SPAM !

Ahh good old SPAM - it's one of those products, just like Marmite, that a large percentage of the British population love to hate ! It's so notorious that Monty Python even dedicated a whole sketch to it. The modern-day "tribute" is that frequent unsollicited messages by email or in internet chatrooms are called spam (although I still have no idea why !). Although generations of kids in post-war Britain were probably sick to death of eating SPAM (because it was pretty much the only meat that was available and cheap enough for mums to buy at the time), it's actually had a bit of a makeover and is quite trendy again. There's even an annual SPAM Cook of the Year competition, backed by none other than the cheeky chef Phil Vickery.



In the spirit of the competition, and to give you an idea of just how versatile SPAM is, I've come up with a couple of quick recipes to tickle your tastebuds ! (But there are many more on the SPAM website.)

First up, one for the kids :



Turtle-tastic SPAMwiches


Ingredients (per turtle):

1 pitta bread
2 tbsp mayonnaise or cream cheese
1 slice SPAM
1/2 apple
1 lettuce leaf
2 raisins


In a bowl, finely chop the apple and SPAM, mix in the cream cheese or mayonnaise (to stick it all together) and put in the fridge to chill.


Gently toast the pitta bread then (as quick as you can so it stays slightly warm), cut in half widthways. Cut a 1cm strip off one pitta pouch and chop the strip in half (to make the feet). Use the lettuce to line the pitta bread so it doesn't go soggy then stuff both pouches with the SPAM filling.


Stand the two pitta pouches up on a plate next to each other, use a tiny amount of mayonnaise or cream cheese to stick raisin eyes on the smaller pouch (the head). Place the four pitta feet around the turtle.


And one for the grown ups :


Hawaiian SPAMelloni


Ingredients :

1 tin SPAM
3 slices pineapple, fresh or tinned
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed (or 1 tbsp Very Lazy Garlic)
1 onion
3 big mushrooms
cannelloni
cheese sauce (home made or from a packet - the choice is yours !)
grated cheese
salt, pepper
1 chilli, deseeded or pinch chilli powder (optional)
2 tbsp olive oil


Preheat the oven.


Chop the SPAM, pineapple, onion and mushrooms into fairly small pieces.


Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan. Gently fry the onions and garlic for 2 minutes, add the mushrooms, cook for a further 2 minutes, add the spam, cook for 3 minutes, add the pineapple and cook for a further 5 minutes.


Make up the cheese sauce, from scratch or using the instructions on the packet.


Use the SPAM mixture to fill the cannelloni and place the filled tubes in an ovenproof dish. Pour a generous amount of cheese sauce over the top. (If you haven't got enough to totally cover the cannelloni, they won't cook properly so add a bit of milk or cream.)


Cook in the oven on 180° or until the cannelloni are cooked through (pierce with a knife and it should go through easily).


For more information or to take part in the SPAM Cook of the Year competition, go to http://www.spam-uk.com/

My Sole Mates - Wellies With Wedge Heels

When I saw the words "wellies with heels" on the My Sole Mates website, I thought they were having a laugh ! Wellies with heels ? No kidding ?! But as you can see from the picture, they really do exist ! While I've seen some pretty funky, floral, designer wellies on the feet of festival-going celebs, these are the first wellies I've ever seen that come with a flatteringly feminine wedge heel. This is the first time I've drooled over wellies since seeing green wellies with frog eyes on the toes when I was about 6 years old !! The only question is, which colour to go for ? Fuchsia or navy blue ?

But looking around on the website, that's not all they have to offer. There are also some really funky gladiator sandals that would be perfect for the summer, if the sun decides to put in an appearance - although you'll end up with a dodgy brown and white suntan pattern on your feet if you wear them all summer long !

Now call me a child of the 80's but I also got all nostalgic and wistful when I saw these pink jelly shoes too - they take me back to my youth !

Yeo Valley Organic Little Yeo's yoghurts

As the name suggests, Madhouse Family Reviews is very much a group effort. Just because he's only 8 months old, Pierre doesn't get away with not testing things so this time, he was in the hot seat, reviewing Yeo Valley "Little Yeo's" yoghurts !

