Silent Sunday – 23nd February 2014
Author: Mum Scottish
Dry Fried Bananas With Cinnamon Infused Sugar
This dish is perfect for serving as a topping for ice-cream, crumbles and desserts, or you can simply eat it on it’s own for a sweet treat with a bit of goodness from the banana thrown in.
If you want to find out more about dry frying, have a look here.
Ingredients
Method
- Use a spray of one cal on the bottom of your pan. Add the chopped banana and bring to a low heat.
- When you smell the banana cooking, use a fish slice to turn over the bananas to the opposite side. Turn them a few times over the space of a couple of minutes while always cooking on low to dry fry. If you need to, add one or two more sprays of your one cal or half a teaspoon of water.
- Sprinkle a teaspoon of cinnamon infused sugar over your bananas, leave for around 30 seconds and then turn the bananas over.
- Turn your bananas out onto a plate and sprinkle over a teaspoon of cinnamon infused sugar to serve. This is fantastic when it's served as the topping for ice-cream or a crumble.
How To Dry Fry Food – Dry Frying Is The New Health Kick
Move over fat fryers, there’s an alternative method of cooking in town, and it doesn’t need extra utensils or equipment.
I’ve fried dry for a long time, but I didn’t actually realise dry fry was an actual termed method of frying.
What Is Dry Frying?
Many of you probably dry fry some meats. If you have meat with some fat on it, like bacon, it’s likely that you might not add any more fat to cook the meat in, but simply just take advantage of the fat on the meat itself. Using a thick bottomed or non stick pan, start off with the pan cold and fry on a low heat until some fat is released. You can then turn up the heat a little and cook your food as normal, with no added fats or oils.
What About Food With NO Fat?
You might think that foods with no fat would stick and burn, but in many cases, you would be wrong. You do, however, have to have patience to use this method as it does take a lot longer to cook your food throughly. The basic principle is that you fry over a low heat for a longer time and turn the food often.
I dry fried these pancakes very easily, yet you do have to get used to doing it. This method is also great for releasing the flavour of nuts and spices.
With vegetables, and especially onions, I’d be tempted to add a teaspoon or two of water at a time if they may look like dry frying alone is not enough. Be very careful not to add too much water though, or your food won’t have the lovely fried aroma and taste as it will simply taste stewed. There is the option of adding a spray or two of one calorie fat sprays, but I try to get away without it when I can. I do keep a can handy in the kitchen cupboard at all times, just in case it’s needed.
As a rule, I tend to grill most meat and fish rather than fry, but on the special occasions that we have a tender fillet or sirloin steak, then I do dry fry those on the hob in a frying pan.
Fruit
Dry fried fruit can be amazing. Especially if you top it with some lovely sugar, syrups or sauces, or add it to the top of a fruit crumble and sprinkle on some cinnamon infused sugar. Check out how to dry fry banana and top with a dusting of cinnamon sugar. My kids love it on top of ice-cream.
Talk Pants With Your Kids
I was asked to be involved with the underwear campaign for the NSPCC who held a Google hang out. I couldn’t make the hangout, but I did commit to raising the issue on my blog.
Personally, I think parents and carers often leave it far too late to start talking to kids about the parts of their bodies that are off limits to other people.
The NSPCC stated that there has been a 16% rise in reported cases of sexual abuse of under-11s reported to the police in 2013-2014. If those are the cases reported, I would imagine that there are many more that are NOT reported. With that in mind, we all have to think how we can try to help our children to help themselves stay safe. In reality, we cannot be three feet from our children at all times, and they do need information at young ages to know what is ok and what is not ok.
The Underwear Rule Is A GOOD Thing
As hard as it is to talk to youngsters about what is private and what is not, we need to take responsibility for empowering our children with the knowledge that their bodies are private. The NSPCC also states that at least 1 in 5 of all recorded sexual offences against children are against those too young for secondary school.
Talking to Children Aged 5 – 11
The NSPCC has launched this phase of the campaign to encourage parents of children aged 5 – 11, to talk to them and help them understand how to keep themselves safe from sexual abuse. The whole point of the campaign is to have simple and easy conversations.
The Campaign Video “Spare Parts” gives you some idea of possible simple terms that children can relate to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72Sh-wjmdzw&feature=youtu.be
Talking Pants
It’s important to remember that talking pants is just the beginning. The NSPCC campaign is a start, but it isn’t something we can say once, and then forget as children have a short memory for things that don’t interest them, and to be honest, talking pants with kids is boring for them or might make them just giggle.
