George at ASDA Halloween ‘Spooky Scribes’ Challenge

Helloooooooooooooooooooo!

Hmm.

Do you like Hallowe'en? I must admit, it's not really me. I think it's my age - I used to think of it as spooky, whereas my two just think "sweets!". Hey ho.

Anyway, I shall stop being a miserable so-and-so for a minute. George at Asda invited us to join their Spooky Scribes challenge. The idea is that one of the children writes a very short story about Hallowe'en based on a costume that we've chosen from their Hallowe'en range. Now, writing is something that Monkey needs to work on a bit so I asked him if he was up for it and to my surprise, he was. However it has not been easy but after a few false starts, he's finally come up with something that I can share with you today. As part of this process, I have discovered that a) he thinks he has no imagination (which I find quite sad because he has a good imagination) and b) he writes better on a computer than he does writing it with a pen and paper. In order to finish this off, he did dictate the second half of this story to me but his spelling was noticeably better than when he writes with a pen.

Anyway, here is Monkey's story, which I will call

Hallooooooooooooooooooowe'en birthday

On the day of Halloween, I was extremely happy because I was going trick or treating, but it was also my birthday. I was going to wear my werewolf costume; it has a hairy, itchy chest, sleeves that tickle my elbows and a squished nose. I don’t look very scary with a squished nose.

I am so excited because after trick or treating, I’m going to Grandma’s for a sleepover and she’s got my present. I don’t know what it is, but it had better be good!

I go downstairs and everyone sings Happy Birthday. I open my presents; Lego, cars, and a games console.

The day passes slowly and I have lots of fun. Then it starts raining hard and Mum says I can’t go trick or treating or I’ll catch a cold. I start to cry. “Don’t worry,” Mum says, hugging me. “It’s time to go to Grandma’s.”

Knock, knock, knock on Grandma’s door. “Hello”, says Grandma when she opens it. “Are you here for your sleepover?  I’ve got your present, let’s go inside.”

My present is a bike. I’m so happy, I howl like a werewolf. “Not bad for a werewolf with a squished nose”, says Grandma.

THE END

(He insisted I add the words "THE END" bit to the bottom, in case you didn't know that it had finished!)

There is a competition to win a £50 voucher for the post with most comments but I'm not really bothered about that - I'd like people to leave comments to encourage Monkey, to give him confidence that he CAN write and he does have good ideas. I will read all comments to Monkey (and possibly allow him to reply to them too!).

(Asda sent us a free fancy dress costume along with some facepaints in return for a story being written about their costume. They also asked for a link to the fancy dress Hallowe'en costumes be included in the post. All participants in the challenge will receive a £20 Asda voucher and a commemorative book, but the post with the most comments will receive a £50 voucher.)

Paddington half term fun at the National Railway Museum

Last Saturday, I took the children back to the National Railway Museum in York to road test their Fun with Paddington Bear event that is running over this half term. We've been a few times now, most recently to their Harry Potter event back in February. However, this time, we decided to try going on the train. It took me a while to realise I could go directly to York by train from here - if I try to search for journeys from my local station, it tells me that it takes 3 hours and requires 2 changes. What it didn't tell me was that there is a direct service from Blackpool to York that passes very nearby and the journey takes a couple of hours. More importantly, with a railcard, it's cheaper than driving.

It was a very cold day in York when we arrived so we were grateful to reach the museum and get inside. Unfortunately, this time, it seemed like all the Paddington related activities were taking place in the Station Hall, with nothing in the Great Hall, a place my two like to inhabit so that we can make our regular pilgrimage to the Bullet Train.

Activities on offer this week include welly wanging, after which you may make a medal to take home. Make is probably an overstatement, as the children chose their medal and someone put it together in a press. You could also meet Paddington himself, something we failed at because when we first passed, Missy Woo didn't want to go near him, then we missed his next appearance, and then it was too late because we needed to get our train back home. This made Missy Woo upset but that was rectified by the purchase of a Paddington bear to accompany us on our train home, and accompanying purchase of model Japanese high speed train for Monkey.

