Month: October 2015

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Review: BISSELL POWERGLIDE CORDLESS VACUUM CLEANER

I have a live giveaway running for one of these Bissell Powerglide Cordless Vacuum Cleaners.  It ends on the 30th November 2015, so get your skates on if you want to enter.

Bissell Vacuum

It’s a new vacuum for Bissell, and they’re really excited by the new launch.  Bissell sent me one to review and it’s been put to the test on my floors regularly.  We badly needed a new one, as for the last wee while, we’ve been sharing my mother’s one, as I’d never got round to actually finding one for us.

The cordless ability is what drew me to this, and why I agreed to carry it and also run a giveaway.

Here’s what I think of it.

Putting It Together

The man was home, so he put it together, but if he hadn’t been, I’d have had no problem getting this ready for use.  Compared to some other vacuums I’ve slotted together, the assembly was relatively simply.  It literally was just slot the handle into the extension piece, then slot it into the base unit.   After that, just pop the hose into the connector and click it into place.

Bissell Powerglide 2

Attaching the lift off portion to the base is quick and easy.  The battery is even easier.  It’s just a slot into place until it clicks.  It does need a firm push, but feels sturdy and secure.

ChargingBissell Powerglide Battery

The battery comes out of the vacuum for charging, and slots into it’s own charger, which can take up to 2 hours for a full charge.  The run time is 45 minutes per change, which seems to last us a fair time.

Vacuuming Floors

On the left side, the on and off button is on it’s own.  On the other side, the brush bar has its own button, which is on and off.  In front of the brush bar button, there’s another, which determines the power used, ie high  or low.

For hard floors, it’s recommended to turn off the brush bar.  I mostly used my vacuum on the high power setting at all times, which worked out great for us, but on our laminate floors, I only needed the low power for it to work perfectly well.

Bissell Powerglide Battery Compartment and Brushes

On our carpets, it did the job I needed it to do.  The swivel head means that it’s easy to move around furniture and get under the radiators without having an aching hand by trying to manoeuvre it.  I did find the suction quite powerful on carpets, which was a surprise for a cordless vacuum.

Stairs/ Lift Off

The lift off is easy to do.  Press the bottom half of the release button at the back and the top portion separates from the brush bar.  Flick the dial at the side from vacuum to lift off and pull the hose from the top, then just vacuum away.  On wooden stairs, it’s perfect.  I’d have liked a bit more oompf when using the lift off for carpeted stairs, but it did the job with a little extra time.  I’m not complaining. Bissell Powerglide Lift Off

Where it did a grand job was overhead cleaning.  The carry piece is light enough for me to lift the wand high enough to zap cobwebs from the ceiling in our garage.  There isn’t a close enough socket for regular cleaners, and that has a tendency to get overlooked.

Emptying

It’s a one button release from the vacuum, then, although it isn’t totally handsfree, it’s close enough.  A little catch releases the dirt container lid, and the dirt falls into a bin below.   I did open the top to see how easy it would be to clean, and it scored plenty of points with me here.  The filter is wash and re-useable but since our machine is new, I’ve not tried this to see how long it takes to dry.

Best Feature

It’s a bit of a no brainer isn’t it?  Being cordless, there is no tangling, no picking up and moving of cords wrapped round fingers, or behind a shoulder, or unplugging and replugging to do another room.  The carpet in our extension is getting done more often because it’s simply walk through with the vacuum and get it done.

Likewise with the stairs.  I really dislike juggling cords and having to change plugs several times, and it doesn’t help that the socket at the top of our stairs no longer works, so I have to use an extension lead from a bedroom.

I’ve used the vacuum for a few days now, and I’ve found it much more helpful than I ever imagined. Instead of always bending down with a brush and shovel, it’s simply a case of grabbing the Bissell and clearing crumbs and mess from the floors, especially the kitchen, where breadcrumbs seem to find their way into everything.

Ou cordless vacuum cleaner has already had lots of use, and I can’t see that changing any time soon.

