I'm a complete sucker for all things vintage and that includes the piles of old magazine and newspapers that you sometime find in charity shops and at car boot sales. I think they tell us so much about the time they were written, not just from the news stories and articles, but also from things like the adverts they contain. I was intrigued therefore when Historic Newspapers sent me a couple of their news books which are Recipes and Cookery Ideas from newspapers of decades gone by. The two that I was sent were from the 1940s and 1950s, probably my two favourite decades in history. Have a ... read more
Aldi’s Easter Drink Offerings
When an email pops into your inbox from Aldi asking if you'd like to review their Easter alcohol offerings you're not going to say no are you? Well I know I certainly wasn't going to. Especially when I'd literally just been having a chat with someone about how good I've always found wine from Aldi. And what a selection of drink they sent me to try! Everything you might need to get you from pre-dinner drinks, through dinner and on to a nightcap. Now, I'm no Jilly Golden (if you're old enough to remember her!) but I know what I like when it comes to a tipple or two. We started off with ... read more
Christmas Sticky Toffee Pudding – baking with Whitworths and Edd Kimber
It's not often that I get to spend my Saturday in the kitchen with a winner of the Great British Bake Off, but that's exactly what I got to do this weekend, thanks to Whitworths. Edd Kimber won the first bake off back in 2010 and this year he's teamed up with Whitworths, those people who bring us all the fruit and nut ingredients that you use in your baking, to develop an alternative to the traditional Christmas pudding. Now, I should start by saying that I love Christmas pudding and I was therefore intrigued to see what Edd had come up with, especially as he claimed not to like ... read more
Introducing Warburtons Giant Crumpets
Blogging and reviews have taken a bit of a back seat here since the summer - mainly in favour of crochet and crafting - but those crafty people at Warburtons seem to have worked out how to get my attention and get me back here. It's amazing what a sucker I am for a new mug and accompanying teapot, especially when they are gorgeous Le Creuset ones! It's not unusual for parcels to be left with one of my neighbours, as the delivery people always seem to have a habit of coming when I'm on a school or pre-school run. What is unusual though is for my elderly neighbour to hand over a parcel ... read more
Mix Up the Magic with Petits Filous Magic Squares #MagicSquarePlaydates
When I was first asked by Petits Filous to blog about mixing up the fun when it comes to my kids playtime I have to admit I was a bit stumped. It can be so hard at times to know how to snap your children out of that post school day slump where all they want to do is zonk out in front of the TV set. Seeing as we were being asked to mark the launch of Petits Filous' new Magic Squares I actually took influence from something I saw in their TV advert. I find that actually my kids do still have enough energy to engage with a fun activity, but after a day of following instructions at school and ... read more
Review: Tabure St Albans
I'm not going to pretend to be some amazing food blogger or restaurant reviewer, as I'm obviously neither of those, but what I am is someone who likes good food, excellent service and attention to detail and all three of those were completely in abundance last night when I was invited along to a special pre-launch night at St Albans' newest restaurant Tabure. Beautiful interior and really can't wait to sit by the open grill @Tabure_Kitchen Thank you for a lovely evening pic.twitter.com/pmp7LjVtEw — Food Ren (@RenBehan) April 23, 2015 Proper food bloggers like Ren take photos - I'm too ... read more
Cooking from Frozen – Chilli Con Carne #CoolCookery
In our house, when you say that you're going to do dinner from something in the freezer that usually means fish fingers, or possibly chicken nuggets, served with oven chips and (frozen) peas. Now, in my opinion there's nothing wrong with a dinner like that, but it's not the kind of thing that you want to serve up every night of the week. It was my mum who really enlightened me when it comes to cooking with frozen ingredients. She's always had things like frozen mashed potatoes in her freezer, which she swears by using when making cottage pie and similar. It was when she started living on ... read more
Special Edition Weetabix Strawberry for Comic Relief
It seems to be all about breakfast here on Being Mrs C at the moment as we're busy trying out this wonderful special edition Weetabix Strawberry this week. As part of Weetabix's partnership with Red Nose Day they have launched this special Strawberry Flavour Weetabix with 5p per pack being donated to Comic Relief. And if that wasn't enough, everyone who tries Weetabix Strawberry also has the chance to win one of many "nosetastic" experiences as part of the Weetabix Red Nose Day promotion. There are nine different experiences that you could win one of and these could be as cool as flying ... read more
Big Red Breakfast featuring Baked Eggs on Salsa
Breakfast - the most important meal of the day. Everyone knows this saying don't they, and whilst not everyone agrees with it breakfast is a meal that is certainly never skipped in this house. I don't know about you, but I find we're all just hungry in the morning and certainly the kids and I are pretty grumpy if we don't eat pretty soon after getting up! To me having a good breakfast inside you before starting the day is hugely important and that's why I'm pleased to support Warburtons and The BHF, who have teamed up to help to educate the nation on the importance of maintaining a healthy ... read more
How to make flowerpot bread
I do love it when the kids get slightly unusual Christmas presents and one of Little Miss C's uncles really came up trumps this year (not that the other two uncles didn't, if you're reading, as the kids love all their presents too thank you!) with a flowerpot bread making kit. Flowerpot bread you may think - what on earth? The idea's quite simple really. You make bread, but rather than put it in a traditional bread tin or on a baking tray in the oven, you instead bake it in terracotta flowerpots. It's incredibly easy to do and a great activity to do with kids, so here's my how to ... read more