Madhouse Family Reviews !

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Recipe : Cherry Tomato Tart

This week is National Vegetarian Week so I thought it would be the perfect time for trying out this recipe for Cherry Tomato Tart, especially as I got some beautifully sweet cherry tomatoes in my veg box this week. This is one of the recipes (I'll be back with more) created by The Co-operative Food, to showcase British food and farming in conjunction with Open Farm Sunday (on 9th June this year).

Cherry Tomato Tart

For these tarts, you can semi-dry the tomatoes to really bring out their rich, sweet flavour. (But I didn't bother because I was short on time !)

Makes: 4

Takes: ABOUT 10 minutes to make + 1½ hours for drying the tomatoes + 15 minutes to cook

225g British cherry tomatoes, halved

1 tbsp The Co-operative olive oil

2 whole cloves garlic (unpeeled)

125g puff pastry

65g The Co-operative soft goat’s cheese

Handful fresh basil leaves (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 120ºC/fan 100ºC/ Gas ½. Put the tomatoes, oil and garlic on a baking tray. Cook for 1½ hours.

2. Turn the oven up to 200°C/fan 180°C/Gas 6. Roll out the pastry until it’s as thick as a pound coin and cut out 4 circles, about 9.5cm across. Score small borders round the edges of the pastry circles and put on a baking tray.

3. Squeeze the garlic from the cloves onto the circles. Break the cheese into small pieces and scatter over. Top with the tomatoes and bake for 15 minutes until the pastry is risen and golden. Scatter with basil leaves, if using.

Serve lukewarm with salad. Mine was a bit soggy because I didn't semi-dry the tomatoes but it was very nice. I sprinkled oregano over the tomatoes instead of basil.

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The eighth annual Open Farm Sunday on 9th June 2013 provides a great opportunity for the public to truly get to know how their food is produced and how the countryside around them is cared for.

Sponsors for Open Farm Sunday 2013 include Asda, Country Life butter, Frontier Agriculture, John Deere, LEAF Marque, Marks and Spencer, National Farmers Union, Syngenta, The Co-operative and Waitrose, plus BPEX, Dairy Co, EBLEX, HDC, HGCA, Cotswold Seeds, FarmStay UK and Farmers Weekly

For more information visit www.farmsunday.org

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

White Chocolate Chip Tracker Bars review

Tracker recently sent through some of their new White Chocolate Chip Bars to The Madhouse for us to try out. The brand has been around for 25 years and was the first cereal bar on the market, so I was keen to see what we'd think. I managed to sneak them out of the way of the kids and sat down to savour one last night.

To be honest, I was actually a bit underwhelmed to begin with. The bar seems smaller than the packaging would suggest and I couldn't see any nuggets of chocolate at all.

Then I realised that I was looking at the underside and the chocolate chips are all stuck on the top. That's more like it !

When you first bite into the bar, the initial flavour to flood your mouth is sweet honey or syrup and cornflakes (although looking at the ingredients list, there aren't any!), then a peanut flavour comes through and finally an undercurrent of delicate creamy white chocolate. Looking on the box, Tracker actually sum it up quite well as "the crunch", "the goo" and "the chew" !

The bars are still quite small though so I ate two in one sitting ! The ingredients list is as follows : glucose syrup , vegetable fat , whole oat flakes , peanuts , sweetened condensed skimmed milk , sugar , maize , rice flour , humectant (glycerol) , wholemeal wheat flour , cocoa butter , full cream milk powder , malted wheat flour , salt , whey powder , lactose , emulsifiers (soya lecithin, E471) , barley malt extract , vegetable oil , natural vanilla extract. That sounded like quite a lot of fats and sugars to me so I turned to the nutritional information to check - each bar contains 125 calories, 1.7g of protein, 15g of carbs (of which 8.4g sugars), 6.1g of fats (of which 2.6g saturates) and 0.7g fibre.

They taste lovely but I'll have to make sure I stick to one from now on, if I want a treat.

star rating : 4/5

RRP : £1.89 for 6 x 26g bars

for more information : http://www.tracker-bar.co.uk/

Disclosure : I received some Tracker bars in order to write an honest review.

Other reviews you may be interested in :

Harvest Cheweee Cereal Bars

Jordans Juicy Apple & Sultana Frusli bars

Yu!-Bars review

Book review : Ketchup Clouds – Annabel Pitcher

Ketchup Clouds is the second novel by Annabel Pitcher, author of My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece, a book that I haven't read but have heard a lot of good things about. Behind this rather intriguing title lies the poignant tale of Zoe Collins, a young girl on the brink of womanhood who should be having the time of her life doing the normal teen things like going to parties, chasing boys and coming up with ambitious dreams for the future, but finds herself in the midst of a heart-breaking tragedy.

