I have to admit that until some quinona arrived on my doorstep, I had never tried it. However, I really enjoyed it and it was easy to cook too. I figured that it would be nice to use a mix of all three, as it would look pretty. The red and black also give it a bit of a crunch.

According to the leaflet in my package, quinoa is the original superfood from Peru. And here's an interesting fact for you: NASA feeds its astronauts quinoa saying "oi single foodstuff can supply all the essential nutrients necessary for life, but quinoa is the closest to any food in the vegetable or animal kingdom."



To cook two you will need:

2 pieces of Salmon
1 cup of quinoa (I used a mix of the the three I was given.)
2 spring onions
green pesto
100ml creme fraiche
1 clove garlic finely chopped

I started by steaming the Salmon in the oven by wrapping it in foil and placing at 180C for about 15 minutes.

I then cooked the quinoa. I placed 1/2 cup of the white and 1/4 cup of the red and black in a pan. I then added 2 cups of water and bought to the boil. I turned the heat down and placed the lid on the pan and left it cooking for 20 minutes.

To make the sauce I fried 3 spring onions, 1 clove of garlic and 100g spinach. I then added 2 tsp of pesto and 100ml of creme fraiche.

Place the quinoa on the plate and top with sauce and salmon.

Have you tried quinoa? What recipes would you recommend?

I then used buttercream to stick the squares inside each other and then on top of each other. It sounds harder than it is! The key thing is to make sure that if its brown you have a green next to it.


I then coated this in buttercream (with a little cocoa added) and put it back in the fridge.

I then used 3 packets of green icing to cover the cake.

I added extra squares around the cake, and piped green buttercream around the edges just to make it look neater.



When you cut inside the cake you get a checkerboard effect that should put a smile on a little Minecraft fan's face.

So it's less than a week until the big day. If you have small children like mine then you are probably worried that they may just explode by Christmas Eve. I have been watching A Muppets Christmas Carol and reminiscing about days gone by. Here are some of my pearls of wisdom that I have learnt from Christmas' past.

1. No matter how much planning you do, the kids will throw you a curve ball near the date. They may have been asking 5 months solid for a pirate ship, however, as the day draws near they will have completely changed their mind and be requesting a water pistol. When this happens just remind them they have a Birthday. If they have just had a birthday just tell them that the years go faster as they get older and they will get a water pistol before they know it.

2. When your 4 year old asks for a toy cucumber for his play kitchen, don't type it into Google. There are some perverted people out there!

3. Don't let your husband put away the Christmas food shop. We are still looking for the broccoli and Paxo that disappeared 5 years ago. 

4. It is perfectly ok for everyone to live off chocolate on Christmas Day. Infact it is a bonus when your Christmas dinner is delayed down to lack of broccoli and stuffing. (See point 3.)

5. Dried mint is not a substitute for fresh mint in a Mojito.

6. Young children should be reminded that Santa delivers their present downstairs and not in the Stocking. Big man was distraught at 7am on Christmas morning when he was 3 as Father Christmas had put a sodding satsuma in his stocking instead of a camera. Middle man on the other hand is more excited over fruit in his stocking than any other present he receives.

7. If when cleaning on 23rd Dec you find your husband has unexpectedly bought you an expensive gift. Fear not, garden centre's are open and who wouldn't want a bug house and some pickles for Christmas?

8. You've made it through Christmas Day - well done. Now whatever you do, don't think it's a good idea to watch the Mickey Flanagan DVD that your sister brought your parents for Christmas. No matter what. No matter how funny she has told you it is. There is nothing funny about a sketch about tea bagging when you are watching it with your parents. It is even less funny when they are laughing.

Now go forth and have a Merry Christmas. And if all else fails drink wine. Lots of it. Especially if you haven't headed my warning on point 8.

Thanks for reading this year! 

I have never much been a fan of visiting the doctors. I always feel that I am probably wasting their time. Now I have children I am even less of a fan. Having 3 boys means that sometimes you feel that you should have some kind of privilege card the amount of time you can spend in there. 

A few weeks ago we had to take little man. I very nearly booked myself an appointment for stress after it.

