Well it is New Years Eve and time to reflect on the year gone by. It has been an odd one. The first half seemed to be waiting/dreading for that all (un)important  40th Birthday. I didn't do anything special and it was all a bit of a disappointment if I am honest. I had kind of been planning to be sipping cocktails on a beach. But as we were (notice the past tense) also due to be moving I ended up crabbing in Hamble! I enjoyed crabbing though! I also booked a short stay at Alton Towers which couldn't have been better.

Then came Brexit. I won't lie that it felt like the dementors were circling overhead. I am still disappointed by the decision. I just think the positives about staying in the EU weren't focused on. When there's an election and your party loses, you get over it. Give it 4 years and the country can vote again. Change their minds. Not with this. I hope I am wrong, but I can't see it panning out well. I guess it will make an interesting history lesson one day.

My husband changed jobs and had some gardening leave which was actually quite nice. There was a fear that he would be under my feet and we would argue all the time. But we had a relaxed time and actually spent some time together. One of the downsides of no family nearby means no going out either (unless you want to pay out for a babysitter.) So we had some daytime dates instead. It was nice.

In the summer we had the most amazing trip to Costa Rica. I can highly recommend it as a destination. One of my favourite places I have visited. It was there that we found out our house sale had fallen through. Not the best news to get when on vacation and in a different time zone, but hey a couple of cocktails let me give less of one!


Then Sept-Dec has gone by in a blink on an eye. Life on fast forward. My sister married the love of her life and the boys got to be 3 cute page boys. Little man started school which was just the thing that he and I needed. He was more than ready to go and has settled in like a dream.

Talking of dreams, I am still half hoping that Trump becoming president is a nightmare and I will wake up soon. I have never really understood US politics, and don't claim to know a thing. I just know that he should at the very least stay off Twitter!

December was full of Christmas plays and parties and I am not sure how I managed to be in the right place at the right time.

We went to see Santa in Lapland which quite frankly I was more excited about than the boys. It was a long day that was beautiful, but it also highlighted that I am getting old. Do you know how dangerous snow and ice is!?!


Blog wise, I have split the blog into two. I am still not sure if that was a good thing to do, but I hope it is. Whilst I have loved writing about my boys, they are getting bigger. When big man's photo was stolen from a post and made into a meme, it opened my eyes as to how my actions can backfire on them. Our travels will be recorded on A Strong Coffee To Go and here is for my musings and recipes.

And now New Year is upon us. As always my biggest wish for my family and friends for 2017 is that of good health. I am pleased to say that we have finally sold our house again, so I think it is fair to say we *should* be moving next year. So Goodbye 2016. You have been a year. Not bad. Just a year. Now if time could not rush by quite as fast in 2017 that would help.

Happy New Year to my family, friends and followers. May 2017 be a year to remember for the right reasons. May it be a good one. xx

When it comes to a simple to make cake that takes no time to make, a chocolate explosion cake is the answer. Big man loves all sweets so I knew this would be a winner for his 9th Birthday.


As we are celebrating Birthdays galore at the moment, this is a small cake. I used a 5inch cake pan. If you want to make an 8 inch cake, I suggest double the ingredients.

Chocolate Explosion Cake

• 3oz self rasing flour
• 4oz caster sugar
• 4oz butter
• 2 eggs
• 1oz cocoa powder
• 1 tub of Betty Crocker's chocolate fudge frosting (I used about half a tub.)
• 2 packets of chocolate fingers
• ribbon
• a selection of your favourite chocolates and chocolate bars

Chocolate Dipped Peppermint Creams

• 100g dark chocolate
• 1 egg white
• 350g icing sugar
• a couple of drops of green colouring

With less than 2 weeks to the big day, now is the time to remind ourselves to trap the fat!


I am as guilty as the next person at sometimes forgetting and putting fat down the sink. Usually I put it in an old tub to solidify. The result is pretty horrible but much better in an old tub than being stuck down the water pipes. I have now been sent a fat trapper which does the same job in a more stylish way!

