Microbarbox are a monthy tasting club for cocktails. If you want to get that Friday feeling anytime then you can sign up to their gift boxes (or order a one off) and recieve a box of goodies so that you can make cocktails in the comfort of your own home.

Below is Octobers box. A recipe card talks you through the cocktails you can make. You also get some snacks to enjoy too.


All the cocktails were lovely and the red wine was nice too. I really enjoy cocktails but I don't often drink them at home as you need so many different ingredients. This solves the problem by giving you just the right ingredients to make 4 drinks. You just need ice. The box was beautifully packaged with each bottle wrapped in bubble wrap and tissue paper. I wasn't sure what the mojito would be like as I always use soda water in mine, but the only problem with it was that there was only one. It was lovely!



You are able to order single boxes as a gift or you can sign up to a subscription to get a box delivered each month. The monthly subscription box costs £24 (plus £3.50 p&p.) As a  reader of A Strong Coffee, you can get your first subscription box for £12 plus p&p by entering the discount code COFFEE when you sign up. I also have a box to giveaway to one of my lucky readers. Just complete the Gleam entry below. Good Luck!

Microbarbox

www.theprizefinder.com - See more at: http://www.theprizefinder.com/content/microbarbox#sthash.ciP0fiRU.dpuf

These caramel bonfire cupcakes are simple to make and perfect for a bonfire night party. Both Flakes and Matchmakers work well as the wood logs. When it comes to making the buttercream make sure you use an orange gel. I find Colour Spash food colouring works well. If you add a liquid colour you will find it makes the buttercream really bitter. For a full tutorial on how to make them, click here for my bonfire cupcake recipe 



Over the last few weeks I have been making an effort to improve my blog photography. It was as a result of some fantastic blogging courses such as River Cottage Blog Camp and Blog On Win. I was also spurred on to make a difference after Wayfair asked me to do a piece for their website. The piece in question is these bonfire cupcakes. They are super simple and you can find the full recipe here with some hints and tips to make it even easier.

Like it or not, a lot of readers enjoy the visual side of a blog post and blog photography can be just as important as the writing. If like me you like covering food, then it is even more important. As most of my posts focus on food, I shall focus on what I have learnt about that side of it.

1. You need light. I often work at night where the light in our kitchen is awful. I now try to photograph in the day. When the weather is nice I will be outside. When it is raining I will do it in the conservatory. Generally, not using a flash is better.

2. You don't need to spend a lot on the backgrounds. You may have noticed a nice white wood block table in my photographs recently. Well it is a nice piece of wood block wallpaper on the boys old train table!



3. A few nice props will make a huge difference. I now have my own blogging cupboard in the kitchen where I store the props that I particularly like. The olive wood chopping board from Wayfair is now a particular favourite of mine and is coming out again and again.


4. When doing a "looking down" shot use blue tack to angle items. This was a tip from the lovely Lucy Heath at Blog Camp River Cottage. It had not even entered my mind of doing such things. When looking down on a glass for instance it looks the wrong shape and a small piece of blue tac can correct this.


5. Photograph food when it is cold. Again not something I had really thought of before. But it is easier to photograph. If you need to melt things do it with a blow torch just before. If you need steam cotton wool dipped in boiling water and hidden behind. There is a whole world of food photography tips that I need to discover!

6. Make sure the right thing is in focus. I am no expert with my DSLR. I love the blurred background you can obtain, but sometimes you find that you have focused in on the wrong thing. This is when you need to check your shots on the computer as it hard to tell on a camera screen. Lucy recommended shooting tethered  would help.

7. Don't use shiney cutlery. You will see yourself in it! If using a tarnish cake slice, don't leave it on your nice new wooden chopping board. I learnt the hard way!

8. Once you have a nice shot, you can edit it to make it look as you want. I use PicMonkey but Annie from Fable and Folk recommends Lightroom. I still haven't had time to check it out now though.

So these are my beginners tips. I hope that they are helpful. I have found that my "likes" on instagram are increasing and I am much happier with the photographs on the blog recently. Don't forget to check out my bonfire cupcake recipe if you are having a party this fireworks night.

