Picture book review : Tabitha Posy Was Ever So Nosy - Julie Fulton

Maverick Books recently sent us through some lovely picture books to review. As soon as we saw the title of the first one,  Tabitha Posy Was Ever So Nosy, we couldn't wait to start reading it ! 

The story, written in deliciously silly rhyme that reminded me slightly of Edward Lear, had us all giggling straight away and is perfect for reading out loud at bedtime.

The brightly coloured illustrations accompanying the text, which are provided by Jona Jung, are packed with detail and really kept Pierre interested, pointing things out in the pictures as I read along. He was slightly perturbed by the schoolteacher's cleavage, saying that "her boobies look like a bum" which will go down as an immortal line to make him blush when he's 18 !

The story tells the tale of Tabitha Posy, a very curious (I would say, rather than nosy, but then it wouldn't rhyme, would it?!) little girl who wants to know everything about everyone and everything, including what the sleeping tiger had for his lunch on a school trip to the zoo. We were all a bit shocked when the tiger ate her ! But it's OK, she survives !

The story's closing line champions reading, saying that Tabitha has learnt her lesson and will start loking up more answers in books rather than being nosy. The Madhouse Mini-testers are total bookworms and don't need any encouragement to sit down with a book but this could be a good message for reluctant readers.

It's a really fun book to read out loud but the illustrations are so appealing that 3-year-old Pierre has been "reading" it all by himself too !

This book is part of The Ever So series which also includes Mrs MacCready Was Ever So Greedy - that sounds like another fun book to discover !

star rating : 5/5

RRP : £6.99

• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Maverick (1 Feb 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1848860978
• ISBN-13: 978-1848860971
• Product Dimensions: 25.8 x 25.4 x 0.6 cm

Disclosure : We received a copy of the book in order to write an honest review.

Other reviews you may be interested in :

Picture book review : Nat the Cat's Sunny Smile - Jez Alborough

Picture Book Review : The House Rabbit - Lesley White

Children's Pop-Up Book Review : The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Recipe : Philly Cheesecake Brownies

You may remember us making Mini Carrot Cakes with Philly Icing for Mothers' Day, after we received a lovely pack of ingredients from Philadelphia. Well, we loved them so much, we've just tried another of their recipes, this time for Philly Cheesecake Brownies, and they were extremely successful too. Here's the recipe if you want to give them a go :

Philly Cheesecake Brownies

Ingredients

125 g unsalted butter

125g dark chocolate, chopped

200g brown sugar

3 medium eggs, beaten

50 g plain flour, sifted

50 g cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

200 g Philadelphia Light

50 g caster sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180 °C.

Combine the sugar, butter and chocolate in a medium saucepan and stir over medium heat until the chocolate and butter have melted. (I actually did this in the microwave, in 10 second bursts, stirring between bursts.)

Remove from the heat, add the lightly beaten eggs and mix well.

Add the flour, cocoa and baking powder and stir until well combined.

Pour into a greased and lined 18 x 28cm rectangular  tin, making sure it goes into the corners.

Beat the Philly and caster sugar until smooth and creamy.

 Place random teaspoons of the Philadelphia over the chocolate and using a knife or skewer swirl it a little for a marbled effect.

Bake in the oven at 180° for 35-40 minutes until just firm. 

Cool in the tin, then turn out and cut into pieces.

According to the recipe, this should make 12 brownies. I actually halved the quantities (and the cooking time) and made 20 mini brownie bites so if you only make 12 using the quantities suggested, they must be huge !

According to the recipe above, each serving contains 282 calories, 16g of fat and 32g of carbs. By my calculations, each one of my mini brownies therefore contains 84.6 calories, which is not bad at all because they're utterly delicious ! Make sure you take them out of the oven when they're barely cooked so that they remain moist and gooey.

If you look on the Philadelphia website, there is an alternative recipe for these, using Choccy Philly, so the choice is yours !

for more information and recipes : www.philadelphia.co.uk

Disclosure : I received a pack of ingredients, including Philadelphia, in order to try out some of the recipes.

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Clover Seedburst Hot Cross Muffins recipe

World Baking Day recipe : Spiced Apple Cake

Anzac Biscuits recipe

Is your toddler getting enough vitamin D in his diet?

One of the things that surprised me bringing up babies and toddlers in France is that they are all routinely prescribed vitamin D for the first months of their lives, particularly if exclusively breastfed, as mine were.

