Hobbycraft Christmas in July new product launch

The Hobbycraft press show - another Christmas in July event - was much smaller than some of the others I've been to, but much more fun - as there were things to make and do.

In between admiring the Halloween and Christmas ranges, I had a chance to decorate a snowflake cookie with a Wilton piping set and also to decorate a Christmas tree bauble with some Swarovski plastic beads and some ribbon. What do you think?

Some Halloween craft ideas:

 

Hobbycraft has launched some new products with craft queen Kirstie Alsopp, who was at the event earlier in the day but unfortunately I missed her as I was only able to go along after work. They also announced a partnership with 'sewing expert and fashion designer' Patrick Grant (no, me neither) to launch a range of sewing products.

I was also pleased to see Hobbycraft is stocking Sugar & Crumbs flavoured icing; this is something I came across at Cake International a few years ago and have bought from their website a few times.

There were lots of ideas for Christmas card making; I love the idea of this hole punch with a little hanging cut out shape in the middle.

Outside was a pink bus run by Libby Rose, who runs sewing classes, workshops and events and can sometimes be found at Hobbycraft stores. Follow her on Twitter for updates as to where she will be next.

 

Libby was showing people how to make little zip pouches so I had a go. I've got a sewing machine but have barely used it and I can't remember how to thread it and get started. Luckily Libby had done all that so after I chose my fabric I cut around her template and then she showed me how to sew in a zip and sew up the sides to make this. It literally only took a few minutes but I really felt I had achieved something and definitely want to get started using my own sewing machine!

 

Since I can't really sew, I'm quite pleased with this!

 

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Norwex Environmentally-Friendly Cleaning Products

 

As this is a food, drink and craft blog, writing about cleaning products might seem a bit strange, but I wanted to share with you all a brand that I’ve come across that is really helpful when you are making cakes!

  

Norwex is all about “cleaning without chemicals”, using microfiber cloths with water. When the company started in Norway in the 90s this was a unusual idea – in an era of heavy duty chemical products – but of course does hark back to more traditional cleaning methods. Norwex has since expanded around the world and branched out into other products like personal care and baby care.

 

It’s not hard to understand that using chemicals around the house can be bad for the environment or your skin. Norwex claims that homes have chemical levels up to 70 times higher than outside, and that most of the chemicals people are exposed to every day have never been assessed for their impact on human health. Cleaning products are also expensive, so buying a more expensive cloth and then just using water works out a lot cheaper in the long run.

 

I was quite accepting of all this but still not convinced that I needed Norwex products when my friend Jane first mentioned them to me. She is an Independent Sales Consultant for Norwex and sells their products, though she – and the company – has not approached me about writing this and this is not a sponsored post in any shape or form.

 

Jane did what she called the ‘butter test’ while we were at a friend’s house, and smeared butter on a mirror. She asked us to clean the mirror so we tried kitchen roll and water (leaving huge smears), a leading chemical cleaning product (which still left a smear and residue) and then a Norwex cloth and water – which removed the butter completely.

 

When Jane gave me one of the little blue microfiber cloths and suggested I use it at home, I was still a bit dubious that it would replace all my cleaning products, and I kept the cloth by the sink, using it occasionally. Then I came to decorating a big cake with fondant.

 

When I have to cover a really big cake I use my glass dining table as it’s very wide, so I can roll out the fondant as large as I like. I can sprinkle the glass table with icing sugar and don’t need to put down a mat and it works like a dream. What it does however is leave a sticky residue that I really struggle to get off the glass afterwards. When it dries you can still see a sticky residue, then it has to be cleaned again, and it takes a lot of elbow grease.

  

You can just about see the marks on my glass table:

 

 

 

I tried the Norwex cloth just with some water, and the marks came off easily. I left it to dry and went back to have another go to remove the rest of the stubborn residue… and there wasn’t any. This is why I felt compelled to write this post – I’ve tried all sorts of things and the Norwex cloth is the only product that has cleaned the fondant residue off my glass table in one easy swoop. I was actually astounded and told my friend Jane, whose reaction was basically “I told you so!”.

 

 

 

Norwex products are sold through parties in the home, much like the Tupperware parties of old, but the difference is you get a product demonstration where the Norwex rep will pretty much clean something in your home.

 

If you would like to look at a catalogue or ask any questions about the products or the business, my friend Jane will happily help you if you email her at naturallycleaning@outlook.com ‎or you can visit http://ift.tt/29F6kGv. 

 

If you want to have a party to see the products in action, visit www.norwex.co.uk and go to the host a presentation link. You can then put in a request to find your local representative as Jane only covers Devon and Cornwall (and a bit of Somerset, I think). 

 

Disclaimer: I was not asked to write about Norwex by the company or by Jane, and all opinions are my own.

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Cinnamon French Toast with Caramelised Peaches

I love picking up free magazines from supermarkets, and often get the Tesco magazine, which is packed with features, snippets about new products and recipes. I decided to make a few things from the latest issue, starting with French toast with caramelised peaches. In the recipe, it was served with rum-spiked mascarpone but I decided to do this for brunch and decided the mascarpone would be a bit much. It would have been a nice touch but if you are counting the calories it’s still a really nice dish on its own.

 

I bought a loaf of pre-sliced brioche which made the recipe very easy. To serve two people, you just need to mix 1 egg, 50ml milk, a dash of vanilla essence, a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar and the zest of one orange in a wide shallow bowl, and dip each slice of bread in.

 

Heat a little butter in a frying pan and fry each slice of bread on both sides until browned. I put the oven on low (100C) to keep the slices of brioche warm as I was doing a few rounds in the frying pan. This way, you can also do the peaches in the same pan to save on washing up.