It all started badly when the only appointment available was 8.30am. Cue panic and shouts of "get your shoes on" as I attempted to get 3 boys out of the door, to the doctors and then onto school all before my coffee had had time to get into my system. 

The waiting room was deadly quiet. 

Was quiet. Past tense.

Our surgery has a rocking horse which is a nice idea if there are no other children in the surgery. Little man is not impressed another child is on the horse and promptly goes over and tries to get the child removed by his mother.

The board beeped and flashed. 

"Is it us?" middle man shouts. "No it's that lady over there who is getting up""Well who is she? What is her name?" He roared.

Next middle man thinks he can act as a triage nurse. 

"That man has a cough" he exclaimed in a confident manner. He  beamed from ear to ear feeling he had diagnosed the man's problem and off he could trot with a packet of cough sweets. I think he was disappointed when the man accompanied his wife to her appointment.

The board beeped again and thankfully it was our turn. We piled into the doctors room and I apologised for our existence before I sat down. The excitement of the room beat a theme park hands down. There was a curtain around the examination bed that middle man couldn't stop playing with. Running up and down the room. Big man was jumping on the scales trying to change his weight. I was now apologising every other sentence whilst trying to explain little man's problem.

Little man had to lie down to be examined. Before I (or the doctor) knew it, middle man poked his head under the doctors arm to have a closer look and give his two pennies worth.


I headed off with a prescription, a 5 year old who is now confident he could be a GP and the need to spend an hour in a quiet room with a large strong coffee!

I wont lie, I had never tried a Spanish persimon before these lovlies arrived on my doorstep last week. The persimon is sweet and the entire fruit can be eaten. It also looks particularly beautiful when it is sliced!


Having tasted the persimon I decided it would be perfect for a salad. This would make a fantastic starter this party season.

All you need is:

Spanish Persimon
Mozzarella
Baby leaf salad
Balsamic vinegar - I used Due Vittorie as it is sweet and viscous. You may wish to add a drop of olive oil as well depending on the type of vinegar you use.

I simply cut the persimon into slices and layered it in-between mozzarella slices.This was placed on a bed of baby leaf salad leaves and then drizzled with balsamic vinegar. It was a lovely alternative to using tomato and I shall definitely be trying it again.



You can follow Spanish Persimon on Facebook and Twitter.

Earlier this month I was invited to The Royal Horseguards Hotel for a wine tasting event. The Royal Horseguards Hotel is where my husband chose for us to stay when we visited London for our 10th Wedding Anniversary earlier this year. He chose it due to it's fantastic location and we were both impressed by the service we received. You can read my full review of our room at The Royal Horseguards here.

What was really nice about this event, was that I was able to learn a bit of history about the hotel which really does make it special and I wish I had known some of this history when we had stayed there.

The reception area was beautifully decorated for Christmas. The luxurious surroundings made me even more excited about tasting the wine as it wasn't going to be a special offer from the supermarket kind of wine.


The Royal Horseguards Hotel is the home of the National Liberal Club. Only members are allowed behind this door and it is no smoking too! Gladstone and Churchill are two of it's most famous members. Knowing I wasn't allowed in, just made me want to go in there more.

This amazing marble staircase was rebuilt after the war with a small part remaining from the original.

The secret service MI6 was founded on the 8th floor of the hotel. Sir Mansfield Cumming, the founder, wrote in green ink and signed his correspondence with a C.

The hotels restaurant is called One Twenty-One Two which is the famous telephone number of Scotland Yard. We also got to see the Division Bell. When it is rung, members of the House of Commons or Lords have eight minutes to go and vote.

So after a brief history tour we headed to the wine cellar. It is rummoured that this wall used to be a secret passage way to the house of commons.

The evening was hosted by the fantastic Kelly from Tastour. I have been to wine tasting events before and whilst I have enjoyed the wine, I haven't learnt a thing. I often switch off when there is talk of different types of grapes and sulphites. Kelly on the other hand was extremely engaging and entertaining.

I don't want to giveaway all her secrets, but I learnt that the further away you can smell white wine, the more you should pay. She also advised that in an establishment as prestigious as The Royal Horseguards, you are putting your trust in them and the house wine should be a good one. Another good tip was that if you can buy the wine by the glass, you should be able to ask for a taster first to make sure you like it.