Bissell Powerglide 2

Bissell provided the Powerglide Cordless Vacuum Cleaner for review. Opinions are my own.

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Nutribullet Recipe: Carrot and Blackberry Smoothie

Nutribullet Blackberry and Carrot 8002

Wickedly sumptuous, I added a little xylitol to combat the bitter taste of the blackberries we picked from the plot.  I did wonder if the carrots were over the top, but they mixed well.

Nutribullet Recipe: Carrot and Blackberry Smoothie

Lesley Smith
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 1 minute
Cook Time 2 minutes
Total Time 3 minutes
Course Smoothie
Cuisine Nutribullet
Servings 1

Ingredients
  

  • 100 g Blackberries
  • 50 g Shredded Carrot
  • 50 g Strawberries tops still on
  • 1 Teaspoon Xylitol or sweetener
  • 400 ml Unsweetened Almond Milk - I think you know by now this is my favourite smoothie milk.

Instructions
 

  • Pop the ingredients into the cup.

  • Add the milk and blast for a minute, let the machine rest for a minute, then blast again for another minute.

  • Serve and enjoy.

 

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Halloween Is Coming

This often fills my heart with dread.  Standing out in the freezing cold for ages, while little cherubs run amok through the streets, knocking on doors and telling jokes to get sweeties.

My middle boy is now a teen.  He’s the same height as me, and takes a size 8 shoe already.  He STILL wants to go door to door, asking why the chicken crossed the road, and the house owners look at him with staring eyes, as the answer is always ‘to eat his supper.’

Our kids call it Trick or Treating nowadays.  Americanism has taken over, in more than just Halloween, but the kids love dressing up, so who am I to spoil their fun.

Halloween

This year, his disability is embarrassing him, and to be honest, at times, the rest of the family too.  Our embarrassment is for him, as we’re used to his antics and inappropriate comments and funny hand actions, and sometimes, just sometimes, the unbelieving looks from strangers get through, and he understands he’s made a big faux pas.

We try to head it off by only visiting houses where people know him, but with the pumpkin outside the house rule, he can take off to join the tots at the home of someone I don’t know.  All I can do is raise my eyebrows and try to send a telepathic signal to the disbelieving recipient of the chicken dinner joke, that makes them laugh, despite knowing it’s not even a joke, let alone a funny one.

Half a decade of trying to get him to change his joke has come to nothing.  This year, I’m not even going to try.

The best bit about Halloween, is when it’s over….  We can retreat back inside our front door, while he dumps his bag of sweets on the lounge floor and tries to count them out.

Recapping some of the Halloween, here’s Devils Food Cake Recipe from a couple of years ago too.

Enjoy your spooky evening.

Happy Halloween

Devils Food Cake Halloween Nigella 570
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Imperfect, but tasty and quick scones.

I’ve never been one for great and fancy dishes, unless there’s a good reason, so most of what I make, is quickly thrown together, and my scones are no different.

My mother has taken a liking to scones this week, and she fancied one today.  The local cafe was shut, so it was out with the KMix and on with the flour and butter.  These literally take five minutes or so, to get from the ingredients to the baking stage, so they’re also perfect for if you get visitors, and you’re caught on the hop.

I get nine imperfect but tasty scones from this mix.  How many can you get?  I think I’ll be making this recipe more and more as time goes on.  It’s actually much tastier than bread and can be used instead of bread, almost everywhere.

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I do sometimes wonder what a scone would taste like in the place of a dumpling when I make a stew.  One day, I must find out.  I don’t think scones should be reserved for jam and cream.  Serving one with soup would be fabulous too.

I’ve often fancied trying ones with self raising flour, rather than the traditional plain flour I’ve been used to, and I used less flour than I would use normally, with the hope that the scones would turn out light and fluffy.

A basic reminder that scones need to be handled very little, as the more mixing and turning there is, the heavier they tend to turn out.

These were more popular than my usual plain flour scones, so I might just stick to this in future, and try some different variations around it.   Ok, the tops weren’t perfect, but the scones did look good in their own sweet way.

Imperfect, but tasty and quick scones.