Peel and halve a fresh peach, removing the stone (one per person is about right) and heat a little more butter in the pan. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon and press onto the cut side of each peach. Fry in the frying pan on both sides until softened, and serve with the French toast.

 

 

If you want to serve with mascarpone you just beat 75g mascarpone cheese with 1/2 tbsp. rum and 1/2 tbsp. icing sugar and serve.

 

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Slow Cooker Butternut Squash and Goat's Cheese Enchiladas

I've been meaning to post this recipe for ages - it's not really a hot weather dish, but let's face it we haven't had a lot of hot weather recently! It's something you can do in the slow cooker on a weekend or when you are out at work (that being the beauty of slow cookers). I did it on a day when I was working from home so I could put everything in the slow cooker at lunchtime and forget about it until dinner time.

I really like goat's cheese (which is lucky as I once won a year's supply) and love enchiladas but had only made chicken ones before, so thought this recipe for butternut squash and goat's cheese enchiladas looked amazing - and it isn't something I'd have thought to do in the slow cooker but it works brilliantly.

The recipe is from a book called The Slow Cooker. To serve 4, you need:

1 large butternut squash, peeled and diced

4 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp salt

3 tsp ground cumin

1 large onion, diced

1 tbsp. dried oregano

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp. chilli powder

450g canned pureed tomatoes or passata

1 tbsp. clear honey

450ml vegetable stock

12 corn tortillas (I used flour tortillas)

225g goat's cheese

Preheat the oven to 200C. Toss the diced butternut squash with 2 tbsp. of the oil, half the salt and 1 tsp cumin. Roast in a baking dish for 30-40 minutes until softened. I sometimes do extra and add the rest to a salad.

Heat the rest of the oil in a frying pan and and the onion and garlic. Fry for a couple of minutes until soft, then add the rest of the cumin, the salt, chilli powder and oregano and cook for a minute. Stir in the tomatoes, honey and stock, bring to the boil and cook for 5 mins. Blend until smooth in a food processor or blender.

Spoon a little sauce into the base of your slow cooker so the tortillas don't stick. Cover the bottom of the slow cooker with a layer of tortillas (one might be enough depending on the size) and top with a layer of butternut squash, some sliced goat's cheese, a layer of sauce, and another tortilla.

Layer again with squash, cheese and sauce and finish with some sauce and some cheese. Cover and cook on the slow cooker's lowest setting for about 2 hours, and enjoy!



I'm sending this to Meat Free Mondays, hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes.

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Christmas in July: Asda press preview

I was invited to the launch of Asda's Christmas range - in July - and got a preview of some of the food and homewares they will be launching later this year. I thought I'd share with you some of the pictures I took and a few of my favourite items.



Unsurprisingly I was immediately drawn to the cakes and desserts and was particularly taken with this chocolate smash cake - a cake with a chocolate dome on top. The idea is that you smash the shell and find chocolates and gold stars inside - a bit like a piñata but in cake form. It's the Christmas pudding cake you can see at the front of this picture below.

This Opera cake decorated with shards of chocolate also looks very nice.

There were plenty of treats on display including a wide range of free-from and gluten-free products, including the gingerbread house below.

The party food range looked good; as well as bite sized canapes there was a giant three-tier pie which would make a great Boxing Day centrepiece. I believe the bottom is turkey, ham and apricot, the middle is stilton and cranberry and the top is game pie.

These canapes were very innovative - gammon served on edible pastry spoons:

I also got to have a look at the George at Asda clothes and gift range

 And it wouldn't be Christmas (even in July) without candy canes, chocolate coins and Santa!

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Hot Cross Bun Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding

I had some hot cross buns left over from Easter (in the freezer) and recalled seeing a recipe for bread and butter pudding using hot cross buns so decided to make it a few weeks back as we hadn’t had a pudding for ages, and I was being allowed sugar for 2 days a week (and avoiding it entirely the rest of the week).

I used this recipe from the BBC Good Food website but instead of the cubed marzipan I added chunks from a 100g bar of chocolate. It gave it a lovely flavour and it felt like a real treat!

 

You need:

300ml double cream

600ml milk

4 eggs

100g caster sugar

1.5 tsp vanilla essence

8 hot cross buns

40g soft butter

100g chocolate, broken into chunks

Preheat oven to 170C. Gently heat the milk and cream in a pan. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla, then gradually add the warm cream.
 

Slice the hot cross buns in half and butter them. Lay half in a shallow oven proof dish (or as many as you can get on the bottom of the dish), sprinkle over some chocolate and pour over half the cream.

Place the remaining halves of bun on top, pressing down gently as you do. Add the rest of the chocolate and pour over the rest of the cream.

 

Bake for 45-50 mins in the oven, then remove and allow to stand for 10 mins. Serve warm.

 

 

I'm sending this to We Should Cocoa, hosted by Choclette of Tin and Thyme.

 

 

 

 

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Meal Planning Monday- Week 28

I spent ages doing this week's meal plan and then pressed something and it disappeared! I can't remember everything I was going to cook which is really annoying as I've bought the ingredients now, so this is my best guess....

Monday
turkey cheese escalopes

Tuesday
vegetable spaghetti with prawns

Wednesday
salmon and veg for me, chicken chargrills for him

Thursday
out at Hobbycraft press event

Friday
working from home as I'm having my car serviced.
Lunch: salad with potato salad
Dinner: chicken tikka masala

Saturday
Lunch: sweet potato macaroni cheese bake
Dinner barbecue

Sunday: at Sherborne Castle supercars

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