A recent study by united utilities shows the average North West household pours 14lbs of fat down the drain a year. They attend over a whopping 52,000 call outs to pipe blockages each year. It also highlights that a lot of insurance companies wont pay out if the problem is caused by fats. With Christmas on the way, it is worth remembering to trap that fat from our turkey roast, rather than chuck it down the sink.

For more tips and competitions you can follow United Utilities on Facebook . You can also follow United Utilities on Twitter.

If you are looking for some inspiration for some dishes over the festive season I thought I would share some of my favourites. I love brussels sprouts and these with red wine and pancetta are fantastic.


For a Christmas Cocktail you can't really go wrong with these flat white martinis. I am pretty sure that Father Christmas would be happy to be left one of these by the fire place.

I decided to make a ginger and chocolate tiffin as a way of finishing off my pot of Christmas sprinkles. I love making tiffin as it is so easy and no baking is always a bonus.


I decided to go with my Christmas sprinkles I would use some Christmas flavours. So in this tiffin there are chunks of Terrys Chocolate Orange as well as crushed ginger nuts.

Ginger And Chocolate Orange Tiffin

• 200g chocolate
• 100g butter
• 2tbsp golden syrup
• 6 gingernut biscuits
• 2 digestive biscuits
• 100g chocolate orange cut into small chunks
• Christmas sprinkles

This Saturday, to end a great day out in Basingstoke we headed to Pizza Express in Festival Place. I really couldn't fault them as a family friendly restaurant.

They started off well by seating us an hour earlier than our booking. The boys were tired and hungry after watching Sleeping Beauty in Pantomime and it was no problem at all. Along with the menus, the manager grabbed some colour in hats and baubles that kept them entertained for the entire meal! More often than not, the boys are given in activity sheets in restaurants that hold their attention for about 5 minutes. This time, however, I was telling middle man not to worry, he could finish his hat at home. It was a real winner. Just like their children's menu. A good value menu with a variety of food that my children like. The empty plates spoke for themselves.


My husband and I chose from the new Christmas menu. Here you could have a starter and main and get a free dessert. For the starter we both opted for manzo crocchette. This tasted fantastic dipped in the horseradish and creme fraiche dipping sauce and was totally different to a starter I would normally go for.


Again, totally different was the pizza. Both of us opted for the Cauliflower e Carne Romana pizza. Cauliflower cheese is one of my favourite meals but I wouldn't have thought of putting it on a pizza before.


To finish the meal I had to go for the snow dough balls. I love the garlic ones and it turns out that I love sweet ones too. My husband opted for the panettone cheesecake which he says was lovely.


It was a lovely meal, and the fact that the children were happy with their colouring made it even nicer. Vi from Dancing in my Wellies also enjoyed a meal here and you can see what her family chose here.

What are your recommendations for family friendly restaurants?

These polar bear cupcakes can't help but bring a smile to your face. They are simple to make, and you can even get the kids helping to make them!



I used some plain cupcakes with chocolate frosting to make my polar bear cupcakes, but I think a chocolate cake with mint buttercream would be goo too.

Polar Bear Cupcakes

• 4oz butter
• 4oz caster sugar Sugar
• 4oz self raising flour
• 2 medium eggs

For The Polar Bear Decoration 


• White fondant icing
• Black fondant icing (or some ready made edible eyes.)
• White marshmallows
• A brown icing pen
• A packet of mini smarties
• Frosting

Unfortunately my eldest wasn't as keen, stating it was torture seeing them hanging from the tree and not eating them all!

They are simple to make and work best if you make them thin. I had a couple of fat ones that were a bit too heavy and fell on the floor.

Gingerbread Snowflake Decorations

• 350g plain flour

• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 2tbsp ground ginger

• 100g butter

• 150g muscavado sugar

• 4tbsp golden syrup

• 1egg

To decorate:

• Icing sugar

• water

• ribbon

1. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, butter ,sugar, golden syrup and egg together to form a dough.
2.  Place in  the fridge to harden
3. Roll out and cut star shapes
4. Make a hole in the top of each with a skewer or a straw
5. Bake at 180C until golden brown
6. When you take the biscuits out of the oven use a skewer to make sure the hole hasn't closed up.
7. When cool tie ribbon around so that they can be hung up.
8. Mix icing sugar with a small amount of water and place in a piping bag with a small circular nozzle.
9. Ice, to give a snowflake effect.

