Month: April 2013

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Do you like your chips baked or fried?

McCain Oven Chips

Waking up coughing, I looked on as the door of my bedroom opened and the most gorgeous man I have ever seen in my life walked in through the door.  Dressed all in his fireman togs, I was then completely unaware of the rancid black smoke that wafted around him.  The hero of my ten-year old future dreams always played out with a macho fireman whisking me away from my dangerous foes.

Looking back, well before the days of oven chips in their dozens stocking supermarket shelves, we used to have to fry anything that needed chip style cooking.   My mother can make a mean roast, but she’s never been an adventurous cook, so all I learned from her was the basics.

We used to have a big ordinary pan as a chip pan, 16-year-old brother managed to come home steaming drunk and fall asleep while he heated up the fat for a late night feast.  Needless to say, both occasions ended up in a visit from the fireman and a grounded teen, but only one ended up with the macho fireman at my bedroom door.

We had no chip pan from then on and even though I do have one now, and it has a thermometer and a lid, it only ever comes out for Xmas Day and the Tattie Balls that my family refuse to do without.  I even do my roasties in the oven.

McCain Oven Chips 1

The rest of the year, we make do with oven chips, or just plain old regular potatoes.  The man keeps threatening to pull out the fryer and use it more often, but that means he would also have to clean it, so it’s never actually happened despite the threats.    The kids do like chips though and we go through a fair few bags over the space of a year.

The kids current favourite is McCain Oven Chips, so I was happy when they asked us to sample some of their Healthier Chip Range and the 5% fat, straight cut oven ready chips, made with just a dash of sunflower oil.  It was a bit of a no brainer here as they’re the popular ones anyway.

With 6 people to feed, the big bags are what we need and we were happy with the level of crispness from the oven that all chips should have.  I really dislike soggy chips.   I did have to cook them for longer than it said in the instructions in my oven, but it was no big deal.

I’d like to give the 3% fat rustic chips a go, so I’ll have to keep an eye out for those next time I am in the supermarket.

Thanks McCain, the chips got the thumbs up from the kids.

 

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Kangaroo and Buffalo Burgers

Buffalo Burger Cooked 570

My favourite online butcher, Andrew Gordon Butchery and Fine Foods has taken in some wonderfully unusual meat for burger making.

He now frequently has Kangaroo, Waygu, Buffalo and Zebra burgers, as well as a few Springbok ones in stock.   I was in past and came away with some Kangaroo and Buffalo burgers.

Buffalo Burger 570

The man seemed initially skeptical of the contents or taste of the burgers, but once cooked, he was highly delighted and ate two whole massive 200g Buffalo Burgers to himself.

A quick shallow fry in a frying pan in some rapeseed oil, popped in a bun with a cheese slice, lettuce, tomatoes and radish.

Buffalo and Kangaroo Burgers Cooked

Fabulous.

 

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Retro Prawn Cocktail Recipe

Making a prawn cocktail is something that the man of the house does quite often.    We had king prawns to hand and since we are doing the Healthy Hearts campaign with Fish is the Dish, it seemed a good idea to make a King Prawn Cocktail in the old-fashioned way.  We don’t use Worcester sauce so ours misses that out.

King Prawn Cocktail Recipe

Lesley Smith
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Course Starter
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 800 g King Prawns
  • 270 g Mayonnaise
  • 150 g Tomato Ketchup
  • 1 Iceberg Lettuce To Serve
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Tomberries To Serve
  • 10 ml Lemon Juice

Instructions
 

  • Mix the tomato sauce, mayonnaise, lemon juice and a very small pinch of salt and pepper in a bowl to create a Marie Rose Sauce.
  • Wash the King Prawns, dry them (I used kitchen roll) and add them to the mix. Ensure are fully covered with the Marie Rose Sauce you made.
  • With your serving dishes, decide whether to shred your lettuce, or layer it in your dish. I layered this version.
  • Serve on top of the lettuce, add tomberries and a little seasoning if desired.

