Madhouse recipe : Caramel apple pie

The other day, I looked in the fruit bowl and discovered several apples that were on their last legs. Hmmmm what could I make to use them up? In the end, Pierre wanted to help with the preparation so I just went for a very quick apple pie, using up various odds and ends from the kitchen cupboard and the fridge. It was a rush job but came out absolutely delicious - definitely one to make again ! As I wasn't planning on blogging about it, I didn't complain when Pierre put the pastry in off-centred, so apologies for the weird shape !

Caramel apple pie

ingredients :

a sheet of puff pastry

4-5 apples

half a jar of crème de caramel (salted caramel spread)

a little icing sugar

Lay the sheet of puff pastry in a baking tin. We left the greaseproof paper in the bottom for an easier clean up. As you can see, ours didn't go in very straight !

I popped it in the oven to pre-cook while the oven was warming up. Rummaging through the cupboards, I found a jar of salted caramel spread, which had been brought back from Brittany then abandoned in the cupboard.

Spoon about a quarter to half a jar of sauce into the bottom of the pie crust. It was runnier than I expected but good enough.

Peel and slice the apples and lay them in a spiral design on top of the caramel.

Bake for about half an hour, until the pastry has gone golden brown and crusty and the apple slices are soft when stabbed with a knife. Sprinkle over a little icing sugar, once it has cooled down. Tuck in, with extra whipped cream or ice cream, if you're feeling particularly decadent. The caramel sauce goes runny and the saltiness totally complements the sweetness of the apples. Hmmmm !

This was a great way of clearing out odds and ends from the kitchen so I'll add it to the next #KitchenClearout linky (when I actually get around to publishing it !)

Celebrating National Stationery Week with Stabilo

Did you know that last week (29th April - 5th May) was National Stationery Week? Whether in my role as a teacher or a mum, I am always splashing out on new pens and pencils to keep our pencil cases overflowing with new goodies. At work, I need an endless supply of red pens for all my marking, but we also have a class that is marked on skills rather than with grades. Instead of totalling up a mark at the end of each test, we set targets then give them a colour from red (not attained), yellow (insufficient), green (attained) to dark green (surpassed). It's actually quite simple, but trying to find a decent yellow pen that is easily readable, as well as two different greens that can be easily told apart, is actually quite tricky ! The Madhouse kids are always colouring, writing secret messages and making lists so they get through lots of stationery too. We were therefore over the moon to receive some new pens to try out from Stabilo.

I always associate Stabilo with highlighters. I invariably have a yellow one (and sometimes orange, green or pink too) in my desk drawer at work and they're fabulous for highlighting key words or the important bits in notes from meetings or new pupil lists. I didn't know, however, that they have various different colours available - this mauve one (used to doodle the heart in the top picture) is from the Pastel collection, which includes pale orange, yellow, green, pink and blue too.

For years, I thought that Stabilo only produced highlighters, but at work, I am forever using their Fineliners, which are great for marking. I love the smooth flow of ink and, along with the usual red, green, black and blue options, this pack includes a purple and a pinky-purple pen. They are available in 41 brilliant colours and 6 fluorescent colours in total, according to the back of the pack, so whatever you're working on, you're bound to find colours to suit.

Most correspondance these days is done online or by phone, but there is something extra special about writing with an ink pen. I love to send special handwritten notes and cards to close friends and family members, to show that I'm thinking about them, or leave little notes in the Madhouse kids' school bags for them to find throughout the day. This funky fountain pen is from the beCrazy range. It comes with one ink cartridge already supplied, which is fabulous if you haven't had a chance to pick up a pack of spares, and it is also suitable whether you're left or right-handed.

The Madhouse kids begged to get their sticky little mitts on this pack of 15 fibre-tipped pens (from the top picture), so I relented and passed them over. They have beautiful bright colours (which you can see in the top picture), which have been perfect for colouring, writing messages or completing complicated maps for geography homework ! As a parent, I was also incredibly impressed to see on the pack that the pens will apparently still colour after eight weeks without a cap. That sounds like great news, as we seem to have a pen lid-eating monster hiding somewhere in our house ! But that's not all - more great news for parents is that they are washable and the tips are push-resistant. If I had to come up with a list of our top pen peeves, they have just solved most of them in one fell swoop !