We sampled a variety of wine all of which I would most happily drink again. I found that my drink of choice was Tattinger, so apologies to my husband for my new expensive tastes. I also proved that I can drink red wine without getting a headache so it really is down to the quality of the wine.

All in all it as a fascinating evening in the most beautiful venue with some lovely bloggers. I will raise a glass to that!

This is a rather belated Birthday post. You see, around his Birthday I wasn't feeling the love so much. Well that is a lie. I love him to bits, but he is getting bigger, and with that comes independence and difference of opinion. He had found one of his Birthday presents early which upset me. He shouldn't have been snooping in my room in the first place. I missed seeing his face when he saw it. It is that, which upset me. You see he is getting all grown up. Soon the excitement will disappear to grunts. I am painfully aware of this. I shouldn't have got annoyed but I did. He voiced that maybe I had hidden some of his presents downstairs (which I had done a previous year.) I hadn't. I was a grumpy Mum on his Birthday.



I need to give him some slack. He is a boy who is 8. He does silly things, he make a mess, he is just a child still. He looks after his brothers and is obsessed with Minecraft and Match Attax. More than anything he is kind. Always has been and I hope always will. He rushed home excited about Operation Christmas Child. Packing a shoebox full of treats for someone less fortunate. And then this week he made me so happy. I had left the boys Christmas shopping with their Dad on Saturday. There was a food collection outside the shop and I told my husband to remember to get some food for it. With the fun of looking after 3 boys in a supermarket he forgot. But big man was upset. He was worried about others going hungry. So I promised him we would go shopping and buy some food for the foodbank. So this weekend we popped to Tesco to pick up some extra bits. It is really handy as they have a collection box, tell you what they need and will top up your donation by 30%. He picked his favourite pasta sauces, milk, biscuits, and tins.



Following the kindness of big man, I am posting this as part of Blog it Forward. Wayfair will donate £50 for each blog post written to Habitat for Humanity this December so I felt I should take on big man's attitude too. If you have a blog why not join in too.

Cut the matchbox in half.

Wrap the boxes in your chosen paper. Tie ribbon around in a bow.

Finish with some glitter pens to add some Christmas sparkle.

What Christmas crafts have you been making this year?

I have to admit I have not yet been to Bulgaria. I have a long list of places I want to visit and after my friend had a lovely holiday to Bulgaria a year ago it went onto my list. When Expedia asked me if I would like to take part in their world on a plate challenge, I was eager to take part. I asked my friend what type of food she had eaten there and she said that she had had an array of international food. So I turned to Google and was pretty surprised with the results. Mousakka, baklava and stuffed vine leaves were all suggested dishes. Bulgarian cusine is influenced by it's neighbours Greece and Turkey so shares some of my favourite dishes which I would usually associate with counties close to it.

Baklava is a super sweet (read highly calorific) but extremely tasting nutty dessert. I chose to use a mixture of pistachios and walnuts in my recipe.



You will need:

1 packet of filo pastry (12 sheets)
150g walnuts
50g pistachios
75g melted butter
1tsp cinammon
2tsp sugar

For the syrup

300g sugar
250ml water
juice of half a lemon

Pre heat the oven to 180C.

Melt the butter in the microwave and grease a baking tin (I used 6in x 6in)

Place 3 sheets of filo on into the tin, brushing each with melted butter.

Finely chop the walnuts and pistachio. Mix with the sugar and cinnamon.

Put half of this mixture on the filo pastry. Add 2 more sheets of filo, brushing each with butter.

Add another layer of nut and add the remaining layers of filo pastry and butter.


Cut diamond shapes into the pie. Bake for 20 minutes and then turn the heat down to 150C and bake for a further 20 minutes.


Make the syrup by heating the water, lemon juice and sugar together. Reduce until it forms a syrup. Pour this over the scored lines in the Baklava so that in soaks on.

If you have some left over pistachios, finely chop a few to sprinkle on top.


Once cooled, enjoy a small slice or two. It tastes great with a strong coffee!

Have you visited Bulgaria? What was your favourite dish?

This month's Degustabox had some familiar brands and some new ones. Here are my views on the products in the box.