 

 

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WordPress Brute Force Attack Advice

None of us can sit totally on our laurels and think we’re safe from any hack on any website.

The hackers don’t care if we’re large or small, they just want to use our webspace.   There’s been a lot of talk about what to do to protect ourselves from Brute Force attacks, and while we can do as much as we can, I don’t think it’s possible to protect ourselves from everything.

If we’re attacked by a botnet of about 90,000 addresses to choose from, we do need to try and do something to mitigate the risk to our blogs.

WordPress itself has done a lot of work to help us with this, and Matt Mullenweg who is the creator of WordPress has released a statement that outlines a fix we can all use to help ourselves.

What he said is more of less that WordPress 3 allows us to use custom names when we install our blogs and that we should be changing the default “Admin” username.

He said:

 “Almost 3 years ago we released a version of WordPress (3.0) that allowed you to pick a custom username on installation, which largely ended people using “admin” as their default username. Right now there’s a botnet going around all of the WordPresses it can find trying to login with the “admin” username and a bunch of common passwords, and it has turned into a news story (especially from companies that sell “solutions” to the problem).

Here’s what I would recommend: If you still use “admin” as a username on your blog, change it, use a strong password, if you’re on WP.com turn on two-factor authentication, and of course make sure you’re up-to-date on the latest version of WordPress. Do this and you’ll be ahead of 99% of sites out there and probably never have a problem. Most other advice isn’t great — supposedly this botnet has over 90,000 IP addresses, so an IP limiting or login throttling plugin isn’t going to be great (they could try from a different IP a second for 24 hours).”

Looking at his advice, he recommends changing any username from admin to something else and making our passwords stronger.  If Admin is the weak link, then change it we must.   The admin login is set when we set up our blogs, and changing it is actually really easy.

I do have a login limiting plugin with Wordfence which I like, but it clearly isn’t enough on its own.

To Change your Admin username, or make a new one, simply follow the instructions.

Username 1

  1. Login as your Admin User Account.
  2. Make sure your WordPress version is up-to-date.
  3. Click Add New on the User tab in your dashboard.
  4. You will need a new e-mail address to set up a new user.
  5. Choose “Administrator” as the Role.
  6. Don’t choose a username that you are known by elsewhere.  For me, choosing Lesley as a username would be weak as it’s my name and it’s on my blog for anyone to find.
  7. With your password, choose a difficult one with a mix of letters, numbers, symbols and both uppercase and lowercase letters.
  8. Don’t click to send the password by e-mail.  The fewer places it goes online the better.
  9. Click “Add User”.
  10. Logout of your Admin Account and login as your new user.
  11. Go back to your User tab in your dashboard and click “All Users”
  12. Go to the Admin User and Hover above the name.  You will see the option to edit or delete.  Click to delete.
  13. It will give you the option to attribute all posts by the Admin User Account to another username.  Choose your selection.
  14. Click “Confirm Deletion”.

That’s all you have to do to help keep your website a bit more safe from the Brute Force attack.   If your logins are weak or easy to guess, go change them as fast as you can.

 

 

 

 

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Chicken Mayonnaise Panini with Lettuce

One of the pieces of equipment that does live in a drawer in our house and gets used fairly frequently with growing boys is our panini press.  We tend to get our chicken from our local butcher Andrew Gordon Butchery and Fine Foods nowadays, so I know it’s all good stuff.  I buy the lighter mayonnaise and add some herbs to make it more interesting, and a favourite standby food is always a panini.

My Kenwood panini maker actually reminds me a lot of a George Foreman grill, and if I had one of those, I’d be tempted to try making paninis with one of those.

I often make my own bread, but in emergencies, it has been known to be a shop bought loaf, or even the ready made panini bread from Costco, which I’ve used for this chicken and mayonnaise panini.

