My girl is 11. She is blind with cancer and arthritis, but still she enjoys walking, cuddles and food. She’s spending more and more time outside, so I suspect this year I will be taking lots of pictures of her as we really don’t have that many. This is a new start for me joining the project, so adding more pictures of here will a common thing I suspect. If I’ve done it wrong as I’m joining really late, someone please give me a shove to get it right.
Our delivery of strawberries arrived, and two boxes were eaten almost immediately by children who ate them like sweeties. They were so sweet and juicy that I was reminded of the strawberries we used to get as kids.
Our challenge came via this adorable recipe from Scotty Brand for cheesecake pots. You can download the Scotty Brand recipe from the link, and my version is below. I didn’t have all the ingredients to hand, so I have changed the recipe to suit my kitchen cupboard.
The kids wolfed down some glasses of cheesecake as soon as they were made and they didn’t have the chance to set. We only have 3 glasses left for after their evening meal tonight. I suspect they will disappear sharply.
Strawberry Cheesecake Makes up to 8 glasses.
Ingredients
Filling
Base
Method
1. Melt butter and mix with crushed biscuit crumb. Press into individual glasses.
2. Beat soft cheese (mascapone here) and mix with 3 tablespoons of icing sugar. Fold in whipped cream.
3. Blend the strawberries until it’s a pulpy mush.
4. Dissolve 30 g gelatine using hot water. Add half to the cheese mix and half to the blended strawberries.
5. Pour a layer of the blended strawberries into the glasses. I put mine in the freezer for 10 minutes to set the strawberries a little.
6. Smooth the cheesecake mix as the next layer.
7. Pour the last of the blended strawberries on the top and leave overnight to set.
8. Add strawberries, cream or topping before serving.
Funky Foodies is here on the Scottish Mum Blog:
Simply add the link to your recipe on your own blog, and share your latest recipe with everyone taking part. If you don’t want to miss the linkie being opened, subscribe to RSS or by email in the blog header. I’m looking forward to sending off the first medal. The code is below if you want to add the badge to your post or your blog. I’ll add recipes of mine to share, although I don’t count in the recipe challenge.
Feel free to copy the text in bold into a text widget or the html of your post if you’d like to add the small blog badge to your own blog / post. It makes finding you easier for other funky foodies.
When the PR offered us a voucher to go and try out the new menu at Frankie and Benny’s, I just couldn’t turn that down. It did take us a while to get to using our voucher, so ours is probably one of the last reviews in.
We visited on a week night when middler was on respite, so there were only four of us to sample the menu and no jumpy, moody and excited special needs tornado to work around. Lots of bribery and behaviour points were cashed in and off we went down to Frankie & Bennys at the beach.
Initial Impressions
When we arrived, the place was quite empty. Strangely, they tried to seat us right next to the serving / cooking area where it’s noisy and hot with servers walking past all the time. It was in the middle of the tables so had servers walking behind and up both sides constantly.
We said nothing, but got up and moved to the back of the restaurant where it was quieter and with more comfortable seats. It seemed as if they were keeping the quieter booth type seats for later diners, and putting the kids where the noise was.
Excitedly, the kids ran up to the entry desk to get their crayons and paper, only to be told they had run out. The restaurant is right next to a poundshop, so I’d have guessed it would be easy enough to go out and get some crayons and put them in some cups to share around the kids who are used to getting them. Disappointing start, but not the end of the world.
Menu wise, there were loads of options to choose from. I suspect everyone could find something to eat.
Ordering
Ordering was simple and easy enough, and I’d say that the menu for kids is reasonable and well priced on the whole. I’d expected to see items marked as “new” on the menu, but it looked the same as it was the last time we were in, and that was a few years ago now. The waitress was pleasant and helpful, but wasn’t sure of what was new either.
Serving Time
It took a while. We got our food about 20 – 30 minutes after ordering, and people who arrived after us were served their meals first. We weren’t in a hurry so it wasn’t a problem although the hungry kids were a bit peeved.
The Food
Mains
The kids had their favourites and the man had a burger. I wanted a pizza and the rest of them wanted a bit too, so I ordered a 15″ for us all to share. The chicken and sweetcorn on top was a little sparse on the pizza, but other than that, it was lovely. The junior burger was as big as his dad’s. He was very happy with that.
Dad Burger
Kids Junior Burger
Kids Junior Wraps
Sharing Pizza
Dessert
Dessert for the kids was a letdown. The menu says brownie pieces with ice cream so when a teensy sundae glass arrived with one tiny bit of brownie and one scoop of ice-cream, their faces fell. With the spectacular dishes for mains, they expected a spectacular sundae.