Ryvita: We had Ryvita thins and Green and Black Olive Crackers. My favourite were the thins and these are great dipped in hummous. The thing I liked best about the crackers was that they in small packets. There is nothing more annoying than opening a box of crackers, having a few and the rest going stale, so this solves this problem.

Teisseire: I had a job convincing big man that this wasn't cordial as we have had some fruit shoot in similar packging. Perfect for a day when I fancy a flavoured coffee, but these are also good in hot chocolate.

Belvita: I am a bit rubbish at eating breakfast so I like the idea of breakfast on the go. These are a bit too sweet for even my sweet tooth.

JimJams: No added sugar, gluten free chocolate spread. Tastes great.

Butterkist: We had a couple of different packets. My favourite was the sweet and salted as it wasn't overly sweet.

Branston: Orchard Fruit chutney is great to have at Christmas with a cheeseboard. I used this in the sausage roll recipe below.

Nim's Fruit Crisps: I was expecting these to be freeze dried but they were just dried. They were quite hard and I am not really sure what I thought of them!

Hartley's: I was rather excited by the glitter jelly and made these Santa's Jelly Bellies.

Bourne and Wallis: We had some lovely beetroot, again great for a Boxing Day buffet.

Divine: This dark chocolate and raspeberries wasn't my favourite but my husband gobbled it up.

Rekorderling: I don't really drink cider, but will be using this in a pork stew. Not something I would usually buy.

Holy Lama: I thought these were a good idea if you don't want a full bottle of mulled wine. Just use your usual wine and add the mulled spice drops.

Bailey's: Well, it isn't Christmas without this!

If you would like to try Degustabox you can use the code BLDEG15 to get £6 off your first box! (Making it only £6.99)




There is nothing quite like a warm sausage roll on a winters evening and these are so simple to make. I usually use red onion chutney, but tried the Orchard Fruit Chutney for a change and it worked well.

All you will need is:

A packet of ready rolled puff pastry
A packet of sausages
Branston Orchard Fruit Chutney

Egg for brushing optional.

Start by diving your rolled pastry into 3. Add a line of chutney. Remove the sausage from the skin and place down the centre.



Roll and cut into small rolls to make it easier to cook. Cook for around 20 mins at 250C. Perfect for a Christmas party.




What party food do you like to make?

These mint chocolate Christmas tree cupcakes are simple to make and great for a Christmas party.
You may remember that a couple of weeks ago I bought some festive cupcake decorations and made some Ginger Christmas Cupcakes. As I had some bits left over I decided to try out my new green gel colouring and make some Christmas tree cupcakes. The cupcake itself is chocolate and the icing is mint flavoured.



To make 12 you will need:

For the cakes:

4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
3oz self raising flour
1oz cocoa
2eggs


For the topping:

half a tub of vanilla frosting
a drop of green gel colouring
a drop of peppermint essence
sugar star decorations
a sprinkling of icing sugar


Start by making the chocolate cupcakes. Mix all the cake ingredients together. Bake at 180C for 12-15 mins until a skewer comes out clean.



Mix the frosting with green colouring and peppermint essence. Pipe onto the cooled cakes into the shape of a Christmas tree.



Finish with a sugar star decoration on top and a sprinkling of icing sugar.

Have you tried the Glorious! Soup range yet? Which is your favourite?

I may be swearing slightly here, but I am one of the very few people on the planet that has never really watched Star Wars. My boys on the other hand like anything related it to it. They were therefore more than happy to review some of the latest Star Wars releases from Egmont, and educate me a bit on the way.


The boys were extremely excited by Star Wars Starfighter Workshop: Make Your Own X-wing and Tie Fighter, This contained large cardboard pieces to construct. There is also an activity book with puzzles contained within this book.


Star Wars Treasury: The Original Trilogy is just the type of book that big man loves. Full of highlights from the original films, it is a book that he stays up reading, way past his bedtime. The illustrations are beautiful and Star Wars fans are bound to enjoy this book.

Middle man on the other hand has been taken by  Escape From Darth Vader: A Star Wars Saga Reader (Young Readers Level 1). The young readers stories are simple but really nicely illustrated. Middle man was so excited by them, he took them into school for show and tell.