Sadly, our package was delivered to the wrong address and has just been dropped off by a friendly neighbour, so National Stationery Week has now been and gone. As far as I'm concerned, there is no particular time for buying stationery though, as it always comes in handy. It never fails to put a smile on my face whenever I uncap a new pen and turn to the first page in a new notebook or diary. There's something much more satisfying about crossing things off a handwritten to-do list than deleting something quickly typed out online too !

Disclosure : I received some goodies from Stabilo in order to share my honest opinion.

What's Cooking at The Madhouse? menu plan 2019 week #20

This week, I went shopping before writing up the menu plan, so I'll be using up things from the freezer or popping to the shops if anything is missing from my ingredients lists. I've been looking through the Saving Dinner cookbook by Leanne Ely, which I bought years ago then never really used much. It actually has loads of great ideas for simple dinners, so I'll be using it for inspiration over the coming weeks. I love the fact that it's American so their ideas of simple dishes can actually seem quite exotic and different to us.

Monday 

dinner - Chicken surprise !  I'm planning that there will be some leftovers from yesterday's roast chicken Sunday lunch with the Madhouse grandparents, in which case I'll chop up the leftover potatoes, veg and chicken and make a pie, or add extra rice or pasta if there's just chicken left. We'll see !

Tuesday 

dinner - baked ham, rice and veggies

Wednesday 

lunch - pork steaks, mash and beans

dinner - chicken with couscous salad, cherry tomatoes & cucumber

Thursday 

dinner - Grilled Asian pork with noodles & veg

Friday  

 dinner - Friday night? Sounds like the perfect time for pizza !

Saturday

lunch - McDonald's or similar

dinner - sandwiches, salads or fridge clearout

Sunday

lunch - "Make Mine Meat Loaf" with mash, swede & carrots

dinner - sandwiches, salads or leftovers

***Click on my Menu Plans tag to see all my other weekly menu plan blogposts.***

Book review : Blue Gold - Clive Cussler

I was recently contacted by Books2Door, an online kids' book store, who offered me a voucher to buy some new books to review. They have loads of kids' books on offer, but also a well-stocked Young Adult category, so I managed to pick up some great titles for myself too. The first thing I added to my basket was this collection of titles from Clive Cussler, which includes four novels : Shock Waves, Flood Tide, Blue Gold and Serpent. The price, if you're interested ? A "whopping" £3.99 ! Bargain !

Once the books arrived, I was keen to jump in, but I came across a bit of a problem. I wasn't online and there was absolutely no way of telling which order they should be read in. I therefore decided it didn't matter and jumped in with Blue Gold. After logging on to the website, I discovered that this is actually the second book in the series and I should have started with Serpent, followed by Blue Gold, which are books 1 and 2 in the NUMA series. The whole series currently contains 16 books. Shock Wave and Flood Tide are books 13 and 14 in a different series featuring Dirk Pitt. This would have been good to know in advance and I don't really understand why this information wasn't easier to find, either on the book covers or on the website. 

But back to the book at hand - Blue Gold. Blue Gold is not a form of precious metal, as you might imagine - it's actually water, but that doesn't mean that it's any less valuable, particularly in a world whose water supplies are drying up in certain regions. The book starts with a boat race ending in disaster when it encounters a pod of dead whales, before moving on to a tribe in the South American jungle, led by a mysterious white woman. There's so much going on in the beginning that it's hard to keep track of everything, but you soon start to see how it all links together.

NUMA (National Underwater & Marine Agency) workers Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala start to investigate and undercover some strange goings on off the coast of Mexico, before going further afield. Their hearts are in the right place and they certainly get things done but they reminded me of a water-based version of Crockett and Tubbs (sorry, harking back to my teenage years watching Miami Vice here !), gadding around the world, tracking down the bad guys and not worrying at all about the numerous pieces of aquatic (and even aerial) transportation that get trashed ! I kept thinking to myself that this would be a cracking basis for a great all-action Hollywood blockbuster, with big scary villains, sexy, scantily clad women and an awful lot of explosions going on !

The story is enjoyable and intriguing, if not entirely believable, and there was so much going on that it was hard not to stay focused. That said, I did find many of the characters to be very one-sided, from the ugly and cold-hearted Eastern European villains to the towering, voluptuous villain in her totally over-the-top Viking ship. 

I'm looking forward to reading the other novels from the package now. They're ideal for when you want something easy to read that is big on action and needs little brain-power to work things out.

star rating : 4/5

Available at https://www.books2door.com/clive-cussler-4-book-collection.html

Disclosure : I received a review copy of the book.