This weekend marked the the UK's first ever Vitamin D Day with the official ambassador of the day, This Morning's resident health expert, Dr Chris Steele, joining forces with GrowingUpMilkInfo.com to help raise awareness about the importance of the vitamin, especially for toddler development.

Read on for more info :

*****************************************

At the dawn of British summertime 2013, growingupmilkinfo.com launched the UK's first Vitamin D Day (31st March) to raise awareness about the importance of the vitamin for toddler development. After such a cold, long winter, and predictions that things are not getting much warmer, the day aims to highlight the alternative ways to top up on vitamin D.

With a recent survey highlighting that the majority of UK mums (91%) don't know the recommended daily intake of vitamin D for toddlers, Vitamin D Day has been created to address misconceptions, and educate the nation's parents, about the role of diet in providing the essential vitamin.

Health expert and ITV's This Morning regular, Dr Chris Steele, who is backing Vitamin D Day, stressed the importance of dietary intake of vitamin D for toddlers. He said: "Many parents don't know how much vitamin D is needed for the normal growth of toddler bones and teeth.

He added: "The low levels of vitamin D in toddler diets is a growing health concern and we need to ensure that our toddlers are getting the best from their diets. Presently, the average British toddler is only getting 27% of their recommended daily dietary vitamin D intake and the sun cannot be relied upon alone to fulfil a toddler's vitamin D needs."

Vitamin D Day aims to educate Brits on the food sources, like oily fish, liver and eggs, as well as foods and milks fortified with vitamin D, such as fortified breakfast cereals and Growing Up Milk, to help top-up vitamin D levels in our little ones' diets.

Leading weather intelligence company Metra Weather expects that the first months of this summertime will not be much better than the washout summer of 2012, with warm summer temperatures not expected until May and another dull and wet July

Growingupmilkinfo.com nutritionist, Dr Leanne Olivier, commented: "With the unpredictable weather, toddlers in the UK are considered vulnerable to low-levels of vitamin D.

"And it's harder to get vitamin D from the sun north of Birmingham with toddlers in the cities of Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds and Sheffield indexing higher for low levels of the vitamin. This also applies to toddlers who have darker skin or cover up for cultural reasons, with this in mind it is imperative that a toddlers' vitamin D intake is supplemented through diet."

To support greater awareness about vitamin D growingupmilkinfo.com has launched its new website which includes vitamin D rich recipes for toddlers and expert health advice and tips, as well as a vitamin D Q&A video with Dr Chris Steele.

For more information on the importance Vitamin D and toddler nutrition, visit growingupmilkinfo.com.

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Remember The Motherhood rap? Get ready for The Fatherhood !

Munchkin Click Lock Cups review

‘The Winter Potty List’ - 24 things to do with your toddler before spring

Recipe : Fresh Spinach Salmon En Croûte

Spinach is a vegetable that finds it way on to the Madhouse menu occasionally - the Madhouse Mini-testers came home from school dinners telling me (to my surprise, I must admit !) that they love spinach in Laughing Cow sauce. A quick bit of trial and error and I discovered that this is just cheese spread traingles melted in a little cream and poured over spinach - how simple is that?! But I have to admit, I usually buy frozen spinach so I was rather impressed to receive this fresh spinach, roots and all, in my fruit & veg box this week.

I decided I wanted to make something a bit special with it and ended up going for this:

 Fresh Spinach Salmon En Croûte.

Ingredients :

for 3 portions

a 500g pack of ready made puff pastry

some fresh spinach leaves (although frozen would work too)

fresh salmon fillets

garlic granules, garlic pepper, salt, lemon juice

3 tbsp pesto

 First thoroughly wash the spinach leaves. If you look closely at the top picture, you can see that some of them are covered in mud ! Rip them into fairly large pieces. Heat 1tbsp olive oil in a frying pan, toss in the spinach leaves and stir for 2-3 minutes to gently wilt them. The vibrant green colour is amazing !

Cut the puff pastry into three pieces (or more if you want smaller portions) and roll it out until each piece is larger than the salmon fillets. Divide the cooked spinach between the puff pastry pieces, leaving a wide margin around the edges.

Season the salmon fillets with a generous sprinkling of garlic granules and garlic pepper, a small pinch of salt and squeeze the juice of half a lemon on top. Spread a tablespoon of pesto on top of each fillet.

Place one salmon fillet on each pile of spinach. Fold the edges of the puff pastry to the centre and pinch them together to enclose the salmon and spinach.

