February 24th 2016 - Harry Potter Part 1 - Food ideas

As per my previous post about Halloween preparation for the Harry Potter Party (HP) I am hosting this year for Halloween here is part one - Food ideas for Harry Potter.  I shall add to this as and when I find new ideas/possiblilites of food for the night that are linked to Harry Potter, witches/Wizards etc.

As well as having traditional party food I do try and have some healthy fruit/veg options for the kids as well.  Food and it's witchy/halloween/hp names are below, some are listed more than once with different names:

FOOD	WITCH/HALLOWEEN/HP NAME
cocktail sausages	mummy wraps
jelly with eyeball	jellied eyeballs
grapes	witches warts (HP)
gingerbread men with cuts etc	gruesome gingerbread
cooked dough on a stick	dough snakes
hot dogs	severed fingers
coffin shaped sandwiches with ham man	coffin sandwiches
choc chip cookies, marshmallows & icing	dracs fangs
white marshmallows/merangues choc chips	ghosts
chicken bites/nuggets/chunks	chunks of flesh
choc chip cookies	moon bites
liquorice sticks	wands
cinnamon dough (shaped as hats)	sorting hat bites
cocktail sausages	owl droppings (HP)
sausage rolls	owl pellets (HP)
dough twists with sugar coating	unicorn horns (HP)
rice crispie treat balls with red icing	brains
shreddies	monster scabs
green popcorn	bogies

treacle tarts	treacle tarts (HP)
Snake cake (use a bundt tin for effect)	Nagini (HP)
ferrero rocher/lindt chocolates	Golden snitches (need add wings) (HP)
raisins	owl droppings (HP)
cheese puffs	"cheese-huffle-puffs" (HP)
chicken wings (any flavour)	dragon/griffin wings (HP)
veg sticks (carrots, cucumber etc)	herbology bites (HP)
breadsticks/cheese straws	olivanders wands (HP)
coloured hard boiled eggs	dragon eggs (HP)
dorritos	troll toe nails (HP)
green food dip	cave troll snot (HP)
cheese puffs	pumpkin poo
cocktail sausages	dead mans fingers
pizza slices	severed fingers
custard creme biscuits	cauldron cremes (HP)

December 9th 2015 - Christmas cookies

Tonight at St John Ambulance we are going to be decorating some Christmas Cookies.  This pin of tea cakes into Christmas puddings is just 1 of the things we are doing.

To make a Tea cake Christmas pudding like this:

You will need the following:
chocolate teacakes
white icing (or melted white chocolate)
red icing balls (or red icing pens/red sweets)
green icing leaves (green icing pens)

They are very simple to make: 

Take a tea cake and unwrap it carefully.  Place the foil wrap pattern side up on the plate and place your tea cake back on it.  Place a spoonful of thick white icing on the top of the tea cake and let it drip down the sides.  Add 2 of the red icing berries and a couple of the green icing trees as holly leaves in the middle.

Another  thing we are going to be doing is decorating gingerbread men:

 You will need the following:

Gingerbread men (pre-made)

white icing

chocolate buttons

decorations for face - sweets/icing pens etc

Take a gingerbread man and some icing and place on top.  You can use the icing balls (assorted colours) as eyes, mouth and nose or choc drops (baking).  you can use the icing balls or chocolate buttons as buttons.

The third thing on our decorating list is gingerbread reindeers:

You will need the following:

gingrebread men (pre made)

icing pens

red icing balls

green icing leaves

chocolate button for nose

Take a gingerbread man and turn it upside down so that the head is facing downwards.  Using small amounts of icing draw antlers in the "leg area", turn the "arms" into ears and then add a face using icing balls or choc drops (baking) and a chocolate button for a nose.

The last thing on our decorating list is melted snowman biscuits:

 You will need the following:

 digestive biscuits

thick white icing

icing pens

white marshmallows

 

Take 1 digestive biscuit, place a blob of white icing on top of it, stick a white marshmallow at one side.  Add 3 buttons (icing balls (assorted colours) infront of the head.  You can either use the icing balls or icing pens to make the eyes and nose and mouth.  Scarf is optional as are the arms.

Hopefully it should be a good fun night for them all and they make some lovely snacks to take home.  The ideas may also give parents ideas as what to do over the holidays.