Fab freebies of the week 11/5

Ahhh it's the weekend at last. Time to chill out, have fun and catch up with this week's freebies !

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The Insiders are looking for 2000 parents of babies aged 0 to 6 months to try Bepanthen® Nappy Care Ointment.

Get a £1 off voucher for Princes tuna or mackerel - that's enough for a free tin at Tesco's at the moment !

Request a copy of The mystery of the golden stars : An adventure in the European Union book

Debenhams have another free Beauty Club Box sample up for grabs, if you have their card (and if you haven't, apply for one now !) - This month's Beauty Club Box is the vital last step for any makeup look. From Friday 10th May, pick up your sample of the Urban Decay all-nighter setting spray and say hello to serious staying power, and goodbye to melting makeup.

Missed out on our FREE Samples last time? 🤩🤩 Well our Summer Samples are almost here! Subscribe to our newsletter now to be one of the lucky 500 to receive some Glow Girl samples 🤩🙊 We will be selecting 500 of our amazing followers at random!!

Want to help your skin fend against UVA/UVB rays & pollution? Then why not try the Body Shop Skin Defence Multi-Protection Essence SPF50 PA++++ for FREE? Simply register for a voucher to receive your free deluxe sample (5ml) and take it to your nearest participating store.

* One sample per customer. Subject to availability. Voucher must be redeemed by 22nd May 2019. T&Cs apply.

Calling all (baby) Liverpool FC fans ! 500 fans will win a Little Liver dining set, including plate, cutlery, beaker, and bag.

Take part in the Shipyard Beer Jack Reacher competition to win one of hundreds of prizes (T-shirt,baseball cap, novels, …) - daily entry possible

Submit a drawing to Uniball for a chance to win one of hundreds of pen prizes

Win one of 50 My Little Sudocrem pots

You can see previous weeks' freebie roundups by clicking here but be warned, many of the offers are only valid for a short time. Let me know if any have expired and I'll remove them from the roundup.

You may also like to enter my current giveaways :

Giveaway #718 : Win a set of 4 Ztringz worth £10 - closing date 14/5

Giveaway #719 : Win a Thunderbirds Are Go prize bundle - closing date 23/5

Giveaway #719 : Win a Thunderbirds Are Go prize bundle - closed - winner Kathy Cakebread

Great news for Thunderbirds fans - British greats Jennifer Saunders and Larry Lamb have been added to the guest voice cast list of Thunderbirds Are Go for its latest episodes, due to air on ITV and CITV in May 2019. Also joining the star-studded line-up are Sylvester McCoy, Nina Sosanya, and Navin Chowdhry who join series regulars Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Rasmus Hardiker, and David Menkin, who play the Tracy brothers, as well as Rosamund Pike as Lady Penelope, David Graham as Parker, Angel Coulby as Kayo and Kayvan Novak as Brains, for the latest instalment of the much-loved show.

Jennifer Saunders voices Helen Shelby, a no-nonsense biologist who designed the incredible Supreme Barrier Reef, a replacement for the polluted Great Barrier Reef, whilst Alan Ford is cockney Light-Fingered Fred with Larry Lamb voicing Gomez, two ‘friends’ from Parker’s criminal past who want to use FAB1 as a getaway car in their criminal exploits. Comedian Tom Rosenthal also returns as Brandon Berrenger, a famous ‘extreme action’ vlogger whose followers are known as ‘Bearheads’, Vas Blackwood returns as cheeky Space Pirate Reece with Alan Ford again voicing Light Fingered Fred.

In these all-new epic episodes, the Tracys and their Thunderbirds must go above and beyond to tackle new threats while continuing to rescue those in need. When a mysterious distress signal reaches International Rescue, the whole team must pull together to discover who is behind it. With The Hood and his Chaos Crew continuing to leave destruction in their wake, even managing to commandeer a Thunderbird, the Tracy brothers really have their hands full.

Unwavering in their belief that everyone is worth saving, International Rescue’s missions take them around the world and beyond, from the depths of the Supreme Barrier Reef to the far reaches of space via the streets of London, the caverns of a futuristic holo-game, a snow-covered mountain range and a haunted nuclear facility.