Make a few small holes in the top of the pastry to let the steam out.

Brush a little milk or egg over the top.

Bake at 180° for about 45 minutes until the pastry is golden and the salmon cooked all the way through.

Serve with rice or salad.

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Warm Potato & Smoked Mackerel Salad recipe

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Salmon recipes from Asda fishmonger, Darren Wrend

Easter Crown Crafts Kit review

We loved the bonus day off yesterday, catching up with some last minute Easter crafts before it was too late. You may remember our fab craft session using all our Yellow Moon crafts kits last week. Well, we had one kit left that we didn't have time to make - Easter Crowns - so that was what we made yesterday.

The pack contains two complete Easter Crown kits with foam crowns and pre-cut adhesive foam shapes to stick cute Easter-themed decorations all over them.

Following the enclosed models, it was really easy for both 8-year-old Juliette and 3-year-old Pierre to create some very cute-looking Easter creatures. They barely needed my help at all.

They had great fun and really loved sticking the foam shapes all over their crowns. I think they looked great.

The Easter Princess.

And the Easter Prince ! Not sure who had the biggest smile !

for more information : http://www.yellowmoon.org.uk/

Disclosure : As Yellow Moon bloggers, we receive lots of lovely crafts supplies in order to write honest reviews.

Other reviews you may be interested in :

Yellow Moon Easter Crafting Supplies review

Finger-painting is for wimps !

The Orb Factory Sticky Mosaics By Numbers review

Living World Ladybird World review

When I was recently asked if we'd be interested in learning more about creepie-crawlies, I replied with a tentative "maybe, depending on which ones" ! I'm OK with worms, snails and beetles but am really not keen on spiders and hate maggots with a passion. Luckily, they heard my plea and sent us through a nice and safe Ladybird World set - phew ! Juliette excitedly took possession of it and wanted to go and find some ladybirds to put in it right away. This was last week when the ground was covered in frost and a sprinkling of snow so the first lesson she learned about ladybirds was that they won't be out and about until it's decidedly warmer !

Nevertheless, she got all the differents bits and pieces out to have a good look and discovered some tweezers, some specimen tubes, a paintbrush (for delicately pushing the ladybirds into the specimen tubes) and a lens.

There's also a sturdy plastic tank, with a (very important, to stop them getting out !) lid with holes in. There's also a very informative and interesting guide that is packed with information about ladybirds and how to look after, and even attempt to breed, them.

It's a good introduction to keeping a pet for young children because you have to learn how to give them food (that'd be aphids - hope we manage to find some !) and clean out the tank, just as you would with a proper pet.

It also gives lots of details about the life cycle of ladybirds, the different species of ladybirds and how to get the most out of your Ladybird World experience. Naturalist Nick Baker has been involved in creating the product and, despite the fact that the target age is 5-10, it is a really educational kit, as well as being lots of fun.

The only thing lacking is the ladybirds - once the sun comes out, we'll definitely be out looking for some !

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : £9.99

Disclosure : We received a Ladybird World in order to write an honest review.

Other reviews you may be interested in :

Green Science Green Rocket review

Interplay Wild Science Kits for Girls and Boys review

Science X CSI : Crime Scene Investigation review

Sainsbury's Popcorn & Movie Afternoon !

Sainsbury's has recently launched a new range of popcorn, with three savoury flavours; Salt & Vinegar, Cheese & Chive and Smoked Paprika, and a sweet flavour; Sweet Apple & Cinnamon. They sent us through two bags to try out - we got Salt & Vinegar and Smoked Paprika - along with a Madagascar 3 : Europe's Most Wanted DVD to watch while we munched it. Things have been pretty hectic here lately so we haven't had a chance to watch it yet, so that was our Easter Sunday afternoon entertainment.

The Madhouse Mini-testers loved the popcorn so much that they even opted for that over an Easter egg. As he set up the DVD, Madhouse Daddy Mike asked them if they'd like one of their Easter chocolates at exactly the same moment as I walked in with the bags of popcorn - oops ! We gave them the choice and I think we were both surprised when they went for the popcorn !

We started with the Salt & Vinegar variety which has the strong, sharp flavour that you'd associate with eating salt & vinegar crisps. It seems weird at first eating something soft and squishy that your brain is telling you should be sharp-edged and crunchy but you soon get used to it. The Smoked Paprika was another bold flavour and one that got a unanimous thumbs-up. 