Lesley Smith
2 from 1 vote
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 9

Ingredients
  

  • 350 g Self Raising Flour
  • 60 g Caster Sugar
  • 85 g Butter Cubed
  • 180 g Milk
  • 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence
  • 1 Egg
  • Cream and Jam to serve.
  • 1 tsp Baking Powder

Instructions
 

  • Put your oven on, at around 200 Degrees for a Fan Assisted oven, or 220 with no fan.

  • Throw your flour, caster sugar, baking powder & cubed butter into a mixer and set it on very low or fold, until it resembles breadcrumbs. If you don't have a mixer, just use your fingers to break the butter up and mix it with the dry ingredients.

  • Add the milk & vanilla essence, straight to the dry ingredients, then fold it in. The mix will seem sticky, but don't worry about it.

  • Put some self raising flour onto a board, chopping board, or table, and take the dough out of the mixer, form a loose ball, and gently roll it around on the flour, until the dough is no longer sticky.

  • All I did next, was to separate the mix into nine evenish pieces and form a ball shape, then slightly flatten it, before placing it onto a baking tray that I lined with baking paper and sprinkled with some more flour.

  • Use a fork to beat the egg, then use your fingers or a brush to coat the tops of the scones. Then, simply bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

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How to make unsweetened pecan milk.

Ok, I have to admit being a little ott about unsweetened almond milk.  I seem to use it for almost everything that needs milk, including smoothies, soups and much more.  The fact that it’s so low-calorie is what does it for me, but I wanted to try making some nut milks, to see how they do.

I’ve made soy milk in the past, and after finding almond milk, I’ve given up eating soy in any form at all.  I tend to make my smoothies with frozen fruit and veg, so mine are more like slushie consistency, but more creamy with milk.

Pecan Milk

I had a box of pecan nuts which needed eating, so I thought that would be as good a place to start as any.

I also didn’t have the patience to soak the nuts overnight on my first attempt, so I just went on whizzing mine up, although if you have a low watt blender, overnight soaking would be a better idea, as the nuts will leave far more gruel when it’s strained.  Milk from soaked pecans is definitely creamier.

I’ve taken an average of 1 litre of water to add to 2% pecan nut concentrate, as that’s what my favourite brand seems to say.

For this, I’m assuming 1ml = approx 1g, and 100g of my pecan halves being roughly 720 calories per 100g. That means, to keep the calorie content low, I need to use no more than 13 calories per 100g, which means I only have 130 calories to work with for a whole litre.

With 130 calories divided by 7.2 calories per gram, that leaves me with 18g of pecans that I can add to each litre of water.  That really does not sound like much, and I had little hope of the water turning white at first, but it does happen rather quickly.

Recipe: How to make unsweetened pecan milk.

Lesley Smith
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 2 minutes
Cook Time 2 minutes
Total Time 4 minutes
Servings 500 ml

Ingredients
  

  • 9 g Pecan Nuts
  • 500 ml Water
  • 2 Teaspoons Xylitol or substitute other sweetener

Instructions
 

  • Soak the pecans overnight if you can, then discard the soaking water for a smoother milk. If you're in a hurry, just add the pecans and water to your blender (I use Nutribullet). I blend for one minute, then rest for a minute, then blend for another minute again.

  • Strain the milk through a muslin square or similar, to remove the very fine grains. You don't have to do this, but I prefer the smoother texture.

  • Chill and enjoy. This doesn't keep for too long, so use it within a day or two.

  • If you like your milk thicker, just add more pecans at the next try. I wanted to keep mine low in the calorie department, but most people seem to make one third pecans to two thirds water.

 

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Win a Bissell Powerglide Cordless Vacuum Cleaner – Ends 30th Nov 2015

You might not know it yet, but Bissell have launched a new vacuum cleaner, and I have one to giveaway to a lucky reader. There is one on the way to me too, so I’ll post a review once I’ve had a chance to get my hands on it, and start cleaning away.