November 26th 2015 - Beef Stew

As the weather is cold and wet and horrid I have made a lovely beef stew in the slow cooker today.  All 3 of the kids when they came in from school asked what was for tea as it smelt lovely.

It tasted as nice as it smelt and apart from some gravy left in the slow cooker there was nothing left. 

October 20th 2015 - Harvest Festival

Today was the schools Harvest Festival.  It was held at the local church.  And for the first time of these events the whole of the school was there, usually they do it in 2 sessions and half the school at each and many parents had to go to both.

We saw our 2 sons as they came in to the church, but couldn't see where they were sat.  All the kids sang really well, loud and clear. 

The school asked for each child to take in a packet or tin of food and these were being donated to the local Salvation Army to issue out.  With over 200 children in the school that is a lot of donations.

However, with today being the Harvest Festival it does mean there are now only 3days until the end of term.

September 10th 2015 - Day trip

September 10th 2015 - Day trip

As me and my hubby are not available on the 23rd for our wedding anniversary and we needed to speak to the man we hired my wheels from 2weeks ago, we made a day trip today.

We dropped the boys off at school and headed to Keswick, just over 45minutes away.  We went and spoke to the man about the mobility scooter and he will sell it as soon as we have the money for it, so we have put in for a benefits loan so  that I can get it.  After we spoke to the man I hobbled round the market and the shops, managed to pick up a few books for me and a Christmas present for my sister.  We were going to go to the pub for lunch but they didn't serve food until 12noon and it was only just gone 11am, so we went to the fish & chip shop instead as they were open.

After we had eaten we went up to Ashness Bridge, which is where my parents ashes were scattered.  It was quite busy up there, but there again it always is, but it was still very quiet.  We got talking to an older couple that were up there about the area and how we came to live here etc.  We left ashness bridge and headed for home.

However, I decided we were going to go the scenic route - we went through Thornthwaite village, there's not much there except very big houses.  We then got back onto the A66 and just before we reached the Buttermere turning I said to hubby to go there.  So we took another diversion and headed into Buttermere village, where we bought ice-creams and sat by a stream to eat them, with lovely views of the mountains.

When we left Buttermere we headed towards a place called Mockerkin, which we had been told had a lovely tarn.  We found the tarn, but it didn't look as nice as it had been made out to be and the only access to it seemed to be over a locked gate, not much use when your on crutches with a bad knee!

We had a lovely day, saw lots of nice scenery an plenty of sheep in the road!

July 14th 2015 - New dinner

July 14th 2015 - New dinner

It is that time on my meal planner again for "try something new for dinner".  I have looked through the food pins I have on pinterest and the hubby said no to chocolate brownie cake or cake batter cinnamon rolls so I kept looking and decided that we would try Cajun Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo .

It looks and sounds nice, I just hope it tastes nice!  Will update after tea.

June 11th 2015 - BBQ

June 11th 2015 - BBQ

Today has been another absolutely lovely day, the sun has shined and was really hot.  We decided to do a BBQ for tea.  It was nice and the first one we've had this year.  Even though there has been nice days, they have either been too windy, we've had no food, no charcoal etc.

The above is just some of the lovely food hubby cooked.

 burgers, chinese chicken drumsticks, chicken satays, chorizo n chicken kebabs, sausages, bread n butter and garlic pasta sauce, with smirnoff ice.

 Followed by roasting marshmallows over the burnt out coals.

I liked the way the flames looked!

June 5th 2015 - Hasselback potato

June 5th 2015 - Haselback potato

I have had a couple of these haselback/sliced potatoes pinned to my food section for ages, but never done anything with them.  Until today that is.  The link says oven cook for 45mins add toppings and cook for a further 15mins.  too long to wait when hungry so I nuked it in microwave for 12mins, sliced it, added my cheese n ham and then put in over for 5mins.

Although it was cooked and the skin was slightly crispy I didn't enjoy it as much as I do my normal jacket potatoes done in microwave and then a cross cut in the tops and fillings pilled in.

Here is todays as I had just put in oven and then as I was ready to eat it.

