The February Pawsomebox (review)

February's Pawsomebox arrived at The Madhouse last week and Vicky is starting to recognise the boxes. She couldn't wait to investigate.

And it wasn't long before Didou came and poked his nose in too ! I'm sure they've got wise to the fact that there are always some tasty treats hiding inside, waiting to be gobbled up !

Pierre is always more interested in discovering the new toys though, and in this box there were two - a very cute squeaky soft toy, that Pierre is debating keeping for himself, and a fun InterTough donut frisbee (a 2-in-1 frisbee with a rope ball toy attached) which will be great fun when the warmer and above all drier weather kicks in.

As usual, the doggies were more mesmerised by the snacks ! They got some peanut butter bones and some FluoFresh dental hygiene chew sticks in this box, both of which got a very warm reception.

Look at how well behaved he is, not taking them from the table while I photograph them.

Oh, maybe not then !

The final products were intriguing. First of all, we discovered Drinkies - healthy infused water for dogs, including herbs such as devils claw, rose petals and seaweed. It's not something I'd ever have though of buying but they seemed to like it and it's certainly a healthier option than drinking out of muddy puddles when out and about ! The final product was from Biogance, a brand I am getting quite familiar with through the Pawsomeboxes. This box featured their Clean Pads product, a spray for dogs, cats and other small animals' feet, designed to reinforce and hydrate their pads and heal any small wounds. Again, not something I'd ever have thought of, but it's great for offering some protection to their soft tootsies before going out on icy cold or jagged terrain on winter walks.

 As well as Pawsomeboxes for pampered pooches, there are also Purrfectboxes for coddled kitties available. A monthly subscription costs £19.90, six-monthly works out at £17.90 per month and yearly is the equivalent of £15.90 per month, including delivery. You can get a £5 discount off your first box with the code ukbcskkv. We've received several Pawsomeboxes to review now so click through to my "pets" category to see the contents of previous boxes.

for more information : https://pawsomebox.co.uk/

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

Madhouse recipe : Gooey white chocolate and cranberry squares

This recipe is very loosely based on one that I clipped out of a magazine many moons ago because it intrigued me - it was supposed to be for chocolate brownies but the instrutions said to cook it for 25 minutes then chill it in the fridge for at least 5 hours . That made no sense to me but I wanted to see how it would work. It initially resembled a total fail, but after tasting it, we decided that it is actually rather tasty, but it certainly isn't a brownie !

Gooey white chocolate and cranberry squares

ingredients : 

185g butter

185g white chocolate

3 large eggs

150g  caster sugar

85g plain flour

a pinch of salt

1tsp vanilla essence or grated vanilla pod

10g cocoa powder (I used WeightWatchers Jaffa Cake flavoured)

150g dried cranberries

Put the butter and white chocolate in a bowl and melt in the microwave or a bain marie. Leave to cool.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar.

Fold the chocolate into the eggs.

Add the flour, salt and cocoa powder.

Fold in the vanilla and cranberries.

Transfer to a greased brownie pan.

Cook at 180° for 25 minutes. It seemed firm when I pulled it out but as I left it to cool, the molten centre worked its way up and splurged up the side.

I'd used a loose based cake tin and some of the cake batter has leaked through to the baking sheet underneath.

As the inside of the cake was molten - kind of a cross betwen raw cake batter and caramel ! - I decided to use a palette knife to unstick pieces from the baking tin and layer them back on top. I was very tempted to put it back in the oven for a while but decided to put it in the fridge and see what would happen.

The result was a patchwork cake - Frankenstein's cake-monster ! 

After leaving it in the fridge for several hours, I managed to cut it into squares (more or less).

They are incredibly gooey and sticky but surprisingly tasty. The kids can't get enough of them and have asked me to make some more - I have no idea if this is how they were supposed to come out or not though !

