A party and a pre-prepared homemade picnic at the Fairy Fair!!

I just had to post about our day at the Fairy Fair because we had such an amazing time!! If you haven’t been before…. the Fairy Fair is a festival with children in mind – loads of activities to do from face painting, to making fairy lanterns, gardens and crowns (more of that later!) There is live entertainment – we loved the Ugly Bug Band…. 3 men in insect costumes, on stilts singing hits from Take That, Lady Gaga, Outcast etc. whilst also playing Euphonium, guitar and drums! Wish I had a photo – if you have one, please upload it as a comment! We also went on a magical ribbon trail to find the Fairy Queen which I have to say was the most magical moment of the day…. the children left her with a sparkly ‘magical’ leaf which they needed to put on their windowsill to let magic in… wonderful!

The birthday girl!

Anyway, we took 10 children and 11 parents to the Fair and debated about how we were going to feed everyone – we settled on an idea to provide picnic bags, label them with their names…. and offer everyone their choice of sandwich (ham, cheese, marmite, jam or combo) and choice of drink (apple juice, water, OJ or squash). Every bag also had a carrot, halved and a fruit salad which we made in plastic cups as the photo details…..

Fruit salad for a picnic - first add cubed melon, then blueberries, then grapes and top off with strawberries - cling film and add to the bag!

So….. we made 2 types of bag – one for adults and one for children; as follows
Adult: sandwich, drink, Kettle chips, carrot, baby tomatoes, fruit salad
Child: sandwich, drink, Pom Bears, carrot, baby tomatoes, fruit salad

Unpacking our picnics

We also didn’t want to bring a big cake to cut, so we made ‘fairy’ cakes, put them on one of those cupcake holder stands… with four candles! After the singing and the blowing, everyone had a cake…. no washing up….we came home relaxed (if a little exhausted) and didn’t have to do anything! Just open our take-out and a bottle of champagne!

With our fairy crowns

We shall definitely be back to the Fairy Fair next year. You can find out more about this and the Fairyland Trust at http://www.fairylandtrust.org

What a fantastic birthday present – Abbie channels Jamie Oliver in advocating the wonders of smoothie ‘milkshakes’!

Abbie is a lucky, lucky girl – she was given lots of lovely presents, but one came out of the box immediately; a child’s smoothie maker! Thank you, thank you Karen and Edward – your birthday present has gone down a treat! Abbie wanted to set to making smoothies immediately, but we were in a bit of a rush, so I promised that we would use her new gift as soon as we got in from school – you can see that we did…. still in school uniform!!

Food revolution permeates much of my thinking when I’m preparing food for Abbie at the moment… and she would much rather have a smoothie or a friut based milkshake anyday over the lumpy, over-sweet milkshakes served up by fast food restaurants; so this was definitely a great gift.
Abbie made a strawberry and banana smoothie from; 1 banana, 4 large strawberries, 1 small strawberry yoghurt and a splash of sweetened soy milk.

Putting in the yoghurt....

Chopping banana

adding fruit to the mix...

some of the strawberries made it into the mix....

We still have to work on pouring!

There was enough for us all to have and although at times I thought the motor on the machine would give out…. the smoothies were well-made and delicious. We have learned, however that we need to chop the fruit a bit small to help the smoothie maker cope!

We have made quite a few smoothies since, although my favourite was the chocolate milkshake smoothie that we made on Wednesday…. 1 banana, 3 strawberries, a pot of Alpro dark chocolate soy pudding and a large splash of sweetened soy milk – WOW! One that we will be making again.

Happy birthday Abbie! – Dairy-free Marshmallow cupcakes – a sugartastic, once a year treat!

She's a big 4 year old now!!

Abbie is 4 today and so, like the wonder-mother that I aspire to be (hasn’t happened yet!)…. I made cupcakes for her class – ‘Marshmallow Cupcakes’ from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. Abbie sat scouring through various books and finally settled on these ones, so that is what made! One of her friends from nursery has a cow’s milk allergy and I understand that as I had a casein intolerance before I was pregnant with Abbie (pregnancy took it away weirdly, although I go back on soy whenever I have any asthmatic probs). So I made dairy free versions and tampered with the sugar content a little as I was using sweetened soy milk.