We were out of much in the way of vegetables, and with only a sad lettuce in the salad drawer, it just had to be added for the health option.

Chicken and Mayonnaise Panini with Lettuce

Lesley Smith
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Panini, Snack, Toastie
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 4 Chicken Breast Fillets
  • 3 heaped tablespoons Mayonnaise
  • Lettuce
  • Butter
  • Salt and Pepper

Instructions
 

  • Set the panini maker on to heat up.
  • Simply cut open the panini bread and butter the inside. You don't need to butter the outside of the bread with a panini maker, but I know some people still do. My eldest doesn't like butter, so his is made without any butter at all.
  • Dice the chicken breasts and cook them fully, whether in a frying pan, in the oven, or steamed. This is also a good recipe for left over chicken from the previous day.
  • Mix the cooked chicken breast with the mayonnaise and fill the opened panini. Add salt and pepper if you wish. Top it with the lettuce and close as you would a sandwich.
  • Pop into the panini maker, close the lid and leave for approximately 5 - 10 minutes.
  • Garnish and serve.

 

 

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Sponsored: A great night’s sleep guaranteed.

Sleeping Child

Every parent knows that establishing a regular “bedtime” routine for your kids is far from the easiest task in the world.  In her new book Sleep Solutions: Quiet Nights for You and Your Child, celebrity nanny Rachel Waddilove stresses that a regular bedtime routine is absolutely crucial.

She provides some useful tips on how to manage children’s sleep habits in a manner that is beneficial to parents and children alike. Waddilove points out that it is best to avoid confrontations with your child. Gradually starting a new bedtime routine is a good way to address the situation. Here are a few of her key suggestions:

Switch-off:

Winding down and having a moment of calm before bedtime is a great way to establish a routine.  Think about switching off computers and video games at least 45 minutes prior to bed, and any TV shows or films should also be either switched off or turned down.

Let your child set their own alarm clock:

Giving your child small responsibilities can heighten their awareness of the importance of bedtime, and give them a sense of pride in their ability to manage their own sleeping habits.  Gift them an alarm clock when they are in pre-school. (Teach them how to use it, of course!)  This will help them to establish not just a waking routine but also teach the importance of going to bed on time.

Choosing the right bed:

Littlewoods Bed 1

A quality bed goes a long way to guaranteeing a sound slumber. When choosing a mattress, try to find one that is cotton-based for the best comfort. A softer mattress is also recommended, as it is the best for a child’s growing body. A little planning can help give your children a healthy and comfortable bedroom environment.

For more ideas, why not take a look at Littlewoods’s collection of children’s beds and furniture. It’s a great range which is affordable, safe and fun for kids.

This post was brought to you in collaboration with Littlewoods.

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Roasted Whole Rainbow Trout Recipe (Lemon & Parsley)

Roasted Rainbow Trout

Roasted Rainbow Trout was a mixed bag for us.   More commonly known as Baked Trout, it’s actually so simple that any recipe can be used for it.  All we are doing is taking the rainbow trout and baking it whole in the oven.  I flavour with lemon and parsley on top of salt and pepper – and that is really it – simple baked rainbow trout.

The kids washed their hands to touch the rainbow trout before it was cooked.   Don’t ask me why, I have no idea.

Rainbow Trout 1

I wasn’t too sure how the kids would take having it to eat for tea, especially cooked with the head on, but it really looks impressive served on a platter.  My kids were a little squeamish at seeing the eyes cooked as they go from having a black pupil to going white like our blind dog.

Here’s how we made it.