New fizz, cocktails and mocktails, courtesy of Ocean Spray (review)

There is always a jar of cranberry sauce in the Madhouse fridge to go with the Sunday roast, but I must admit, we don't buy cranberry juice very often because the Madhouse kids find the taste too tart. I was therefore keen to see what they would think of the trio of Ocean Spray drinks that we received to review, including the newest product to join their range - Sparkling Cranberry.

That was the one that we started off with, in fact. The Sparkling Cranberry, which everybody loved (except for Juliette who doesn't like fizzy drinks), is a refreshing, lightly sparkling drink, made with spring water and real berry juice. It also contains sweeteners.

I was pleasantly surprised by the calorie count - 4 calories per 200ml - so I'd definitely drink this instead of my usual Diet Coke. It has a natural, fruity flavour that appealed to both the grown ups and the kids. It's also available in Sparkling Cranberry Raspberry so I'll be looking out for that too. (RRP 75p for 1 litre.)

We also got to try two of Ocean Spray's Juice Blends - Cranberry Raspberry and Blueberry. The Cranberry Raspberry was a great hit - the sweetness of the raspberries tones down the tartness of the raspberries, creating a clean, crisp juice that even the kids loved. Looking at the list of ingredients, it also contains apple juice and sugar, which undoubtedly help create a mellower, more kid-friendly flavour. The Blueberry one was also a unanimous hit, although I was put off by the first sniff because it seemed to have an artificial smell like sweets rather than fruit. I did like the flavour though. A 250ml glass has all of your recommended daily amount of vitamin C, which is a huge bonus, and contains no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.

They are lovely straight from the carton/bottle, especially if you've chilled them beforehand, but Ocean Spray also suggested that we try a delicious cocktail or two, with or without alcohol, created by Bartender of the Year 2015, Mr Lyan.

Ocean Spray® Cosmo Paloma

50ml Ocean Spray® Sparkling Cranberry

30ml Blanco tequila

2 strips of celery

10ml apricot brandy

25ml pink grapefruit juice

Dash of sugar syrup

Sea salt

Ice

Mint sprig

Method:

Rim a hi-ball glass with sea salt and fill with ice. Put all the ingredients (except for the Ocean Spray® Sparkling cranberry) into the glass and stir. Top with the Ocean Spray® Sparkling Cranberry and garnish with the mint sprig.

Ocean Spray® Raspberry Mule-less

100ml Ocean Spray® Cranberry & Raspberry juice drink

1 drop almond essence

75ml ginger ale

Stem of rosemary

Ice

Method:

Fill a wine glass with ice; add the almond essence, Ocean Spray® Cranberry & Raspberry juice drink and ginger ale. Garnish with the stem of rosemary.

Ocean Spray® Bulletproof Blueberry

100ml Ocean Spray® Blueberry Juice Drink

1 coin fresh turmeric (or substitute with fresh ginger)

5ml cider vinegar

2 teaspoons honey

1 whole egg

Pinch salt

(Optional 2 dashes angostura bitters)

Ice

Mint sprig

Method:

Blend all the ingredients, then pour over ice and garnish with the mint sprig.

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

Globecooking recipe : Coconut prawn laksa (Indonesia)

Laksa is a popular dish in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.  It's a satisfying noodle soup that is a complete meal in a bowl. We couldn't decide whether to try eating it with a spoon or a fork and ended up using a combination of the two ! My main source of inspiration for this dish came from Heather Christo but I tweaked the recipe to use what I had in the cupboards.

I had a rummage through the cupboards and found lots of cooking shortcuts to use up - Knorr Touch of Taste Concentrated Chicken Stock, Ginger &Lemonngrass Flavour Pots and Just Add Chilli. You could, of course, use fresh ingredients though.

