Sweet Pups review

I have to be honest - when I first showed Juliette the latest toy to arrive for review, she didn't look impressed. Then again, I did tease her and tell her it was a fake croissant.

Which is perfectly true. In real life, it looks a lot more realistic than it does with the camera flash and it has the same soft, squishy texture as a croissant fresh from the bakery, as well as a lovely sweet smell.

After putting it on a plate and telling her that we could serve it to Pierre or Sophie as an April Fool's Day breakfast, I relented and showed her the packaging. It was, in fact, a Sweet Pups, a new range of ultra-cute collectibles with a gorgeous cuddly canine hiding inside  a sweet treat.

She was still dubious, but her expression completely changed as she started to turn it inside out.

Once it's completely inside out, there's a little velcro strip to stick the two sides together.

Not quite invisible but you'd never guess that this was a croissant two minutes ago !

It's quite unbelievable when you see the decent-sized, perfectly formed soft toy that was inside the croissant. Juliette was particularly impressed because it has big eyes and reminds her of her beloved Beany Boos.

There are twelve different poochy/pastry pals to collect, including macarons and sticky buns, and Juliette would happily buy the lot. They're great fun and it's truly magical when you start turning them inside out and revealing the hidden toy inside. The only thing we would possibly change is the name - we joked that they should have called them Pet-isserie Pals !

I just want to give a special mention to the lovely people at Wire PR, who, on hearing the sad news from The Madhouse, sent a lovely package of extra goodies to help put a smile back on the kids' faces.

Pierre was most impressed with the Tumblstix because he'd seen his favourite youtubers playing with them in videos, and we've all been trying to master the Zing Dama Flip 'n' Catch - a high tech, light-up version of the old-fashioned cup and ball game that I remember playing with in my own childhood. 

We've also been having great fun with Stik'Em, which combines the best of both traditional and hi-tech worlds - a good old-fashioned "snap" type game with the addition of using a tablet for double the fun, matching the cards with their sound effects and being the first to grab them with a sucker on a stick. Hilarious fun whatever your age and it's amazing how competitive everyone gets !

Globecooking recipe : Slow Cooker Beef Maffé (Mali)

I'm very impressed at how adventurous the Madhouse kids have been this week. When I laughingly asked who fancied trying an African beef stew with peanut butter in it, I thought they'd flatly refuse, but I was amazed when they all said OK ... as long as they didn't have to finish it if it was horrible ! Luckily it turned out very tasty.

I've already shared a recipe for Chicken Mafe, which used products from a Cameroon-themed Kitchen Trotter box. This time, I adapted a recipe for Beef Maffé, which is described as a dish from Mali. Many recipes have variations that cover large geographical areas that can't be pinpointed to a single country though, so I'm sure they are both very similar in origin. I made this in the slow cooker to make sure the beef was nice and tender, but the original recipe used a casserole dish in the oven.

Slow Cooker Beef Maffé

ingredients :

1kg beef

2 onions

1 clove of garlic

1 green pepper

1 tin whole peeled tomatoes (or 2 fresh tomatoes)

2tbsp tomato concentrate

4 heaped tbsp peanut butter

1 chicken stock cube

salt, pepper, paprika (+ chilli powder, if desired)

a couple of handfuls of baby potatoes

Chop the beef into chunks and throw it into the slow cooker. You can brown it off on all sides beforehand if you want, but I didn't bother this time, as I was short of time. Season with salt, pepper and paprika.

Peel and chop the onions, garlic and green pepper and add to the slow cooker.

Add the tinned tomatoes, the stock cube, the tomato concentrate and the peanut butter. 

Toss in the potatoes. 

Give it all a good stir and add a little water if needed, not forgetting that you need very little liquid added in the slow cooker.

 Leave to cook for 4-6 hours until the beef is tender (almost to falling apart) and the sauce is well blended.

 Serve on its own or with an extra vegetable of your choice. You could also serve it with flatbread to scoop up the sauce.