According to the Yeo Valley website, "Developed for children from as young as six months, our 6 pack of deliciously creamy yogurts is perfect for weaning. Our organic whole milk yogurt has a thick and creamy texture that stays on the spoon, to avoid any messy moments !" Well, it certainly does stay on the spoon but if you've got a baby determined to eat like a piglet - like Pierre, whose big joke at the moment (along with throwing things on the floor) is spitting out his food and laughing - there's no way you'll avoid messy moments however well the stuff stays on the spoon !

They continue, "The small pot size (55g) makes them ideal for smaller appetites whilst also helping to reduce waste." This may be true for 6 month olds but Pierre wolfs them down two at a time ! "Our creamy organic probiotic yogurt is combined with smooth organic fruit purees to give yogurt flavours that are great for developing young children's palettes. And even better... our new recipe has no added sugar! The yogurts in our 6 pack are sweetened only with concentrated fruit juice, so are just perfect for weaning your baby." I was actually a bit dubious about the no added sugar recipe but I was really surprised and would never have known if you hadn't told me. "Boasting just six natural ingredients and no artificial sweeteners, colourings or preservatives, our Little Yeo's contain just simple organic goodness that will put a big smile on everyone's face !" Well, that's certainly true - while Pierre was the chief tester, the girls and myself also had a little lick of the lid (and the spoon when things got a bit too messy !) and we all thought they tasted really nice, creamy and fruity and would have been quite happy to finish off the pots.

Which we would have done given half the chance but Pierre, despite only having one word in his vocabulary ("dadada" !) told us exactly what he thought by eating the whole lot, two pots at a time, then crying for more ! I guess that's a thumb up then ?! Thumbs up from me too, for the healthy, sugar-free and above all delicious recipe.

Another plus point for Little Yeo's is their website, which was launched at the same time as the new sugar-free yoghurts and which offers, amongst other things, an online guide for childhood nutrition and fun and interactive games for children. If you're worried about what to feed your kids, especially if you're new to weaning and don't know where to begin, it's a mine of information. "Offering practical guidance for parents new to weaning as well as nutritional advice for parents of toddler and pre-school ages, the new site aims to offer a quick, one-stop factual resource for busy parents concerned about childhood nutrition and allows users to ask an expert nutritionist about any issues or questions that they may have." It's reassuring to see that it has been created in conjunction with expert nutritionist Sarah Bernard.

So what do you think then Pierre ? "Dadada" ! Well, we'll have to assume he's a baby genius and is actually saying "yes yes yes" in Russian !

star rating : 5/5

Book review : Venom - Joan Brady

The opening chapters of this book made my head spin ! Within a few pages, we jump from Illinois to Belarus to Alabama to Washington DC to London and various points in between. We meet hitmen, beekeepers, aid workers, ex crims, old ladies, radiation experts and corporate bigwigs. As the book is only just beginning, we don't know who or what is important so we have to try to keep track of everyone and everything. It's like trying to untangle separate threads in a huge pot of spaghetti and see which ends are tied together and which strands are totally separate. However alert you're feeling, it can get pretty confusing, so reading this book in bed just before shutting down for the night gave me a few problems keeping up with the narrative.

Had I read Joan Brady's previous novel, Bleedout, I would have known from the outset that the ones to watch were David Marion (the hardened criminal fresh out of jail) and Helen Freyl (radiation physicist and owner of a honey bee farm) and it would have surely been much easier to follow. But Venom does work fine as a stand-alone novel and I didn't even realise it was a sequel until I started doing some research to write the review.

So what is Venom about ? To quote the blurb on the back of the book, "Venom brings David and Helen together as they fight for survival against a backdrop of industrial espionage, corporate greed and human tragedy." Add in an against-all-odds love story, mysterious hidden basements, gory murders of anyone who touches on the truth, secret organisations and Chernobyl victims and you have a lot going on !

The basic story is nevertheless straightforward. Helen's bees produce a special venom that can create a cure for cancer and repair the damage caused by radiation. In an ideal world, the answer is simple - the drug needs to be manufactured and sent out to those who need it most, starting in Belarus. But we don't live in an ideal world and money and power are much more important than easing human suffering. As the book unfolds, we come to realise just how far this greed will go. As Helen and David start to unravel the truth, they end up running for their lives but can never be sure just who the baddies are that are after them.