Looking at the paprika flavour bag, 1/3 of a 75g pack (that's a reasonable bowlful) contains 120 calories, 6.5g of fat (of which 0.5g saturated), 1.2g of sugars and 0.74g of salt. I've just looked at the calories in a 25g bag of crisps (Walkers Ready Salted) and they contain 131 calories and 8g of fat, so the popcorn is slightly better but there's not a huge amount in it.

The film got a great reception too. This third episode follows Alex the lion and his friends taking Europe by storm, making friends with the animals in a travelling circus and being chased by some French animal control officers who had even the grown-ups giggling. It's a great storyline with really vibrant colours and a cracking soundtrack - Juliette and Pierre got up and boogied when Katy Perry's Firework came on ! - and some gags that target the grown-ups more than the kids. It's a lovely feel-good movie that the whole family enjoyed.

Disclosure : As part of Sainsbury's Family Blogger Network, we received two bags of popcorn and a Madagascar 3 DVD in order to write an honest review.

Other reviews you may be interested in :

Penn State Sweet & Salt Popcorn review

Propercorn Popcorn review

Penn State Gammon & Mustard Pretzels review

The Perfect (Mexican BBQ) Fajita Kit review

Discovery recently sent us through two of their Perfect Fajita Kits to try out. We love fajitas here at The Madhouse so I was keen to see what we'd think. The Madhouse Mini-testers were especially enthusiastic because the two varieties that we received - Mexican BBQ and Crispy Crumb - are labelled as Mild and they often find the regular fajita seasoning too spicy. 

Today, we tried out the Mexican BBQ Fajita kit. Inside the box, you get 8 tortillas (slightly smaller than our usual brand), a sachet of Mexican BBQ seasoning and a sachet of sour cream.

The seasoning gives the chicken a lovely authentic colour but doesn't taste anywhere near as spicy as it looks. It does have a very slight kick but not enough to put the younger members of the Madhouse family off.

What I always love about fajitas is the vibrant colours.

After a few minutes, you have lovely sizzling Mexican BBQ-spiced chicken, mixed in with red and green peppers and red onions.

The great thing about fajitas is that you can all tailor your wrap to suit your individual desires. I went for chicken, tomato and homemade coleslaw with a blob of spicy salsa. The Madhouse Mini-testers added sweetcorn, cherry tomatoes and ketchup to their chicken. Madhouse Daddy Mike kept it authentic and topped his chicken with tomato and sour cream. Then Juliette tried a generous sprinkle of parmesan on top, and this was adopted by everyone !

Big smiles and clean plates all round.

Well, not quite so clean for Pierre as his splurged everywhere but that's half the fun of eating fajitas !

You can see what we thought of the Crispy Crumb Fajitas when we tried them a while ago. Both kits are great for those who don't like spicy food but still want the fun and conviviality of eating fajitas.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : £3.19

for more information : http://www.discoveryfoods.co.uk/products/all/the-perfect-fajita-kit-mexican-bbq.aspx

Disclosure: We received two Perfect Fajita Kits from Discovery in order to write an honest review.

Other reviews you may be interested in :

Discovery's new Green Jalapeno Relish review & recipe idea

DISCOVER THE JOYS OF MEXICAN FOOD ON SEPTEMBER 16TH

 Discovery : More Adventurous Tastes ...

Book review : Sell The Pig - Tottie Limejuice

The blurb on the back of the book says : "What happens when dementia, depressed dipsomania and downright dottiness decide to uproot from the UK and move to France together ? Worried by the lack of care for her elderly mother in the UK, Tottie decides a new life elsewhere might be the answer. Sell the Pig is a travel tale with a twist, describing with alternating humour and poignancy how a somewhat dysfunctional family decide to uproot and move to rural France."

The rather mysterious title Sell The Pig comes from a memorable line, adopted by the author's elderly mother almost as a mantra, from a letter sent home by a long-lost uncle really not enjoying serving in the army : « Mother mother, it's a bugger, sell the pig and buy me out ». The book is peppered with a whole host of such quirky and amusing characters.