Parents need to take the lead role in this, and not expect schools to do all the work. The NSPCC have supporing materials for parents and give us plenty of guidance with their guide called “Talk PANTS”
The Rules
- Privates are private.
- Always remember your body belongs to you.
- No means no.
- Talk about secrets that upset you.
- Speak up, someone can help.
Special Needs
Getting the message through to my special needs child is really not easy, but hopefully we will get there eventually.
He trusts everyone and no-one, but is fairly open about his body and really doesn’t think there is anything to be worried about. He goes to respite and is looked after by people outside of my control, so this is a very important lesson for him to learn, even at an age where talking pants is past the point of being helpful for young adults.
The knock on effect is that this learned behaviour will follow him in other settings where he is with new adults or ones that we don’t really know, and for respite, we really don’t know the people who are looking after our family members.
Parents and carers tend to avoid or just not talk about private parts in case the words used end up being spouted at full volume while they are in a kids playground, but for the safety of our special needs children, they really do need to have the same conversations and knowledge as any other vulnerable person, but in a very simple fashion.
At the age of 11 last year in a French swimming pool, a girl eating a hotdog slipped and the hotdog flew up in the air and bounced off him and his trunks – dollops of tomato ketchup and all. With around 100 people in the immediate vicinity, he instantly whipped off his trunks in full view of everyone before picking up a towel to cover himself.
Because of that incident, we talk underwear at every shower time now. I just mention it as I put down the towels and make sure the water isn’t too scalding for him. Most of the time he isn’t interested, but I know that deep down the memory is being planted for him, even if he doesn’t answer me, and I really trust that the memory will come back when it’s really needed, to help him know what is appropriate and what is not.
By learned behaviour, he is now covering himself up to go into the shower and closing the door to get dressed so it is thankfully sinking in – even if he gives me no reaction whatsoever when I talk about it.
Find Out More
Visit the website for more information. NSPCC – The Underwear Rule
American Pancakes Recipe (Fluffy Pancakes)
I was on the hunt for a springy pancake recipe. In Scotland, we often make Scotch Pancakes, or what’s often called “drop scones” but they tend to be a little flatter than I was looking for.
I came across Nigellas American Pancakes Recipe in the hope that I’d have some lovely springy pancakes. I adapted the recipe slightly to add a wee bit more baking powder and sugar to make them taste more like scotch pancakes, and I don’t use any oil or butter to cook mine in a thick bottomed hot pan.
Ingredients
Method
- I just used to mix this all up in a big plastic jug to make it easier to pour into the pan, but I’ve found that my mixer gives me better results with the batter so I just put up with a few mix trails as I go. I put all the ingredients apart from the flour and baking powder in the bowl and give them a mix around, then I put in the flour and baking powder and use the fold function to add it in. I’m not sure that really makes any difference, but it seemed to. This pancake mix is actually quite thick in comparison to many of the older scotch pancake recipes as the intention is to have a pancake with a bit of a fluffy middle.
- Heat a thick bottomed frying pan (or any pan) on the hob. I prefer not to use oil to cook my pancakes, but it means I do have to keep a close eye on them. I leave the heat almost at the lowest that it can go and cook them slowly.
- When you see the top of the dollop of pancake mix beginning to bubble up, then it is time to turn over your pancake to cook the other side, which won’t take long at all. Don’t leave pancakes alone on the hob as they will burn very quickly.
- You can get anything from 8 – 18 pancakes from this mix, depending on how big you make your pancakes.
Simple Valentines Day Cupcakes Recipe
We all like the kind of recipes that are quick and easy to make. This one is what my kids like to make (and eat). We can all make something special for parents, a girlfriend, or just for fun for Valentines Day.
We used the Dr Oetker can of icing to decorate this (and to make it faster).
Plopped on the top are hearts from the Haribo sweets collection and they are just plopped on top of the basic sponge recipe mix below, which I simply divided into 24 individual cake cases. Some of the cakes we ice, and others we don’t.
Ingredients
Method
- Cream the sugar and butter and set the oven to 160 degrees c.
- Add in the eggs and beat or mix until smooth.
- The final step is simply to fold in the flour until fully mixed through and you've added air with the folding.
- Divide into individual cake cases. You will get 12 muffin sized cakes or 24 smaller cupcakes for decorating.
- Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until a skewer tester comes out clean.
Piedmontese Beef – Low Fat Mild Chilli Recipe With Soy Beans (Lower Fat Than Aberdeen Angus and Chicken)
Not many of you will have heard of Piedmontese Beef.
