Grape Sauce recipe

The grape vine in our garden went mad this year and produced so many grapes that there was no way we were ever going to be able to eat them all straight off the plant. I searched around for some good recipes but, surprisingly, there weren't many that appealed. Wine-making is far too much faff. Hmmm.

Then I stumbled across this Concord Grape Tart recipe on a website called Splendid Table. The instructions looked weird as I didn't think I'd actually want the skins in the filling. They have a bitter taste even when the grapes are very ripe. So I changed the recipe to make the filling in the way I would have made crab apple jelly, had any crab apples grown this year.

Ingredients:
2.5 lb grapes
grated zest and juice of half a lemon
5 tbsp caster sugar

I put the grapes into a saucepan and cooked them until they had all softened and burst. This took about ten minutes. I put the result through a fine sieve and added the lemon zest and juice. I then boiled the grape liquid and added about 5tbsp of caster sugar. There was a lot of liquid from the grapes. I wasn't expecting them to be so juicy! I misjudged this stage because I hoped the grapes would set as they cooled. They didn't so I poured the liquid back into the pan and boiled it again for a good twenty minutes. This time it started to set ... however having made the pastry in the same way as for the Pear Tart, rolled it out and poured in the grape filling, everything went wrong!

The oven was set to 200C and I baked the tart for 20 minutes. By this point, the grapes were boiling (again) and the pastry was getting very dark. I took the tart out of the oven and left it to cool but, an hour later, the filling was still liquid. Grrr. 

The coated pastry was quite tasty - waste not, want not. And we put the filling into the fridge with a plan of changing its purpose to a fruit sauce. Today we bought a block of vanilla ice cream from +Sainsbury's.  I didn't know that it was still possible to buy blocks, wrapped in card instead of tubbed in plastic , so that brought back childhood memories. And the combination of ice cream topped with tangy grape sauce is delicious! 

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The Little Book of Monarchs Review

When I was younger, I loved history. In fact I would go as far as saying it was one of my top 3 favourite subjects. I was always interested in finding out about things that happened all them years ago. I never took it further than GCSE level and this is something that I do regret now but will maybe one day study it again. Callum is very much like me and loves history too. He is now at an age where they are learning about certain parts of history and with each new school year they cover many different topics. We were recently sent a copy of The Little Book of Monarchs to review and Callum has found it both interesting and very useful.

The Little Book of Monarchs is priced at £7.99. It is written by Tony Boullemier and illustrated by Adrian Teal. "Tony wrote ‘The Little Book of Monarchs’ as a response to the falling standards of history teaching in schools. He feels that less and less time is devoted to the subject and that children are often offered only two or three significant periods to study. Tony believes school children are simply not getting a proper perspective, and hopes to address this by taking the reader chronologically through the ages".

The book is set out into 11 chapters. Each chapter is about each set of monarchs for example, The Normans, The House of York, The Tudors and The Windsors. 

Each King or Queen has a double page to themselves. What I like about the book is that there is always a funny picture on the left page. The right page has 3 or 4 useful facts about them. I like that there isn't pages and pages of information about each monarch too as I really don't think children need to much information at once. In Callum's case a little bit of information is easier stored than a whole lot of text. This way he is learning what is important about each one instead of just a lot of waffle.

I think the book is aimed at older primary school aged children certainly no younger than Callum (who is 8) but it would also be a useful book to older school children too as it contains all the information about each of the monarchs both concisely and chronologically. It is a great book that could be very useful especially if they have left their homework until the last minute.

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After a week in which I was too busy to blog

and also extremely overtired after our unexpectedly late return from Porto, I'm catching up by having a lazy Saturday afternoon. I meant to do loads of things today but fortunately there's always tomorrow. I'd have more energy if I hadn't gone out every night this week, but then I'd have missed some amazing theatre and music performances so I'm glad I persevered. Dave's knackered too - he's snoozing in his chair as I type although I know he'll adamantly argue he was awake all the time!

First up was Tuesday's The Private Ear and The Public Eye at the Devonshire Park. Of the two, I thought The Public Eye was the stronger play and the fantastic scene change in between was almost worth the ticket price alone. The plays are funny and quirky and Original Theatre have done a great job. The last Eastbourne performance is tonight - in just a couple of hours if I get this post published quickly enough - and I hope their final audience will be able to hear over the fireworks of the Bonfire Procession.

Sound issues unfortunately masked the end of Everything Between Us at the Little Theatre on Thursday. The electricity created by the play combined with the static in the air from a thunderstorm passing overhead proved to be just too much for the theatre's hardware! I met up with +Kerry Potter which we've done for a couple of Green Room plays now so we caught up with what each other has been up to recently before settling in to be entertained. Everything Between Us is a powerful drama of two estranged Belfast sisters. I love that Green Room choose challenging works to perform and am disappointed that I will miss their next - David Harrower's A Slow Air which will be at The Under Ground Theatre at the end of November.