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

Madhouse diaries : Life goes on

Looking at this photo that I snapped the other day, it's impossible to tell if it's a sunrise or sunset, an end or a new beginning, and to be honest, it doesn't matter - you still get the same moody skies and pretty colours. I decided that it rather nicely summed up the mood at The Madhouse recently. We're still coming to terms with Madhouse Daddy's death and trying to work out if life (and plans and fun and laughter) needs to be starting up again and carrying on as usual, or if we need to do things differently, or whether we should all be sitting around moping and feeling sorry for ourselves. Well, to be honest, it's a bit of a mixture of all of that.

Most of the time, we're sticking to traditions with a twist. Every Saturday morning, we all used to bundle in the car and head off to Burger King for a kicking-off-the-weekend catch-up and chill-out. Now, I let the kids take it in turns to pick their fast-food restaurant of choice and we all head off on the bus. In the evenings, the kids used to eat early (around 6.30/7pm) and the adults would eat later (around 8.30pm) when Madhouse Daddy had got home from work and chilled out. Now, I'm eating at the same time as the kids, which is actually a nice new tradition as we all get to sit round the dinner table together. It also means the evenings are much longer so, when the weather is nice, it gives us time to take the dogs out for a walk by the canal to watch the sunset.

With two dogs and three kids, this can often lead to squabbles over who gets to hold the leads, so I decided to get Pierre's bike out of the garage too. He was happy to burn off some energy before bedtime.

Remember all my moody landscape photos from Norway on my recent work trip to Stavanger? Well, the perfectly still canal along this route gives equally impressive reflections.

The smiles are still looking a bit stilted, but we'll get there eventually.

Easter Sunday was a bit of a tricky one - it was always Madhouse Daddy who hid the eggs all over the patio and in the house, so I asked the kids what they wanted to do : give it a miss this year or should I take over on Easter Bunny duties? We went for the "same but different" option again - instead of hiding big eggs, I just dotted some mini eggs and Kinder Surprise eggs all over the place.

It all seemed a bit half-hearted but Pierre got well into the spirit of things - as did the dogs !

The cheeky grin says it all. I've always been a glass-half-full kinda girl so we're definitely looking at new beginnings.

#KitchenClearout March roundup and April linky

Well, March 2018 is over and done with and I have to say, good riddance to it. We started off the month as a boisterous family of five and finished as a subdued and still slightly bemused foursome. The weird thing about this month's round-up for me is that it includes some of the last meals that I shared with Madhouse Daddy - certainly something neither of us saw coming when I was haphazardly throwing them together. But life must go on for those of us that remain, and sitting down together to work out menu plans and shopping lists and seeing what is in the cupboards that needs using up are all things that are keeping us grounded and getting back into routine.

This month's roundup is just the way I like it - a totally eclectic mix of exotic dishes, random gatherings of ingredients and delicious cakes and bakes.

Chicken Pot Pie with Cheddar & Chive Biscuits is an American recipe that got a great reception - the ultimate hearty comfort food and looking at this picture makes me want to make it (and eat it) all over again. It used up lots of odds and ends of veggies from the freezer and fridge, and would also be perfect for using up the leftover chicken after the Sunday roast.

Jess from Jess Eats and Travels has started an alphabetical globe-cooking tour of the world, so she tried an Algerian recipe, Kesra, which is a semolina bread.

Another of my throw-it-all-in-and-see-what-happens concoctions was Prawn & Pasta Mish-Mash, and cleared out all the odds and ends from the fridge before the weekly shop.

Jess's foray into Algerian cuisine continued with Lamb, Chickpea & Freekeh Chilli. I have a bag of frik in the cupboard from an old Kitchen Trotter box so this could be a good way of using it up.

Moving on to Andorra, Jess shared her recipe for Battered Bubble & Squeak. This reminded me of the Irish dish Colcannon, which inspired me to make it - I'll be adding it to the new linky below.

Coming across a jar of peanut butter lurking in the back of the cupboard, I decided to try a popular dish from Ghana, Peanut Butter Soup. It's actually much tastier than it sounds and used up the end of a bag of frozen spinach, along with the peanut butter.