Other activities on offer include dressing like Paddington (although most clothes are smaller sizes, mine just about fitted into everything) and ride on a steam train - this time, Puffing Billy who unfortunately had open carriages which made for a Very Cold Ride. We also had fun trying to spot the teddy bears hidden around the trains, each with a letter to make up the word.

Over lunchtime, we met up with some other bloggers to have a special teddy bears' picnic lunch, including Paddington's favourite, marmalade sandwiches. Missy Woo refused to eat them, saying that she didn't "like the carrot" in them. She's not lived that down since, changing her story to the fact that she doesn't eat oranges, only drink them, even though she does. 

Once again, we ran out of time to do all the things we wanted to do and had to head back to the station to catch our train home, which was enjoyable because we could watch the world pass by and I could keep the children amused. As ever, entry to the NRM is free but some of the activities mentioned do attract a small charge, although across the whole day, it's still much cheaper than other family days out. Although my two are probably towards the higher end of the age bracket at which it is aimed, they still enjoyed the day, and Missy Woo now wants to collect all things Paddington. 

You can see Paddington Bear at the NRM until Sunday 4th November. Get your wellies out, and don't forget your marmalade sandwiches. 

(NRM invited us to the above event and gave us vouchers for lunch and to try some of the activities for free. All opinions are our own.)

Chocolate and Raspberry Trick-or-Treat cake

One thing is for sure - going to Clandestine Cake Club certainly stretches your baking capabilities! Every time I see the theme for our local group, I start thinking about what to do and try to come up with something different.

This time, however, I thought I was going to have to give the group a miss as it fell on the day that husband was due to be running the Guild Marathon. However, he had to drop back to the half due to a problem with his knee swelling up over the summer and we worked out it was just about possible to get me there on time if we did some slightly complicated juggling of children.

This time, the theme was Trick or Treat which posed a problem. I don't do fancy or intricate cake decoration - I'm just not cut out for it. That means no cakes in the shape of witches etc, so I had to take a different tack.

I came up with the idea of doing a normal cake but one that bleeds when you cut into it. To me, that meant raspberry and what goes better with raspberry than chocolate? Chocolate cake it was. I tend to stick to the same recipes so Googled a bit and found one I thought would work. It had a raspberry ganache with it but I thought it looked lumpy so went for adding a bit of raspberry flavour to it whilst keeping it smooth. I've never made ganache before so I was a bit tentative about it. Some more Googling offered up the way to get the blood into the middle of the cake - make some raspberry coulis (easy), scoop out the middle of your cake, and "line" it with some buttercream to stop the coulis soaking into the cake. Phew...that gave me a few things to do, which made planning it a bit of a nightmare as I had no time on Sunday to finish off and I was out all of Saturday. So, I had to make my coulis on Thursday, cake and buttercream on Friday, then make my ganache on Saturday and finish it all off.

When I made the cake, the top went a bit mad and bust away from the rest of the cake, which when picked away, left a big dip in the cake, so all I had to do was add the buttercream, spoon in the coulis and sandwich the cakes together. Some of the coulis dribbled down the edges and I was dubious that this was going to work but having procrastinated all evening, I made the ganache and ended up whipping it to thicken it enough to spread. The result was a normal looking cake which gave no clue to its hidden secret.

At our meeting, the cake looked very plain until people started cutting into it and the dark red coulis started oozing out. I usually try my cake first at cake club (just to taste it's OK!) so it took all my self-control not to do so. And it was a huge success - this is yet another cake not for the faint hearted, very rich and certainly, with four chocolate bars in it, not the sort of cake you make every day. But it's really, really worth a go to trick your friends on Hallowe'en which turns out to be a delicious treat.

This was my most popular cake so far at any of the meetings I've gone to - after everyone had taken cake to take home, there was only a quarter left.

Why don't you give my cake a try? Maybe not if you're on a diet, eh?