I've just realised sound is to blame again for issues at the Chiddingly Festival Talking Heads production that was held at the Six Bells pub on Wednesday and starred Jo Castleton and Ian Jervis. Dave had difficulty hearing the monologues due to practically all the seats being restricted view and the actors sitting for most of the time. I got lucky, although I was just in the next seat along, and could hear ok. I hadn't seen any of the Talking Heads live before, only a few on TV, and the cosy pub setting suited the plays perfectly. Perhaps just with the addition of microphones next year?

The week went out with a bang last night, or rather the many bangs of amazing drummer Winston Clifford together with saxophonist Tony Kofi and Hammond organ player Anders Olinder. Together they are the Future Passed trio and this is seriously good jazz. Usually the chairs at the Chiddingly Festival are the worst part of any event, but I was so caught up in the rhythms and melodies that I hardly noticed my numb bum. Praise indeed! It was good to catch up with +Tim Church and Linda Bailey too.

So now it's Saturday evening and I'm glad that the people who were supposed to be coming to dinner have put us off until next week! We'll be much better company then anyway!

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Boys Toys From Bandai

My boys are action figure mad. Callum and Nathan are now both getting to the age where they still want to play with toys but they both want things that are a little more grown up. They are both Power Ranger and Ben 10 crazy. They always watch the shows on TV and were very happy when we were sent some toys to review.

If your boys are anything like mine then Bandai are definitely a brand to keep an eye on for present ideas especially as Christmas is just around the corner. If you're anything like me then you will already be looking for gift ideas and at least trying to be a little more organised than last year. 

If you are a Ben 10 fan you will know that Ben's Omnitrix is his essential piece of equipment. We were sent a Ben 10 Omni-Link Omnitrix to review.

The Ben 10 Omni-Link Omnitrix includes lights, sound and vibration action. It reacts to the included DVD through the Omni-Link system. It is also designed to work with the Omni-Link enabled games and apps that are due to be released very soon. 

The Omnitrix is priced around £29.99. It is suitable for children aged 4+. The boys love this toy. James thinks that it is magic because it makes noises and lights up when he wears it whilst watching the DVD.

The boys were also sent a  Power Rangers Megaforce DX Gosei Morpher to review.

The Power Rangers Megaforce Deluxe Gosei Morpher includes 10 cards that unlock 10 phrases. You can collect more cards when you buy other Mega Force toys. But not every card unlocks a unique phrase.

You need to load one of the Power Ranger cards into the Morpher to activate one of over 180 unique phrases from the show.  The morpher will light-up once activated. The Morpher comes with 2 x AAA 

batteries. 

This toy is priced at £29.99 and is suitable for children aged 4+.  The Morpher comes with a clip so it can be hooked onto your trousers. 

For more information about these toys or other Ben 10 and Power Rangers toys check out the Bandai website.

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Great comfort food: cold weather hotpot recipe

Now that I have five mouths to feed on a daily basis, I need to cook dishes that are easy to put together and suit all the members of the family, be they 11 months or 41 years. That means they must be flavourful and tasty, as I don't have the time, will or energy to cook separate meals for the still-toothless baby, two active toddlers and two food-loving adults. To be honest, I don't think it should even be necessary.

We've used the baby-led weaning* approach when introducing solids to our three kids, and that means our littlest has been eating family food from Day 1 (not the first day of her life, but the first time she was offered any solid food, e.g. when she was 6 months old). So much more convenient for the whole family and especially the cooking parent (that's me, at least on most days). This stew - enjoyed both by parents and the toddlers (aged 2 and 4), was perfect for the 11-month old as well.

The cold weather hotpot is a great comfort food and midweek dinner. The humble vegetables can be varied - you could add some turnips or parsnips as well, or even broccoli. Sometimes I've used gnocchi instead of potatoes, adding them at the end, so they'd have the chance to soak in the broth. The can of Heinz's baked beans you throw in at the end - well, this adds some protein as well as thickens the stew. Overall it's yet another dish that tastes much better than you'd expect from simply looking at the list of ingredients.

We love a spoonful of thick sour cream on top, but a crusty bread would be good, too.

* New to baby-led weaning aka BLW? Read all about it in Gill Rapley's book - see Amazon UK/Amazon US. I highly recommend reading it if you've got a small baby who's about to start solids soon! 

