Briars and Quills

The latest edition of A Year and a Day landed on our doorstep last week (gifted) after we successfully applied to be brand reps for the magazine. And it didn’t disappoint. With Autumnal crafts and stories, recipes and movement activities, it is just a pleasure to delve into.

This year already I’ve made Elderflower cordial and Elderberry syrup, alongside a jelly, which I just can’t remember what foraged fruit I used! So rather than make the rosehip syrup, which did sound delicious, we focused on the Hedgehog ideas. My 5 year old loved the movement – curling up, stretching out, and even learnt a new word – sploot – which hedgehog enthusiasts use to describe the behaviour of the hedgehog when it lies on its front with legs splayed if it’s too hot or uncomfortable!

Acrostic Poem

The Brothers Grimm story, Hans My Hedgehog, provided a lovely opportunity to discuss new vocabulary, such as swine, but it was a little wordy and long-winded for her to keep up with! My 10 year old, however, loved it! We found leaves and animals on them, using them to represent the hedgehog’s food with drawings of slugs, snails and worms then made a plasticine hedgehog using a conker shell as quills, to re-enact him foraging through the leaves to find the food! I was even inspired to try my hand at a watercolour of a hedgehog – it didn’t turn out too badly although there’s lots of room for improvement. A simple Acrostic poem was also very achievable and encouraged my reluctant writer to have a go!

Rather than hunt for rosehips, we collected hundreds of Horse Chestnuts and introduced the girls to the game of Conkers. We used a beautiful mushroom shaped clamp to hold the conker and stop little palms being stabbed when using small hand drills to bore a small hole through the centre. Some conkers we threaded onto an old wire coat-hanger to make a door garland, and others we strung to play conkers.

• 

There are still lots of ideas inside we haven’t tried and are hoping to make some blackberry ink before they finally disappear for winter and a shadow puppet box to retell the Briar Rose fairytale.

If you’d like to order your own copy and buy some of the gorgeous back copies of A Year and a Day, then pop my code in at checkout for a sneaky discount! Just use AYBON21 for 5% off.

Disclaimer: The magazine I received was complimentary for review purposes. All opinions given are my own, honest and truthful.

Amazing Service and Food @PingPong, St. Katherine’s Dock

Today, after the OH had finished the London Winter 10km run, we met him at Ping Pong, St Katherine’s Dock, to redeem our kindly gifted vouchers. The difference in service, attitude and affability between this and our last visit to the Covent Garden branch couldn’t have been more stark. A lovely warm welcome as we came in, seated promptly, the menu explained, drinks and starters offered…to which my youngest had her order of cola and prawn crackers at the ready! We waited a few minutes for my husband and chose our dishes from the menu.

We chose a mixture of everything: veggie and duck spring rolls, chicken and cashew dumplings, honey chilli chicken sticky rice, mushroom sticky rice, spare ribs and, the star of the show, duck baos. All the servers were friendly, helpful and polite, food was served promptly as it was ready, and all was delicious. The clean plates spoke volumes!

We’ll definitely be returning… just need to plan another London visit!

Ping Pong Review – Covent Garden

EDIT: I’ve had a very prompt and incredibly detailed and apologetic email back from the Ping Pong leadership team. They have since investigated the issues fully, apologised for the service which they admitted falls below their expectations, put new procedures and strategies in place to ensure this sort of service doesn’t happen again. It’s not easy to admit you were wrong, but I was very impressed with the way my concerns have been dealt with, and, more importantly, that they weren’t happy with the issues raised and have since tried to ensure other customers won’t be treated in the same way in this outlet. We will look forward to visiting Ping Pong again – the food is always awesome.

I’ll begin by saying I’ve never before written a restaurant review where I haven’t actually eaten a meal there. Perhaps after reading this, you’ll see why this post is an exception!

We’ve previously eaten at St Katherine’s Dock outlet, which was brilliant…my two children loved the food and the service was great, so when we went into London for a special theatre treat on Sunday afternoon, they asked to eat at Ping Pong again, so we chose and booked a table online at the Covent Garden restaurant. On arrival at our designated time, we entered the foyer and waited patiently at the stand/lectern where customers are asked to wait to be seated. On entry, one member of staff was on a phone in the foyer with two other people, presumably staff members on a break, who were seated eating. The lady on the phone didn’t once look up from her conversation to acknowledge us or let us know she had seen us arrive – it was hard not to as the foyer is only a few metres square. Not only did she not look to recognise that we were there or waiting, after around 3 minutes, she walked over the lectern, then walked straight back down the corridor into the restaurant itself, again, with no courtesy nod or a signal, or mouthed apology to signal to us she had seen us and would be with us in a minute. She simply ignored the fact there was anyone there at all. During this wait, another family of 4 came in and waited behind us but eventually left after also ‘not being seen’. 