Piedmontese is pure Irish Beef and is lean. If you think you can’t eat beef because of a high fat content, you might be pleasantly surprised. Piedmontese beef is bred to be lower in fat than chicken is, and we all tend to associate chicken with low fat cooking.
The official stats for Piedmontese are:
- Calories: 104 per 100g
- 1.9g of fat per 100g
- 31.5mg cholesterol per 100g
- 21.6g of protein per 100g
Chicken per 100g is:
- Calories: 200 per 100g
- 13g of fat per 100g
- 78mg cholesterol per 100g
- 25g protein per 100g
I decided to make my Piedmontese mince into a mild chilli. It was really very good and even my fussy youngest polished his off. If you want to try it, you’d need to head on over to the Fresh Food Guru in the UK and order some for yourself.
Ingredients
Method
- Using a thick bottomed pan, add the mince and onions. Use a wooden spoon to move the mince around and break it up as it browns.
- When the mince is completely broken down and browned, add the tomato passata, a little water, the soy beans, chilli powder, salt and pepper. Put your rice on to cook while you finish the chilli.
- Simmer for 10 minutes. Add a little more boiling water if needed while your chilli is cooking. I added around 300ml in total as this was quite a lot of mince.
- Simply serve up on the plate and decorate the rice with rainbow peppercorns.
Silent Sunday – 09 February 2014
Review: iRobot Roomba 780 (Robot Hoover)
We all like a clean house, well who doesn’t. The ability to have a room clean itself used to be something I could only dream about. We’ve had a robot hoover for a few months now and to be honest, I couldn’t imagine being without it anymore. Ok, it’s not perfect, but it does save me a heap of time with 6 people and 4 animals in a biggish house that I never have time to keep completely spotless in every room.
In the perfect world, I could have the floors swept without lifting a finger to do it, and this is the closest to sweeping the floors automatically that I can imagine. It does carpets too, so that’s a bonus for me.
If you’ve got beds that are off the floor and high furniture, a Roomba is perfect for you, but it’s no complete solution for not doing any cleaning at all in your life. You do have to prepare the room first and lift anything that might get tangled up. We ended up with a phone cable wound tightly round the brushes one day when I didn’t scan the lounge properly.
It does, however, mean that my bedroom gets a hoover daily as we have tiles on our floor and a high bed that it can perfectly sweep under. I know I’d not do that daily by myself.
I got the iRobot Roomba 780 on the 30 day trial where they say you can use it and put it back if you don’t like it. I kept it. I’m not sure I could have been convinced to part with that much money up front without using one first, but I love it.
It zig zags all over the room, so I’d advise not actually watching it. It’s like watching paint dry. It will do circle motions where it thinks the floor is dirtier and mine has a remote control for spot cleaning. Here’s mine in action:
Benefits
- Cleans while I do something else. I know it would be much faster for me to do it myself, but given that I can spend that time doing something else, it’s a positive.
- Leaving it to do the floors before I come home with the kids if we’ve been out all day. This is a bigger benefit than I can ever actually say.
- There are little boxes that allow you to keep the Roomba in one room until it is finished, or it would wander about all the rooms. I just close the doors as I’ve never got round to buying batteries for the lighthouses.
- It doesn’t fall downstairs. Honestly, it doesn’t. The first time it scooted about on the top landing, I sat on the stairs as I was totally unconvinced that it would be able to stay up there.
- Brushes and filters are all replaceable.
- The Roomba takes itself back to its charging base to charge up when it is running low.
Drawbacks
- Making sure there is nothing on the floor before you set it to go.
- The time it takes to do the job is a fair while. If you have someone coming for tea and half an hour spare, get out your trusty manual hoover.
- It’s expensive.
- It has a small bin that needs emptied regularly if your room is a mess. I’ve not found it a problem on hard floors, but on carpets where fibers get hoovered up too, the bin can get full very quickly.
- It doesn’t like black carpets. I have figured out how to do it by taping some white paper over the sensors that stop it falling downstairs, but as a rule, when it hits a black floor, it seems to think it is going to fall over so just refuses to work.
It It Worth The Money?
This is a hard one to judge. This time last year, I’d have said no. With asthma in the family and a daily sweep, I wouldn’t hesitate to say yes this year as it means the floor can literally be swept continuously without having to actually do it myself. The price seems to have rocketed since I got mine and I would have to seriously think about it now as it is over the £500 mark in most places I looked online. If I was buying one now, I suspect I’d look at a different brand or one of the older ones to reduce the price a bit.