Whole Baked Rainbow Trout with Lemon and Parsley

Lesley Smith
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Mains

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Rainbow Trout Per Person The bones easily separate once cooked.
  • 1 Lemon Per Person
  • Cherry Tomatoes To Serve
  • Parsley To Garnish and Serve
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Salad To Serve

Instructions
 

  • If your rainbow trout are shop bought, they'll already be gutted and opened along the belly. If you catch them while fishing, you will have to perform that task. Make sure you rinse them well under the tap, inside and out. When you open the trout to wash it, you'll see a blood line along the backbone. Scrape that off before cooking, or it might affect the taste. Set your oven to approximately 130 C / 250 F.
  • Fill a large dish with tin foil, enough to make a parcel shape for your baked trout. You don't want your fish tightly bound. Lay your fish on the tin foil and fill with thinly cut lemon slices, salt, pepper and parsley.
  • Loosely enclose the parcel with the tinfoil and bake for 30 minutes.
  • Remove from oven, serve whole with salad or vegetables, garnish on plate with lemon and parsley.

Middler was the one who chose the Rainbow Trout as a meal option, so I think he felt he had to give it a go, so he had a nice big plateful and wanted more.   I really wish I was as healthy an eater as he is.

 

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Sponsored: Squeezing in another holiday this year?

The thing we do as a family is to go holidaying in the UK.   We plan to take a few short breaks in 2013, and we’ve already had one.    As caravanners, we appreciate the ability to do as we please, and still have a nice comfy base to go back to when we’re finished sightseeing, playing, or just popping around the local area for the day.

Skyline Pavilion Minehead

We’ve not made it to Butlins yet, but talking to the rep at Cybermummy 2011, I was tempted to put my hat in the ring as a blog ambassador, but decided it was too far for us to go several times in one year.  My kids love the holiday camp style entertainment centres although they take a bit of getting used to for me, so we do go at least once a year to one of them.

Holiday camps are great for kids and to keep them busy, there are lots on offer at Butlins resorts.

Although there have been many changes over the history of Butlins since it opened in 1936, the current resorts are:

Bognor Regis

Which hosts three hotels and can be found in West Sussex, beside the South Downs.

Minehead

In Somerset, right in the hub of Exmoor, with lovely beaches.

Skegness

Skegness is THE first Butlins resort and is in Lincolnshire.  Skegness would be the closest one to us and the one we’d think about visiting in the future, so I’ve concentrated on what they would have to offer for us as a family.

Accommodation

With a choice of rooms or apartments at Skegness, there seems to be a price point for any family with standard, silver and gold options.

Entertainment

There is a new splash waterworld,  with fast flumes, a shallow beach area and family raft rides, my kids would be well catered for here.  With football coaching on offer, I think two of my boys would be kept well amused for hours on end.

Fairground Attractions

Butlins have carousels and other rides to keep kids happy.  There are no extra charges for the outdoor fairground and rides are thankfully free.   Although it wouldn’t be appropriate for my kids as they’re older, there is also an indoor funfair just for kids under 5.

Live Shows

With Reds and Centre Stage to choose from, there will a range of live music and dance shows.    There are loads to choose from, including Bob the Builder and Fireman Sam for kids, and all included in the price of the holiday.  The traditional and famous red coats also take a turn at putting on their own shows, so there seems to be something for everyone.  The live shows would be what kept my special needs child entertained for hours on end, so this may be worth a long drive and a visit from us.

Food

No holiday would be a holiday without food choices, the more the merrier.  Butlins gives plenty options for eating on site.

For a daily charge, there is food on offer in the buffet restaurant.   Choose from stir fries, carveries, traditional and continental breakfasts and much much more.  Children even have their own buffet counter to choose from, though I suspect my growing boys would simply wolf down loads from the adults choices.

Childfree

If you don’t want to take the kids, go with their live music weekends for over 18’s.

Sponsored by Butlins 

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Kids, Money, Boredom and Avarice

While we were on holiday this year to Grannies Heilan Hame, it was obvious that lots of kids run to and from the holiday park shop, brandishing the third or fourth £5 or £10 item of the night.  Wheedling loudly, some slurring parents giggle at the kids who are coshing the have-nots over the head with their new-found lighty up things.