I was thinking about the sugar content of these cakes pretty much the whole time I was making them, as I was shocked that on Jamie’s Food Revolution, children in LA schools are given a carton of flavoured milk every day which contains 24g of sugar. I calculated the sugar in each cupcake and was equally horrified to find that each cupcake contained a whopping 30g of sugar!! I reconciled myself with the fact that birthdays only come around once a year….. If I hadn’t have put the frosting on the cake, the sugar content would have only been 8.5g, meaning that every child who is drinking a carton on flavoured milk is consuming the sugar equivalent of 4 un-iced cupcakes a day! Would you let your school deliver this? Looking forward to the next instalment tonight… C4 10pm!

Anyway to the recipe….

Marshmallow cupcakes – adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook Makes 24 (for a class!)

240g plain flour
200g caster sugar
3 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
90g veg/soya margarine, at room temperature
240ml sweetened soy milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting:

vanilla frosting (500g icing sugar beaten for 5 minutes with 160g veg/soya margarine, 50ml soya milk and a tiny splash of vanilla extract)
200g mini marshmallows
Edible glitter, to decorate
2 12-hole cupcake tray, lined with paper cases

1.Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F) gas 3.
2.Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and margarine in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Gradually pour in half the soy milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated.
3.Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining soy milk together in a separate bowl for a few seconds, then pour into the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Continue mixing for a couple more minutes until the mixture is smooth. Do not overmix.
4.Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 minutes, or until light golden and the sponge bounces back when touched. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.
5.Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
The next bit is optional – I did it and at point of trying to get sticky marshmallow into a sponge, I wished I hadn’t! Put 24 big marshmallows in a heat-proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Leave until melted and smooth. When the cupcakes are cold, hollow out a small section in the centre of each one and fill with a dollop of melted marshmallow. Leave to cool.

I started putting metled marshmallow inside, but frankly it was too fiddly and sticky, so I stopped!

6.Stir the mini marshmallows into the vanilla frosting by hand until evenly dispersed.
7.Spoon the frosting on top of the cupcakes and decorate with edible glitter.

Frosting and edible glitter on!

 

This recipe should probably have a warning on for diabetics….. but I have to say they look and taste sensational. I was just so pleased that Harry could join in the fun as it is horrible when everyone else is having something and you can’t….. clearly a feeling I have built up over years of casein intolerance and dieting!!

Very sugary... but how gorgeous?!

Omelette in a bag! A new way to cook eggs for Sunday evening – inspired by Food Revolution

Saw on twitter that Food Revolution are having an omelet/omelette (depending on which side of the Atlantic you live on!) cook off so Abbie and I had to throw our hats into the ring! If you haven’t seen it yet, Jamie’s Food Revolution is must-see TV! I couldn’t believe the s**t that they were serving up in LA schools. We used to have a caterers at my school in Houston, when I worked in the US, which I thought was pretty awful (Italian/American fare) loaded with fat, but at least you saw a vegatable!! And the children could order side salads! Would you give your child a brownie for breakfast?? No choice if you live in one of LA’s school districts…… outrageous! To tune in Tues C4 10pm – I have it series linked!

Anyway to my ‘Revolution-ary Omelette’! All you need, per omelette is 2 free range large eggs, a tablespoon of grated cheese, and a tablespoon of your choice of additional ingredients – we used some lovely asparagus that we bought from Aylsham Farmer’s Market. Oh and a quart size Ziploc type bag. This is taken from a book I picked up whilst visiting the lovely Jude, in Charlotte, NC, at a wonderful restaurant called ‘The Flying Biscuit’!

We write our names on the bags as it makes it easier to sort out when they're cooked

Abbie's bag

Then comes the fun bit – crack your eggs straight into the bag and add the cheese and other ingredients. Then ‘burp’ the air out, seal it and smoosh to your heart’s delight!

Smooshing

Then pop into a pan of boiling water for exactly 13 minutes.

13 minutes - not more, not less

Take care when taking the bags out, opening and serving as they will be hot – I use tongs. The omelette will be cooked perfectly, a little soft and gooey in the middle!

Perfect!

YUM!

Have a go and let me know if you love these as much as we do!

Making salad and a wonder knife for children from Pampered Chef

My sister-in-law, Pip, recommended this knife to me a while back and it only struck me the other day as Abbie was using it, that I should blog about how great it is. I got two from a friend’s Pampered Chef party….. one for me and one for Abbie (not that I ever get a look in!). Carrots/turnips and other hard veg are too much, but it is just right for tomatoes, lettuce, avocado, cheese, and anything else that has a bit of give. The beauty of the knife for parents is that the child cannot cut themself with it – I tried this out A LOT before handing it to Abbie and it is true!