It's fast-paced, action-packed and - once I'd worked out who was who and how they all tied together - totally unputdownable. If, like me, you find it hard to get into, I recommend you don't give up - if you can battle through the first third of the book, things do settle down and start slotting together and then you've got a real pageturner in your hands.

star rating : 4/5

RRP : £12.99

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (4 Feb 2010)
ISBN-10: 0743267907
ISBN-13: 978-0743267908

Snazaroo Face and Body Painting Kits

Last night, 8-year-old Sophie invited a friend over for her first ever sleepover. As it's the holidays and I'm getting to spend some quality time with the kids, we went all out for the perfect girlie pyjama party : DVD in pyjamas, bowl of popcorn, nail varnish, facepaints ! Hang on, did somebody say facepaints ? Oh blimey, I have a go at Halloween (using the contents of my makeup bag !) but the finished design never looks as good as the "professional" facepaints at summer fetes and playdays ! Oh well, I can but try !

Luckily, Snazaroo, "the world's favourite face and body paints", had kindly sent me a selection of face paint kits to review so now was the perfect time to try them out. The kits come in various sizes, from three-colour themed kits that have enough face paint to do ten faces in one popular design (for example, butterfly, clown, camouflage, dizzy dog, Dracula ...) to bigger palette kits, which is what I broke open for the sleepover. As you can see in the picture at the beginning of this review, it contains everything you need to get started : face paints, glitter gel face paints, brushes, sponges, a booklet of ideas and advice ... The website explains : "This Snazaroo Face Painting Kit can paint up to 60 faces. A really comprehensive kit containing a paint palette with 2ml Black, White, Red, Bright Yellow, Grass Green and Sky Blue, and a glitter palette with Sparkle Pink, Sparkle Orange and 4 different glitter gel colours, together with 3 brushes, 4 sponges and a 28-page face painting guide. Perfect for children's parties." At £13.99, it seems a really good value set because it really has got everything you need for the most popular designs that kids of both sexes choose.

So, how did it go ? Well, I'll let you judge for yourselves with the photos below but I was quite chuffed and the girls were well impressed. You just need a little water to work the paints into a smooth paste-like texture and you're away. The colours don't run or streak, they cover the skin really well with vivid, pretty colours and you can even blend them if you need various shades (for example, for a camouflage face, when one green and brown won't be enough). The girls loved the glittery colours and the glitter gels, which look much more impressive in real life than in the photos. Huge smiles all round !

Rachel, Sophie's friend, has sensitive skin so her mum told her to apply face cream before putting on the face paints. I wasn't sure how they would stick to her face after that and had visions of them sliding off her chin (!), but it worked absolutely fine and she had absolutely no reactions whatsoever. Having checked on the website, they say that "the company's emphasis on quality and safety - all paints comply to the strictest toy and cosmetic regulations, are water-based, easy to apply and remove - has inspired huge brand loyalty over the years."

I handed out Johnson's facial cleansing wipes when it was time to get ready for bed and the face paints came off really easily - no need for rubbing hard and repeatedly rinsing with a facecloth, as is the usual rigmarole when the girls have had their faces painted when we're out and about. The only bit that was hard to get off was the remnants of glitter in their hairlines and eyebrows but they were quite happy to keep a few glittery reminders on their face until morning anyway !

I love the huge variety of products on offer. As well as the usual face paints, you can buy a Special FX kit which would be absolutely fantastic for Halloween as it contains gel blood, face paint and Special FX sculpting wax - "everything your kids need to create the illusion of broken fingers, scars and scabs" ! Another one that is sure to go down well when the World Cup kicks off is the Supporters' Face Paint Kit that contains eight colours that will allow you to create the majority of the World Cup contesters' flags. I can see the dads having fun with that one !