The front cover sets the scene : "I've done something wrong. Not a little bit wrong or even quite a lot wrong. What I've done is awful. And do you want to know the worst thing? I've got away with it." Zoe reveals her story and gives us a glimpse into her life through a series of letters that she sends to a prisoner on Death Row. She doesn't know anything about him except what she's read on the prisoners' penfriends website, but she decides that someone who is guilty of a horrible crime can surely understand and empathise with her own predicament.

Without giving away too much of the story, Zoe – like many teens – finds herself caught between two boys. She also has other "normal teen" things going on in the background, such as trying to work out whether or not to go to university, figure out if her parents are just going through a rough patch or are about to get divorced and work out how to be allowed to go to the party everyone is talking about. She's basically just a regular teen, which is what makes her predicament so heartbreaking.

It's a very realistic story, with moments of dark humour in the letters and an appealing sense of naivety. I really enjoyed it as an adult, but I don't feel totally comfortable giving it to 11-year-old Sophie yet because of its slightly raunchy scenes (there's nothing too explicit but it's a bit more than I'd give to an 11-year-old) and the storyline which I think would upset her. It's a powerful read though and one that I would certainly recommend for slightly older readers.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : £9.99

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Indigo (27 Dec 2012)
ISBN-10: 1780620306
ISBN-13: 978-1780620305
Product Dimensions: 20 x 13.6 x 3 cm

Disclosure : I received a review copy of the book.

Other reviews you may be interested in :

Teen-read book review : Raining Fire - Alan Gibbons

Children's book review : Children of the Wild - Giles Milton

Children's Book Review : Made On Earth - Wolfgang Korn

Monday, 20 May 2013

Dairylea Springy Onion and Mighty Mature review

Dairylea has been around for donkeys' years and is a regular buy for our family, for making sandwiches, amongst other things. The kids love the mild cheesy flavour and I love the fact that it's a healthier option than mayonnaise or butter so we're all happy. I also find it avoids soggy sandwiches, which is another huge bonus.

We were very excited to learn that Dairylea have introduced two brand new flavours to the range, and even more so when they sent some through to the Madhouse in this funky lunch box (along with a shopping voucher to buy ingredients to go with them).

The two new flavours are Springy Onion and Mighty Mature, both of which appealed to us all in theory. The Springy Onion is made with real spring onions and contains 54 calories, 1.3g of sugar, 3.9g of fat (of which 2.6g saturates) and 0.5g salt per 25g serving. The Mighty Mature contains 63% cheese, giving it the highest cheddar content of any cheese spread on the market, and a 25g serving contains 72 calories, 1.9g sugar, 5.2g fat (of which 3.4g saturates) and 0.4g salt.

Time to get taste-testing. I spread some on some lovely crusty ciabatta that had just come out of the bread machine and was still warm - yum ! Both got a thumbs up but the kids thought theMighty Mature tasted like "normal" Dairylea.

Dairylea had given us a scorecard with a selection of different things to try with the cheese spreads (carrot sticks, apple slices, cucumber, grapes, bread sticks, crackers, tortillas, bread and - one which made the Madhouse Mini-testers laugh - your finger !). We tried all of them except the bread sticks and grapes and the only ones that we weren't totally sure about were the cucumber and apple. We have tried it with baked potatoes, on toast and in mashed potato too and all three got a unanimous thumbs up. The school canteen also does a Dairylea sauce (apparently it's just Dairylea triangles melted in a bit of crème fraîche) that they serve with fish that the Madhouse Mini-testers rave about so I'll be trying that out with these new flavours too.

We love the new additions and hope there will be many more to come. I asked which new flavours the Madhouse Family members would like to see and the top suggestions were pizza flavour, pineapple and bacon - are you listening Dairylea ?!

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : £1.36 for 160g

for more information : http://www.dairylea.co.uk

Disclosure : I received some Dairylea, a rather lovely lunch box and a shopping voucher to buy ingredients for the taste-test in order to write an honest review.

Other reviews you may be interested in :

Colman's Smokey BBQ Sauce review

My Dream Cake at #level36 for World Baking Day #bakebrave

Madhouse recipe : Potato and Courgette Lasagne

Colman's Smokey BBQ Sauce review

Colman's recently sent me through a bottle of their Smokey BBQ sauce to try out. Yesterday, I decided to give it a try alongside roast chicken and rice with roast carrots, mushrooms and onions. Today I squeezed some on the side of my plate of steak, salad and couscous. It went really well with both.

It's a thick sauce that has about the same consistency as ketchup so it is perfect as a condiment but could also be used as a dip, glaze or marinade - especially handy for giving a nice smokey flavour to meat as the weather certainly isn't conducive to having barbecues at the moment !