Middle man is quite a confident reader but he did struggle a little with some of the words, due to the nature of the stories. He was fine after a couple of reads though.


My boys have really enjoyed all of these books in different ways. The Starfighter Workshop is hard for a child to complete the models by themselves but by watching the video and some adult help it can be done.

We have made a little video reviewing the books too if you would like to take a look.
Egmont have kindly offered a copy of Starfighter Workshop and Star Wars Treasury for one of my readers. Just complete the Gleam entry below. Good Luck!
Star Wars

Open to UK residents over the age of 18 only Entries will be moderated, so please make sure that you comment if necessary. There is one Star Wars Starfighter Workshop Book and Star Wars Treasurey as the prize. No cash alternative. No bulk or automated entries. If you have already won the prize on a separate blog giveaway with the same promoter they reserve the right to redraw a new winner. The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will be notified by email (make sure you leave your contact details) and will have until 8th Jan to respond with their address. If they fail to respond a new winner will be drawn. No PO Box address Competition closes on 10th Dec at 11.59 It is hoped you will receive the prize before Christmas but not guaranteed.Lucas Film is not a sponsor



ThePrizeFinder - See more at: http://www.theprizefinder.com/content/star-wars-books#sthash.18vnSb9t.dpuf

Yes way back when big man was a baby, I took a very expensive Christmas photo. This photo was taken at home and cost well over £300. It was before the days I had contact lenses and for some reason no spare glasses. There I was taking photos of my beautiful baby boy. I took my glasses off, to take the photo and placed the safely on the floor. Yes, I know, written down that sounds a really silly thing to do. It was. There I was trying to get my newborn to smile when I heard a crack from under my knee and my glasses were no more.

Even worse, my photo wasn't that good!

Panic commenced and I found myself rushing around trying to sort a new pair of glasses whilst maneuvering through a crowd of Christmas shoppers with a newborn.

If the same thing happened this year, it would be different, since I now I know that Vision Direct can supply contact lenses delivered next day. They have a huge range. I rather skeptically looked for my toric disposable lenses and was pleasantly surprised when I saw that they stocked them. Certainly something worth knowing.

If you liked the advert, you can see a "behind the scenes" version on Monday 7th Dec. Working with both pets and children could make this a good one to watch!

If you would like the chance to win £250 Amazon voucher then pop over to their microsite and enter here just by watching the video and answering a question.

So if like me, and Gizmo the Pug, you find yourself with a broken pair of glasses this Christmas, don't forget that you can get contact lenses delivered next day with Vision Direct.

This snow globe Christmas cake is easy to make following this simple tutorial. It can me made with any small Christmas decorations of your choice. It is sure to make a fantastic centre piece this festive season.


This is probably one of the easiest cakes I have ever made and can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be. It can work with Christmas cake or sponge, and if you don't want to make the cake yourself, just buy a pre iced one from the supermarket. I made my own sponge cake for this as I don't like fruit cake. You will need some Christmas figures (again you can make these using icing or find some Christmas ornaments or Happy Land Figures.) The Globe is a rose bowl and I purchased this from Home Bargains for £2.99. You will need some ready roll icing and if you want to do the same as this you will need snowflake and holly cutters and edible glue. However, it would still look good without the snowflakes, and you could put some Christmas ribbon around the cake instead.

Start by arranging your figures on the cake. You will need to place the rose bowl over them to make sure that they fit. Then secure them in place by adding some icing to the bottom of the figures.
Secure the rose bowl in place by putting icing onto the rim of the bowl.

Now roll a circle of icing and cut it into a paint splat shape.

Place a blob of wet icing on top of the rose bowl and place the paint splat into so it looks like snow. If you have a snowflake cutter, use this to add snowflakes, sticking them on with edible glue.



I then tidied the edges around the bowl and bottom of the cake by making icing snowballs and sticking them on with icing. To make them the same size I rolled the icing into a sausage and cut it into equal sizes.

I then finished off my cake with some icing holly, but again you could always wrap some Christmas ribbon around the cake instead. I am really pleased with how this turned out after having been inspired from a friend who did a similar style Frozen cake for her little girls Birthday. It really is simple and will look great on the table at Christmas. Of course this one won't though as the boys happily ate it all!