Now I've seen how easy it is to get impressive results, I won't hesitate to drag out the face paints the next time we're holding a kids' party. It's also a great way to keep the kids entertained during the school holidays and it's so easy, you could even enjoy some quality time together and let them paint your face too !


star rating : 5/5

RRP : kits start at £3.49

for more information : http://www.snazaroo.com/

Very Lazy Garlic

In France, there are two words for "cooking" - "cuisiner", which is real cooking from scratch, and "faire à manger", which is literally "making something to eat", often involving reheating leftovers or ready meals, multi-tasking and microwaves. Before the kids came along, I used to do loads of cooking from scratch but now I often just don't have the time. I do still enjoy making tasty meals with fresh ingredients but most of the time, it's definitely more "faire à manger" than "cuisiner" and if there's a shortcut to be had, I'll take it ! Let's face it, I'm not the only overstretched working mum out there - even Delia Smith has tapped into the market with her "How To Cheat at Cooking" recipe book combining fresh ingredients with high quality processed "shortcut" ingredients.

Well, when I was recently told about Very Lazy Garlic, I could immediately understand how it would be a useful timesaver. I know that by gently frying garlic and onions before browning off the chicken or mince or whatever I'm cooking, it will give it a lovely depth of flavour - but with the girls squabbling and Pierre starting to cry because he wants his food, I rarely get round to doing it ! Another bonus is the lack of washing-up awkward garlic crushers after cooking and no more having garlic-smelling fingers all day long !

I assumed the Very Lazy Garlic would be like the supermarket tubes of garlic puree or paste, but it's totally different. It's not a paste or a puree at all. It's tiny little chunks of recognisably-real chopped garlic in white wine vinegar. I was a bit dubious when I first opened the jar because it smells vaguely of pickled onions, but I decided to give it a go anyway and use it in the spaghetti bolognese I was preparing for dinner and see if anyone noticed.

Well, suffice to say, nobody did ! Even Sophie's friend, who was staying over on her very first sleepover and who is - according to her mum - a very picky eater, tucked in and said it was delicious (as you can see in the photo above). I had sneaky taste while it was cooking just after adding the Very Lazy Garlic, and could detect a slight tang from the vinegar which was actually not at all unpleasant. But when I served it up, the whole vinegar taste had disappeared so it presumably evaporates during the cooking process. I could taste the garlic though, which tasted just like fresh garlic, with no vinegary aftertaste or artificial background taste that you get with some shop-bought pastes and purees.

It is absolutely simple to use. As they say on the website, "Forget peeling & crushing, simply replace one clove of garlic with one teaspoon of Very Lazy Garlic to save time in the kitchen.
Perfect for stir fries, sauces, dressings and casseroles." Once opened, it will keep in the fridge for 12 weeks so it's fabulous as a store cupboard basic that can be incorporated into pretty much any savoury dishes you're preparing.

It's an absolute Godsend for overstretched mums who can go back to being Domestic Goddesses in the kitchen ! As they say on the Very Lazy website, "We do all the hard work for you, so you can enjoy being a great Very Lazy cook - and just get on with the fun, exciting bits (and taking all the credit)." Sounds good to me !

star rating : 5/5

RRP : £1.74 for 4oz

Tamielle Ethical Homemade Children's Handkerchiefs

Just like cloth nappies, swaddling babies and baking your own bread, cotton handkerchiefs seem to be one of those things from days gone by that have recently come back into fashion. Our grannies and grandads couldn't live without them but then they were totally replaced by disposable paper tissues, deemed as more convenient and hygienic. But cotton hankies have been resurrected from the brink of extinction and are becoming ever more popular, especially in eco-friendly families trying to cut down on their household waste.

I wasn't too sure how the girls would feel about blowing their noses on prettily decorated squares of material, as it's something that would inevitably seem totally alien to them - but they loved the idea. 9-year-old Sophie told me that her best friend at school had a real hankie so she was excited to show hers off after the holidays !

As a mum, I love the fact that you can make them damp with a bit of water from a bottle and use them to replace wetwipes, should the need arise, on a day out. They're much more resistant than paper tissues and won't stick annoyingly to gooey fingers that you're trying to wipe clean. They're also great if you want to spray a bit of decongestant on them to relieve stuffy noses.

It's also lovely to know that Tamielle is such an ethical company. It was founded with "a deep belief in the role that designers can play in creating work for people in developing communities". Each product is handmade by a woman working from home, in rural areas of Bulgaria. The website explains, "The workshop is functioning in a poor area, near Veliko Tarnovo. [Their] wish is to support women from disadvantage backgrounds and provide them with work and the self esteem that comes from creating something beautiful with their own hands. [...] Each product comes with a little tag telling you the name of the lady who had created it for you. It also tells you a bit about the Ideology behind tamielle."