There are some cheaper robot vacuums on Amazon that seem to have some good reviews so if I were ever looking to replace mine, I suspect I’d read all of those.
There are some issues with the Roomba, but on the whole, I wouldn’t want to be without it. There are some cheaper versions and I’m not sure how well they perform against the newer Roombas, but on hard floors, I’d hope they would also do well.
The timer is a great idea, though I have to admit that I’ve never used it. I just pop it on when I leave the house after preparing whichever floor I want done.
My lounge gets a going over almost daily as does the asthmatics bedroom and the playroom he spends most of his time in. We have pets, so this is a massive draw for me.
It does sometimes get lost and abandons itself in the middle of a room while looking for its docking station, but it mostly manages to dock itself nicely. The one thing I would like that it doesn’t seem to have is a stop function when the bin is full. I give the brushes a clean out every few uses, otherwise hair can get tangled up, but the brushes come out easily so it’s no big chore to have to do really.
There is still a need to take out the regular hoover, but I find myself doing that once a fortnight or so, or a bit more often for the stairs, rather than haul it out daily. The Roomba does bump furniture as it does its business, but it’s a soft bump and hasn’t done any damage to the vase I have on my lounge floor with light branches in it. Even so, if you have lots of things strewn over your floors and don’t want to have to pick them up, this is probably not for you.
Is it fair to call any kids animals?
This has been opened up by a Tweet. This is what KT Hopkins actually said on Twitter.
Mums hearts are broken by school bullies. Yet schools continue to support these animals and ignore those keen to learn. Let me at them.
The Telegraph had said:
Michael Gove: teachers should punish children with litter duty, lines and more.
I don’t know what planet either of them are on, but I did take some satisfaction out of the video doing the rounds on Twitter of Michael Gove falling on his jacksy.
I could whack myself with a long wooden stick, or sit with my mouth open in horror at how I think the things that come out of these two people’s mouths really need to be projectily vomited in the general direction of the nearest waste paper bin. What bothers me about the self imposed upper echelons of our society, who clearly think the rest of us are the dirt under their fingernails, isn’t what they say so much, as how it makes me FEEL.
- I FEEL angry that Katie Hopkins is so nasty about almost everyone apart from herself.
- I FEEL angry for all the struggling kids at school whose behaviour escalates as they are unsupported, but who will get more lines instead of help, or even worse, be humiliated by picking up their classmakes litter. How to trash a child’s self-esteem is more what I’d call the sanctions mooted.
- I FEEL sad for Katie Hopkins family. How awful to have a mother who thinks the rest of us are so crap at everything.
- I FEEL incredulous that Katie Hopkins can find it in herself to be so nasty about children.
I want to take Katie’s statement and break it down:
Mums hearts are broken by school bullies. Yet schools continue to support these animals and ignore those keen to learn. Let me at them.
- Mums hearts are broken by school bullies. How does that happen then? Who cares what mums hearts are? It’s the kids that count.
- Schools continue to support. Well, yes, that is their job. Each child is a living, breathing thing that deserves a chance.
- Animals – well, all I can say about that one from Katie, is “what you say is what you are.”
- Let me at them. Please, please do go and take some classes in inner city schools, try to teach the children who’ve heard you call them animals, and see how well you sort them out.
I have three children who all struggle at school.
Between them, Gove and Hopkins would technically call them animals that need to pick up litter as punishment and write copious lines while other kids learn.
I just call them kids who deserve the same future as any other kid. It’s not the kids fault that schools do not have the funding to support them properly.
Instead of targeting the kids, why don’t they do something novel and find the ways to help all kids meet their potential instead of blaming them.
Soup Maker: Butternut Squash & Sweet Potato Recipe
Buying vegetables that are nearly end dates is a common feature of my shopping now. I get them home, immediately make them into some kind of soup and then I have some frozen goodness in the freezer for whenever it is needed.
I would never have actually done that pre soup maker days as the effort required was just too much, especially for a small batch of soup.
These vegetables were on their last day for being sold, so I snapped them up for pennies. I had made 3 batches of soup within an hour or so of coming home from the shop.
Ingredients
Method
- Prepare the vegetables and chop up into reasonably small pieces for speed of making the soup.
- Put the vegetables, stock cube and a pinch of salt into the soup maker or pot.
- Add water to the 1600 ml mark in a soup maker, or to the same level in a measuring jug with the vegetables in if you plan to use a pot for your cooking.
- Choose your soupmaker setting and set it to go. I use the smooth setting most frequently. If you are making this in a pot, take off a simmering heat when the vegetables are fully cooked and use a blender to puree your finished soup. Sprinkle parsley and lemon seasoning on the soup before serving.