This caramel apple bark is easy to make and would make a great homemade gift this Christmas. Don't forget to check out candy cane bark if mint is more your thing.


I was sent some Kiddylicious apple crisps after they spotted my caramel apple popcorn recipe and loved it. (It is lovely!)

Caramel Apple Bark

• 100g milk chocolate
• 100g of white chocolate
• 2 pieces of fudge
• 1/2 packet of Kiddylicious apple crisps
• vegetable oil

They have also kindly offered a selection of Kiddylicious products for me to giveaway to one of my readers so they can try Kiddylicious too! Just complete the Gleam entry below. Good Luck!

A Selection Of Kiddylicious Goodies

Easy Penguin Cupcakes

• 2 eggs
• 4oz caster sugar 
• 4oz self raising flour
• 4oz butter

For The Topping 


• Frosting or buttercream
• Black icing (prepared with CMC)
• White icing (prepared with CMC)
• Yellow icing (prepared with CMC)

The new range can be purchased from Asda. It includes the new and improved Basil Pesto with Pine Nuts & Garlic as well as the  Parmigiano-Reggiano sauce. Whist I was there I picked up some of their pasta as well for another quick and easy meal. The sauces are in the fresh sauce section, but have a best before dates of a few weeks, so they are great to keep in the fridge for when you need a super quick meal.



The Parmigiano-Reggiano sauce is blended with cream for a full-flavoured sauce that remains a classic, indulgent dish both in Italy and the UK. I decided to combine mine with some gnocchi for a quick and tasty lunch. This recipe will serve four people.

Gnocchi With Chicken And Parmigiano-Reggiano Sauce

• 500g gnocchi
• 100g Baby button mushrooms
• 75g asparagus tips
• 1 tub of Giovanni Rana Parmigiano-Reggiano Sauce
• 2 pre-cooked chicken breasts sliced 
• Optional: grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and garlic bread to serve

I have been extremely impressed with the sauces from Giovanni Rana and am looking forward to trying some more products in the range. Have you tried them yet? What is your favourite? For more recipe ideas, check out the Giovanni Rana website.

It is 1st December, which means that Christmas is now officially on it's way. 25 days to be exact. But do not panic (easier said than done I know!) Here are my top tips to help Christmas go smoothly without breaking the bank.


Presents

Don't leave it until the last minute to get your presents. Buy them as early as you can. Before you buy anything online check out Zeek. I reviewed them a while back and have been using them to help my Christmas shopping cost less. You can basically buy discounted gift vouchers through the app - some are for instore use but many are online codes. You can sign up using my affiliate link here. This means that when you have made a purchase both you and I will recieve £5 we can use for our next one. More money saving!

If you have a large family, then doing a secret Santa for the adults is a great idea. If the kids want to but presents too, why not get them to make some gifts. These Reindeer hot chocolate cones are simple to make and will put a smile on anyone's face.


Decorations

You don't need to spend a fortune on decorations. Infact you can make your own, really simply and often very low cost. SALTROCK have complied a fantastic post filled with ideas for creating DIY Christmas decorations using natural materials. If you go on a woodland walk and pick up some pine cones there are ideas galore. A garland, pom pom decorations and a table centre piece to name but a few.

Image Credit Saltrock

Food

Just because it is Christmas, doesn't mean that you have to over eat. Sometimes I think that we order twice as much food than we can possibly eat just because the supermarket will be shut for a day or two. My advice is not to go too overboard with the food shopping. Buying some frozen bits that can be cooked if needed is a great idea. Finally, make use of your leftovers. This Mother Christmas' pie, is possibly better than Christmas dinner itself!

Wishing you all a great Christmas (without breaking the bank!) What are your top tips for saving money over Christmas?