The children's designs (there are also a whole range of adult designs available) are cute and colourful and appeal to both boys and girls. The website explains that "the Hankies are made of the softest White Cotton and are made in a size to fit small pockets and small hands", measuring 22cm square.

They're not cheap but you do get a high-quality, handmade product that would make a lovely gift, as well as the feel-good factor of knowing you're helping others. As they say on the website, "Your purchase and the work it provides make a lot of difference".


RRP : £12.50 for 3 handkerchiefs

for more information : www.tamielle.com

Nordic Berries Multivitamin Gummies

"I know it tastes yucky but it's good for you" ! How many times do mums say that to their kids ?! Whether it be the weekly cod liver oil doled out by post-war mums, yucky-tasting medicine or dubious "fruity"-flavoured supplements that are on the market these days, you get the feeling that if it's good for you, it has to taste disgusting !

Well, that was my initial thought when I read the words "amazing taste sensation" on the jar of Nordic Naturals Multivitamin Gummies for Children and Adults - yeah yeah, pull the other one, it's got bells on ! And, although they certainly look like sweets, the smell that comes out of the tub does smell sweet and vaguely of strawberries but it also has that slightly chemical smell that tells you that these are not going to taste like sweets however hard you try to convince the kids. But when I gave one each to 8-year-old Sophie and 5-year-old Juliette, they ate them and declared that they were yummy and could they have another one ?! So I tried one myself and they are absolutely delicious, they do taste of strawberry sweets - so much so in fact that I had to explain to the girls, eagerly awaiting with their hands outstretched for another one, that they were only allowed to eat the number stated on the bottle or it would be bad for them !

But I wasn't only won over by the taste - I also love the packaging. The label has cute, really detailed illustrations that wouldn't look out of place in a book of fairy tales, featuring a family of magical-looking people wearing curly-toes moccasins and a baby in a papoose, gathering Nordic Berries against a backdrop of purple mountains. It's a work of art and deserves to be hung on the walls of children's bedrooms rather than slathered all over bottles of vitamin chews ! (The artist Debi Gliori does get credit on the label.) The magic continues on the label on the back of the tub : "Nordic folklore says, at twilight trolls gather cloudberries found along the banks of the fjord waters."

Despite the fairytale name, cloudberries really do exist ! "Rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, cloudberries have a delicious sweet-and-sour citrus taste. Nordic Naturals has captured the taste and many of the benefits found in these berries to support good nutrition and wellness."

A serving size is 12g, which corresponds to 4 Nordic berries per day for children aged 2 and over. They should be eaten with food and the bottle warns not to exceed the recommended daily intake. This will provide you with Vitamin A (94% RDA), Vitamin C (50% RDA), Vitamin D (200% RDA), Vitamin E (56% RDA), Vitamin B1 (68% RDA), Vitamin B2 (61% RDA), Vitamin B6 (71% RDA), Vitamin B12 (120% RDA), Folic Acid (100% RDA), Biotin (300% RDA), Pantothenic Acid (83% RDA), Iodine (23% RDA) and Zinc (80% RDA). Some of those figures seem a bit high to me - do you really need 300% of your RDA of biotin just from a supplement, for example ? - but presumably you can't get too much of a good thing. I've certainly never heard of anyone overdosing on vitamins before !

My one very slight concern is the presumably high sugar content. There's no detailed information about the sugar content or the number of calories but the list of ingredients includes tapioca syrup, sugar, pectin, brown rice syrup solids, plus extra sucrose crystals for the sour coating. But, as Mary Poppins famously said, "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in the most delightful way" and this is the first time the kids have been reminding me all morning not to forget to give them their vitamins at lunchtime !

star rating : 5/5

RRP : £16.64 for 60 gummy berries

Recipe Idea - Délice & Sens Culinary Essential Oils

As I said in my review of Culinary Essential Oils here, in order to take part in a competition on the Délice & Sens blog, I agreed to test out the Zest blend (with Lemon / Mandarine / Grapefruit / Bitter Orange essential oils) and create and share a recipe with you.