My husband and I looked at each other in amazement that anyone in the service industry could be quite so rude as to not even acknowledge a customer or family, especially after a near 5-minute wait by this time, and said as much to each other, at which point, the member of staff on a break next to us muttered under her breath that ‘you don’t have to eat here … you could always eat somewhere else!’ I was so surprised by this I just looked at her, at which point she stared me down! I have never been spoken to like that before in a restaurant, with staff members actively encouraging customers to eat elsewhere! All it would have taken was someone to say or gesture that they knew we were waiting and would be with us as soon as possible, but we were completely blanked!

After another couple of minutes wait and the front of house lady on her phone not returning, someone came from behind the bar, no apology for being made to wait, and eventually found our reservation, but the table wasn’t ready so could we please hang on a little longer. She too then disappeared back into the depths of the corridor and restaurant. At this point, I decided to take your staff’s advice and nipped up the road to see if another of the many lovely restaurants nearby had a table, which they did. I called my husband and he and the children came to join me, but not before another family of 4 had arrived. Their booking couldn’t be found, so my husband said they could have our booking as we had just cancelled it, to which the gentleman replied ‘he wasn’t surprised’! I don’t know whether they stayed in the end or not – we had a lovely meal at Franco Manca with polite, respectful, smiling and professional staff. 

We’d have probably spent around £100, as, I’m sure would the first family who left and the last family, so all in all, their rude and unwelcoming staff lost them revenue. And, more importantly, represented this outlet in a highly unprofessional manner.

I don’t often write reviews such as this, preferring instead to deal directly with the manager of the establishment, but time yesterday was tight as we had to get to the theatre and I wasn’t willing to have a confrontation in front of rude staff. I tried to call the restaurant several times today, but have had no response.

Never have I been ignored for so long or spoken to and stared down so rudely by a member of service staff. It really spoilt our family’s experience. A shame, as the food is usually so good. 

I notice that one of their current promotions is ‘Don’t give a Shiitake’…well, yesterday their staff really didn’t!

Meal-Prep Mondays

So this is what my kitchen often looks like on a Monday – I use a couple of hours to try to get ahead for the week. This involves batch cooking, or prepping ahead and making some dump bags for the week. Especially now we’re trying to save money I’m thinking ahead to slow cooker, or Electric Pressure cooker meals that I can put together on Mondays then throw in on the day.

• 

This week, I’ve used the Tefal Cook 4 Me (an electric pressure cooker) to make a beef stew in 30 minutes using 500g beef skirt from the butchers at Tesco. I cut it into big chunks of beef and it’s now falling apart…can’t wait to get Effie to make her light-fingered easy-peasy dumplings later in the week. Then I’ve prepped other meals: Honey and Ginger Chinese Chicken and Sticky Pork Baos, both slow cooker recipes from @boredoflunch , 2 Goustos – Spiced Lentil Stew and Katsu Fish Fingers. Plus I’ve got enough Beef Skirt left for some Cornish-style pasties and another Bored of Lunch Beef Stifado with Orzo.

For the two slow cooker ones, I’ve measured all the ingredients into a tub, sealed and left in the fridge. Not only will the flavours infuse, it makes it so easy to simply tip it into the Slow Cooker and turn it on. For the Pork, I just need to sear off the fillet first, then add it to the pot with the other ingredients. I’ve tried the Honey Chicken noddles previously and it was amazing; I added some tenderstem broccoli at the last minute too for some green goodness. I@m hoping the Sticky Pork for the Baos will be just as good! I have, however, cheated and bought the pre-made, ready to steam buns from M&S.

The Gousto Lentil stew is a ten-minute concoction, but again, I’ve added all the spices to a small jar to fry off first, before adding the cans of lentils and tomatoes along with some frozen spinach and stock powder. The other Gousto takes a while, so I’m leaving it until the weekend – it’s definitely not a prep-ahead dish!

I’m looking forward to Father Christmas bringing me a Crisp Lid for my Pressure Cooker to turn it into an air fryer – I’ve seen lots of delicious-looking crackling, ribs and fried chicken ideas I’d like to try.