Cutting a tomato.... kitten looking on!

Done! This one went straight in her mouth, with a naughty grin!

Abbie is making her own salad here – cutting up tomatoes and lettuce, which she then adds a splosh of rapeseed oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar, a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper too. Tossing is sometimes messy, but she loves being indepdent. Unfortunately we never get to have cucumber because Abbie HATES it. If you have any ideas of how I can get here to eat cucumber (she will only eat it in tzatziki), please let me know!!

What do you do when you have no energy, but your daughter is bouncing off the walls??

Answer – to the kitchen! I was able to sit, with the occasional move whilst we weighed, mixed, poured and baked Nigel Slater’s ‘Lemon Frosted Pistachio cake’; surely guaranteed to lift my spirits and put a smile on my face. Abbie is becoming suddenly more independent in the baking arena and now insists on trying to do everything herself…. cracking eggs has definitely improved – I only had to retrieve 3 pieces of shell (a definite improvement on previous attempts!)

Weighing and measuring...

If you could hear this photo it would say...'Ta da!'

Juicing the orange - luckily I only need 2/3 of its juice

This was a great recipe for trying new things – ‘green nuts’ went down very well, although she came a cropper later when sneaking a naughty one as my back was turned…. tried to eat the whole thing, shell and all!! That’ll teach her! Abbie also enjoyed pinches of ground almonds (so different to how whole ones taste) and smelling the rosewater which she said smelled ‘flowery’.

Thank goodness also for Jonts, who probably wished he hadn’t called to say he was coming home, as he was greeted with a ‘please could you just……’ (this happens quite a lot). Anyway, he was the cake’s hero as without him and the bottled lemon juice, there would have been no icing!

GORGEOUS!

This cake is GORGEOUS!… we ate it with berries and creme fraiche. I made 2/3 of the recipe and we were only supposed to eat a third of the cake. Confession: there is only half left and I am not sure that it will make it through the evening – I am in bed and I can almost hear Jon sliding a plate from the cupboard…. opening the fridge door….. Hero or not, there had better be a piece for Abbie and I tomorrow or he’s in big trouble!

Abbie has seconds and then asked to share my second piece! Cheeky monkey! Of course I let her - weak!

Have to say, I am a Slater convert at the moment as I have not had any kitchen disasters with any of his recipes and they have all been simply delicious. In fact I am at present thinking up a name for all Slater followers…. maybe I am a ‘Slaterite’, ‘Slatertater’ or a ‘Slaterplater’? All lame I know! I’m sure you can do better……

LEMON-FROSTED PISTACHIO CAKE (from Nigel Slater’s ‘The Kitchen Diaries’)
serves 10-12

250g of butter
250g of caster sugar
3 large eggs
100g of shelled pistachio nuts
100g of ground almonds
An orange
1 tsp of rosewater
60g of plain flour

Icing:
100g of icing sugar
2 tbsp of lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 160° C. Line the bottom of a non-stick 22cm cake tin with baking parchment.
Cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between adding each egg. Blitz the pistachios in a food processor to turn them into fine crumbs and then add them, along with the almonds, to the butter, sugar and eggs. Add the zest and the juice of the orange and then stir in the orange blossom water and, finally, fold in the flour.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 50 minutes, covering the top lightly with foil for the final ten minutes. Check that the cake is done by inserting a skewer, it should come out quite clean with no wet mixture stuck to it. Leave it to cool in the tin before turning out.

Make the icing by mixing the icing sugar and lemon juice together until smooth and then pour it over the cake. If you have any leftover pistachios use a few to decorate the top of the cake. Leave the icing to set and then serve and enjoy.

Magic soup comes to the rescue again!

Sorry to feel so sorry for myself, but I feel rubbish…. and as any working mother knows… you just have to keep going. I did keep going all week, including going into school even though I had a temperature as Year 6 had a practical assessment! My martydom had its consequences… I had to cancel going out on what promised to be a wild girl’s night out on Saturday… thank goodness I could just sit on the sofa, watch Eurovision and tweet to my heart’s content!

Anyway I have now been suffering with this cold/cough nastiness for 10 days and after a day off from work (v unusual for me) I knew I had to get myself in order. Can’t believe I haven’t thought of it before… but it struck me – MAGIC SOUP! A soup which is homemade, but made from chopped up packets of things from the supermarket and takes little more than 5 mins to make. Oh and it’s MAGIC – it cures my family every time. I base it loosely on a combination of Nigella’s ‘Sunday Night Chicken Noodle’ and her ‘Noodle soup for Needy people’ and needy I definitely am!!