A simple recipe. But sometimes simple things are the best. The best accompaniment for a cookie has got to be a glass of Cravendale. Pure and fresh it is milk at it's best. The boys love the taste and I like that it will keep them happy and quiet for a few minutes while they drink it. Or until little man is asking for more milk.


But why else do I like Cravendale? I like it because it has a long use by date. If we are away for the weekend or away on holiday for a week, I can grab a bottle before hand and leave it in the fridge so we have fresh milk when we return.

What do you like about Cravendale?




This post of an entry for BritMums #MilkDrinkersMilk Linky Challenge sponsored by Cravendale

We are here. It is half term. Well just a few hours for the older two. And relax.

I then cooked them at 140C for about 25 minutes. Here I served them with some strawberry sauce. A bit too gruesome for my liking but the boys didn't bat an eyelid! Have you got any good Halloween recipes?

I then glued feathers onto the back of the wreath before adding some buttons on the front for decoration.



I have to say I have a new love for Hama Beads and I can't wait to make some more glow in the dark creations with the boys in half term. Looking at the hexagon tile I was sent the first thing that jumped out at me was that it was the shape of a spiders web.


I then made a little spider to go with it and attached it to the web with a piece of white cotton. I also glued on some googly eyes so it was more cute than scary!



last but not least I made a witches hat filled with sweets. Perfect as a favour if you have a Halloween party planned.


I put a selection of sweets into a cardboard cone and secured them in place by placing a cupcake case over the top.


Next I glued black felt around the witches cardboard cone.


I then cut a circle from some black foam and glued the cone to this. I finished it off by adding some ribbon and a pipe cleaner.


Whilst I was making the hat, little man had a go at crafting too. Who wouldn't be scared if they saw this spider creeping across the floor!

I hate to wish time away, but the past 10 days have been tough. My husband has been away and I have been trying my best to keep sane whilst looking after three boys. I am not going to lie, I find it tough when I am on my own. Little/no adult conversation finds me wondering if I am infact acting like a child. I find myself constantly tidying and the house still looking as though Toys R Us has vomited over it. There wasn't a dry eye in the house when I served up spaghetti bolognese using macaroni pasta instead!

Mornings aren't great for me at the best of times. My blog name should give you a clue. When I have three boys to get ready for school it is even worse. Big man is able to lose his homework 2 seconds after you have handed it to him. Middle man is the same with his coat. Hell, I am the same with my keys. Mornings are a blur of hunt the missing items.

This morning I just wanted a couple of minutes piece and quiet in the shower. Like that was going to happen! Big and little man burst in. Big man holding his eye and crying. Little man screaming sorry.

To cut a long story short, little man had been jumping into the sofa and somehow managed to hit big man. Whilst I wasn't happy about the jumping on the sofa part, little man was clearly sorry (it had been shouted numerous times whilst I was trying to wrap a towel around myself) and it was an accident.

"Ok, just give your brother a kiss then." I said as big man lent in for a one.

"Me not like kisses from boys!" little man screamed.

Of course, how did I forget? I am not sure where this all came from, but little man has refused to get near any male family member for months now when it comes to kisses and cuddles. The look on my Father in laws face when he screamed "no kiss boys" was a picture. Mainly because you could see him trying to decipher little man's next sentence. Yes little man's current preferred greeting or goodbye to a male family member is that of a foot shake.

"Well give your brother a foot shake then!" I exclaimed.

To which little man held up one leg, allowed his brother to shake it and all was forgotten.

Back to the normal morning blur of hunting for homework, coats and keys.


How are your mornings?

I can't believe the Bake Off is over but was so pleased that Nadyia won. I would have loved to make a showstopper cake for this challenge but with a couple of Birthdays around the corner, there will be a lot of cake baking coming up. Instead I decided to make something new and "easy" like iced buns.

I wont share the words that came out of my mouth about Paul Hollywood when I was following his standard recipe. It did teach me to read a whole recipe before you start. I also have to admit that I would never have thought of putting raspberry and lime together until I had some raspberry marshmallows in this months Degustabox, but it tastes good!