Bissell Vacuum

With an RRP of £249.99, this is a lovely giveaway for this time of year.

full-1The brand new PowerGlide Cordless Vacuum Cleaner, retails at a whopping £249.99, so this is a very nice giveaway indeed.

I’ll tell you a little about it.  Newly available for sale from the Bissell website directly, it is part of a new revolution in cordless cleaning.  With a super powerful vacuum, it houses a Lithium Ion battery with 45 minutes of full power run time.

It’s also said to be nice and light for carrying around.  I’m actually looking forward to being able to do stairs without lumping around cables, and stopping halfway though to move the cable to a different plug.

The other helpful things are:

Lift Off® Canister

Gives portable cleaning to access all hard to reach areas with ease.

Swivel Steering

For easy cleaning and navigation.

So, what do you have to do, to be in with the chance of winning a BRAND NEW Bissell PowerGlide® Cordless Vacuum Cleaner?

Bissell Powerglide Cordless Vacuum

Bissell

The Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Rules

– Open to UK Mainland Entrants only.

– 1 Winner will receive 1 Bissell Powerglide Cordless Vacuum.

– The prize will be sent direct from Bissell Marketing Team.

– The Scottish Mum Blog is not responsible for your prize and cannot be held liable in any way for non delivery or non receipt at your end.

– Winners will be notified by DM on Twitter, or e-mail. If the giveaway is not claimed within 14 days, a new winner may be drawn.

– The winners will be chosen by Rafflecopter random generator.

– Scottish Mum Blog and Bissell, reserve the right to amend, add or withdraw this giveaway at any time.

– Each entry method entitles you to one entry into the draw.

– The giveaway is not associated with any social media channels.

– The winning decision by Scottish Mum Blog is final.

– Closes 30th November 2015 at midnight.

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Expedia World on a plate – France

This was a very interesting challenge for me, given that until recently, we drove down to France on a yearly basis for our summer holidays.

Despite spending months in France, in total, I doubt that we’ve actually even tried anything that remotely resembles French cuisine.  In the past, I’ve always thought of frogs legs and yukky green things, and to be honest, never really gave it a chance.

DSC_0757

Expedia challenged me to come up with a dish that was inspired by France, and as part of their world on a plate challenge.

They sent me some lovely French ingredients to work with, including duck confit, black truffe paste (I had no idea what to do with this.  It took a bit of work to figure something out), fleur de sel sea salt, dried Morel mushrooms, red fruit coulis, a cheese wedge of Beaufort, goose fat, cooked chestnuts, chestnut puree and Perard fish soup.

As much as I tried, I couldn’t persuade anyone in my house to consider trying the fish soup, which is a shame, but it will go to a good home where it will be enjoyed.

DSC_0760

DSC_0618

The challenge for me, was what to do with those ingredients.  They’re not anywhere near my usual staples for cooking, so it did take some thinking.

A chestnut gravy seemed like a good place to start, and that’s where I did go, and used the truffle paste as part of that, to enable those who like the taste to try it, and those who don’t, to leave it off their plate.

As an underground fungi, they’re more like a type of below ground mushroom, and pigs seemingly like them.  Finding that out, means that I could add it to my chestnut gravy as a taste booster, or even to soups.

I do have to say though, that at nearly £50 a jar, it’s not something that would be on my shopping list.  For that reason, part of me is actually hoping truffles don’t become a taste or flavour that we enjoy too much as a family.

To make our meal, I took the advice on the tin of Duck Parfait, to remove the duck and put it into a roasting dish for cooking.  After 20 minutes, it was lovely and crispy on the outside.  I’d rubbed the skins with the salt, which added an unusual flavour.

With the addition of some lovely vegetables and a Chestnut Gravy Sauce that I made up on the spot with our ingredients, the meal was actually lovely, and well appreciated by all.  These aren’t ingredients I would have chosen originally, but even I was impressed with how good this looked at the dinner table.

