other 92 years old - are staying with my parents these days. The other day my mum was complaining that her mum and her mother-in-law (that's my two grandmothers then) had been asking for fried Baltic herring for a while now and my mum hasn't had a chance to go to the market in search of fresh fish. As we have an excellent fishmonger - Pepe Kala - at our weekly farmer's market in Viimsi, I decided to make my mum's life easier and cooked a batch to take along.

 


In Estonia this dish is made with Baltic Herrings (Clupea harengus membras, above), a subspecies of the Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus). Baltic herring is smaller and less fatty than the Atlantic herring, and they're also much smaller - up to 18 cm long compared to the Atlantic herring's 40-45 cm. Baltic herring - räim - is considered the "national fish" of Estonia. It's known as silakka in Finnish, strömming in Swedish, hareng de la Baltique in French. True (Nordic) fish aficionados claim the taste of Baltic herring to be superior to the taste of much more well-known sardines. :)

 If you cannot get hold of the Baltic herring, you could try sardines instead - apparently the marinade works well with fried sardines, too.


Fried Baltic Herring in Marinade
(Praetud räimed marinaadis)
Serves 8

 
600 g Baltic herring fillets (or about 1 kg fresh fish)

2 large eggs
4 Tbsp milk

200 ml all-purpose flour or rye flour

oil for frying

Marinade:
1 l water (4 cups)
2 carrots
2 onions
10 black peppercorns
5 allspice berries
2 bay leaves
2 Tbsp 30% vinegar
1.5 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp caster sugar

Fry the fish. Whisk the eggs with milk, dip fish fillets into the mixture, flesh side down. Press both sides of the fish into the flour, shaking off any extra flour.

Heat a tablespoon or so of oil in a heavy frying pan until hot. Place the breaded fish fillets, flesh sides down, onto the pan and fry for a 2-3 minutes, until dark golden brown. Flip gently over and fry the skin side until golden brown. Transfer the cooked fish fillets into a large bowl.

Make the marinade. Peel and thinly slice the carrots and onion (I used my trusty Benriner mandoline slicer). Place the vegetables, peppercorns and allspice berries, bay leaves, salt and sugar into a medium-sized saucepan. Add the water and bring into a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the carrots are al dente or still have some bite to them. Taste for seasoning - add more salt or sugar, if necessary. The marinade should be quite salty and sugary to have enough potency to flavour the fried fish fillets.

Now add the vinegar* and remove the pan from the heat. Again - you want the marinade to be vinegary to flavour the fish, but not so much that the resulting dish would be too vinegary. Let the marinade cool for a 10-15 minutes, then slowly pour the whole thing (including the carrots, onions and the seasoning) over the fried fish.

Cool completely, then cover and transfer into the fridge for at least 8-10 hours or overnight.

 

Enjoy on a slice of good dark rye bread or alongside boiled potatoes.

These keep in a fridge for a week or so.

* A note on vinegar - we use the 30% proof vinegar to make this dish in Estonia. Use whatever neutral-tasting vinegar you have, adjusting the amount and aiming for the slightly vinegary marinade.

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Magic Sapstone Belt and Holopax Set

My three are huge fans of the Cbeebies programme Tree Fu Tom and even I have been known to hum the theme tune. Tree Fu Tom is set in an enchanted world where movement creates magic. Tom may appear to be a normal eight-year-old boy, but by putting on his magic belt and performing a special sequence of magic action-movements (known as Tree Fu), he transforms into a tiny but mighty magical super-hero! The show promotes the importance of movement and encourages kids to get up and move as they help Tom make Tree Fu magic and save the day!

We were recently asked to review the Magic Sapstone Belt and Holopax Set. 

Nathan loves the Sapstone Belt and says it gives him magic powers. I think this is because as he was wearing the belt, the more he moved, the more the Sapstone glowed and the "Tree Fu magic" built up! We found that if Nathan moved for 40 seconds or more then the light would stay on for 2 minutes, but if he didn't move for this long it stopped glowing really quickly. You need 2 x AAA batteries to make the belt work, these are not supplied.