May 27th 2015 - Lego jelly

May 27th 2015 - Lego jelly

I have had today's pin on my boards for absolutely ages.  It has been moved from party ideas to food, to ideas for the kids to do to lego ideas.

My boys are having a sleepover (just them) in the big bedroom tonight with dvds and snacks so I decided to make them some Lego Jelly snacks.  I haven't quite done it as per the pin as they say to use lego blocks washed out, but I have a lego brick mold and a lego man mold that were bought for sons birthday 2years ago.  They were used to make chocolate lego bricks and men.

Once the jelly has set and I can take them out of mold will add a pic.  Obviously if this were for a party you could do them in multi colours and lots of!  But as only for my boys they have got red.  IF it sets in time I may make them some green ones as well.  We will just have to wait and see.

I haven't added the full amount of water it says as I want them to set quite thick/hard.

Well I can safely  say this DOESN'T work with a silicone mold!  Although the jelly set hard when I tried to remove it from the mold the "bobbly bits" on the lego stayed in the mold and when I tried to get the men out they split!  Total FAIL!

May 12th 2015 - Tried it but didnt like it!

May 12th 2015 - Tried it but didn't like it

A few weeks ago I was sent a free packet of lime rice and quinoa.  Sounded and looked quite nice.  There was a receipe idea on the back to have it with salmon.  So we decided that we would try it.  We bought some salmon today and cooked the rice stuff and salmon.  And served it.

Well all I can say on it was the quinoa looked like frogspawn, my hubby thought it looked like loads of eyes!  Not a good start.  The lime flavour with the rice and salmon went well together and is something I will try again, BUT it will be without the quinoa!  I didn't like the taste or texture.  I can safely say I have tried it but didn't like it.

March 23rd 2015 - Try something new for tea

March 23rd 2015 - Try something new for tea

As part of the family meal planner I made back in January (that has been altered/updated twice since as found other meals we had forgot about) there is a "try something new for tea".  For this I decided we would try a recipe I had pinned on pinterest for Honey & BBQ shredded chicken.

It sounds really nice and hopefully the kids will like it.  The only thing we have not included is the Italian dressing it says as when I looked at it in shop it looked really horrible and the ingredients had things in I don't eat, so fingers crossed it works and is liked.  It smells nice so far.

The recipe says to use 3 pieces of chicken breast but mine are just big enough for a mouse so i've added about 8 bits to the slow cooker.

I will update later with pics and the verdict of tea.

UPDATE

Well it was cooked alot earlier than the time stated so we had tea at 4pm instead of 5:30pm.  There was mixed reviews on it.  I personally thought it was really nice and so did 2 of the boys, they just couldn't eat all I gave them and there was loads of chicken left so we don't need as many pieces of chicken as I thought we would.  Hubby liked it loose on plate but not in the bread roll as it altered the taste and lil man said he didn't like taste BUT he has come home from  school not well and complaining of ear ache and is off to docs soon.

We will try it again another day but I think would work nicely as an extra for a bbq!  Overall I would say thumbs up for it.

The shredded chicken in the honey & bbq sauce

March 8th 2015 - Pheasant & wine

March 8th 2015 - Pheasant & wine

(apologies for  spelling mistakes explain in post)

This is something I have never tried in my 32yrs of life!  Not sure why, but have never tried it.  That was until tea today.

It all came about when my neighbour asked if we had we a spare shelf in the freezer over Christmas as she had no room.  We said we had and she brought round a few bits.  A few days later she came and got them and brought a few other bits - 1 of which was a pheasant - I generally commented that I had never tried it - she said that in new year she would sort out a date and cook them and we could go round for tea.

Well a few dates were discussed and either they were not available or we wern't or something happened on planned date etc and today ended up as dinner date next door.  We went round at 5pm as agreed and were given beer (me and hubby not kids) - they knew we drank it as had seen in recycling (oops lol!)  Never mind.  We sat drinking and talking whilst the veg finished off cooking.

We then helped serve the food - they were trying to be good hosts by putting all food in serving dishes - I told em to serve from saucepan as it saved on washing up. No point making a dish dirty for no reason is way I see it.