Coconut prawn laksa

ingredients :

about 8 king prawns per person

2tbsp coconut oil or vegetable oil

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

2 Ginger & Lemongrass Flavour Pots

1tsp chilli paste

3 tbsp Chinese curry paste

rice vermicelli

1 can coconut milk

a squeeze of lime juice

to taste : salt, dried mint, dried basil, Thai 7 Spice

Melt the coconut oil in a large pan. Toss in the onion, garlic and prawn heads. (You can leave out the prawn heads altogether if it makes you feel squeamish but it adds extra depth of flavour.)

Add the Ginger & Lemongrass Flavour Pots and the chilli paste (or their fresh equivalent).

Add some Thai or Chinese curry paste. I used Wing Yip Curry Sauce Concentrate which has a lovely mild, Oriental flavour. Although Pierre worriedly thought it was dog poo when he saw me add it to the pot !

Keep stirring to make sure it doesn't stick and burn. Remove the shrimp heads. (Use a spoon to wipe off as much of the lovely flavoured paste as possible.)

Add the coconut milk, lime juice and herbs and spices to taste. Simmer for a few minutes, stirring constantly, to thicken. Gaily throw in the prawns and the precooked rice vermicelli (just leave it to stand in boiling water for a couple of minutes then drain).

Spoon the noodles and prawns into bowls then ladle over some of the sauce

This was a lovely warming meal that we really enjoyed. I think I'll have a go at making a chicken version next, to use up the leftovers from the Sunday roast.

*** Don't miss my country-by-country globecooking recipe index ! ***

If you fancy trying some more Indonesian cuisine, how about Ayem Areh, Gado Gado, Kue Dadar Gulung or Mie Goreng ?

Adding to #KitchenClearout because it used up lots of spices and stock pots that were cluttering up the cupboard.

Baking with the kids and a little help from Casdon/Annabel Karmel (review)

As you'll know if you're a regular reader of my blog, I spend loads of time baking up a storm in the Madhouse kitchen and the kids - well, mainly Pierre now that the girls have pretty much grown out of it - love to get involved. These kid-sized baking accessories from the queen of cooking for and with kids, Annabel Karmel, were therefore a welcome addition to my already overflowing kitchen cupboards !

The mini cupcake set has a miniature price tag to match the miniature size because it only costs £5. It doesn't look that small in this picture but it's a scaled down version of regular muffin cases that would be ideal for toddlers or those trying to cut down on the calories in their snacks.

The 20-piece baking set is very comprehensive and contains 1 x Round Baking Tin, 10 x Cookie Cutters, 6 x Measuring Spoons, 1 x Silicone Spatula, 1 x Measuring Jug, 1 x Mixing Bowl with Anti-Slip Base and 2 x Recipes, one for vanilla shortbread biscuits and one for ginger cookies.

We decided to try the vanilla shortbread recipe and Pierre found the utensils easy and comfortable to use.

The spatula is great for getting right round the edges of the bowl and made mixing up the cookie dough an absolute breeze.

Pierre also loved using the tiny measuring spoons and they work out much more precise than using teaspoons or tablespoons, which can often end up being very heaped when Pierre's left to his own devices ! (Following the recipe in the kit, I added cornflour to the dough for the first time ever - I couldn't see the point but it created an incredibly silky smooth dough so it's definitely something I'll be doing from now on.)

The bowl's non-stick base helped keep things steady so there were no spillages at all.

After rolling out the dough, it was time to try out the mini animal cookie cutters.

Seeing Pierre struggling with the grown-up sized pallette knife to transfer the cut-out cookies to the baking tray made me realise how much easier it is for young bakers to have downsized utensils that are specially designed for little hands.

The cookies held their shape really well.

The baking tray has perfect non-stick properties and created a beautifully crispy, golden base to the cookies.

Pierre was extremely chuffed with how well they came out !

All that was left was to decorate them with icing gel pens and silver balls.

Final bonus points for the lovely bright colours of the kit and the fact that you can use the mixing bowl to store all the kiddie sized utensils in - a plastic lid would have been a welcome addition to keep them all together though.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : £5 for the mini cupcake kit, £10 for the 20-piece baking kit

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