Change it up…Mindful Chef vs Gousto

Regular followers will know I’m a Gousto fan: delicious, varied recipes; big portions, perfect for an always-hungry husband who regularly eats for two; and a fair price point, especially given the amount of food you get. But I’m always willing to give other things a go too, so when a friend sent me a code to try Mindful Chef, I thought why not? Firstly, they’re a B Corp company, working to balance profit with purpose. Secondly, for every meal you purchase, you give a nutritious school meal to a child living in poverty thanks to their charity partner One Feeds Two. And thirdly, why say no to a free £30 voucher? So I headed over to their website and chose my two recipes.

Each recipe is priced individually based on the ingredients, which I quite liked as there were no hidden add-ons if you chose prawns, or steak for example. Having said that, these recipes were, obviously, pricier than the others. I chose two recipes for two people, the total cost of which came to around £31, so I only had to pay the extra £1. I chose purely for me and my husband, but my eldest would have loved both of the recipes: Garlic and Ginger King Prawns with Peanut Roast Potatoes and Sweet Potato and Aubergine Mezze Dip.

Garlic & GInger Prawns (excuse the lighting)

Somehow, I managed to end up with quite a lot of sauce for the prawns, but this was welcomed as it served as something to smash the little roasties into at the end! It was really, really good though – think drinking the last of the sauce from the bowl just to make sure you get every last bit! The mezze was also very tasty, although harder to re-make at home as it had a pre-made aubergine mezze dip. A sort of hot and cold poke bowl, just as good eaten as a cold salad for lunch the next day or reheated as a hot meal.

Sweet Potato & Aubergine Mezze

Compared with Gousto, this was most definitely pricier. Yes, we had King Prawns, and the amount of actual prawns was great, 10 huge ones each, but one small potato didn’t really fill us up; the portions were ‘delicate’, even for me. If I made it again at home, I’d just add more potatoes. The size of the Mezze was also on the small size – I’d say ‘lunch’ portions rather than dinner portions, especially if it’s a special meal rather than just an everyday teatime cook. I can’t question the flavours though – so tasty. And the fact that each recipe came pre-sorted in its own bag definitely saved time.

If you’d like to give Mindful Chef a go, you can grab a discount here . Or if you’d prefer more family friendly meals with larger portions at a better family price point, for 65% off your first box (that’s four meals for four people for around £19…and 30% off your first month, with easy cancellation at any time!) try Gousto here. I won’t be using Mindful Chef as a regular box service, but will certainly keep them in mind for more special meals and one-offs as a treat! And I can’t wait to make the Prawn dish again at home for all of us.

Winter Soups – Roasted Carrot & Parsnip

One way of quickly upping your plant intake is a soup. I usually make a ‘bottom of the fridge’ soup with whatever is leftover. Add a handful of red lentils to bulk it out and thicken it up and it’s job done! I would usually spice it up a bit with chili flakes, coconut milk or similar, but Cc only likes a nice plain soup. So for her, Roasted Carrot and Parsnip is perfect. Then we pimp it up with chilli flakes and pumpkin seeds on top alongside a dollop of coconut yoghurt. I did sneak in some wrinkly red and yellow peppers to this week’s version and made a salty rosemary foccacia-style bread to dip.

Roasted Carrot and Parsnip Soup

• Red onions
• Carrots
• Parsnips
• Red lentils
• Vegetable stock cube
• Hot boiled water
• Optional pepper

1. Chop veg into bite size pieces and roast with olive oil salt and pepper in the oven until cooked and soft in the middle.
2. Meanwhile, fry off the onion in a large, deep pan until translucent and softened.
3. Crumble the stock cube into the pan and add a large handful of dry red lentils to thicken.
4. Once cooked, add the roasted veg to the pan, give everything a good stir and add hot boiled water. The lentils thicken it quite a lot so add more than you think – better to add it now than loosen it at the end as you’ll end up diluting the flavour.
5. Let bubble for half an hour so the flavours mingle, then blend with a stick blender or put through a processor or blender.
6. Top with whatever you like – our favourites are chilli flakes, coconut yoghurt and pumpkin seeds.

30 Plants a Week Challenge!

We all know that to help save the planet, we should be cutting down our intake of meat and be more reliant on plant-based foods. That’s not to say we should all make the change to processed versions of our old favourites, but to increase our immunity and general health, try to eat and include a wide range of plants in our diet, cooked fresh. Having read several studies, it suggests that people who eat around 30 different plants a week develop a better diversity of good gut bacteria, leading to better all-round immunity, which includes helping to prevent Covid and even some Cancers.

