Happy Christmas everyone !

Merry Christmas

from

the Madhouse Family !!

Madhouse recipe : Salmon Kedgeree

Kedgeree is a dish of Anglo-Indian origin, made with curried rice, boiled eggs and flaked cooked fish - traditionally smoked haddock but as I had some leftover grilled salmon in the fridge, I used that. It's quick, simple and perfect for a midweek evening meal, but it would be great as a festive brunch too.

Salmon Kedgeree

ingredients :

1tsbp butter

2 onions

1 cup uncooked rice

 a handful of split peas (or lentils)

1tsp ground cumin

1tsp ground coriander

1tsp turmeric

1tsp smoked paprika

salt, pepper

cooked fish (grilled salmon, smoked haddock, ...)

1 boiled egg per person

pomegranate molasses (optional)

Fry the onions in the butter. Remove to a plate.

Put the rice, split peas and spices in the pan and cover with boiling water.

Cook for 10-15 minutes until the rice and split peas are cooked and the water is completely absorbed. Stir the onions through the rice.

Flake the fish and add to the rice. Toss to combine (but try not to break up the fish too much).

Place halved boiled eggs around the edges of the dish. Drizzle with pomegranate molasses if you have some - the sweet-sour notes contrast nicely with the curry flavours of the rice.

Adding to this month's #KitchenClearout linky as it used up some leftover cooked salmon and cleared out the spice rack.

Project Mc2 Adrienne's Lemon Soap Experiment Doll review

Full STEAM ahead ! (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths that is.) Just in time for Christmas, those sassy, super-smart, science-loving and seriously cool girls from NOV8 (Innovate) are back in a new range of Project Mc2 experiment dolls to get young fans using household items to create funky creations that are useful and fun-to-make, as well as being a great learning experience to boot.

If you're still unfamiliar with the Project Mc2 series, you need to head over to Netflix or Youtube to catch up, because your daughters are missing out on a fabulous series that promotes great values, such as making science and technology cool for girls. The team of nerdy-but-nice friends use their love of science and spy skills to undertake missions for top-secret organisations, and have a lot of fun along the way.

For this experiment doll, we got to learn more about Adrienne Attoms, whose bio says : "People say girls are made of sugar and spice but I, Adrienne Attoms, have a more complex recipe. I am a culinary chemist, and ever since my family moved here from Spain for my diplomat father's job, my favourite thing to do is host dinner parties. So delicioso!" 

Here she is in doll form. We actually thought she looked more like Shakira than Adrienne Atoms, but she is a still a well-made and beautiful doll, without the heavy make-up and tarty clothes of many fashion dolls or the unrealistic, bimboesque figure of Barbie and her plastic pals. As with all Project Mc2 dolls, she is fully articulated (at the knees, hips, wrists, elbows, shoulders and neck) and features realistic eyes and eyelashes, as well as fabulously shiny, long, pink ombre-tipped hair, and a comb to style it. As well as a gorgeous blue and pink Venetian ball gown, she comes with a mask, tiara and glasses, for the ultimate masquerade prom makeover.

Project Mc2 experiment dolls aren't just fashion dolls though  - they also come with an exciting STEAM experiment, along with a little write-up explaining the science behind it in the instructions. This time, culinary chemist Adrienne will show you how to make a lemon soap.

The experiment itself is very simple - you just need to put all the ingredients together, melt it in the microwave then use the lemon slice-shaped mould to create a funky soap. The difficulty will be for parents trying to source the ingredients, because despite what it says on the box, I don't actually think these are are "common household items" unless you go out specifically to buy them - you'll need yellow food colouring, lemon extract/scent, glycerine and rubbing alcohol. Luckily, we had everything we needed in a totally separate soap-making kit that the girls already owned, but I don't know if you can pick up glycerine in supermarkets or if you'll need to go looking online. (Maybe you could chop up and melt down a bar of plain soap, but this does rather defeat the object of making soap from scratch.)