For the iced buns

500g strong white flour
50g caster sugar
40g butter
14g instant yeast
2tsp salt
140ml milk
Up to 150ml warm water - add slowly!

Pre heat the oven to 220C

Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl adding the water slowly to form a dough.

Knead for 10 minutes and then leave for an hour to rise.

Split the dough into 12 and place on a baking tray.

Leave for 40mins and then bake for 10mins.

Allow to cool.

For the Filling:

Either use raspberry jam or make your own using raspberries and caster sugar. (I used frozen raspberries.)

For the lime creme patisserie:

4 egg yolks
60g caster sugar
25g plain flour
2tsp cornflour
280ml milk
Juice of a lime.

Mix the yolks, caster sugar, flour and cornflour together. Warm the milk and whisk in all the other ingredients. Continue to whisk until it thickens. I then piped this into my buns with a layer of raspberry jam underneath.

For the icing: 

I mixed icing sugar with left over raspberry juice from the jam. I find it is best to do this slowly and not go by a recipe. Adding raspberry juice meant it had a beautiful colour as well as flavour.

So whilst they tasted good, they took a long time to make! Next time I think it will be quicker to pop to Greggs!


To see more great recipes head over to The Boy Who Cooked and thanks to Jenny for arranging the Bake Off,

It is always nice to live nearby a Michelin starred restaurant, especially when they do good lunch offers! A couple of weeks ago my friend and I forgot about the kids for a couple of hours and became ladies that lunched!

The lunch offer at L'ortolan is a 3 course menu with a glass of wine. As you will see there were a lot more than 3 courses. I have been to a few Michelin starred restaurants and L'Ortolan tends to do quite fancy dishes. Some work amazingly well. Some look prettier than they taste. Overall though it is a great experience and I have been back a number of times.

So what did I eat?

Well I am not 100% sure on all of the things but hey they looked and tasted good. First up were these treats. The spoon had duck in that was lovely and the balls were pork.


We then had some lovely fresh bread and another taster. This was a goats cheese at the bottom with a beetroot foam on top. It was a bit odd at first but then I grew to like it.


For my starter I chose mozerella, tomatoes and watermelon. It was amazing.There was even a watermelon sorbet. There was nothing plain about this dish. I couldn't fault it.


For main, I chose Roasted rump of lamb, pommes Anna, sweetcorn, red pepper and barbeque lamb sauce. Again lovely. My only grumble is that although I know that your meat is actually meant to be cooked rare, I prefer it cooked more.



We then got a lovley pre dessert.


And finally spiced cream, dehydrated chocolate cake and blackberries. It was nice but I couldn't help thinking of spacemen as I ate the chocolate mousse.



We then finished the meal in the bar with a coffee and even more treats. Possibly the nicest macarons I have tasted.



All in all a lovely meal in lovely company, which I could get quite used to given half the chance.

Milkshake is enjoyed by middle and little man in our house so they were very excited to receive a preview disk of the new Fantastic Fun DVD which is out Monday 19th October.

Particular favourites include Fireman Sam, Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig. I find DVD's like this so handy if we are going on a long car journey, or if I need to do some cleaning! 

So what can you expect from the DVD?


Fireman Sam – help is never far away for the residents of Pontypandy with hero Fireman Sam around. In Escape from Pontypandy Island, when the Pioneers go to Pontypandy Island, they are in such a rush to explore the island, they do not pull their boat up safely and it drifts off.

Wanda and the Alien – based on the popular books by Sue Hendra about accepting differences and sharing, Wanda makes a new best friend – an alien. In Non-Pop Bubbles 
Wanda is showing Alien how to blow bubbles. He has never seen bubbles before, and doesn't want them to pop!

Lily’s Driftwood Bay - Driftwood Bay is a special island that exists in the imagination of Lily, who creates a world of adventure and friendshipfrom different treasures she finds washed up on the beach. In The Dance-Off Lily and her friends help Salty prepare for a  dance challenge at the Driftwood Bay ceilidh.