We moved to the lounge where their table had been moved to as more room than in the kitchen.  We had chicken as well as the pheasant (encase we didn't like it) and loads of veg and yorkshires and gravy both meats had been coated in paprika as  it crispens the skin and adds flavour (note for future).  This is where it got messy - we had white wine with the pheasant main meal - it was nice and i'm not really a wine drinker as I don't like the taste of it and it goes to my head.

Well I can safely say I enjoyed the pheasant, it sort of seemed like a cross between chicken and turkey - I can't really say what it tasted like but it was nice, I finished off 1/2 a pheasant to myself.  I was also surprised that I liked the taste of the white wine.  So all was going well.  I then finished off the remaining 1/2 bottle of white wine!

My neighbours had also been and bought cheesecakes for desert (which were lovely) and had bought red wine to go with desert - this wasn't going to end well lol!  The deserts were lovely, we also the cakes I made yesterday and took round as my Mum told me you don't go to dinner empty handed.  And me and my neighbour had 1/2 bottle of red which each - hubby had another beer and the neighbours wife had coffee.  I felt fine and was talking normally, that was until we left and the fresh air hit me, not to mention the spots on my stair carpet moving as I tried to walk down them!  This is why I don't drink wine as it hits me hard!

A good evening, with good food and good company.  I should no by my age not mmix drinks but never mind. lol!

February 17th 2015 - PANCAKE DAY & family walk

February 17th 2015 - PANCAKE DAY & family walk

Today is pancake day or shrove tueday!!! (Today's pin is a link to the stack of pancakes I made in 2013 for the family).  I love this day as I love pancakes, I always have.  Golden syrup and sugar and lemon toppings are the best!  I tried Nutella last year after being reccommended it, it was nice but i'm not a great fan.  I have also had ice cream toffee and raspberry sauce on them - the raspberry is actually really nice, but I never remember to buy any.

So one question is how do you eat your pancakes - do you roll your pancakes into a coil,  fold them into triangles or have them as a stack one on top of the other with fillings inbetween???  I usually roll every one into a coil but saw on pinterest that people put them as a stack with fillings in between, i'm trying that for mine tonight!!!

Then there is also the big debate of tossing it in the air or flipping it with a fish slice - well me I flip mine as the one time I tried to toss it in the air I didn't catch it and it ended up on the floor and the dog licked it before running off!

Happy pancake day to everyone no matter how you make or decorate or eat them.

Hubby has been asked to get extra eggs, milk and flour so we can have pancakes and so the kids can make cakes like they have asked to do.


EDIT

After lunch today we decided as it was nice we weould go on a walk.  We all put on jumpers and coats and gloves and hats and set off.  We had been told about a lake and woodland walk about 8miles from where we live, according to the website its takes about 2hrs to walk around Longlands Lake.   So we thought may take longer with my knee.

We found it very easily as its signposted from the main road, when we got there, there was 1 car in the car park.  We crossed the bridge and then came back to get sticks as the kids wanted to play pooh sticks - where you all drop a stick at the same time from one side of the bridge and then go to the other side to see whose stick comes through the bridge first.  We ended up doing this 2 or 3 times!

Once we got across the bridge we tossed a coin as to which way we were going to go as had a fork in the path and according to the map would both take us round the lake.  We went with the heads route.  The older 2 ran of being very noisy, and lil man stayed with me.  Me and him saw mushrooms growing on a tree stump (see below) and 1/2 coconuts being used as bird feeders.

It was very wet and muddy under foot, so we probably should have all worn our wellies, never mind.  We continued on round the paths round the lake and saw daffodils, snow drops and croscus's.  Blossom was starting to form on some of the trees as well.  There were quite alot of birds at the lake including swans and ducks, but they didn't come to us, maybe we should have taken some bread for them.  There was a fissherman and lots of people with dogs who all spoke to us.

We headed back to the car park, which was now very packed.  It had taken us just over 45minutes to walk all the way round, so not quite sure where they say its 2hrs.  There are lots of benches to stop and rest at as well as picnic spots.  This was our first visit here but I certainly think we will visit again as its so close and not uphill or a long way which is good with my knee as it is.  I think it will look a very different place in the summer months when its dry and flowers are out etc.

Although I forgot to pick up the camera I did get some nice pics on my phone.