Once you've sourced the necessary ingredients, you can repeat the experiment many times, and Juliette was very proud to put her own handmade soap in the bathroom for everyone to use. If offering the doll as a gift, or buying it for your own children, I would definitely recommend trying to get hold of some glycerine and rubbing alcohol before you hand it over, to avoid disappointment.

RRP : £24.99

for more information :  https://projectmc2.mgae.com/

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

Book review : Kiss Me Quick - Danny Miller

I love crime fiction and, as a born-and-bred Sussex girl, I couldn't resist the lure of a crime novel set in Brighton, even if the setting was the Brighton of the 1960's, just a bit before my time. It deals more with the seedy underworld of Brighton than the seafront and town centre that I know and love, but there were enough mentions of local places that I recognised to keep me happy, especially as there was even a mention of the Mods and Rockers kicking off in my home town of Hastings.

The story is the classic tale of a good cop trying to solve a crime and flush out not just the criminals but also the corrupt cops in on the job. Vince Threadwell is slightly more multi-faceted than the typical whiter-than-white detective though - his drug-dealing brother and developing relationship with gangster's moll, the sultry but vulnerable Bobby LaVita, lead him into murky waters. Even more complicated is his memory loss after a head injury sustained on a police raid in a private Soho club with a squalid cinema showing sickening snuff movies - movies, and indeed a cinema, which had ceased to exist once Vince woke up in hospital with a fractured skull. Was it all a figment of his imagination or had he unwittingly become part of a cover up ?

Sent down to the Sussex coast to recuperate (or to get him out of the way?), Vince stumbles into more trouble, kicking up a hornets' nest involving some really nasty pieces of work, including links to the Corsican mafia. I did find the villains to be slightly caricatural - they reminded me of Cruella De Vil's henchmen at times ! - and I was disappointed with the big reveal linking certain characters together at the end, which all seemed a bit too depraved and improbable, even within the story. There are lots of violent, gory scenes in the book, which don't particularly bother me (in literary form, not in real life, I hasten to add !) but I do find descriptions of people having their eyes gouged out particularly unpleasant and there seemed to be an awful lot of eye-stabbing going on in this book !

I found the first half quite sluggish, but it did pick up towards the end. Ultimately I found it to be a bit like a stick of Brighton Rock though - I got fed up of chomping through it before I'd even reached the middle !

star rating : 3.5/5

RRP : £6.99 

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: C & R Crime; Re-issue edition (3 Mar. 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1849015163
• ISBN-13: 978-1849015165

It's the final countdown ! (review roundup)

Have you bought into the relatively new tradition of Christmas Eve boxes? Here at The Madhouse we haven't, but to be honest, it would be a bit of a pointless exercise because, whenever we're at the in laws' in Brittany, as across the whole of France, we sit down to a big Christmas meal and open all our presents on Christmas Eve anyway. I do tend to put together a small goody bag for New Year's Eve though, to help keep the kids in good spirits and entertained while they wait for the bongs of Big Ben to chime at midnight. (I can't believe it will be silent this year - no doubt they'll have a recording but it won't be the same !) Whether you're counting down to Christmas, New Year or maybe even the kids going back to school (bah humbug !), here's my final review roundup for the final countdown - ta da da da, ta da da da da ... !

First up, one for the grown-ups. Energy experts Berocca have just added a new blackcurrant flavour to their range of fizzy tablets and they sent us a sample (personalised, no less !) to try out. Berocca Blackcurrant is packed full of B vitamins, including vitamins B1 and B2, which work with your body to release your natural energy, so if you're starting to flag after all the Christmas excitement and late nights, it may be just what you to need to put a spring in your step ! Simply drop one effervescent tablet into water to make a refreshing morning drink and reveal a new energised you ... even if the kids have dragged you out of bed at 5am to open their stockings ! Berocca Blackcurrant is available in tablet packs of 15 (RRP £4.85) from pharmacies and supermarkets nationwide including Boots, Tesco and Amazon. Berocca is also available in Orange, Mango and Mixed Berry flavours. It is free from caffeine, sugar and artificial stimulants and contains only 7 calories per tablet. For more information on the full Berocca product range, visit www.berocca.co.uk.