Chocolate and Raspberry Trick-or-Treat Cake

Serves 16-20 probably - you don't need a huge piece

Ingredients

For the raspberry coulis:
200g raspberries
50g icing sugar (or to taste)
lemon juice, to taste
1-2 tsp cocoa powder (optional)

For the cake:
200g dark plain chocolate, preferably 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
200g butter, cut into pieces
125ml freshly brewed (ie hot) espresso, as strong as you can bear
85g self-raising flour
85g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
200g muscovado sugar, preferably dark but light will do
200g caster sugar, preferably golden
3 eggs
1tbsp natural yogurt (I used fat free Greek)
100g frozen raspberries

For the chocolate buttercream:
100g butter, softened
200g icing sugar
2 heaped tbsp cocoa powder
1-2 tbsp milk

For the ganache:
200g dark chocolate, chopped into pieces
300g double cream
1 tbsp light soft muscovado sugar

1. First, make the raspberry coulis. Whizz the ingredients in a blender or food processor, or mash the raspberries with a masher and stir in the icing sugar and lemon. Press the mixture through a fine metal sieve to  remove the pips. Taste and add more sugar or lemon as desired. Sprinkle over the cocoa powder if using, and stir into the coulis - this will help to darken it slightly to make it more like blood, and it will take a bit of stirring to mix right in.  Refrigerate until needed whilst you make the cake.

2. Next, make the cake. Preheat the oven to 160C/Gas3. Butter the sides of a 20cm deep round baking tin ( I use cake release spray) and line the base with baking parchment. Place the broken chocolate into a heatproof bowl and sit this on top of a pan half filled with hot water, taking care to ensure that the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl. Add the butter and the hot espresso, and heat gently until everything is just melted. You can do this in the microwave by heating on medium for around 4 mins, stirring every couple of minutes.

3. Whilst the chocolate melts, mix together the flours, baking powder, sugars and cocoa in a big bowl until evenly distributed. In another bowl, beat the eggs together and stir in the yogurt.

4. Pour both the melted chocolate and the egg mixtures into the dry ingredients, mixing carefully but slowly and stopping as soon as all the ingredients are mixed together. Scrape carefully because the dry ingredients tend to get stuck to the bottom of the bowl! The cake batter will be smooth but quite runny.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin, tapping gently to remove air bubbles and level the mixture. Press frozen raspberries into the batter evenly across the tin then place in the oven. Cook for 1.5 hours, until a skewer comes out clean. Don't worry if the cake cracks on top. Leave to cool in the tin for a little while, then remove from the tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack. Place in the fridge to get it really firm, then slice the cake into two. Scoop out some of the one of the halves - choose the less even of the two halves. Leave at least a 2cm gap all the way around the edge of the this half or your cake will not sit evenly.

6. Make your chocolate buttercream. First, beat the butter until smooth, either by hand or with a mixer. Sift in the icing sugar and cocoa powder, mixing thoroughly. Add the milk until you get a light but spreadable consistency.

7. Next, assemble your cake. Place the scooped out half on a plate or board. Spread the buttercream all over the indentation left by your scooping - not too thickly but ensure you have a solid layer of buttercream or the coulis will leak through into the cake. Spread buttercream around the edge as well as this will stick the cakes together.

8. We're now ready to fill the hole with "blood". First, take out 1-2 tbsp of the coulis and reserve for later. Then, carefully spoon the coulis into the buttercream lined hole as close to the brim as you dare. Top with the other half, press down gently. At this point, some coulis may leak out of the sides so it's best to leave this in the fridge to "set" the dribbles. The cake can be refrigerated until you need it. I also spread some leftover coulis over the top of the cake to soak in and add to the raspberry flavour.

9. When you are ready to cover your cake, make the ganache. Place the chopped chocolate into a bowl. Place the cream into a pan with the muscovado sugar and heat until it is about to boil. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate, stirring together until everything melts. Stir in the reserved coulis then leave to cool until it is thick enough to spread. If the ganache is not thick enough, you may whisk it with a balloon whisk for a minute or two until it begins to thicken. Beware as the ganache will continue to thicken after you have stopped whisking so stop just short of soft peaks - I whisked until it felt thicker but was leaving a slight trail in the bowl but it soon firmed up further.

10. Remove the cake from the fridge and spread the ganache over the top and sides of the cake, smoothing it with a palette knife. (If you want to get really fancy at this point, you can grate chocolate over the top or decorate with fresh raspberries but I didn't!). Refrigerate to "set" the ganache then transfer to a serving plate. Take the cake out of the fridge about an hour or so before serving to enjoy it at its best. If you end up with any spare coulis, you can always bring it out to pour over the top once the surprise has been revealed!