Having made the move to France myself, I've read many books written by Brits (and Americans, and Australians ...) starting out a new life in France and have often rolled my eyes, empathising with the references to the mindless timewasting of French bureaucracy, and smiling at the enthusiastic discoveries of gallic foibles and petits plaisirs. If you buy this book because you are a bit of a francophile and want to learn more about life here, you may be disappointed though. It details the reasons why the author wants to make the move, going back to her childhood, describing her mother's rather hit-and-miss experiences in British nursing homes and covering her repeated trips, with her brother, to visit various properties in France, but the book ends right where you would expect it to start, with them arriving at their newly-bought pink house in rural Auvergne. I did feel a bit like I'd sat through the trailers at the cinema, only to find out that I'd have to come back next time to see the main feature ! The author hints that a sequel is on the cards, describing life in their new French home, and I think she will actually have far more material and laugh-out-loud moments for this second episode, as the family get to grips with life on the continent.

Although the book is interesting, with an enjoyable mix of humorous and poignant moments, I couldn't shake the feeling that something didn't sit quite right with me and made me feel somewhat uncomfortable at times. I think it is the fact that the book deals with real people. While the manic-depressive, alcoholic brother whose house looks like a bomb has hit it would be a fabulous fictional creation, I felt slightly ill at ease knowing that he is a very real person who may not be too happy at being presented as such in a totally recognisable way. The author may write under the pseudonym Tottie Limejuice, but she also gives her real name and includes various photos. While the epileptic dog and elderly mother with a naughty penchant for saying bum at inappropriate moments are endearing, I couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for the brother and the way he is represented.

All in all though, I was impressed with Tottie's proactive get-up-and-go and her willingness to tackle problems head on, seeing her project through to the bitter end depite all the impracticalities and obstacles in the way. I'll be interested to read the sequel as I'm sure adapting to life in France with such an  eclectic and slightly eccentric merry band of men/women/pets will lead to a huge amount of funny moments and grumbles.

star rating : 3.5/5

RRP : £5.99

Disclosure : I received a review copy of the book.

Other reviews you may be interested in :

 The Secret Life of France - Lucy Wadham

Book review : Bon Courage - Ken McAdams

Book review : Hiding Edith - Kathy Kacer

Beyond Dark Chocolate Drops review

With Easter upon us, we've been busy reviewing lots of Easter-themed chocolates recently, but these little bags of Beyond Dark chocolate drops actually arrived a few weeks ago and were tucked away in the baking cupboard. I came across them earlier in the week and decided to give them a try.

I was surprised to see how perfectly round they are. In my experience, chocolate drops are usually a bit less regularly shaped ! They're also very small, about the size of midget gems, if you remember those. Here at The Madhouse, we all love chocolate but we do have a preference for milk and white chocolate over dark chocolate, so I wasn't sure what we'd make of these 70% Dark Chocolate drops. Well, I was actually very surprised - they don't have that slightly unpleasant bitter taste that I associate with dark chocolate. I would quite happily have sat and nibbled my way through the whole bag, especially as they are tiny so you can kid yourself that they're low in calories (well, they are if you only eat one or two, but they're just too nice !). Actually, they're not that bad - I've just checked and the whole 35g bag contains 189 calories. Beyond Dark is also very rich in antioxidants and 20g covers your daily antioxidant requirements, which is another good excuse for eating them !

We ate one bag as they were, and decided to try them out in cooking too. I was using up some over-ripe bananas in our traditional way, making a banana bread. (You can see our usual banana bread recipe here.) However, I decided to shake things up a bit this time and make muffins instead of one big cake, as well as adding the Beyond Dark chocolate drops.

If you think they look a bit strange, they're cooling down upside down and I thought I'd show you because you can see those lovely chocolate drops in there !

I used Muscovado sugar which gave them a lovely crunchy top and the dark chocolate really complements the banana flavour. Pierre and Juliette often turn their noses up at my banana bread (strange creatures !), but this time, they couldn't get enough. I'm not sure if that's because of the easier-to-hold muffin shape or the addition of chocolate though.

I've just noticed on the Beyond Dark website that they also have two flavoured varieties, Dark Chocolate with a Hint of Orange and Dark Chocolate with a Hint of Raspberry. They both sound lovely so I'll definitely look out for those. Coming from someone who doesn't often buy dark chocolate, that's high praise indeed !

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : 99p for a 35g bag

Available in Sainsbury's, Holland & Barrett's and independent stockists.

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

Disclosure : I received some Beyond Dark chocolate drops in order to write an honest review.

Other reviews you may be interested in :

Patchino Toy and Chocolate Easter gift review

The East India Company Chocolate Encased Strawberries and Raspberries review

Delicious Desserts Recipes with Aero Bubbly Chocolate