After helping the adults get some extra energy, you might like to help the kids burn off some of theirs, and what better way than wrapping everyone up warm and going for a walk to spot the best Christmas lights. If you live in Sussex, I highly recommend heading to Westfield, just next to Hastings, which is a wonderful winter wonderland. (Click here to see our blogpost about an Enchanting Christmas Eve Walk.)

If you struggle with encouraging your kids to wear a hat, we've found the perfect ally - this cheeky, cheerful Pikachu beanie hat. Now that he's the ripe old age of 8, Pierre kept saying that he was too old for a bobble hat. He preferred putting up the hood of his coat, but I don't like the way that this restricts his visibility and sense of hearing, making it more dangerous when crossing roads and the busy car park in front of his school. As he's a big Pokemon fan, I didn't have to ask him twice to put on his new Pikachu hat - problem solved !

With all the mad dashing about on Christmas Day, cooking, phoning around the extended family and hunting out batteries and screwdrivers, it can be hard to find time to snuggle up on the settee with the kids and read their new books. Beat the rush by bringing out some new picture books on Christmas Eve - it might even convince the kids to go to bed extra early while they wait for Santa to arrive ! The Snugglewump by Lou Treleaven and Kate Chappell (32 pages, Maverick Arts Publishing (18 May 2017), RRP £6.99) is the perfect read just before Christmas and a new influx of toys !

In this heartwarming tale, Molly's toys are all eagerly awaiting her return to find out who she loves best and who she will play with. Aware that he can't compare with an antique doll, a robot, a parachutist or a cuddly teddy, The Snugglewump, a moth-eaten old scrap of cloth, slinks dejectedly away. However, as her childhood comforter, the Snugglewump has a special place in her heart and, after its outdoor adventure, Molly is delighted to find it and give it a big cuddle. All together now - awww ! Completely written in rhyme, with short texts and colourful accompanying illustrations, it's a joy to read together, and a timely reminder about not neglecting your old toys just because you have new ones. You may also like to ready my reviews of some of Lou Treleaven's other books - The Snowflake Mistake, Professor McQuark and the Oojamaflip and Letter To Pluto.

Another lovely picture book, perfect for reading on Christmas Eve to think about the important things in life and being careful what you wish for, is The Wishker by Heather Pindar and Sarah Jennings. (32 pages, Maverick Arts Publishing (18 May 2017), RRP £699).

Fed up of being constantly told no, Mirabel is delighted to discover a magical cat, whose whiskers will make her wishes come true. However, the fun of having an endless sleepover, a houseful of zoo animals and ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner soon wears off and she discovers that she only has one wish really : being allowed to keep the cat as a beloved pet. To her joy, she finally hears the most important yes that she has been waiting for. Unfortunately, her brother may have different wishes, so her happy and peaceful ending may be shortlived ! It's a cute story with detailed and entertaining illustrations to help really bring it to life. We had great fun afterwards deciding what we'd wish for if we had a handful of magic whiskers in our Christmas stockings ! (You may also like to read my review of another of Heather Pindar's books, Strictly No Crocs.)

The end of the year is a great time for looking back over adventures you've had in the last twelve months, but you can also start planning new ones for the year ahead. Play The Forest School Way (Paperback: 160 pages, Watkins Publishing Ltd (27 May 2016), RRP £12.99) is a great source of inspiration for outdoorsy fun that the whole family can enjoy. It is a woodland adventure book packed full of outdoor activities for parents and children, including making nature jewellery, constructing a bow and arrow, foraging for food and making a fire. The book is written by Jane Worroll, an ex-countryside ranger, and Peter Houghton, a trained Forest School leader. The Forest School movement encourages self-esteem, confidence and social skills through nature play. This beautifully illustrated book is perfect to take on holiday to the countryside or to use as an activity book for kids and parents when looking for things to do at the weekend and will help kids connect with nature (and their parents!), learn new skills, be adventurous and have fun, with woodland games, crafts and more... The book is written for parents, teachers and guardians and the activities are suitable from pre-school to age 11.