 

January 27th 2015 - FIMO

January 27th 2015 - FIMO

Today has been one of those mad days.  We usually go shopping on a tuesday morning, today being no exception.  Except for the fact I needed to do some bits in town as well.  So rather than leaving food in the car and then doing town we did town first.  Makes sense right???  Well you would think so but it seems the world and his wife were in town and the supermarkets all at the same time.

We usually get to the supermarkets just after 9am once we have dropped the kids off at school and the shops are very quiet and we get really quickly.   But today with going into town first which was really busy we didn't get to the supermarkets until nearly 12.  And it was heaving, you couldn't move down half the ailses and people were pushing and shoving!  I'm NOT doing groceries this late again!

Well after finally getting the shopping and lunch and getting home there wasn't much time left before getting my boys from school so I hav done a very easy pin for today - the instructions for how to use FIMO Modelling Clay.  I have bought a white sparkly pack of it that I am going to turn into 2 unicorn horns to go in jars to be added to my witches potion shelf for halloween.

I have even found instructions on how to make them from air drying clay, so it wont be much different for the oven baked clay which FIMO is.

I remember when I was little me and Mum had loads of FIMO and I was always making things, beads and animals and things for in my dolls house.  I didn't know it was stilll made until I was looking for clay to make the horns from.  Then to the madness of it I asked my friend if she had used it and could tell me how long to bake it for as it came with no instructions...... see bottom left of picture!  DUH.  LOL!  I didn't even see it on there until she asked me for a picture of what "Type" I had bought, as they vary slightly.  Never mind.

I also bought a book in the charity shop for 99p to start making my old spell book from.  I did look in the old/secondhand bookshop in town and he had some LOVELY really old leath bound books which would have been ideal, the only downside was the price of the £6.50 for an A5 and upto £50 an almost A3 size.  They would have been great but I can't justify the cost of it for use of a few hours 1 night a year.  Watch this space for the advancement of the spell book.

January 20th 2015 - What can a bearded dragon eat?

January 20th 2015 - What can a bearded dragon eat?

The answer is lots  of things, but this isn't helpful when i'm stood in the supermarket with no internet signal to check as I can't remember!

So today's pin is another linked to my phone - I am compiling a list to my phone of things he can eat daily/regularly and not so often.  I did have 1 up until my phone went in for repairs and I never re-made it.

I found a pin about bearded dragon food on pinterest so I have linked to that as well as the interent as there is a wide range of things they can eat not on this list. 

My beardie is really funny, although he (she maybe as not checked its sex but were told male when bought it) will eat alot of vegetables it goes crazy for greens!  spinach, kale, dandelion leaves, peas and pea shoots etc.  I'm not sure if beardies can tell colours or not, but he certainly goes more mad for them than anything else he gets given.

here is part of the list on my phone

January 19th 2015 - nutella pastries

January 19th 2015 - nutella pastries

Today I decided to try and make these nutella pastries. They look really nice and they don't look very hard to make.

First off I cheated as I used shop-bought pastry (me and cakes/pastry etc don't go very well together, despite my wanting them to).  I COVERED the worktop in flour, only for the pre-made pastry to be on a nice grease proof sheet!  never mind!

I then cut them into squares (of sorts more like 4 sided shapes than squares), maybe i should use a piece of cardboard as a guide next time - next time she says, don't even no if they have worked this time yet!!!  Onto each "shape" I placed a dollop of nuttela chocolate spread.

From here I folded them into "triangle type shapes", would have been easier if they had been proper squares, but its pastry and mouldable, so I mad them as triangles.  A few had a bit too much chocolate and it squeezed out abit but you can never have too much chocolate right???  They then went into the oven to cook.

Well they haven't quite worked as my pastry was puff pastry not shortcrust so they have expanded and gone all fluffy! LOL!.  So I will have to try again using shortcrust pastry, i'm hoping that once they cooled down will still taste nice.

January 8th 2015 - Monthly meal planner

January 8th 2015 - monthly meal planner

Since the begining of December 2014 when money was abit tight we have sat down and worked out meals for that week, and bought the things we needed only (plus the odd snack type bits for lunch times and weekends, health n beauty bits, fruit, cereal  etc) and we have saved LOADS of money compaired to when we just went and bought "stuff" or "everything".  WHY I haven't done this sooner I never know!!!