Unlike some BBQ sauces, it's not at all spicy. It has a lovely sweet, smokey flavour that is perfect for jazzing up bland dishes like rice, mashed potato or couscous. It goes really well with hot or cold meats or even as a replacement for mayonnaise in sandwiches with bacon or chicken. I think it'll try it mixed with cheese as a baked potato topping later in the week too.

The ingredients list doesn't appear to contain anything much that you wouldn't find in a regular kitchen, which is always a good sign - Water, Sugar, White Wine Vinegar, Tomato Paste, Molasses, Modified Maize Starch, Salt, Smokey Flavourings, Worcestershire Sauce (1.2%) (Water, Glucose Syrup, Malt Vinegar (BARLEY), Sugar, Salt, Flavourings, Onion Extract, Anchovies, Olive Oil, Vinegar, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Spices, Herbs, Sunflower Oil, Spices, Mustard, Flour, Thickener (Xanthan Gum), Preservative (Sorbic Acid),Flavourings.

A 15g serving contains 21 calories, less than 0.5g fat, 3.9g of sugar and 0.26g of sugar. The squeezy bottle is really easy to control so you can serve as little or as much as you want and there are no messy drips to clean up.

I can see this becoming a regular staple in our fridge, especially over the summer months.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : £1.69

for more information : http://www.colmans.co.uk/our-range/sauces/smokey-barbeque-sauce/

Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.

Other reviews you may be interested in :

#leanonturkey Summer Turkey Recipe Challenge : Mediterranean Stuffed Turkey Parcels

Liberté Greek Style Yogurt review

Hellmann's Mayonnaise review

DVD review : Broadchurch

Today sees the release of Broadchurch on DVD and we were very pleased to receive a copy to review. We missed this when it was on TV back in March and I really kicked myself because I saw lots of people mentioning it on twitter and facebook and saying how good it was. I have to say, I agree with them.

The drama is set in the fictional sleepy Dorset town of Broadchurch, where an 11-year-old boy goes missing and is found dead. There is nothing hugely original in the murder-mystery plot, with two at-odds cops both desperate to solve the case, but as the town of Broadchurch hits the headlines, the drama unfolds with more and more secrets being unearthed. It's as much about the effects of the murder on the town and its inhabitants than finding out who committed the crime.

The acting is brilliant with some very believable and poignant scenes, especially from Jodie Whittaker as the boy's heartbroken mother. The cast has a lot of other well-known names including Olivia Colman, David Tennant, Pauline Quirke, Vicky McClure and Andrew Buchan. It keeps you guessing all the way through - I've still got a few episodes to watch (the whole thing lasts for 400 minutes so you can't watch it all in one sitting !) and I have no idea who the killer is so don't tell me, whatever you do !

star rating : 4.5/5

Number of discs: 3
Classification: 15
Studio: Acorn Media
DVD Release Date: 20 May 2013
Run Time: 480 minutes

RRP : £25.99

Disclosure : I received a copy of the DVD in order to write an honest review.

Other reviews you may be interested in :

DVD review : Playing For Keeps

DVD review : Curandero : Dawn of the Demon

Kids' DVD review : Robosapien

Sunday, 19 May 2013

Daisy Daisy, Give me your answer, do !

Weeds or wild flowers? Well, it all depends on your viewpoint but we all had a fabulous afternoon out discovering the wild blooms today. It all started off with a load of dandelions that had gone to seed next to the pavement.

The kids had great fun doing loads of dandelion clocks. Sophie looked at the daisies and, a bit further along the road, wondered out loud how to make a daisy chain. I explained the basic theory but we couldn't find any more daisies along the way for me to show her.

We visited a new park and decided to get off the beaten track, following lesser known paths. Hmm I wonder where this Trip Trap Bridge goes ...

Pierre wanted to check there were no nasty old trolls living under the bridge so we had a stop in the middle to play Pooh Sticks and throw pebbles at a half submerged tree trunk !

Wow ! Just around the corner was a huge meadow filled with so many daisies, it looked like it had been snowing !

Pierre got so excited he wanted to roll around in them for a bit !

The girls legged it across to the far bank and sat waving until we caught up with them !

It was the perfect bank for some rolypolies !

Cue much giggling when they landed in a heap at the bottom with their heads spinning !

Oops, just as well it was my idea !

Chilling in the daisy meadow!

Time for a daisychain-making lesson - I couldn't actually believe they'd never made daisy chains before! One of my own childhood's simple pleasures - they were very impressed !

I usually tell them it's a waste picking daisies but there were so many in this meadow that I thought a few wouldn't make any difference !

Happy hippy chick !

The kids have already asked if we can go back to Daisy Meadow (as it's now been named) to have a picnic in the holidays - sounds good to me !