For even more outdoor fun for the whole family, if you still haven't tried out geocaching, I highly recommend heading over to www.geocaching.com and putting your postcode in to the search engine. I bet you'll be amazed at how many geocaches there are in your local area - in fact, I bet you walk past a few on a daily basis without ever suspecting it ! - and it's a great way to discover new unknown places of interest. Bet of all, it's free and you just need a handheld GPS or smartphone to join in, plus a few small toys to swap over to make it more fun. They're available 365 days a year so you can even head out on New Year's Day when half of the population is still sleeping off their hangovers !

If you're still in panic mode, ticking things off lists and trying to fit in last minute tasks, just remember to give yourself a break, sit down with a glass of Baileys (or egg nog or mulled wine or whatever your festive tipple is) and spend some quality time with the family. Happy Christmas !

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

Gel-a-Peel Christmas crafting

When the advent calendars come out at the start of December, it's the signal for us that we need to get our socks on and start Christmas crafting (if we haven't already - this year, we seem to be running late for everything !). Gel-a-Peel sent us through a lovely festive package to start us off, with some cute, customisable reindeer, snowmen and star tree decorations, as well as a pack of Gel-a-Peel.

The kids had great fun using the different shaped tips on the gel tubes to create dots, lines and textured effects for totally unique designs. You could even add glitter or sequins  to the gel before it dries for extra festive bling.

They were very proud to add their finished designs to the Christmas tree once they'd dried and I think they look fantastic. You can't beat homemade decorations and we'll be bringing these out year after year - my mum still brings out an articulated Santa every year that I made in an arts and crafts session at primary school !

Gel-a-Peel is available in all sorts of colours and effects, and we've had great fun experimenting with them over the last year. Juliette was delighted to receive another pack of Colour Change Gel-a-Peel this time, which changes colour in sunlight - absolutely perfect for summer holiday accessories.

Juliette decided she also wanted to make some cute and totally unique gifts for her schoolfriends and, once again, Gel-a-Peel was perfect. The Gel-a-Peel website is a great source for inspiration, including phone cases, emoji earrings and Silly Band bracelets, but you can really let your imagination go wild and customise anything and everything, as it can be used on all sorts of materials, including but not limited to cardboard, glass, wood, plastic and fabric.

Juliette's friends are all as mad about unicorns (and just generally mad !) as she is, so recreating the design from the jewellery box that we made earlier in the year was her starting point. As Gel-a-Peel allows you to make 3d embellishments using moulds, as well as drawing directly on to the support, it gives great scope for maximum craftiness.

You can also go free-style without moulds, which was the technique that Juliette used for making little charms and bag tags, including this heart with a little plastic moustache pressed into it.

Placing a plastic sheet over a template, either from inside the box or downloaded from the Gel-a-Peel website, means that you can make some very funky wristbands, cuffs and headbands - the colour-change gels look particularly pretty for these.

And buying up some plain white T-shirts and plimsolls that only cost a couple of pounds from the supermarkets gave a great base for some funky, matching clothing for her and her friends.

I'm sure her friends will love their gifts and Juliette had great fun making them too.

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

Giveaway #662 : Win 2 x Who's The Dude? games - closed - winners Tee Simpson, John Prendergast

You’re mere seconds from winning that all important point, by trying to mime the action of ‘stalking prey like a tiger’ to your mates. There are arms and legs flapping like spaghetti, and to be honest it’s quite a risqué performance!

But… Who’s the Dude? What’s he up to, this wacky, inflatable arm flailing, leg-waving blow-up man?

Have you ever tried playing the age-old game of charades? Probably! But have you performed various activities, like being ‘on a first date’ or ‘planking’, or ‘putting on sunscreen’ with a life-sized inflated Dude? Bet you haven’t!