Chestnut Gravy Sauce for Turkey

DSC_0726

Chestnut Sauce (Savoury) for Turkey

Lesley Smith
4 from 1 vote
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Course Accompaniment
Cuisine French
Servings 6 -8

Ingredients
  

  • 200 g Cooked Chestnuts.
  • 2 cms Chestnut Paste.
  • 1 Teaspoon Sea Salt.
  • 1 Clove Garlic chopped (optional).
  • 400 ml Unsweetened Almond Milk.
  • 1 Teaspoon Truffle Paste.

Instructions
 

  • I've made the garlic optional, as the truffle paste is very garlicky. It depends how strong you like your gravy sauces.

  • Combine all in a blender and whizz until as combined as it can get to. Mine ended up with some tiny black dots in the sauce, which gave it a little character.

  • Heat in a pan until thoroughly hot. If it's a little too strong, add a little cream to dilute it.

  • As truffles can be an acquired taste, serve in a dish on the side, so that diners can choose how much to use.

DSC_0736

Expedia provided or paid for all food in this post.  All views are my own.

 

 

 

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Pickled Beetroot Preserve & Foraging Fox Beetroot Ketchup

We have to admit to being beetroot fans around here, and I’m going to talk about two different beetrooty things today.

1 – The Beetroot Ketchup sample sent by the Foraging Fox.

2 – What I’ve done with the beetroot from our plot this year.

1 – Beetroot Ketchup

Foraging Fox sent us some beetroot ketchup to try, which was a no brainer as far as middler is concerned.  He’s not much into tomato ketchup, but he sure does love his beetroot.

The ketchup is made from naturally sweet beetroot, with apples and spices making up the distinctive taste.  I have to say, that I’d find this amazing in a home-made potato salad or coleslaw, for an extra taste kick, but our sample got used up so quickly, that I didn’t have time to make anything else with it.

2 – My Pickled Beetroot Recipe

We prefer it in sweet vinegar from the shops, and this was my first go at preserving some for using later, as we had so much from the plot.

I’m not 100% sure how long this will actually keep for, but at the rate my middle child goes with his beetroot, I can’t imagine it being around for too long.  There have been occasions where a jar has only lasted a day with him.

DSC_0669 DSC_0685

 

Pickled Beetroot Preserve

Lesley Smith
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Course Preserve
Cuisine Preserve

Ingredients
  

  • 3 kg Beetroot
  • 1 Litre White Vinegar
  • 400 g Caster Sugar
  • 1 Teaspoon Salt
  • Sterilised Jars

Instructions
 

  • Put rinsed beetroot (with skin on) into a big preserve pan and simmer for between 30 - 40 minutes, or until the skins on the beetroot can shed by rubbing your fingers across them. To do this, I have to take a beetroot from the pot, and run it under the tap, cooking it enough to try taking the skin off.

  • While the beetroot is simmering, put your vinegar and sugar into a pan and bring to the boil. At the beginning, the vinegar solution will look cloudy. Add in a salt, and also ensure the jars are sterilised for use. When the vinegar mix clears, it's ready for use. Take it off the boil.

  • When the beetroot are ready, peel off the outer skins and slice the beetroot, then add it to the pan of white vinegar. Some people use the beetroot cooking water for jarring up, but I didn't like the look of it, and I wanted to allow the sweetened vinegar to work its magic.

  • Fill your jars and leave the vinegar solution to soak in with the beetroot overnight. Then, enjoy your pickled beetroot.

 

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Curried Welsh Lamb Stew, Served with Chips – For #NationalCurryWeek

The week beginning Monday 12th, until the 18th October is National Curry Week.

Even as far up North as we are, we do appreciate a good curry, but in our house, curries tend to be more flavoursome than spicy.  My personal favourite is a korma, which has possibly influenced the taste buds of the not so little people in our home.  They don’t mind flavour and taste, but blisteringly hot is off the menu.

I was a little surprised, if I’m being honest, as I had no idea that national curry week even existed.  When I did a little digging, I found that it started in 1998, to promote the food, and raise money for charities dealing with poverty and hunger.  Some of your local curry houses might even have special deals on to celebrate.  If you’re a curry fan, it might be worth checking out, or you could even make your own.