So you will need the easiest instruction ever – here is most of what you need…

Some stuff in packets and other storecupboard bottles

For one poorly person
1) Boil kettle, cut veg stock cube in half and put into a jug
2) Add 200ml boiling water and pour into pan – add big splash soy and sake, small splash mirin, small blob honey, 2cm squirts of ginger and garlic
3) Chuck in handful sugar snaps, one bag of udon noodles from the packet, 1-2 handfuls stirfry veg and beansprouts
4) Lid on, cook for 3 mins, stir and serve – I top with corriander and chilli flakes (decongestant effect)

Chilli flakes (decongestant) and corriander (am sure it has some health benefits)

A bowlful of goodness for whatever ails you!

Summer cold…. BEGONE!

Do you have a foodie cure for colds and coughs??

Here today, scone tomorrow!

Went to Norwich Farmers’ market today to support my mate Steph’s new venture, Scone’ology! She and her business partner were doing a roaring trade in gourmet scones; we bought cheese/chilli (Jon), cheese/marmite (Abbie) and cinnamon (me). Also available were Norfolk lavender and Choc chip…. could scones become the new cupcakes???

We were going to have them for breakfast, but temptation was too great and so we buckled and had them with a cup of tea, watching the FA cup and coming up with scone puns! So far our winners are ‘all scone’ and ‘scone in 60 seconds’. Scones were amazing, really interesting flavours that were perfectly balanced; an inspired idea. Well done Scone’ology! If you can top our scone puns, comment away!

Steph and partner selling their delicious goods!

Abbie's cheese and marmite

Jon's partly eaten chilli and cheese

Nearly all 'scone!

Dippy eggs and asparagus…. all from round the corner! So lucky to live here!

Came home from work on Saturday to find a joyous husband dying to relate his latest culinary find!! ‘You know the woman we usually get our eggs from (down our road)……. well today I went to get some eggs and…. (all these pauses for effect!) she was selling asparagus for 1.50!’ I immediately thought ‘Probably weedy, thin, woody stalks’, but NO! fat juicy spears and a big bundle! We have regularly counted our blessings to live here this year (after 5 years of wishing to be back in Houston!) and today was another reminder of the brilliance of living in North Norfolk!

Now, if you have read my recent posts about asparagus, you may have read about my surprise at Abbie not liking it, after she couldn’t get enough of it last year. Well I have to say, I don’t do Annabel Karmel and hide it in her food, or turn it into a rocket/smily face/balloon animal! I just keep serving it up!! Research says that it only takes 10-12 tastes of a food that you don’t like before you can at least tolerate it….. I’ve served it up 4 times in the last fortnight and tonight was the first time Abbie gave it a thumbs up. Now we are off to get some more this morning – prepare for asparagus dishes aplenty!!

Look at that.... my idea of a perfect supper!

Success - 'mmmmm I like asparagus' was the quote!

Lasagne to die for and a tarted up dessert!

My mother-in-law came for lunch on Sunday – all the way from Bucks so I had to make a meal worth driving for! This lasagne (from Jamie Oliver’s ‘Jamie’s Dinners’) is the best that we have ever had and we make it over and over again. It is brilliant when you are entertaining because you can get all the bits ready individually and then layer and bake at the last moment – straight to table when you’re done, no messing!

The addition of the butternut squash (I always want to say squatternut bosh after Ross in ‘Friends’!) makes it really moreish and works incredibly well to lighten it up for a summer lunch. The other great feature is the ‘no cook’ white sauce – less work, more yum!

Find the recipe @: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/simple-baked-lasagne

First make your components... roast butternut squash and slow cooked meat ragu

.. the start layering; pasta, squash, meat, cheese sauce... etc.

 

and... voila! ready to go into the oven

and then to table for the hungry Kemptons!

I had some margarita ice cream leftover from when the girls came over on Wednesday and I knew that my mother-in-law is always on the lookout for easy desserts (they are her nemesis!) so I thought I would show her this one! I tarted it up with a quick rhubarb granita, made with a few weedy thin sticks of rhubarb I pulled from the garden this week – a little wine and vanilla sugar and cook for 8 mins to make a syrupy mush, the cool and freeze – stir with a fork and freeze again. It only made a tsp each, but that was all we needed!  See an earlier post for the ice cream recipe!

How to tart up already delicious margarita ice cream - rhubard (from the garden) granita and fresh raspberries!