• 

• 

• 

Now, I don’t know about you, but I struggle to eat my 5-a-day, (or 7…whichever they’ve decided on now!) let alone 30 a week! But I was pleasantly surprised when I started looking into what 30-a-week actually meant. Anything plant-based is included: Things like spices count for a quarter of a portion; seeds and different nuts also go towards your quota. This, in my book, makes it significantly easier: a handful of pumpkin seeds on top of a Moroccan stew, or some chill spiced peanuts on a curry are quick and easy ways to top up.

With all this in mind, I did a quick count up and in a week, we ate around 40 different plants. If, for example, you mixed in some milled seeds with oats and topped with fruit, you’d be getting 7 plant based foods, and the smaller serving of the milled seeds would definitely count if you had it every day: Porridge with milled chia/flax/sunflower and pumpkin seeds with raspberries and blueberries = 7. Or for dinner, a veggie curry with several varied veg, topped with chilli nuts, coconut yoghurt and a large handful of coriander: aubergine, cauliflower, chickpeas, green beans, onion, garlic, ginger, chillies, tamarind paste, coconut cream, turmeric and curry powder, cashew nuts with chilli flakes, coconut yoghurt, fresh coriander …if you just count the big veg. you’re on around 5 … if you only count the fresh garlic, ginger, chillies, tamarind, dried turmeric and curry powder, fresh coriander and coconut as a quarter each, that still adds an extra 2 taking you up to 7. I’d be thinking that if you added these types of things to a meal a couple of times a week, they’d definitely count as a whole portion on their own, although I’ve struggled to find a definitive list of ‘amounts’ which would count as a whole.

• 

• 

• 

So you can begin to see how quickly it adds up … we’re up to 14 after a breakfast every day and one veggie meal. By day one, you’re well on your way to varying your plant-based food and mixing it up a little, but remember, it’s ‘different’ plants: If you have carrots every day, it only counts once! We’ve tried to cut down our meat intake during the week by including more veggie meals or making swaps…making a beany shepherd’s pie with 3 types of beans instead of a mince beef one, or a veggie curry rather than a meat-based one. And I’ve also tried to sneak extra veggies into meals by adding a handful of red lentils to soups, or topping the dinner with nuts / seeds and fresh chopped herbs. When I get bored, I order a Gousto recipe box for inspiration – they have some really good and easy veggie and plant-based recipes that you can make again and again without the box in the future and if you click the link, you get 60% off your first box and 30% off others in your first month. And you can cancel easily whenever you want.

So I’m going to set us a challenge – can you eat your 30 plants a week? Start on a ‘good’ day for you! Make a note of every plant you eat – remember, spices, nuts and seeds all count! Use the comments section below to share your final tally and any great recipes you’ve found along the way! What meal were you most surprised by? Was it easier or harder than you expected? Let’s be #inthistogether and see what changes we can make. For tips and tricks, look at this Zoe study piece, or for more information about preventing illness and improving immunity, look here. I’m looking forward to trying out some of your recipes, tips and tricks so don’t forget to share in the comments!

A Year and a Day

If you’re a regular reader of the blog…not that its been particularly regular over the last year…you’ll know we love cooking and making. My eldest is always inventing something from paper, the youngest loves to help bake cakes, mainly, I’m sure, so she can lick the spoon, and I enjoy cooking and crafting. We also love to be outside, walking, foraging for berries, using them to make syrups and jellies, finding huge caterpillars and keeping them until they turn into hawk moths, identifying the garden birds, etc. So when I came across this magazine, A Year and a Day, it seemed to be the most lovely seasonal blend of our family’s favourites. And I think it’s really lovely to do with older children as well as the littlies too. Have a look at the video below to see the sorts of things included.

With one issue a quarter, it begins with a story, maybe a traditional tale, story from another culture or tradition, and imitates the seasonal changes, focussing on learning activities for you and your children to do together, from using nature to create artworks and storytelling, to cooking ideas and mindfulness activities. It promotes a slower, more conscious way of learning and creating, and can be dipped into or used as a theme for home schooling activities. Here’s what the Year and a Day team have to say about it:

“…a seasonal magazine that aims to guide children into the inner world of traditional stories and out into the natural world around them…encourages both children and adults to use their natural capacity for imagination, creativity and invention through storytelling, painting, number work, drawing, crafting and writing.” 