Linked up to Dollybakes Calendar Challenge for October.

Meal Planning Monday - the autumn half term edition!

Yes, it's that time again. Half term in our house and not before time. It's been a long few weeks for the children and they need that time to let off steam and not worry about anything for a few days. Husband working evenings means he can spend some time with us during the day without having to take time off.

My meal plan is going to be as little fuss as possible, although I have one dish that I am finally going to make, having finally acquired ham hocks! It's going to be mostly using up freezer things.

Here we go then.

Monday - Sausage and bean cobbler (from the freezer)
Tuesday - Mushroom stroganoff
Wednesday - butties / keeping free
Thursday- Ham hock with pinto beans
Friday - Slow cooker chickpea and potato soup with pesto
Saturday - Thai spiced fish pie
Sunday - keeping free

And yes, all warming things - am sat here on a cold, wet day when it's got dark early for the first time feeling very cold.

What's on your menu this week? Happy half term if you are off too this week! Oh, and Mrs M hosts the MPM linky so don't forget to check her out!

Getting a-head with Lego Hallowe'en storage

Ahead, a-head. Geddit? Oh never mind!

We are a Lego obsessed household. Well, not me. Monkey, mostly, egged on by the other male in the house. New sets make it onto his present list every time Christmas or a birthday come round. But it's overtaking the house, especially his room. Over the summer holidays, the two of them had a sort out and spread all the Lego across my conservatory for weeks until I found a reason to eat in there (we have a dining table in there).

But now, and quite appropriately given that Hallowe'en is next week, Room sent us these to go some way towards controlling this plastic invasion. OK, so the brick isn't Hallowe'en themed (and rubbish photography on my part - you can't see that the brick is actually green. They really are like giant lego as they all fit together!

I'd show you the brick full to the brim with Lego bricks but Monkey, with infinite logic that only a 7 year old possesses, has decided that it is perfect for storing all his Match Attax cards (and that collection is almost as extensive as his Lego brick collection.) It looks and feels study and like it will withstand the worst a 7 year old boy can throw it - and that's quite a lot.

The Hallowe'en heads have also been used as props at the school Trick or Treat Bingo event and were quite a talking point as you can see at the top of this post. I think Monkey's friends were jealous.

I think I may use the orange one as a cheat's way of having a Jack O'Lantern without the pumpking carving bit. Lazy? You betcha!

(Room kindly sent us these products all the way from Denmark. All opinions are my own etc.)

How to go from coffee snob to coffee geek in one afternoon

Yes, I am a coffee snob. When I was younger, I drank instant coffee but over time, I have discovered fresh ground coffee and really, instant is not a patch on it. The more I drank fresh coffee, the less I drank instant. Now, I don't drink instant at all unless it is the only option. It's freshly brewed coffee or tea for me. With all these coffee shops around these days, that's fairly easy to do.

Then, when we went to Germany last December, we discovered the joys of a bean to cup coffee machine in the flat we were staying in and made it work by reading the instructions in English and translating the messages on the screen. We were sold and had to have one. We realised this dream in February, thanks to Christmas vouchers and special offers in electrical stores. Now, I drink a couple of freshly brewed coffees each day - two is my limit or I don't sleep - and for a fraction of the price of going out to get fancy coffee.

It was therefore a no-brainer when Taylors of Harrogate invited me to learn all about coffee in a coffee masterclass, especially as it was on a Friday, meaning my husband was off and I didn't need to rush home.

Having arrived a little late for lunch, caused partly by my phone rebooting itself as I used it to navigate my way across Harrogate (by the way, if anyone knows how to make the Navigation app on my HTC phone stop repeating the verbal instructions "Continue on Cherry Tree Avenue for half a mile" for EVERY route change, I'd be very grateful), we were soon being taken to the tasting room to learn about how coffee is made. Our guide Emily is a trainee coffee buyer, who said she had been training for three and a half years! Coffee is obviously more than just a few beans.