Well, here's my creation :

Citrus Chicken Stir-Fry with Cashew Nuts



Ingredients per person :
(adapt to suit the appetite of each person !)

1 chicken breast, chopped into chunks
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
3 mushrooms, roughly chopped
a handful of cashew nuts
6 drops of Zest
2 tbsp olive oil
garlic salt, pepper
a chilli, with or without the seeds (if you think you're hard enough !) (optional)
In a wok or frying pan, cook the chicken for 5 minutes in the olive oil until it's white all over but not completely cooked through. Put aside in a dish. Add a little more olive oil if necessary and fry the garlic, onions and mushrooms for 3-4 minutes. Add the chicken to cook through completely.
Season with garlic salt, pepper and (if desired) chilli and have fun mixing in a few drops of Zest. Stir well, add a few more drops of Zest if desired and, at the last minute, add the cashew nuts.
Serve with rice or noodles.

Top tips for busy mums (or anyone else !) : for an ultra quick and cheap meal, use left over chicken from the Sunday roast instead of the chicken breasts. You can also add thin slices of carrots, courgettes and red/green peppers (I do usually but the fridge was emptier than Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard last night !)

Délice & Sens - Culinary Essential Oils

If you hear the words "essential oils", you immediately think of beauty products, aromatherapy massage oils and air fresheners -but did you know that they can also be used in cooking as an alternative to herbs and spices ? I love cooking but I had never heard of any recipes using essential oils ... but I promise it's not an April Fool's Day joke ! There are a whole range of little bottles of culinary essential oils, both sweet and savoury, even the names of which get your tastebuds popping with anticipation ! : Shéhérazade, Bombay, Tea-Time, Fresh, Délice, Aniseed, Passion, Zest, Garrigue.

So, what's it all about? Well, to quote the Délice & Sens facebook page, they offer "9 compositions of culinary essential oils, created by a renowned chef to add flavour to your day-to-day cooking". Ah, who's this renowned chef then ? He's French, he's called Aymeric Pataud, and, according to the Delice & Sens website, he is "the first chef in the world to write a whole book on using essential oils in cookery" ("La cuisine aux huiles essentielles", éditions Ambre, 2004). "With his little bottles at hand, this atypical chef seems to travel to the world of the senses, with an audacious and creative attitude that is reflected in his dishes."

But you certainly don't need to be a renowned chef to use them ! It's extremely easy and great fun. You choose the bottle you want to use, you count out a few drops per person (dead easy to measure out with the little dropper) and you squirt them into whatever you're cooking. As Aymeric says on his blog, "Cooking is said to be an expression of the chef's sensitivity. In the blends of essential oils that you will be using in your recipes, you will discover mine. I hope that they will help you to express yours. The writer Colette said : "If you're not capable of a bit of sorcery, it's pointless trying to cook". I therefore hope to wake up the "Harry Potter of the kitchen" who is hidden in each one of you" !

I tested Zest (recipe here !) in a recipe competition on Aymeric's blog. It's unfortunately the blend that inspired me the least in the range, because the flavour is quite easy to replicate with citrus fruits that you'd find in any kitchen. As they are less exotic and less surprising than some of the other flavours, I found my culinary creation to be a bit ordinary and it didn't offer me the voyage of culinary discovery that I was hoping for.

I am however now convinced that cooking with essential oils is a fantastic and very simple way of varying flavours and introducing surprising innovative tastes to your cooking. I love the practicality of the dropper and the fact that, unlike powdered herbs and spices that lose their freshness and their taste if they sit around in the back of your kitchen cupboards for too long, the little bottle will keep the flavours in perfect condition.

All of the ingredients are organic and each little bottle contains nothing but pure, natural ingredients. In Zest, you'll find sunflower oil and a mix of the following essential oils : Lemon / Mandarine / Grapefruit / Bitter Orange. That's it ! Not a single artificial additive in sight ! The essential oils are diluted so they are ready to use. I really want to replace some of the spices that I don't often use by the whole range of these culinary essential oils so that I can have fun playing around with different flavours and create some really exotic new dishes !

star rating : 3/5 for Zest but 5/5 for the range of Délice & Sens oils

price : €12