Kitchen Trotter has landed in the UK !

If you've ever drooled over any of the recipes in my country-by-country globecooking recipe index, I have some fabulous news for you - Kitchen Trotter and their monthly culinary voyage of discovery subscription boxes have finally come to the UK.

I've been discovering their boxes in France for well over a year now (the perks of being a dual nationality family !) and have discovered ingredients and recipes to take me to all corners of the globe. The first UK box that I was sent to review was the Indonesian box.

 The welcome card in the box introduces you to the menu and also gives you a link to a playlist of authentic music to give you a soundtrack to your special globecooking dinner. I must admit, I never do all of the dishes in one go as I prefer to spread them out over several days but there is always a starter (which I often cook as a main), a main course and a dessert, plus an extra recipe.

You get all the exotic ingredients required and a handy shopping list of all the other things you need to buy - meat, fish, rice, vegetables, etc - to make the dishes. The ingredients in the Indonesia box are : 

Gado Gado mix, to make a peanut-based sauce

Combava leaves, that you crush up to release a citrus flavour

Shrimp Paste, which absolutely stinks to high heaven !

Kecap Manis, which is a gorgeous sweet thick soy sauce perfect for drizzling over stir fried veggies

Pandam aroma, which is bright green !

Lemongrass powder

Kemiri nuts (just make sure you cook them to avoid upset stomachs !)

and the gadget - an egg-timer.

The enclosed booklet describes all the ingredients and gives you lots of background information about this month's country.

The first dish in this box is Gado Gado, a potato salad with a sweet peanut sauce.

You can see my step by step recipe here. This was lovely and we made it into a main meal by increasing the amount of potatoes.

Mie Goreng, a stir-fried vegetable, chicken, egg and noodle dish that the whole family tucked into.

Here's our version - see how me made it here.

Ayam Areh, a chicken in coconut milk dish, which used the stinky shrimp paste too !

It actually tasted much nicer than it smelt ! See my step-by-step blogpost here.

And finally, for dessert, Kue Dader Gulung, which are bright green coconut pancakes !

I need to have another go at these because mine didn't come out quite right - I ran out of coconut milk so my filling was too dry, but they still tasted lovely. See my attempt here.

I love the fact that Kitchen Trotter gives you a simple way to sample exotic cuisine without having to go to all the effort of sourcing strange ingredients and then working out what to do with them. 

The official launch will be on the 14th of January and the retail price is £29.99

To be kept up to date with the launch : www.kitchentrotter.co.uk

Disclosure : I received the box in order to write an honest review.

My Hatley Fall/Winter 2015 wishlist

When Hatley got in touch and asked if I'd like to review something from their autumn/winter collection, I clicked through to their lookbook to see what they had on offer. It's a brand I was unfamiliar with so I wasn't sure what to expect so I was pleasantly surprised to see that I loved pretty much the whole collection ! It all looks so perfectly wearable, combining comfort and casual chic, which just about sums up my style. I'll be back soon to show you the item I chose in all its glory, but in the meantime, I wanted to share some of my favourite pieces from the collection with you.

I don't wear dresses very often but I do wear long tunics over leggings and I fell in love with these dresses which would be smart enough for work, but could easily be dressed up or down to suit all situations.

If you're looking for office workwear, they have that covered too. I love these outfits that are smart without being too OTT. The stretchy trousers look flattering and comfortabe - win-win !

You can really see the Canadian influences coming through in this outfit ! I love the plaid shirt and those boots look so warm and comfy.

The kids aren't the only ones who love having new PJs for Christmas and they have some really snuggly designs on offer.

The Hatley brand was born in Canada 30 years ago by John and Alice Oldland in the small town of North Hatley, Quebec. It has since grown into an international clothing brand that prides itself on quality production, social responsibility and environmental awareness, offering fresh, fun fashions for every season. It is a longtime favourite of celebrity children such as Suri Cruise, Seraphina Affleck and Apple Martin.

Hatley have just announced the launch of their first UK store in London’s Chiswick High Road, as well as the launch of their new UK website. Though Hatley products are carried by thousands of retailers in over 30 countries, including Harrods, Selfridges and John Lewis, the new London location marks the company’s first ever stand-alone store in the U.K.

The full Autumn/Winter collection and Christmas collection can be viewed on Hatley's new UK website : www.hatley.com/en_uk. I'd definitely recommend going to have a look.

Disclosure : I received an item of clothing to review, which I'll be telling you about very soon !

#KitchenClearout November roundup and December linky

This month was a great month for #KitchenClearout with a whopping thirteen entries. I turned my efforts to the half-used jars taking up space in the fridge and also had another go at my baking cupboard. December's target will be getting through the jars of curry/pasta sauce and also the hot chocolate that seems to be multiplying all by itself in the cupboard !