Cold weather hotpot
(Hakklihaga ühepajatoit)
Slightly adapted from BBC Good Food, March 2003
Serves six

2 Tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
4 small onions
4 good-sized carrots
8 medium-sized potatoes
450 g lean minced beef
1 l hot beef stock (you can use a stock cube or bouillon extract)
a good splash of Worcestershire sauce
a handful of chopped parsley

To serve:
some good sour cream (optional)

Peel the onions and cut into quarters. Peel the carrots, halve lengthwise and cut into thick slices. Peel the potatoes and cut into smallish chunks.
Heat oil in a heavy saucepan, add the minced beef and fry quickly, stirring all the time, until browned evenly.
Add the vegetables, give everything a quick stir. Pour over the beef stock. Bring into a boil, then partially cover with the lid, reduce heat and simmer for about 20-25 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked.
Season with Worcestershire sauce, pour in the baked beans. Stir gently and then heat through. Taste for seasoning, then scatter parsley on top and serve.
Ladle into bowl and enjoy with a spoon.

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Chuggington Stack Track Review

If you have little boys or are regular watchers of the Cbeebies channel then you will most likely have heard about or seen Chuggington. If you haven't then you should definitely check it out. Chuggington is a cartoon about a set of young trains who are in training. Each episode sees one or more of them take on a new task to help them become better trains. My three boys have all grown up watching the show and James still loves it now. We were recently sent some toys from Tomy to review. We were sent two of the new Stack Track play sets and two engines.

The first set we opened was the Koko's Icy Escapade play set. If you are fans of the show you may have noticed that this play set is based on an episode in which Koko has to be careful going down a bridge. She has to pick up some ice cargo, crash through some ice gates and deliver the ice. This play set is priced at £32.99. Included in the set is Koko the train and cart plus all the pieces you need to make a decent sized track. 

The second set we were sent to review is the Rescue at the Rocky Ridge Mine play set again this is based on one of the TV episodes. In this episode Wilson comes to Kokos rescue when she finds herself in trouble. Included is a Wilson toy and all the pieces you need to build a great track. This play set is priced at between £34.99 - £39.99.

Both play sets have step by step instructions that are very easy to follow. It didn't take us very long to construct both sets which I think is great as there is nothing worse than impatient children "trying to help" or constantly asking how long until they can play with it. All the pieces are chunky, they have clean joins and fit perfectly together. It is recommended that you construct the sets on a solid surface to ensure that it is stable.

What I love about these sets is that you can make multiple layouts, in fact each of these have 4 different layouts to choose from. As you can see from the picture below you can also add sets with other Chuggington sets to create bigger layouts. Another thing about these play sets is that you can build the tracks higher instead of out across the floor. You can also buy extension kits too to make your original tracks longer. 

Each play set comes with a train but you can also buy more individually these are priced around £4.99 and there are lots to choose from so you can collect them all too. Which means even more fun to play with.

You can follow Tomy on Twitter and Facebook. To find out more information about this or other Tomy Toys / products check out www.tomy.co.uk.

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Pear and almond tart recipe

Having baked little Blackberry bakewell tarts intending to use up blackberries in our garden, I was left with a redundant part-bag of ground almonds. Not to worry, I thought, something will soon come along to suggest itself and what did was a windfall pear! Pear goes beautifully with almonds, even the very unripe pears that our tree always produces.

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
4oz plain flour
2oz butter
2 tbsp cold water

For the frangipane:
100g butter
100g caster sugar
1 large egg
50g ground almonds
50g and 1 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp almond liqueur

For the topping:
2 pears

I started by peeling and coring the pears and sliced each one lengthways into 8 segments. I then put these into a saucepan of barely simmering water for about half an hour until they were softened but not slushy. They kept their nice pale colour and ended up pretty much like you'd get with tinned pears. I ran them under cold water and popped them in the fridge until needed.

Next the pastry. I wanted one large tart this time so made only half the quantity I had for the blackberry bakewells. (It was still too much and 3oz flour with 1.5oz butter would have done.) I cubed the butter and rubbed it into the flour until the mixture resembled breadcrumbs. Then I mixed in the water with a knife, clingfilmed the dough and put it into the fridge too.

The oven went on at 180c because it's a fan (200c/Gas 6 otherwise). Then I beat all the frangipane ingredients together in my lovely +Mason Cash mixing bowl. I hadn't thought of it before but this is something else that I might miss. I realised with a jolt of dismay that there was only 50g of almonds left, not another 100g of almonds as I had previously used. I made up the difference in weight with extra flour and added a (slightly) larger tbsp of almond liqueur to compensate the flavour.

Retrieving the pastry from the fridge, I rolled it out thinly to line an 8 inch pie dish. The dish has holes in the bottom to aid pastry crisping so I didn't bother with blind baking. Then I spooned and smoothed the frangipane into the pastry case and arranged the pears on top. I baked the tart for 35 mins nearer the top of the oven and it turned out beautifully! Again, it tasted much almondier when cold than when hot.

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