Woolworths Original Pic N Mix and Children can self regulate...

Buy it while you can...

If I'm with you - you can put what you like in your bag.. but only if it's Christmas! Which brings me nicely to my point that children can self regulate. Yesterday I told you we were off to Woolies and that I was going to let the children choose whatever they wanted sweetwise. Below shows the contents of their Pic N Mix bags... Admittedly they didn't just get Pic N Mix but they didn't go too mad!!

This one belongs to Little, despite getting it yesterday he's still got more than half left.

This one belongs to Small, same thing with regards to having half left.

Buy The Original Woolworths Pic N Mix while you can..

I'm always sentimental BUT THEN... I get over it..

One home, one to go... I am so excited!

Small has just finished school, just waiting for Little (who finishes in 42 minutes) and then the festivities REALLY can begin...

I'm going to take them straight to Woolworths (while we can) where I'm going to let them choose lots and lots of sweet things (chocolate, biscuits, sweets, whatever they want). We can then come home and fill up all of the little bowls, pots and tins which are dotted around the place and from then on... have the dentist on standby... Such a good bad mother. Come on... it's Christmas!

Charity Shop Finds and some Christmas Pictures

Decorations and dressing your table up doesn't have to be expensive. I just bought this little silver cup at the St Catherine's Hospice shop,
added a tea light and a piece of gingham ribbon and I think it looks great.

I'll add a few more charity shop finds soon, in the meantime here's some pictures of Christmas at our house.

The tree, topped with a star that I helped Little and Small make. A great activity for children, we also made other smaller decorations.
I'll post about it in time for when they break up from school.

The drummer. Hubs and I saw a mini drum kit in town today... We were tempted... but came to our senses. Must remember to stay away from the music shop!
The festive spirit can sometimes take over, rendering you completely without brain.

Christmas wouldn't be complete without a little Disney.

Poor fairy has lost her hand since last year. Small wanted us to bandage it...
You can just about see the iron, bottom righthand corner. At some point I'll put it away.

Simple black bells from Ikea, tied with pretty ribbon.

The Cabbage Soup Diet & Chocolate Bread Pudding

Not two things you could eat in the same week... The cabbage soup diet, also known as the Mayo Clinic Diet, or the Sacred Heart Memorial hospital diet... No institute wants to take claim of this diet. It is a fad and it works because your calorie intake is so greatly reduced you'd have to be really in touch with your inner sloth not to lose weight on it.

Basically a homemade vegetable soup that you make vast quantities of and eat every day for a week. On top of this, day one you eat fruit, day two you eat veg but no fruit, day three you eat fruit and veg, day four you eat bananas and drink skimmed milk but no fruit or veg and only the soup, day five you introduce chicken or beef and veg, day six you have chicken or beef and veg, day seven you eat brown rice, veg and drink unsweetened fruit juice...

It's a ball I tell you. By day four I was ready to pass out when I woke in the morning. A few bananas later and I resolved to stick with it. I lost 10lbs by the end of the week. Great.... whoopdeeedooo, I was overjoyed but now I'm p'd off with myself for feeling the need to take such drastic measures and why can't I just show some restraint and eat sensibly... Or why can't I be happy with my curves, I go in and out in the right places, a boob job might put me in proportion more being pear shaped but I'm not going there. I mean do the likes of Julia from A Slice of Cherry Pie actually eat all the gorgeous things they make? Julia you're so thin, how do you do it? Actually I don't want to know because I'll feel like a failure if the answer is it's your genes or that you're sensible for 5 days out of 7. I don't really agree with slimming diets and yet there I found myself feeling mighty fine as the weight fell off me. Like most teenagers I succumbed to a little eating disorder for a few years, until I got a life that is. So I do know how dangerously addictive the whole weight loss thing can be, to fall into the trap of thinking that skinny = sexy.

So for a really low fat and healthy recipe here's one for chocolate bread pudding. Not the milky bread pudding that you eat warm, the cold bread pudding that is heavy and you eat slices of it like cake.