Toby’s Travelling Circus – Roll up! Roll up! Toby is the best circus ringmaster in the world and is joined on his adventures by his band of circus performer pals. In If the Boot Fits, the search is on for the culprit when someone steps in wet paint and walks all over the new circus poster.

You then squeeze the butter milk out of the butter and then wash in cold water.


Finally you season with some salt. Simple!

Next I made the soda bread. You will need:

250g plain white flour, plus extra for dusting
5g salt
2 tsp baking powder
150ml buttermilk left over from making the butter.
1 chopped apple
A handful of blackberries
50g goats cheese diced


Pre heat the oven to 200C. Combine the flour, salt and baking powder with the buttermilk. Knead briefly. Mix in the blackberries, apples and goats cheese. Shape into a round and cut a cross in the top. Place onto grease proof paper and bake for around 25 minutes.


Serve warm with your homemade butter.



You can find more about the cookery courses at River Cottage here.

I can pretty much guarantee that our tooth fairy wasn't expecting to find an employment questionnaire for her to answer when she dropped off big man's latest £1 coin in exchange for his tooth. I know it was a busy night for her and she probably almost forgot. To then fly in carrying a heavy coin and find such queries must have got her in a tizz. Instead of completing said form she rushed home to get her special tooth fairy cards to reply.

So what was big man interested in finding out?

1. Who do you work for?

2. Where do you work?

3. Is there more than one tooth fairy?
Well it turns out that Lara is big man's tooth fairy who works for the Tooth Fairy Queen. She is one of many around the world, but she covers our local area with 2 other fairies.

Poor Lara wrote this down, delivered her coin and went to bed exhausted.

The next day big man rushed into our room filled with excitement. Look Mummy the tooth fairy came and I had left her some questions. He read out the card.

"That's odd" he exclaimed

"Odd? What's odd?" I asked.

James' tooth fairy works for the Tooth Fairy King not Queen.

"Oh well, it is probably some kind of management system they have going on." I garbled." He can't have all the tooth fairies reporting to him can he?"

"Oh yes I see" replied big man. But you could see his thoughts had already turned to what sweets he could buy with his £1.

Like it or not, Supermarkets and shops have now introduced a 5p charge on carrier bags. Personally I think it is good. I was never going to remember carrier bags when it didn't matter, but now I am getting into the habit of taking reusable bags everywhere with me.

When Trolley Bags asked if I would like to review their supermarket reusable bags, I jumped at the chance. They come in 2 sizes, for the deep and shallow trolleys. I do most of my shopping online and get it delivered. I gave up taking the boys after big man announced he liked dippy eggs and smashed 12 medium eggs on the supermarket floor. However, I generally forget things and have to pop in to top up. I therefore chose the shallow Trolley Bags.

There are 4 different coloured bags, each with handles and joined with velcro so that it can sit in your trolley. I took little man with me and decided to do the scan yourself option in Tesco as this would mean it would go straight into the bags and I wouldn't need to unpack it.

It worked a treat.

I was really impressed and now keep them in the boot of my car so I always have them to hand.

Trolley Bags have kindly offered a set to giveaway to one of my readers. You can chose the original or shallow bags (Express)  so that you get the bags that suit you best. Just complete the Gleam entry below. Good Luck!

Trolley Bags

Pop it into the fridge so that it goes solid and then cut into small rather indulgent chunks.


What do you like to add to your Rocky Road recipe?

My husband has always been better at using moisturiser than me, but now he has an array of men's grooming products thanks to Rock Face. I am worried he will spend more time in the bathroom than me!

Rockface want you to " Look good and smell great with a minimum of fuss" and these products will certainly do just that.

Rockface products all have the same citrusy woody frangrance which is subtle rather than over powering.

My husband doesn't normally get excited over grooming products but he did say how much he liked these.  I borrowed the anti aging moisturiser, purely for the purpose of this review, and the cream was lovely and light. Only time will tell if it works on my OH's mature skin.

You can order the grooming range online and they offer free postage when you purchase more than one item (excluding 2 for 1 promotions.)

Rockface have kindly offered a bundle to giveaway to one of my readers. Perfect with Christmas just around the corner. Just complete the Gleam entry below. Good Luck!


Rockface