Notes
All the ingredients for the 1.6 Litre output of soup need to total up to approximately 800g. I simply add a few carrots, potatoes and the onion and then top up with the largest main ingredient to the 800 grammes.
Review: Kenwood KMX54 kMix Stand Mixer with Peach Pavlova Recipe
Being asked to review a Kenwood KMX Stand Mixer is right up my street. I do a lot of cooking, and baking is really never far from my mind. A good baking session means that feeding my kids home-made goodies is better than the sweets and crisps that they would tend to eat otherwise.
I’ve been using an old Kenwood Food Processor for a few years and managed to somehow crack the bowl over Christmas. I suspect it took a tumble onto our tiled floors, but after so much use, I really couldn’t complain. I had found the bowl size too small for us and very rarely used it for anything other than the mixing functions. I will keep my old mixer to use the grinder and the blender, but the kMix Stand Mixer is a welcome addition to my kitchen appliances.
I waited for it with the patience of a not very patient puppy dog, and it was unpacked and on my counter within minutes of its arrival.
It’s fairly heavy, so it will stay on my counter top from here on in. I was quite surprised by the size of the bowl as it is so much bigger than my old processor. I was pleasantly surprised to also see a splashguard that fits like a glove, as well as a handy spatula for scraping out the very last remnants from the bowl.
I was looking forward to the kneading, mixing, whisking and blending, and I was not disappointed.
Putting on the attachments is a breeze. I didn’t expect the easy of the glide in, twist and secure. There’s no messing around with this top-notch machine. When I turned it on, it gradually hummed into life, really getting into gear in a refined and controlled way. It reminded me of a quality car with a gentle purr as it begins to crank up the speed.
The classy guard ensures there is no horrible flour spinning around the kitchen if the machine is just a little too keen to get going, and it stays clean as a whistle on the outside.
Stylish.
I chose the retro black version as it matches in perfectly with my black worktops and my microwave, which you can’t see as it is just out of shot. With the round lines, it looks great and I have been really pleased with it for the short time I’ve had it.
Here’s what I really like about it so far.
- Cakes, meringues and marshmallows are a breeze. I never thought I would say that about meringue…
- Slow start of speed means the ingredients stay where they should be. That is always a good point.
- The motor stops if you open the machine by mistake. It’s a great safety feature.
- I didn’t realise at first, but the machine has a fold function to help with adding ingredients at the end of the meringue whipping stage 🙂
- The attachments are sturdy. Very sturdy. They can be slightly altered with the included spanner to get the height perfect for your machine.
- There are four attachments with the machine, as well as a splashguard and spatula. There is a beater, a whisk, a dough hook and a flexible beater to get to the edges of the bowl for soft ingredients. The flexible beater even has its own instruction book.
- It will rub fat into flour and save you the time of doing it by hand.
- The bowl is really easy to clean.
- I can put all the attachments into the dishwasher without worrying.
Peach Pavlova Recipe
If you’ve ever wanted to make a really fast and reasonably stable pavlova, this is the recipe for you. The vinegar and cornflour added helps to stabilise the egg and make the foam just that little bit stronger. I don’t find that it affects the taste of the meringue at all.
I thought I had messed up this recipe by adding the vinegar, cornflour and vanilla essence just into the mixing bowl at the end. The recipe called for folding it in. Thankfully, it all worked out and the meringue was lovely.
I took a recipe that came with my Kenwood kMix for pavlova with exotic fruits, and adapted it to make my pavlova.
Ingredients
Method
- Put the oven on to approximately 130 C or Gas 1 - 2. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Separate the egg yolk from the egg whites and put them into a mixer bowl. Whisk them for a few minutes until they form stiff peaks.
- Add the sugar slowly, about 50g at a time and whisk again for a few minutes each time, until the sugar is all added.
- Add the vinegar, cornflour and vanilla essence and continue to mix for up to 8 minutes, until the mix is smooth and glossy.
- Spoon your mix onto the baking paper and put in the oven for at least an hour, and up to an hour and a half. Leave the meringue to cool down.
- When the meringue is cool, whisk your cream and spread it over the top of the meringue, before topping with the fruit of your choice.
Argos have large ranges of Kenwood products available here.
Delicious! I have made this recipe many, many times. Always perfect.
Yep it works perfectly. Get a good crumbly stilton though.
My old machine said hot or cold water. No way cold water cooks the veggies in my old machine. Actually…