Don't miss the most thrilling, emotional and explosive chapter yet of THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

‘Thunderbirds Are Go airs on 18th May, weekly on Saturdays 8:00am on ITV & CITV, until July 13th’

I have a fabulous prize package to give away to one Madhouse Family Reviews reader, containing :  3xDVDs (S1, 2A & 2B), some TAG face masks, a poster of the S3 Paul Shipper artwork and a notebook. Fill in your entries in the Rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

UK only. Closing date : 14/5/19

T & C's : Entries close at midnight on the closing date. Winners will be selected with a random number generator and announced on facebook and in the giveaway post subject line. Please note, you will be contacted by email and/or twitter and if I haven't heard from you after 28 days, I'll have to pick another winner. Prizes will be sent out by the companies or their PR directly to winners. Madhouse Family Reviews cannot be held responsible for any prizes that go astray. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. The winners' personal contact information will be passed on to the PR / Brand responsible and used only for delivery of their prize.

You may also like to enter my other giveaways :

Giveaway #718 : Win a set of 4 Ztringz worth £10 - closing date 14/5

Madhouse recipe : Mary Berry's Chocolate & Cherry Biscuits

I don't really know why, but ever since Madhouse Daddy died just over a year ago, I've got out of the habit of cooking (as in trying out new recipes) and baking. There's no real reason - maybe just tiredness or a lack of time because of all the extra running around or just a general lack of enthusiasm ? Well, whatever the reason, over the bank holiday, I dusted off my bookshelf and went looking for some new recipes to try out. The kids have already munched their way through the entire contents of the biscuit tin with lots of enthusiastic mumbles, so I'll have to keep it up !

This recipe came from Mary Berry Foolproof Cooking and, as there was no accompanying photo, I wasn't sure how they'd turn out. They were a great success though and used up a tub of glacé cherries that were going sticky in the back of the cupboard !

Mary Berry's Chocolate & Cherry Biscuits

(makes 16 biscuits)

ingredients:

100g butter

50g caster sugar

125g self-raising flour

15g cocoa powder

75g glacé cherries,chopped + 8 cherries, halved

icing sugar (for dusting - optional)

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Put the sugar and butter into a bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon.

 

Chop the cherries. Add the flour, cherries and cocoa powder and stir together with the spoon.

I thought this looked way too dry to come together into a dough, but get your hands in there and it will work !

Ta-da ! You'll soon have a workable dough coming together.

Divide into two balls, then split each ball into eight pieces. Lay them on two baking sheets lined with baking paper and use a fork to press them down until about 1cm thick. I had planned on just pressing round the edges but Pierre did it all over the top, which actually looked quite cool !

Bake for 10-12 minutes until just cooked (be careful as they will start to burn very easily) then, while they're still soft, press half a glacé cherry into the top of each biscuit.

Allow to cool for five minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool completely and go firm. Once cold, dust with icing sugar if you like. (The kids had already munched half of them before I got a chance so we didn't bother !)

Umm, it must be about time (or, should I say, actually long overdue) for a relaunch of the #KitchenClearout linky ! This recipe can go in as it used up some (very sticky) glacé cherries and some cocoa powder. I'll sort a blog post out in the next few days, if you have anything to add to the linky :)

What's Cooking at The Madhouse? menu plan 2019 week #19

Our water is back on so we've been filling up on rice, pasta and boiled potatoes again ! This week, I've been delving into my cookbooks for inspiration and found some things to try from The Hairy Dieters Make It Easy (which I grabbed for a fiver at The Works, but it's only £5.44 online too - bargain !). I'll let you know how everything turns out once we've munched it all !

Monday 

dinner - pork stroganoff with rice & veggies

Tuesday 

dinner - baked potatoes with bacon & mushroom filling (and loads of added cheese for those who want it - Juliette, I'm looking at you !). I might even add some baked beans in there, just because ... !

Wednesday 

lunch - tacos

dinner - garlic chicken with green beans, cherry tomatoes & couscous

Thursday 

dinner - salmon & broccoli tray bake (the kids can finish off leftovers instead or I'll knock up some mac and cheese for them)

Friday  

 dinner - cottage pie - hmmm haven't made one of these for ages and I really fancy one now !

Saturday

lunch - McDonald's or similar

dinner - sandwiches or fridge clearout

Sunday

lunch - sausages, onion gravy, mash and peas

dinner - sandwiches or leftovers

***Click on my Menu Plans tag to see all my other weekly menu plan blogposts.***

Fab freebies of the week 4/5

I can't believe we're already into May - how did that happen?! That means summer's nearly here with the lovely long holiday - I'm looking forward to it already ! Here's this week's freebie roundup to ease gently into the weekend vibe. Have a lovely time, whatever you're up to :)

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Over on facebook -  Shiseido VisionAiry Gel Lipstick – high impact, weightless colour in a full-coverage gel lipstick. Claim your complimentary sample.