So here's what this month's linky revealed :

A half-used bottle of sweet chilli mango sauce was transformed into Two-Way Pork, Pepper & Pineapple Stir Fry.

The kids had great fun helping me use up the icing pens on these Cinnamon Animal Biscuits.

These were the ultimate #KitchenClearout cupcakes, using up loads of odds and ends that I came across while emptying out the baking cupboard - a bag of sponge cake mix (past its best before date), a random bag of cocoa powder, some 1D edible cake toppers and some edible cupcake cases. They ended up with a beautiful light and fluffy texture and rich chocolatey taste.

Galina at Chez Maximka got baking too, using up some slightly over-ripe bananas in her Best Banana Bread, which looks lovely. I already make a pretty mean banana bread but I really want to try this one too :)

Gordon Ramsay's Sausage & Caramelised Red Onion Hotpot was a great dish for using up balsamic vinegar and alcohol-free red wine.

What to do with a jar of wholegrain mustard? We all love sweet honey mustard so I decided to try combining wholegrain mustard with honey to coat pork which worked really well.

Over at Onions & Paper, Jane has been using up jars too and came up with some fab ways of using up jars of chutney. The Smoked Mackerel Sandwich Filler and Apple and Mint Raita both look gorgeous and I have everything I need to make them in the cupboards :)

Humans aren't the only ones to be hungry so I transformed some out-of-date mixed seeds into fat balls for the birds.

Some leftover cooked potatoes were transformed into Rosemary & Garlic Rissoled Potatoes.

Jane at Onions & Paper has the perfect recipe for using up the odds and ends in the veg drawer of the fridge - Vegetable Broth with Added Zing.

Black Olive, Anchovy & Tomato Parcels were a fab way of using up two jars from the fridge - black olive cream and anchovies.

The kids were happy to help use up a trio of Dr Oetker mug cake sachets that had been lurking in the cupboard for a while.

Black Forest Gateau Cupcakes with a hidden cherry jam centre were the perfect way of using up a bag of choc cherry hot chocolate powder.

I love #KitchenClearout for a number of reasons - it appeals to my eco-friendly and frugal nature, using things up rather than throwing the away, it's giving me lots more space in my kitchen cupboards and it also calls on your creativity, so I love seeing what other people have come up with too.

DVD review : The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm

Yesterday saw the release on DVD and digital of The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm,  the new star-studded adaptation of the classic children’s book series by Norman Hunter.

Professor Branestawm (played by Harry Hill) is the ultimate mad professor, an absent-minded inventor who is oblivious to the chaos his hare-brained creations cause when they go wrong, which they always do ! If it weren't for the efforts of his long suffering housekeeper, Mrs Flittersnoop (Vicki Pepperdine, Getting On, Rev.), and his dim but loyal best friend, Colonel Dedshott (Simon Day, The Fast Show, Mount Pleasant), the professor would long ago have blown himself to smithereens !

In this adventure, the professor’s friends and his young apprentice Connie (Madeline Holliday, Holby City) join forces when evil businessman Mr Bullimore (Ben Miller, Johnny English, The Armstrong and Miller Show) and officious local councillor Harold Haggerstone (David Mitchell, Peep Show, 10 O’Clock Live) plan to have Branestawn branded a danger to the community so that they can bulldoze his workshop and make way for a giant munitions factory in the middle of town.

This is the role that Harry Hill was born to play ! He's absolutely perfect in the film and the silly jokes and slapstick humour had the Madhouse kids giggling their way through the whole film. We were surprised at how short it is though - it's only an hour long. The second adventure is airing on BBC One this festive season so this is the perfect way to catch up.

star rating : 4.5/5

Title: THE INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES OF PROFESSOR BRANESTAWM
DVD and Digital Release Date: 30th November 2015
Runtime:  60 minutes
Certificate: U

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

Book review : With a Friend Like You - Fanny Blake

When I first started reading chick lit, it was all about carefree 20-somethings looking for love, booze-fuelled parties and the ultimate exotic holiday. All of which has very little at all to do with my life these days ! I was therefore delighted to discover that Fanny Blake's With a Friend Like You offers a tale of chick-lit for the slightly older forty or fifty-something woman.

Having a daughter just a few years younger myself, I could instantly empathise with Beth's disarray and absolute horror when she discovers that her 18-year-old daughter Ella is pregnant. To make things even more complicated, it turns out that the father is her best friend Megan's son. As if that didn't already make things awkward enough, she discovers that Megan knew before she did and chose to keep Ella's secret, as requested, rather than immediately run to Beth to let her know.