Jess was also cooking with peanuts, recreating the Angolan dish Chicken Muamba.

She also recreated a traditional Angolan peanut cake with caramel buttercream, Bolo de Ginguba.

I decided to use up half a dozen surplus eggs in a classic New Zealand dish, Bacon & Egg Pie, which also finished off the end of a bag of frozen peas.

Toffee Apple Shortbread Cake was a sweet, gooey and delicious way of using up some slightly wrinkly apples from the fruit bowl.

Still on the A's, Jess tried some BBQ Grilled Chicken Anguillan Style. 

Finally, I cleared out some of the jars cluttering up the fridge - sun-dried tomatoes and olives - as well as some green peppers lurking in the veg box, to recreate a #readcookeat recipe inspired by The Court of Lions : Piquillos rellenos or Spanish stuffed peppers.

Fancy joining in? Have a rummage through your kitchen cupboards, spice rack, freezer or fridge and see if there's anything that needs using up then come and share your creations with us. Or if it's way past its sell-by date, throw it in the bin and come and tell us what you found ! It would be great if you could add my badge and a link to this post for anyone else who wants to get involved.

Globecooking recipe : Colcannon (Ireland)

Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish, made of mashed potato mixed with kale or cabbage. I decided to make a more child-friendly version by replacing them with another green vegetable that the Madhouse kids were less likely to turn their noses up at - leeks. This isn't traditional though, so I should probably rename the dish cheesy leek mash.

Colcannon

ingredients :

potatoes

milk

butter

salt, pepper

leeks

grated cheese

 Boil some potatoes in salted water (I always leave the skins on for extra fibre) for about 20 minutes until the point of a sharp knife pierces them easily. Drain and mash them, stirring in milk, butter, salt and pepper.

While the potatoes are cooking, gently fry some leeks in butter. Reserve until the potatoes are cooked then stir into the mash.

Add a handful of grated cheese and stir through. 

 Taste and add extra salt or butter if needed.

I served this with vegetable patties and turkey steaks. Pierre made me laugh because he looked worriedly at the meat and asked if it was a dolphin - it did look a bit like one !

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

Fancy trying some other Irish dishes? How about :

Baileys Cheesecake

Boiled Bacon and Cabbage

Dublin Coddle

Irish Stew

Soda Bread

Whisky Marmalade Glazed Carrots

Linking up to the brand new World Food Linky over at Jess Eats and Travels

Adding to this month's #KitchenClearout linky as it used up some leeks and potatoes.

Overdosed on chocolate? How about some #Beeflovin !

If you've had enough of the sweet stuff this Easter, how about going barmy for some Peperami?! When we received some packs of Peppered Beef Peperami recently, I stacked them up in the fridge, smug in the knowledge that they could be my own personal little stash of nibbles, because the kids would undoubtedly find them too hot. Unfortunately, they had a tentative nibble, declared them delicious and scoffed the lot of them before I could barely get a look in !

I don't mind really though, as they're a healthier snacking alternative to sweets, crisps or biscuits. They're made with 100% beef and are high in protein. Each stick contains 102 calories, 8.2g of fats, of which 3.6g saturates, and 0.5g of carbs. They cost £1.50 for a pack of three and are ideal for lunchboxes and picnics.

Speaking of packs of three, which always has rude overtones in my mind, I defy you to pull a plastic-sheath covered Peperami out of the pack and not think it looks like something rude ! I'm definitely not the only one to think so - in honour of Valentine's day last month, Beef Animal, the face of Peperami’s Beef variant and the King of Romance, launched his first ever music video! The Beef Animal’s new video was part of Peperami’s latest Valentine’s Day campaign - #Beeflovin. Getting lads and lasses up and down the country in the mood for romance, Beef Animal’s sexy new tune #Beeflovin, is set to be the sound of the season, with his rich deep vocals and a catchy pop beat. Because Beef is for life, not just for Valentine’s Day!

Disclosure : We received some packs of Peperami.