Chocolate Bread Pudding (or how to gain back the 10lbs you lost quickly pudding...)

12 thick slices of stale bread, white, brown, a mixture of the two, you choose.
a large handful of raisins
a large handful of sultanas (if you like them or up the raisins)
75-100g light brown sugar, or white if that's all you've got
350ml milk
1 egg - beaten
one bar of good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa), broken into pieces
Optional half a teaspoon of cinnamon or mixed spice

Break the bread into small pieces and place in a large bowl
Cover with half of the milk and mix until the bread is coated
Leave to stand for 15 mins.
Pre-heat the oven to approx 175C
In the meantime melt the chocolate, then add to the rest of the milk and add the beaten egg
Mix this chocolate, milk, egg mix to the bread and milk
Add the sugar and dried fruit and mix well, sprinkle in a teaspoon of mixed spice or cinnamon if you like.
Place in an ovenproof bowl and cook in the oven for about 50 mins
If it is set after this time, take it out and sprinkle with a small handful of sugar

Sorry I can't be more specific but it's done to taste really. Sometimes I add more sugar, sometimes more fruit. I don't usually add more milk and if I do then it takes longer to cook. This is really good but it doesn't beat traditional bread pudding, though it might if you didn't grow up eating thick slices of bread pudding. I think it still knocks spots off bread and butter pudding which I'm not that keen on.

Star Wars Galactic Heroes Millenium Falcon

If anybody knows where I can get a Star Wars Galactic Heroes Millenium Falcon from I would really appreciate you letting me know.... It's not the huge expensive £150.00 one. It's the smaller RRP £40.00 one which Argos very kindly decided to sell at half price and the great Martin's Money Saving Tips decided to let the whole world know about... Now they're going for upwards of £50.00 plus P&P on ebay. Why or why don't we buy our presents in the Summer and spend the months of November and December with our feet up making pretty decorations to adorn our calm and relaxed homes!!!

I've trawled the internet... I've phoned - The Entertainer, Hamleys, Harrods, Selfridges, John Lewis, Peter Jones, local toy shops, you name it - I've spoken to them.

p.s. it's not for me - I'm very fortunate in having one of these little beauties but only because a few weeks ago my friend very kindly held one on order for me at a shop a few miles away. She now needs one and I'm now in the horrible position of knowing that I have something she really wants and feel I have to find one or do I give her the one I have... But then Little will be upset because that's what he said he wanted when we first started talking about Christmas lists back in the summer right after his birthday. Aaarrrghhhhhhh!!!!!! Please - if you can help...

Giblets - Cheap Chicken Livers

Do you hate liver? I'm not that fond of it, or atleast that's what I thought. The other Sunday Hubs went off to do the shopping, we'd missed the butcher and being sensible they close on a Sunday. Supermarket bound he returned with liver. "Thanks a lot for just thinking about yourself!" I was actually really cross. I really didn't want liver. Anyway he cooked it with bacon, onions and amazing gravy (I do love the gravy you get from cooking with liver and bacon). I also love mashed potato and to make up for the liver he'd made a lot of mash, he even used the daft ricer thing for perfect mash. I can never be bothered, preferring a good old masher. So we ate our liver and bacon and the boys loved it. Little and Small actually kept going back for more...

This last weekend, Hubs wanted to do roast lamb with proper gravy, he wanted liver again too but the butcher said they don't do fresh chicken livers, only frozen ones. Lateral thinking struck and he bought 5 bags of giblets for .20p per bag. This meant the sort of gravy Hubs likes, gravy granules are not for him... (though I'm a guilty user sometimes.) It also gave him chicken livers.

Pan Fried Chicken Livers
He pan fried the chicken livers with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper and worcester sauce. Only cooked for a few minutes - think cooking scallops amount of time. We had them as a little tapa. I LOVED THEM, the boys loved them, we literally fought over the bowl. Now what is that all about - as I said I don't even like liver?!

At 37, I'm a liver loving convert!