Actually, they aren't really beans. They're the stones in the middle of coffee cherries, so we learned. I learned loads about coffee production - like the cherries have to be processed the same day as they are picked or it rots. A lot of the process is very time sensitive, with the skill of the growers knowing that they have to complete the various steps in just about the right time.

What I also learned was that there are two varieties of coffee - arabica and robusta. Arabica beans are the premium beans, with robusta often tasting more bitter and ashy - and have twice the caffeine of arabica beans. To add to this, the beans produce a different taste depending where they were grown. To demonstrate this, we were given a load of single variety coffees to taste - doing the old slurp and spit routine. I was brilliant at slurping, but kept forgetting to spit so I was probably high on coffee within 10 minutes.

It's true. The difference in taste was amazing - some of the coffees actually had a citrussy taste to them that you'd never expect coffee to have. We tried a robusta alongside the arabica - eurgh! If that's what is usually used to make instant coffee, no wonder I dislike it.

The range of flavours is why Taylors make blends of coffee from different sources - to balance the different flavours available and make a coffee that meets our tastes. And tastes ARE changing. A few years ago, their Lazy Sunday blend was their most popular and trust me, it's quite mild in flavour. Now, their most popular blend is Rich Italian, substantially stronger in flavour. We got to do the slurp-spit routine things again, tasting all their blends ranging from medium to rich roast. There's even a half caff coffee blend too, for those who want to keep your caffeine levels down.

The strongest, Hot Lava Java, is not for me at all - way too strong, and has some robusta beans in the blend that make it taste really smoky. If you are scared of buying a pack of new coffee and not liking it, Taylors have started selling selections of their different blends. It's like variety packs but for coffee - 4 little sachets of different blends of coffee, just enough to make one cafetiere so there is no waste if you don't like it. Genius.

Talking of cafetieres, we were also shown how to make the perfect cafetiere of coffee - 45g of coffee in an 8 cup cafetiere, filled with freshly drawn, freshly boiled water left to cool slightly after boiling, stirred and left to brew for 4 to 6 minutes. Et voila!

Our lesson in coffee ended with a tour of their factory, which involved the requisite hairnet and sexy disposable overalls. We saw the beans coming in and being sorted, mixed together and then roasted for uniform colour, and the whizzy machine that grinds the coffee and packs it all within seconds. The roasting, grinding and packing all has to be timed as carefully as production of the beans. It even weighs every single bag to ensure there is enough in the bags. Some of the machines pack the pallets automatically too. It's automation heaven!

So now, I can start to understand why someone can still be a trainee coffee buyer after three and a half years. I learned a lot, and this knowledge will only fuel the fires of my coffee snobbery, although I am now developing into a coffee geek - I'll be boring anyone who dares to mention coffee within earshot about arabica beans, coffee cherries and coffee production methods.

Oh dear, Taylors, what have you done?

(Taylors of Harrogate kindly paid my travel expenses to allow me to attend this event)

Meal Planning Monday - the last week of half term family favourites edition!

Bit of a long-winded title, but it's all true! Whilst a good part of England and Wales are off on their holidays this week, we're soldiering on for another week and half term is next week, so we have another week of school and it's fairly busy, it has to be said. I have a meeting at school, there is a Hallowe'en bingo event on at school and the usual things that come along with a holiday. It's been a long half term so on Saturday, I asked the children to come up with some things they wanted to eat and I made some suggestions to help them along the way. On Saturday, the children and I are going to York for the day and on Sunday, husband is running the Guild half marathon in Preston and I've got cake club.

You've probably seen most of these recipes on my meal plans before but it's nice to have familiar food from time to time.

Monday - butties
Tuesday - Honey mustard pork, mash and broccoli
Wednesday - Lamb, coconut and mango pilau
Thursday - Fajitas
Friday - Mexican pork burgers
Saturday - keeping free
Sunday - not cooking

And yes, my children really did ask for the fajitas and the lamb pilau. I suggested the pork burgers after Monkey said he wanted to have burgers.

So what is on your menu this week? Are your family on half term holiday? Does your meal plan reflect that? And have you been over to Mrs M's yet to check out the rest of the Meal Planning Monday entries?