The giggling turns to annoyance as they hand over fivers and tenners a time for their kids to pop off and visit the arcades downstairs.   I usually sit as far away from them as I can, scattered among the other disbelieving parents and wonder at how they can give each child £10 – £20 and often much more to spend each and every day they are on holiday.  They fritter it away in arcade machines or spend on rubbish from the holiday park shops.   This year, balloon machines seemed to be the most popular toy of choice.

Given how much my kids struggle, I’m quite pleased with how they take not being so flush with money as many of the other kids.   Mine usually grumble, but they live with it and accept reasonably well that their friends often have a never-ending supply of tenners in their young pockets.

I give mine £2.50 a day each to spend on what they want most days, and they are often happy enough with that.  I top up for a holiday park junk purchase on the last night and they seem to accept that well and I think what I give them is a lot to give kids on holiday.   One of mine gets more annoyed than the others about how much (or little as he sees it) they get, but being on holiday helps and they get on with enjoying it as best they can.

I just don’t know how some families do it.  Do they just not eat at home so that their kids have what I think is a fortune a week to spend on junk? I know it’s easier with one child than with multiples, but even so, it’s still a lot of money per child.

I know that taking kids out for a day is expensive, and that even a cinema trip would set us back a small fortune even if I do take drinks and sweets with us, but I’d never do that every day.  Some of my kids friends are out EVERY day of the school holidays and not to cheap or free things either.

What I can never work out is when these kids ever learn to be bored.   If they don’t learn to be bored, how are they going to amuse themselves from boredom when it’s really needed?  Perhaps having special needs makes it more important that kids learn to cope with being bored, but all I see is a large part of a whole new generation that may end up as whole life credit junkies.

I made sure my kids were bored for part of our holiday, and they relieved it by digging holes in the sand and watching them fill up again when the tide came in.

Grannies Heilan Hame Digging

Lets bring on more boredom and free activities, and get our kids doing more of the 50 things for free, it’s good for them.

Some of the 50 THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU’RE 11 ¾ from the National Trust we did again. 

5. Skim a stone.
6. Hunt for treasure on the beach.
37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool

Our things.

  1. Digging a huge hole in the sand and letting the sea fill it in.
  2. Play football on the beach.
  3. Talk to a sheep.

 

 

 

 

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Scotty Brand Coleslaw and Potato Salad

scotty-brand-blogger-badge

Scotty Brand were kind enough to send us some of their newly available Scottish Coleslaw and Scottish Potato Salad.   We buy a lot of coleslaw as it’s just so much easier than making it, but I find many potato salads very vinegary and tend not to buy them.   Scotty Brand potato salad was actually quite creamy and oniony and went down pretty well with the kids.    I am trying to be good food wise so I had some sugar snap peas, runner beans and broccoli for my evening meal with a generous helping of both the potato salad and coleslaw.   It was actually pretty filling.

Coleslaw and Potato Salad 2

The pots are 300g and should be available in Asda now for £1.

Coleslaw and Potato Salad 4

Coleslaw and Potato Salad 3

Scotty Brand says

Scotty Brand Scottish Coleslaw

A blend of shredded cabbage, carrots and onions combined with our special mayonnaise for just the right mix of creamy, crunchy, tanginess.  The recipe has been used by the Adams for almost 20 years – it is creamier than many coleslaws.  The cabbage is cut by hand before the ingredients are combined together in small batches of exactly the right proportions in Craig’s shiny new preparation room.

Scotty Brand Scottish Potato Salad

A creamy combination of diced potatoes, salad onions and mayonnaise.  The potatoes are cooked in small batches and cut a little larger than most to allow you to savour the potato flavour and to give an improved texture.  Scotty Brand potato salad is an ideal accompaniment to a green salad or it is a luxurious side-dish for many main dishes.

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R.I.P Lady Thatcher

Downing Street S1

Driving along Union Street we were faced with board after board after board with the huge letters instilling fear into everyone who had taken out a mortgage in the last few years. Suburbs became festooned with placards stuck into grass, onto windows, and at the end of roads.