Remember, remember the 5th of November - Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night

Remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot.
I can think of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent to blow up the King and Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below to prove old England's overthrow.
By God's providence he was catch'd with a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

I love this time of year, from Halloween onwards, right up until the New Year.

After school we'll be making a Guy. When I was younger it was normal to make a Guy and then hit the streets, shouting 'Penny for the Guy!' We'd use the money to buy sparklers. Children don't seem to do it anymore, I suppose there is the health and safety issue. We'd probably have to do a risk assessment and submit the paperwork to the local council. Even trick or treaters were thin on the ground this year and last. Anyway, we'll be making a Guy and fleece the pockets of anybody who visits between now and Saturday when our village will be overrun with nigh on 20,000 people to watch the spectacular bonfire and fireworks.

We'll be making some cinder toffee, recipe here at the lovely Domestic Goddess in Training. You see, food bloggers are great for trying and testing recipes and telling us what worked and what didn't.

As I type some of our friends are making their annual pilgrimage to Lewes which must have arguably the biggest bonfire night event in England. There are various processions and effigies dragged through the streets which are then burned. It makes our village event seem tiny in comparison.
Typical bonfire night fodder in the Little Foodies household...

Chilli Cheesy Beans
2 tins of baked beans
2 handfuls of grated cheddar
1/2 - 1 teaspoon of mild chilli powder
Throw it all in a saucepan and warm until the cheese melts, stir well. YUMMY!

Sticky Sausages
Cocktail sausages oven cooked with honey and coarse grain mustard (mix honey and mustard with olive oil, coat the sausages). Medium heat oven for about half an hour. Check they're cooked through.

Bad Beans
2 tins of mixed beans (in water)
2 tablespoons of worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons of tomato puree
4 tablesoons of water
1/2 teaspoon of mild chilli powder
1 tablespoon of honey
1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
Drain the beans, add to a pan with everything else. Cook for about 15-20 mins.

Caramelised Onions with Garlic
Lots and lots of onions, peeled and finely sliced, Drizzle with olive oil and using your hands mix it all up to coat the onions in oil, throw in some cloves of garlic (skin on). Oven cook on a medium heat until sticky and caramelised.

Served with Tasty Tatties
Jacket Potatoes with lots of butter. (For the best crispy skin I like to cook them in the oven from scratch if I've remembered in time).

and for my health freak children who always have to have something raw and fresh as a side on their plates - big bowls of tomatoes, carrots, cucumber and peppers.

Last year we made a huge brownie star. This year I'd like to make another brownie. It could become a bonfire brownie tradition but I think I'll play around with some recipes first as Nigella's needed three times the cooking she suggested. It was very tasty though!

That's it! Have a great bonfire night if you celebrate.

p.s. Big thank you to our lovely friends S & J who gave us a load of dry, seasoned logs - Thank you - we love you! The gift of warmth is a hard one to beat!

Happy Halloween... tacky or tasteful....

Happy Halloween to everyone... be it tasteful or tacky, have lots of spookable fun! This year we're having a tacky one as I hit the pound shop this afternoon and stocked up on a whole load of tat! The pics are from the last couple of years... No halloween food for us this year, the boys have had parties to attend... Small was too scared to stay so came home with me, he's had some bread, a carrot, and an awful lot of sweets for his dinner... At least I'm honest!

I saw a really cool recipe for pina ghouladas on the Martha Stewart website... Infact I've spent way too long trawling Martha's website.

Rescue Puppies... and some Skate Wings

Tinks

The newest member of our family has arrived. She's gorgeous, 7 weeks old, very laid back, a tiny little bit stubborn, slept right through the night without a peep last night (yippeeee!). Seems to hit the paper more than the floor. Her mum is a rescue Tibetan Spaniel, father unknown. She is very, very much loved.


On the food front I cooked some Skate Wings last week. First I put some cornmeal on a plate and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Dipped the skate wings in the cornmeal, both sides and then fried in oil and butter for 4 minutes on each side. Served with sliced potatoes, onions, garlic and green pepper that was cooked in olive oil in the oven for about 45 minutes. Absolutely delicious!