The most exciting thing is, I, along with several other people, have been asked to be brand rep’s for the magazine. They are very kindly gifting us 4 magazines during the next year and me and my girls will be trying out the activities from each one and letting you know how we get on. Those who know me also know I’m not very good at hiding my feelings, so you’ll get an honest review of our favourite ideas, what we felt worked well for our age range and how much we enjoyed the stories and activities. F and Cc may even do their own little reviews as we go along!

So, head on over to Instagram and follow our new team to find out more… Elderberry Wellness & Craft, Hector’s Home, Sunshine & Our Adventures, The Orchard, Exeter, Stars at Play, Kith Homestead, Play with Mrs J, Little Robin Red and Thrive Nature Adventures.

Roasted Moroccan Flatbread

This was inspired by a recent visit to Urban Food House, Bowness, where my daughter chose a Vegan Flatbread. Although our version isn’t vegan, you could simply omit the Feta cheese!

Choose any of your preferred Mediterranean vegetables…we used aubergine, courgette, red onion, and red and orange peppers. Chop these into bite-sized chunks, pop into a roasting tin and make a quick roasting dressing for them: a couple of dollops of harissa paste; a good glug of cold-pressed rapeseed oil if you have some otherwise olive oil will do; a sprinkle of vegetable bouillon powder or simply crumble in a stock cube and salt and pepper. Shake up and pour over the veg. Spread the chopped veg out, put across two trays if needed so it doesn’t steam, and roast for around 30 minutes or until softened with slightly crispy edge.

Next, drain and rinse a can or two of chickpeas. Place in one layer in a roasting tray and sprinkle over some ras-el-hanout, ground cumin, ground coriander and salt and pepper. Add a drizzle of oil, shake and roast for around 15/20 minutes. Once toasted, combine with the veg.

Meanwhile, squeeze half a lemon into some natural yoghurt, add the grated exterior of cucumber (you don’t want the watery seeds), some chopped mint leaves and salt and pepper.

Chop or crumble some Feta cheese. Serve both the yoghurt dressing and the Feta in separate bowls for people to add their preferred amount. I also added a small bowl of pumpkin seeds for some crunch.

Either make or buy some flatbreads. There’s a great recipe here, or I bought these from Tesco and they’re perfect.

Serve the warm flatbread topped with the veg and chickpea mixture. Let your family add Feta, yoghurt and seeds to their taste and enjoy! It was very quick on a school night as the oven and dressings do all the work. And super healthy and tasty too!

Homemade Den / Survival Kit

It’s been a little while and since I last posted, I’m now teaching a class once again, so finding time much scarcer than it ever was! Late home every evening and completing lots of extras on my days off, as well as running a home, cooking etc, has taken quite a lot of energy and effort, so my weekends are very relaxed at the moment, especially since there’s no dashing around to swimming, park run, etc.

However, it can’t be denied… we’re getting nearer to ‘that’ time of year, so I’ve started thinking about presents. I’m very aware it’s going to be a very different sort of Christmas for many this year and, with that in mind, am thinking about some homemade, baked, ‘put together’, crafted type presents. I thought I’d start the ideas off with something I put together for my eldest girl last year for her birthday. She’s very much into the outdoors, survival skills, nature and generally, running around woodlands, so when I saw this Den Kit, I thought it was the perfect present…then I looked at the price and considered all the little extra things that really should be in an outdoor kit: hot chocolate flask, binoculars, spotter’s book, collection jars etc. and thought that, for a similar price, I could ‘build my own’ to my exact specifications!

So, that’s what I did…I’m not convinced it ended up cheaper necessarily, but it certainly ended up personalised to her likes and preferences and is something she gets out regularly to use the tarpaulin for a summer den, or the ‘nut cracker’ and tools to make holes in seeds and nuts to string, or the spotter’s guide when we go for a walk.

Our key items:

Click the item link to find out more / purchase – some of these aren’t quite the same as ours as they are no longer in stock.

• Canvas Bag
• Nut holder (cracker)
• Hand drills
• I-Spy Nature
• Tarpaulins
• Mallet
• Dragon’s Sneeze fire steel
• Walkie-Talkies
• Bug Collection Kit

If you’ve got an outdoorsy child, they would love this sort of kit, and because you can choose what goes in, it’s such a personal present! And one to which you can add little by little. While I think of it, there’s also a lovely Lonely Planet ‘Wild Things’ book with all sorts of children’s outdoors activities which would go beautifully alongside the kit.

Keep an eye on future posts for some other gift ideas too – Mini Flapjack jars, Gin Botanical Kits…

*Disclaimer* Some of the links in this blog post may be affiliate links. If you purchase through these links then I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.