Not everyone who likes a curry dish, likes the traditional accompaniments, so I added a slightly different theme to mine, as a way to bring a new flavour for my kids.  My curry dish is a curried lamb stew, made with some of the finest Welsh Lamb available.  I intended to feed someone who dislikes coconut, so although I’d normally add it to a curry I cooked for myself, I’ve left it out of this recipe.

Lamb

 

Curried Lamb Stew, Served with Chips - For #NationalCurryWeek

Lesley Smith
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Course Mains
Cuisine Lamb

Ingredients
  

  • 500 g Welsh Lamb
  • 2 Small Onions
  • 2 Teaspoons Ground Mild Curry Powder
  • 1 Teaspoon Ground Cumin
  • 1 Clove of Garlic
  • 1 Heaped Teaspoon Cornflour
  • 1 Knorr Stock Cube
  • 1 Teaspoon Butter
  • Water
  • 100 g Petit Pois Optional, but my kids love peas in things, so I added them to mine.

Instructions
 

  • Saute the onions and brown the lamb in a frying pan on a low heat, taking care not to burn the onions. Allow the mixture to sweat a little.

  • Break the stock cube over the simmering meat and onions.

  • Add the cumin and mild curry powder, and mix well in the pan, turning the meat and onions all the time, making sure they don't burn.
  • Add enough water to almost cover the meat and let the flavours mix together. I added my peas here.

  • Mix the cornflour into a past with a little water and add to the pan. When the stew begins to thicken, it's ready to transfer into an oven dish for the final step.

  • Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes on a moderate heat.

I was provided with a cut of Welsh Lamb to make this dish for National Curry Week.  #nationalcurryweek  #welshlamb

Lamb 4

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Win a box of Mackie’s Chocolate – Ends 6th November 2015

Some of you may have already seen the review of chocolate bars we were sent by Mackie’s of Scotland.    Mackie's chocolate

They’ve come back and agreed to send one of my lucky readers a box of their delicious chocolate.  Up for grabs, is a mixed box of 15 bars of lush chocolate, straight from Scotland, for one of my UK readers.

Although you can buy a box of chocolate from Mackie’s own website, this option for a mixed box, is not one that can be bought anywhere.  It’s a perfect win for anyone who likes a square of chocolate, or for someone you know who appreciates a silky smooth cocoa treat.

The chocolate is made from the very best cocoa liquor, with natural and GM-free ingredients for a unique taste of luxury.

The dark chocolate with mint is especially luxurious, although my soft spot is always for Traditional Milk Chocolate.  I think our personal favourites seem to stay with most of us for life.

The different flavours are:

  • Traditional Milk Chocolate.
  • Honeycomb.
  • Dark Chocolate.
  • Mint Dark Chocolate.

The winner can even make up their own choice of chocolate to go into the box if they wish.  Good luck to everyone entering.

The Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Rules

Open to UK Mainland Entrants only.

  • 1 Winner will receive a box of 15 Bars of Assorted Chocolate from Mackie’s.
  • The prize will be sent direct from Mackie’s.
  • The Scottish Mum Blog is not responsible for your prize and cannot be held liable in any way for non delivery or non receipt at your end.
  • Winners will be notified by DM on Twitter, or e-mail. If the giveaway is not claimed within 14 days, a new winner may be drawn.
  • The winners will be chosen by Rafflecopter random generator.
  • Scottish Mum Blog and Mackie’s, reserve the right to amend, add or withdraw this giveaway at any time.
  • Each entry method entitles you to enter the draw.
  • The giveaway is not associated with any social media channels.
  • The winner decision by Scottish Mum Blog is final.
  • Closes 6th November 2015 at midnight.
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Does how you live affect your chances of being burgled?

In collaboration with Legal and General.

It’s that time of year again, when burglaries start to rise, as thieves know most of us are likely to have some Christmas presents lurking around, but how vulnerable do we make ourselves?