Add in a few drinks at a ‘stay-at-home’ party and simple descriptions of what the Dude is up to, such as being ‘a Lifeguard’ or ‘a Sumo wrestler’ will have everyone imagining allsorts. These, and over 440 charades, are exactly the kind of spectacularly hilarious innuendo-enhancing scenarios that you’re likely to encounter with the NEW Who’s the Dude? adult game from Drumond Park (age 16+, rrp £24.99 - but currently only £14 on amazon).

Play with 3-8 players, either individually or in teams. The first player takes one of the 110 scenario charade cards, and chooses a heading from the four choices displayed – like ‘what’s happening?’, ‘what are we doing?’, ‘where are we?’, or ‘what am I?’ and then brings on the Dude! You then have 45 seconds… using either the downloaded ‘The Dude App’ or the timer on your phone, for your

mates to guess exactly what is going on, in as many situations as possible! When someone gets a correct guess they’re awarded a point - then it’s the next person or team’s go. After 4 rounds, the person or team with the highest number of points wins.

Remember… try to focus. Can you convince your fellow players that you’re ‘stuffing a turkey’, ‘pole dancing’ or ‘blowing The Dude’s nose’? After all, you don’t want to let your friends down, yourself down, but most of all… The Dude down! This is a game that truly rewards inventiveness, persuasive miming, and let’s be frank, outright sauciness!

The geniuses behind this game, Drumond Park, have come up with another instant hit! Who’s the Dude? just keeps on giving as you pump up and inflate preposterous actions time and time again.

So Who’s the Dude? You’d better find out! The social media team at Drumond Park would love to hear about what you get up to - send pictures, too!

Just get in touch on Facebook or Twitter  and catch up on all the news on their crazy blog.

For more information and stockists visit www.drumondpark.com

*** Check out our review of Who's The Dude?, which shows that it can also be cleaned up and played with the kids, although the biggest laughs were when they were in bed ! ***

Drumond Park have kindly offered to send a Who's The Dude? game to two lucky Madhouse Family Reviews readers. Fill in your entries in the Rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

UK only. Closing date : 8/1/18

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 #661 : Win a duo of fruity 2-in-1 shampoos from Vosene - closing date 28/12

Madhouse recipe : Cheese & Ham Christmas tree

Making a sweet or savoury Christmas tree out of a couple of sheets of puff pastry seems to be THE festive recipe of 2018, if my Facebook feed is anything to go by. When I needed a quick kid-friendly Sunday evening meal (there was some soup leftover for me and Madhouse Daddy) and looked in the fridge to see what was available, I decided to give it a go. It was dead easy and a great success - I've been asked to make a Nutella one next time ! I didn't base my version on a specific recipe and I think you could do this with all sorts of toppings - cream cheese and smoked salmon, minced beef, jam, crème fraîche and bacon, ... I used grated cheese and ham as it's what was in the fridge.

Cheese & Ham Christmas tree

ingredients :

2 sheets of puff pastry

4 slices of ham

a couple handfuls of grated cheese

a few sliced olives

milk/egg wash to brush over the top

Lay out the first sheet of pastry on a baking tray lined with baking parchment.

Slice ham into strips and arrange on top of the pastry.

Sprinkle with grated cheese.

Lay the second sheet of pastry on top and cut into a simple triangular Christmas tree shape.

Cut into 1cm strips without going all the way across the "trunk".

Gently twist the ends of the branches.

Don't worry if the filling splurges out - it will all melt when it cooks anyway.

Brush with milk or a little egg to help it go golden brown. I sliced up some olives and dotted them around as baubles.

I also rolled up the offcuts and cooked those too. Off to the oven for 10-15 minutes.

The kids were suitably wowed and have asked me to make another one. It's so simple, I think they can make it themselves next time !

This was great for using up some ham and grated cheese lurking in the fridge so I'm adding it to the #KitchenClearout linky.