Request a 15g sample of AquaMax cream today.

Win one of 50 baby bath & bedtime cases from Mother & Baby

By signing up to Red Bull Active When On Lunch, you are agreeing to receive tips, workouts and content from Red Bull via email in relation to this subject. You are also entering into a draw to receive a redeemable voucher for 1 can of Red Bull 250ml that will be sent to your email address.

Order your free copy of Park Lifestyle Magazine

Do you have a cat or a dog? The Insiders are looking for 250 owners - 140 dog owners and 110 cat owners - to try new Purina® Beyond® Grain Free recipes and let them know their thoughts. Are you interested? Subscribe before 12th May.

Enter Ronseal's rugby-themed giveaway which has oodles of runner-up prizes : Tickets to the Challenge Cup Final, Ronseal Jerseys, Ronseal water bottle and Ronseal mini rugby ball.

Answer 5 simple questions correctly to receive a FREE 50ml sachet of Nikwax BaseWash (just keep restaring until you get them all right !)

Insiders are looking for 100 people to take part in their Weenect campaign, to test this new breed of trackers, suitable for kids, elderly people, cats and dogs.

Over on the MyHenry facebook page : #WIN! To celebrate #SpaceDay, we're giving you the chance to win 1 of 50 Henry & Hetty's Space Adventure Books 🚀 Simply like our page and comment below to enter.

Shopmium has some great free offers, including a can of Dalston’s Craft Soda, Cerelac infant cereals, Piccolo Mighty Squeeze and Sheba Creamy Snacks.

2,000 free tickets to Grand Designs Live

You can see previous weeks' freebie roundups by clicking here but be warned, many of the offers are only valid for a short time. Let me know if any have expired and I'll remove them from the roundup.

You may also like to enter my current giveaways :

Giveaway #718 : Win a set of 4 Ztringz worth £10 - closing date 14/5

Num Noms Chocolate Bark recipe & review

Easter has been and gone, leaving us with a glut of chocolate, so it was the perfect time to receive a lovely package from Num Noms, including a recipe for Num Noms Chocolate Bark, along with some lovely new Num Noms toys and goodies. More about those after the recipe.

The Chocolate Bark recipe is a great way of using up odds and ends of chocolate left lying around after Easter. I also incorporated some muesli (crushed biscuits would work well too) into the base layer, to add some extra texture.

 Num Noms Chocolate Bark

Break up 3 x 150g bars of milk (or plain) chocolate into a bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water. Or just shove it in the microwave for 30 seconds and stir !

Prepare your dish by lining it with clingfilm or foil. (Having used clingfilm, I would actually suggest using foil, as we found it ripped and stuck to the chocolate.)

Stir through some muesli if you like - we shook some straight out of the box, probably about 10 tablespoons' worth - and press into the dish.

Clean out the bowl and melt 50g of white chocolate. Pour over the top and use a cocktail stick to add some lovely swirls. 

Top with some halved mini eggs. (We had some small chocolate eggs to use up but official Mini Eggs would add lots of nice colour.)

Pop into the fridge to set then chop into large, randoms chunks. Yum !

While we were waiting for it to set, this was the perfect time to investigate the rest of the Num Noms goodies. As usual, despite what it may look like, this foodie-tastic packaging hides lots of lovely surprises but nothing to eat !

The pots on the left are Sparkle Smoothies, which contain one figurine - a scented Num topping along with a Nom glitter lip gloss. The little spongey applicator is great for avoiding sticky fingers when you put it on.

In the bottle (on the right in the second to last picture) is Num Noms Mystery Makeup, a collection which includes a mystery gift of nail polish, shimmer, body spray or lotion. You also get a lip gloss Nom pet and plate stand for the Yummy character. I was very impressed with this range - it looks cute and adds a grown-up feel to the toys, which undoubtedly would appeal to tweens.

And at the bottom, looking like giant sweets, are the Party Hair Num Noms, which combine a scented Num Noms character with one tuft of hair (or if you're lucky two tufts !), that can be styled, stuck on top of a pencil or used to tickle your little brother's nose and annoy him (which worked surprisingly well !).

So how was the Chocolate Bark going? Yay, it was all set and ready to eat.

Disclosure : We received the products in order to share our honest review.