When I was about 14, I came home from school, to find our front door open, and a pair of socks discarded on the steps in front of the door.  My neighbour was standing at our door, making sure I didn’t go in, just in case someone was still inside.  It was my first experience of a direct theft, that wasn’t just some other child nicking my stuff at school.

To make matters worse, the only thing we could find that had actually been taken, was my wages from my Sunday job in a shop, that I’d thrown on top of the piano before going to school.  Easy to find, and easy to pinch.

What’s worse, is that years later, I found out that a neighbour had seen the burglar enter our garden and then leave, but hadn’t come forward.  She KNEW who’d burgled us, but kept schtum.  The robber is long dead now, but the feeling of anger at someone taking what I’d worked so hard for, has never left me.

What also angers me, is that we’d left ourselves wide open to being an easy target for a burglar.  In spite of living one floor up, in a flat that shared a front door with another flat, we had no lock on the shared outside lobby door.  That was rectified pretty quickly.

Our lack of decent security, had meant the burglar could walk into the shared lobby and close the door behind him, leaving him all the time in the world to break down the inside doors.

Vintage Key in Sea

Our inner door was also too weak.  We’d never experienced a burglary before, neither my mother, nor myself, and as two females living alone, we really should have.  We had a flimsy yale lock on the inside door, which must have been easily shouldered through, as the damage when he broke in, was very slight.

So, for us, adding a new lock and changing the totally inadequate one on our flat door, made us feel safer for the next few years, and I’m much more safety conscious than I would have been, had we never been burgled.

When friends of mine leave their doors open when they’re at home, mine are always locked, unless it’s the patio doors when we’re out in the garden.  Ingrained habits are hard to break.

Legal and General have written an excellent article that helps us to understand hour our lifestyle can affect the safety of our homes.  It’s well worth a read for anyone who is unsure about thinking seriously about the potential for risk.

Having teenagers myself, it hadn’t hit me that a house with teenagers, actually increases our risk of being burgled, but it makes perfect sense to keep anything valuable out of sight, and not store things in the master bedroom.

Stay safe everyone, as as the run up to the festive season begins.

 

 

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Mackie’s, now sell chocolate. Yes, they do. Not just lush ice-cream. (Review)

In the past, Mackie’s has always stuck in my mind as the king of ice-creams around here, with the creamy, silky texture.  My mother is very ice-cream picky, and she could always tell if I tried to substitute with something else, if the shop had sold out of her favourite brand.

Mackies Chocolate 2

On Twitter, I was chatting with someone, who said Mackie’s sold chocolate, and from there, Mackie’s got in touch and sent me some samples to try.

Considering it’s Mackie’s, and it’s chocolate, there was no way I would say no to that.  They didn’t ask me to review, but the chocolate tasted so good, how could I not?

It was impressive to find that the ingredients are all natural, and GM-free, and my samples came in the following flavours.

  • Traditional Milk (My favourite)
  • Honeycomb Milk (Kids favourite)
  • Dark Mint Chocolate (Really really good.  I don’t usually like dark chocolate, but I liked this)
  • Dark Chocolate (I didn’t taste this, but I’m told it was lovely)

The chocolate is every bit as good as the ice-cream.  I put a bar of the Honeycomb Milk on my mum’s tray at night, as she often likes a square or two of chocolate if she wakes up during the night. When I took her up a coffee in the morning, all I could see was the empty wrapper…….  The Milk Chocolate was melt in the mouth good and creamy.  Just how I like it.

I can just imagine brownies, or chocolate tiffin, or melted chocolate with strawberries.

Mackie’s are even building a chocolate factory in Aberdeenshire, and that’s one place I am going to enjoy visiting when the time comes, next year, I think.

I saw the farm where Mackie’s make products on the news last night, with their impressive new solar farm, that will export power back into the national grid.

There are new flavours in the pipline, which might even include salted caramel and white chocolate.

Their Aberdeenshire farm has over 500 Jersey and Holstein cows and also produce crisps made from potatoes they grow in Scotland.  Mackie’s seems to be a brand worth a watching for me.

Once a chocoholic, always a chocoholic…

And if there’s none in the shops near you, they sell online too.