Both the Sapstone Belt and Holopax have adjustable straps that are both easy to secure and generous in size. 

This set is great for fans aged 3 and up. You can purchase it from Toys R Us or The Entertainer priced around £15.

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Mighty Boom Ball Vibration Speaker

                                                                                                                                                                                         

The Mighty Boom Ball Speaker is an awesome gadget. It is a mini speaker, that is portable and although small in size it is surprisingly loud. 

In the pack you will find:

• 1 x Mighty Boom Ball
• 1 x Battery Booster
• 1 x Cable

What makes the Boom Ball different to other speakers is that you can stick it onto almost anything, from a can, car, box, cup to a wardrobe. I stuck it to both my bread bin and a tub that had crackers in it just to show that it sticks to different things and works well with them too.

The object will be magically transformed into a speaker! It comes with a charging dock to boost the power and can be heard up to 20 metres away. Attached to a handy keyring, you can plug in your iPhone, android phone or MP3 player via the 3.5mm jack! Again I used the cracker tub and you can see the difference it made using my phone, the volume is pretty rubbish on my phone so it is something that will benefit me in the future especailly whilst cooking or doing the washing up, to me there is no better time than to have a little wiggle or sing along.

The Boom Ball is small in size.It measures approx 3.3 cm x 3.3 cm x 3.3 cm. The Booster takes 2 x AAA batteries (not included) but as a little bonus you get 2 spare adhesive pads so that you can continue to stick    

the speaker to many things time and time again.

The Mighty Boom Ball can be purchased in pink, blue or black  from Find me a gift.co.uk and at the moment you can purchase one for £8.99.

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Lenten buns aka semlor aka vastlakuklid 2013

It's Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday today, which means pancake feasts in many places across the world. In Estonia and other Nordic countries, however, this means eating lenten buns (semla, vastlakukkel) instead. I baked a batch of these wonderful buns, filling them with whipped sweet cream this year. No marzipan, no jam.

You'll find all my Lenten recipes here., including recipes for barley and bacon porridge and split pea soup with smoked pork.

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Estonian recipes: yellow split pea soup with smoked pork (hernesupp suitsulihaga)

Originally posted in February 2012, slightly edited.


It's Shrove Tuesday tomorrow, and before feasting on delicious Lenten buns (I've blogged about the classic ones, chocolate ones and luscious raspberry and marzipan ones), Estonians eat split pea soup. Thick, hearty, well-flavoured (smoked pork!) and textured (peas + pearl barley) - all the elements of a substantial and delicious winter soup are present. Here's a recipe that I've been using for years to make a big (I mean it!) pot of delicious soup.

It's a fusion recipe, of a kind. You see - apparently in the Southern Estonia, they used to put barley in the split pea soup; in the North, they replaced the pearl barley with cubed carrots and potatoes. I use them all, so it's a meet-me-in-the-middle soup :)

Note that the soup reheats very well. As it thickens when cooling, you may need to add some water when reheating it, and adjusting the seasoning again, if necessary. 

Estonian Yellow Split Pea Soup with Smoked Pork
(Hernesupp suitsulihaga)
Serves eight to ten



200 g yellow split peas
150 g pearl barley
3 litres of water
about 1 kg of smoked pork - rib, cheek or hock
1 large onion
2 to 3 large carrots
2 large potatoes
salt to taste
2 to 3 tsp sharp mustard (or to taste)
fresh herbs (parsley, celery, dill, thyme, savory)

ON THE PREVIOUS NIGHT OR IN THE MORNING:
Pick through the peas and pearl barley to remove any grit. Place into a bowl, pour over enough cold water to cover by couple of centimetres and leave to soak. (This reduces the cooking time considerably).