“For Sale”

As a young adult, the Thatcher years meant that the first home I bought rose so much in the cost of the badly advised endowment mortgage of the time that I had to sell it at a loss as I couldn’t keep up the payments on it AND afford to pay for heat, light and food too.

I became very anti the Thatcher Government politics of the time. The only thing they did controversially that I approved of was the poll tax which they bailed out on.

As a party, they decimated the working population, but let’s not kid ourselves that they did it alone. Or even worse, blame it all on one woman as the figurehead.

The ruling classes have claimed power again and again, and they all blame it on the party that’s gone before.

She’s been out of power for 20 years, but the other parties didn’t change what was started, although they’ve had 2 decades since to change our country and it’s economic direction.

It’s not her fault that the bankers messed up or that the government bailing them out left the small people as the biggest losers yet again. That’s all down to greed.

She’s a woman with a family and yes, her party made what I think was a mess, but we can’t take away the determination, the brain and the respect that the woman commanded.

I didn’t like her party politics, but blaming her for all the ills of the UK is just plain wrong. She’s passed on and no doubt left a massive gaping hole in her family.

As to the ceremonial funeral, if they plan to give that to all Prime Ministers, I’d find that easier to take. As it is I struggle with it, but the decision has been taken and I hope her day passes with as little malice as possible. We all make mistakes and perhaps it’s time for people to stop blaming her for everything that’s gone on in the UK for the last 30 years.

R.I.P Lady Thatcher. I wish you a peaceful day and hope your family are allowed to mourn without hated.

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Review: Physics Discovery Kit, Sent By Crafts 4 Kids

Crafts4kids kindly sent us a Physics Discover Kit from Thames and Kosmos.

Turbo-Dragster 1

The Physics Discovery kit is for ages 8+ and has 17 experiments in total where kids can learn physics by making fun models to use at home.  There are a whopping 14 models that can be built with the kit we were sent and kids can learn about Mechnaical Advantage for pulleys, blocks and tackles, kinetic energy by building a rubber band powered dragster, leverage, speed and much more.

The kids being kids, they were determined to start with the rubber band powered dragster.    We duly sat down and separated out all the pieces that we needed to get it done.   Eldest started off and began threading through wheels and then got stuck.  I had a look and I just couldn’t figure out how to do it.  I wasn’t sure if the instructions were how my pieces were in front of me, or if it was reversed like a photograph.

Turbo-Dragster 2

I have to say that we found it quite challenging, although fun.   I gave up and left the car to the man when he got time to help with it.   From the time he sat down until the time the car was completely finished, it took nearly 4 hours in total for that one model alone.  My kids being my kids refused to go back and start with any other model or experiment until the one they wanted was done.  They did pick one of the hardest ones to start with though.  We’ve not managed to explore the rest of the box yet and I suspect this kit is going to last us the rest of this year for things to do on miserable days / evenings.

We’ve had some discussions around throwing contests and how to work out the ball’s trajectory, but are yet to put it into practice.  Summer will help teach how that relates to gravity.

Physics Discovery Experiment Kit

Dad ended up taking over as it was a little too challenging for my kids, and even he had to scratch his chin many many times and he struggled with the small pictures.

His suggestions were for bigger photographs or more detailed instructions.

Turbo-Dragster 3

We also struggled with the 6 washers provided and that it said was needed, but the photo seemed to show 7.  We still managed to get it to work and if you loosen the paper that makes the car body, it goes faster.  I have a video of them making it but our Internet connection isn’t letting me upload it as it is a bigger file.

It’s a fab wee kit and most kids will need adults to help them with it.  It’s a good way to bond really as I doubt eldest and his dad have spent that much time alone together working on something all year.

I did manage to upload the wee video, so, see our dragster go…..

http://youtu.be/2-H0T05GZ1s