Despite initially empathising with Beth, my loyalties soon turned to Megan. I really appreciated and identified with her down-to-earth lifestyle - constant baking and a happy, if slightly chaotic, family home, alongside a career in teaching. As the two women struggle to come to terms with everything life throws at them, it seems unlikely that their friendship will survive intact ... unless the fact that they will become grandmothers for the first time at the same instant will take them forward into a new period of understanding.

Unlike much frothy chick lit where the heroine's biggest dilemma is which dress to wear and which eligible bachelor to pursue, it was enjoyable to see the characters going through the more realistic and mundane dramas relating to their work and personal lives. I did want to bang Megan and Beth's heads together at various points in the novel and tell them to get their act together and behave like grown-ups, and it did also strike me as slightly caricatural that all four men in the novel seem to be totally spineless and useless in a crisis, but the complex relationships between the female characters in the book (as friends, wives, mothers and daughters) kept me turning the pages, intrigued to see how things would ultimately play out.

star rating : 4/5

RRP : £7.99

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Orion (13 Aug. 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1409129667
• ISBN-13: 978-1409129660
• Product Dimensions: 13.7 x 2.4 x 19.8 cm

Disclosure : I received a review copy of the book.

The Snowman and The Snowdog Great Festive Bake Off Blog Tour ! #SnowmanSnowdog

The Snowman has been a part of my Christmas routine for as long as I can remember, as has baking with the kids, so I was delighted to be asked to join in with The Snowman and The Snowdog Great Festive Bake Off Blog Tour. Two things that we love in one project !

Raymond Briggs first published the iconic book all the way back in 1978 and I instantly fell in love with it, but watching it on TV for the first time in 1982 really took the festive magic to a new level. The heartwarming and often humorous tale of the friendship between the snowman and the little boy, along with a visit from Father Christmas, is a timeless classic that has enchanted generations of children (and grown ups !). I don't think there has been a single year when we haven't sat down to watch it and it still works its magic every time. The Snowman and The Snowdog will be shown on Channel 4 again this Christmas and we'll definitely be watching ! We also have the book but it is well-used and decidedly tatty so we were delighted to receive a brand new, deluxe hardbacked edition of the original classic tale - the story and illustrations are just the same but we love the fresh look of the front cover. The book is available from Puffin and costs £12.99 - as it is wordless, it would be a fabulous gift for children who love books but haven't learnt to read yet. We love looking at the pictures together and making up the dialogues - giggles guaranteed at bedtime !

I always love seeing all the spin-off products to help bring The Snowman off the pages and screens and into our home. We were delighted to receive a gorgeous Snowman and Snowdog advent calendar from Thorntons, which the kids wanted to open immediately, along with some ultra cute cookie cutters (£4.75 from Party Delights) for us to have fun in the kitchen with and join in the challenge.

Now, I would love to say that this is how ours came out, but I'd be lying ! These fantastic creations that look almost too good to eat are from Biscuiteers - their beautiful Snowman and The Snowdog Big Biscuit Card costs £22.50 and shows just how fabulous edible creations can look.

Biscuiteers have kindly provided a video tutorial to show you how to try to make your own Snowman biscuits. She makes it look so easy ! I also didn't realise you could bake icing to make it set - that's a new technique to experiment with in the kitchen.

But on to The Madhouse version ! I decided to use basic cookie dough and add some cinnamon because it's just such a festive flavour. We went for three different decorative options, using ready-to-roll icing, a tub of frosting and white chocolate, along with sprinkles and icing gel pens. I'll let you decide which one worked best !

As I scuttled around the kitchen getting out ingredients to make the biscuits, I told the Madhouse kids to scatter some flour on the table for roling out the dough. I laughed when I turned round and was confronted with this !

The cookie dough I used was a bit too soft so they didn't hold their shape that well, but they didn't fall apart either, which is always a bonus ! For our first option, we used up the end of a tub of ready made vanilla frosting.

For the second option, we rolled out some ready-to-roll icing that was lurking in the cupboard. It had gone a bit hard but seemed to come back ok with a bit of enthusiastic squishing !

For the third and final option, I melted some white chocolate and spread it over the top. Then the real fun started and it was time to decorate them, using icing gel pens and sprinkles.

 We soon had an entire table full of Snowmen and Snowdogs, much to Pierre's delight !

Here's how  the ready-to-roll icing ones came out. 

And the buttercream icing ones.

And the white chocolate ones.

I asked Pierre which ones he thought looked and tasted best and he said all of them ! I think his favourite part of all was licking out the bowls !

They may not be as impressive as the Biscuiteer ones but I bet they didn't have as much fun making theirs as we did !

If you want to see some of the other entries for the #SnowmanSnowdog Bake Off challenge, head over to twitter and search for the hashtag. Also don't miss Mummy's Little Peeps tomorrow, as the blog tour will be stopping off there !

Disclosure : We recived the products in order to take part in the blog tour and bake off.