ON THE DAY:
Place the smoked pork into a large bowl (definitely larger than 5 litres!). Add the 3 litres of water and bring slowly into a boil. Remove any froth and scum that appears on the surface.
Rinse the soaked barley and peas, drain and add to the saucepan. Bring to a boil again, then reduce heat, cover with a lid and simmer gently for about an hour.
Meanwhile, peel and chop (or grate coarsely) the onion, carrots and potatoes. If you wish, you can sauté the onion and carrots in some oil - this enhances the flavour.
Add the vegetables to the soup and continue simmering for about half an hour, until the meat and vegetables are fully cooked.
Take the pork out of the soup, remove the meat from the bones and chop finely. Return the chopped meat into the saucepan.
Season the soup with mustard and salt, add some herbs of your choice and serve.

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Braised rabbit with mustard (lapin à la moutarde)

Photo by Juta Kübarsepp for the November 2012 issue of Kodu ja Aed magazine.

It's snowing outside, and once again I'm craving something belly- and heart-warming. This braised rabbit with mustard sauce (lapin à la moutarde) hits the spot. Rabbit has become more easily available here in Estonia for an average shopper (read: you can get it vacuum-packed in your local supermarket), and this rabbit stew with a creamy mustard sauce is an excellent way of cooking rabbit.

The recipe is French-inspired and adapted from Anthony Demetre, the chef patron at the London restaurants Arbutus, Wild Honey and Les Deux Salons; more specifically, from his book Today's special: A new take on bistro food - Recipes from Arbutus and Wild Honey. Demetre uses rabbit legs, but for a home cook, using a whole rabbit makes much more sense - and is much more economical, of course.

It's my favourite way of cooking and serving rabbit - I included the recipe in my first cookbook, as well as in the November 2012 issue of Kodu ja Aed magazine. You can braise this one on the stovepot or bake in the oven - the choice is yours.

Braised rabbit with mustard
(Sinepine küülikuhautis)
Serves four to six


1 rabbit
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

75 g butter

75 ml white wine vinegar (5 Tbsp)
3 Tbsp good Dijon mustard
500 ml (2 cups) hot chicken stock
200 ml double or whipping or heavy cream
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp smoked paprika powder (pimentón de la Vera)
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
5 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves

If braising the rabbit in the oven, then pre-heat the oven to 200 C/400 F.

Cut the rabbit into serving pieces (here's a photo of me tackling another rabbit, I usually end up with two shoulders, two legs, two belly flap pieces, 2 saddles; I throw the rib cage into the stew as well to give extra flavour, but I don't eat it; here's Hank Shaw's very detailed step-by-step guide, which I find a wee bit over-complicated, but perhaps the rabbits here and there are somewhat different :); and finally, here's Saveur's guide).

Season the meat with salt and pepper.

Take a heavy saucepan or Dutch oven or casserole dish. Melt the butter, then brown the meat pieces on all sides (you'll need to do that in 2-3 instalments probably). Remove the browned pieces and put aside.

Pour the wine vinegar into the saucepan, bring to the boil and reduce by half. Add the rest of the ingredients, bring into the boil again. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then return the browned rabbit pieces into the saucepan again.

Once again, bring into the boil, cover tightly with the lid and transfer into the pre-heated oven. Cook for about 1,5 hours, until the meat falls off the bone.

(If you opt for stove-top braising, then simmer over moderately low heat, covered, until the meat falls off the bone).

Serve with seasonal vegetables.

Similar recipes:
Hank Shaw's rabbit in mustard sauce @ Simply Recipes
Raymond Blanc's braised rabbit with mustard @ BBC Food
Rabbit cooked with Dijon mustard @ Saveur
Rabbit with mustard @ Gourmet Traveller WINE
Mustard rabbit @ The Evening Hérault
Rabbit in mustard sauce @ French cooking for Dummies
Rabbit in mustard cream @ Lindaraxa

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