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

World War Two Camp Reenactment

It's Madhouse Daddy Mike the Knight !

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside !

This week's veg box 19/5

There's so much stuff in this week's box that I couldn't fit it all in one photo ! We have three lettuces (lucky I posted some salad recipes last week then !), six avocados (I'll make guacamole with some but not sure what else to do with them), mushrooms, red peppers, carrots, a bunch of tiny radishes ...

some apples (which will be made into apple crumble I think - or maybe I should make my Spiced Apple Cake again as it's World Baking Day today), round courgettes (haven't had those for a while), cucumber, loads of deliciously sweet cherry tomatoes that I keep pinching out of the bag every time I go to the fridge (I have a recipe for Cherry Tomato Tart that will be perfect) and some green beans which I also have a cunning idea for. (It looked simple on TV but I bet it's more complicated than it looks - watch this space !)

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

#VegBoxChallenge Week 5

#VegBoxChallenge Week 4

#VegBoxChallenge Week 3

Happy World Baking Day ! I'm baking Bakewell Tart Biscuits at #level15 #bakebrave

Today's the day ! To mark World Baking Day (again !), this time I've tried out the level 15 recipe for Bakewell Tart Biscuits. Although to be honest, I didn't have any almonds or almond extract so mine are more like posh jam tarts - nevertheless the kids loved them (and they're not the only ones) !

Here's the ingredients list for the original recipe :

INGREDIENTS

For the biscuits:

250g margarine

140g caster sugar

1 egg yolk

2 tsp almond extract

300g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)

For the filling and topping:

100g - 150g Raspberry Jam

100g Icing sugar

Water

Flaked Almonds (optional)

Here's how we got on :

Cream together the margarine and sugar.

Add the egg yolk.

Mix in the flour with your hands and shape into a ball of dough.

Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least an hour or two.

Use two different sized pastry cutters to create biscuit bases and biscuit borders.

Bake in the oven for a few minutes - I was actually pleasantly surprised at how well they hold their shape.

Spread raspberry jam (or lemon curd or whatever other jam you fancy) on the base biscuit and top with a border biscuit.

Very simple but very impressive and much prettier than regular jam tarts.

The kids were too impatient to eat them so I didn't bother with the icing or flaked almonds and they were still lovely.

Are you planning to #bakebrave today?

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

My Dream Cake at #level36 for World Baking Day #bakebrave

I'm baking brave at level 83 for World Baking Day !

Aldi Baking Challenge : White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sunday weigh-in : Defies all logic but who cares ?!

Today is National Baking Week. This week could be defined by one word : cake. I've been baking non stop, making Hideaway Heart Cupcakes, Dream Cake, Bakewell Tart Biscuits, White Chocolate Chip Cookies ... Even the dieting gods were against me - when I picked omelette as a light option in a cafe with a friend, I was stunned to see it came with chips, which weren't mentioned on the menu !

I therefore knew this week was going to be bad news when I jumped on the scales, so I was stunned to see that I actually LOST weight ! Only 200g but I was expecting a gain so that's absolutely fan-blooming-tastic !

Positives of the week

- Two people this week have announced, out of the blue, "you've lost SO MUCH weight recently". To which I replied, "well, I haven't actually, since Christmas I've been at a standstill but I did lose lots last year", to which THEY replied "well, you look slimmer than the last time I saw you and that wasn't that long ago" ! :)

- After a week of listening to the SlimPod every day, I haven't had a chance to put it on this week, but it still seems to be doing its job. There have been lots of half-eaten plates where I've been stopping when I realise I'm not hungry any more and I've been eating cakes cut in half when I fancied one.

- I decided to walk back from work instead of taking the bus on Friday (a couple of miles) then set straight off out again, taking the kids' books - all TWENTY ONE of them ! - back to the library. So no structured sport this week but it's all exercise !

- I am now wearing my target blue jeans and sitting down quite happily without being self-conscious about a tummy bulge !

This week's targets

Last week's target was : Get down to the 77 point somethings. Listen to the SlimPod every day. Stay positive ! (Well, I stayed positive and I got closer to the other two so that'll do !)

This week's target is : - Seven is supposed to be a lucky number so I'm aiming for 77.7kg next week !

Longer-term targets : Wear my new blue jeans without a tummy bulge even when sitting down ! (done - or if it's still there, it's small enough that I'm not worried about it any more)

START WEIGHT : 91.9kg

TARGET WEIGHT : 66kg

WEIGHT LAST WEEK : 78.3kg

WEIGHT TODAY : 78.1g

WEIGHT LOST SO FAR : 13.8kg

STILL TO GO : 12.1kg

CHANGE THIS WEEK : -200g

Feel free to add your weightloss posts to our weekly linkie - it's great to see how everyone else has been getting on and give each other support and encouragement :)