Well I decided if we can do it for a week can we work out a plan of food for the whole month?  The answer is simply yes!  I sat and made a list of all the meals we eat/cook regularly and it came to 33, now I know my maths isn't great BUT I do know that no month has this many days in it, so i'm already onto a winner.

The hardest part was actually working out what to put on what day and what week, so that we didn't have all chicken in 1 week or on consecutive days (if possible) but as chicken is the main meat we eat this wasn't a totally easy task. But I managed it.

Then there was a harder task of working out what we needed for each meal so as to compose a shopping list.  So I worked my way through each of the meals from list 1 noting down what we needed for each 1, and things that were used in multiple meals I changed the font colour to red.

Even though we have the planner things may change on it if my knee is playing up and I can't stand to cook, or if we are ill or not at home or decide to have a take-away.  But by doing it and saving money we will have extra money to be able to get a take-away every now and then.


I found the idea of the monthly meal planner here on pinterest, so used this for todays task.  It doesn't seem possible that I have done over a week already.

January 3rd 2015 - Happy Birthday to me......

January 3rd 2015 - My Birthday

 EVEN google knows its my birthday today as it has cakes and candles on it!!!

I have opened my presents, and the cake is cooking, the drinks will flow later with hubby and a friend.

For todays pin I picked a purple ombre layer cake off pinterest, now I know mine wont be as good as the original purple ombre cake see link, but it is what gave me the idea.  See my pics later once its cooked, iced and then cut.

 

Here is the cake uncut, 3 different colour layers. I dont dare add more buttercream to cover the outside as there is loads between each layer!  cant wait for a slice after lunch. 

Pirate party the event

Well after a mad couple of months of preperation for the pirate party the day of it arrived, and no it didnt go to plan!  This was NOT my doing but the weathers - 2days before the wind got up really strong and our heavy weight gazebo buckled and took flight.  1day before it rained all day and all night so was too wet on the grass to do most of the games so panic set in as to HOW I could do it all indoors.  The answer to this was move table from lounge-diner into small kitchen and move small sofa into dining area, which gave more room in lounge.

I started hanging the bunting around my room, really pleased with how it looked -

1 of the mums even said she wouldn't have had the patience to sit and make them.  We hung a 3ftx4ft skull flag between 2 of the upstairs windows -

 

 and added a cross to the door and a wooden sign on the garden bench -

I also had a mini treasure chest (picked up from sealife centre) filled with gems and coins and necklaces (bought and won in 2p machines on holiday) and we sat a halloween skull beside it -

Luckily the rain held off (even though ground was wet) and we were able to dig for treasue in the sandpit and walk the plank outside -

 

As it was bit windy we couldn't leave the sail/mast in the ship but took them out for a photo - I cant addon here as it contains all the children who were at party not just my own.  We played pass the parcel that had pirate themed forfits in and "canon ball bop" - where they had to keep their canon (black balloon) afloat and if it hit the floor they were out, and pin the patch on the pirate, they really enjoyed the "canon ball busrt" - black balloons which had confetti and sweets in and they had bounce on them to busrt them (so glad I have laminate flooring and it was easy to sweep up) -

All of the food we had was given a "piratey name".  We had:

• captain's cakes (birthday boy was captain)
• dead mans fingers - cocktail sausages
• pirate gems on a stick - fruit chunks of plastic swords
• rat poo clusters - chocolate rice crispie cakes
• golden nuggets - chicken nuggets
• golden rocks - cheese & pineapple
• desert islands - cheese pizzas
• hawaiian islands - ham & pineapple pizzas
• vegetable island - mixed salad bits in a plate with a "carrot n lettuce palm tree"
• canon balls - malteasers
• golden rings - hula hoop crisps
• sea scrolls - wafer tubes with liquorice laces tied round them
• pirates teeth - popcon

The cake stand WAS a circus themed one and had animals all over it - that was until i attacked it with black paint and glued cut out skulls on it.  I think it looked really good.

Everyone seemed to have fun and enjoy themselves, which is the main thing.  My lil man said he loved his birthday party.



OH AND AS A LAST THING - I have already stated the planning and decoration making for my eldest birthday in November which is neon/UV/glow in dark - watch this space!!!