Brownie Pieces? There was one.
The grown ups had ordered a sharing sundae so the kids ended up having most of that.
Room for Improvement
Most definitely in the seating and kids arenas. Kids want to be impressed. If the parents don’t feel kids have had what they have been promised, they are unlikely to go back and spend more money on it. For us it was fine as the bill was almost all covered by our voucher, but if I was paying over £60 to have kids disappointed with dessert, I’d have been a tad unhappy about it.
I didn’t complain as we had a large part of the bill paid for us. For the kids sundae glass, I’d have expected two scoops of ice cream with a couple of brownie pieces to fill the teensy glass and look impressive.
Overall
The waitress got a little stressed out when I handed over the voucher and she immediately whisked away the bill without letting me see the original, and I had to ask for it. She came back for the remaining £10 or so to be paid and when I asked her a few questions about the menu, she scuttled off and left the card machine and salver on our table. I had to go after her before we left and give it back to her.
We enjoyed our meal and it was a nice break from the usual school night routine, so yes, it was an enjoyable meal for us, but could have been better if the kids had been catered for more.
Would I pay that price for us as a family, given that we were one person short, and it would end up with a bill over £70 without any starters? I don’t really know to be honest. I thought the soft drinks prices were quite high, and the lack of kiddie friendliness spoiled it.
We were provided with a £50 voucher in exchange for an honest review as a family.
I know, I know, you probably all think I have gone absolutely bonkers to make soup and create a recipe with coconut and lime, but it was lovely.
So lovely that my kids loved it too. I was completely prepared for them to say they hated it so it was a nice surprise. The littlest one is my sticking point as he tends to only want the best of everything and new foods are a hit or a miss as to whether he will eat them or not.
I’m also adding this into Jacqueline’s No Croutons Required for August 2012 as this is an original recipe that I am very happy with.
Carrot and Lime Soup Recipe
Ingredients
Method
Oat cakes, normally known as oatcakes in Scotland, are a traditional Scottish food. I’ve heard there is a version in England that is more like thick pancakes, and I’ll have to look for those to try in the future. The Scottish oatcakes recipe is simple and quick.
Oatcakes are a great accompaniment to stovies, corned beef hash, or any slow cooked meal, stew or stroganoff.
A Scottish breakfast could also be found using the humble oatcake with butter, cheese, or jam added to the top.
Most Scottish food is relatively easy to make, and to smash the assumption that it is all deep fried mars bars up the Aberdeenshire neck of the woods, I suspect that adding more traditional Scottish recipes to my blog could be a good idea. Sorry to disappoint the deep fried mars bar brigade, but I’ve yet to meet a Scot whose eaten one.
To make oatcakes, make sure you buy proper oatmeal, preferrably pinhead as more rough versions can be harder to work with.
Please don’t be tempted to try porridge oats, buy oatmeal – every time.
Oatcake Recipe
Ingredients
Method
How’s this for something unusual and possibly collectable to commemorate our Team GB Gold Medal wins during London 2012?
When big events come our way, it’s nice to have a little momento to remember them by. I’m not one for collecting trinkets or ornaments, so the stamp initiative appeals to my sense of being appropriate, affordable and realistic.
Next day stamps are going to be issued, featuring our Gold Medallists from the Olympic Games, by the Royal Mail. They will recognise the achievements of each win at the 2012 Olympic Games that will run from the 27th July to 12th August.
Sally Gunnell, OBE launched the official announcement and revealed the design. As an Olympic gold medalist herself, who won the 1992 games in Barcelona’s 400m hurdles event, Sally is a good choice to champion the stamps.
The main image of the stamp will, wherever possible, be a photograph of the Team GB athlete or team in action from their gold medal winning final. Where this can’t be achieved, the image will be of the athlete’s gold medal winning journey taken from a heat or from their gold medal award moment on the podium
This is likely to be the only time in my life that the Olympics are going to grace these shores, so I am very likely to squirrel a copy of these stamps away with my Queens 25th Jubilee coin, and hopefully also one from the 50th.
Royal Mail’s team of picture editors and graphic designers will be on standby and ready to swing into action when Team GB strikes gold.
This will be the first time any host country has used action shots for Gold Medal stamps and issued them the next day, during the Games. This will also be a first for next day stamps from Royal Mail. Be The First in line to get your own stamps, although I suspect I will be tempted to get the Official 2012 Compendium at £20 each so that my boys can have one each.
Royal Mail will also be the first postal service of a host country to issue stamps which will celebrate the start of the Paralympic Games on 29th August.
The stamps seem to be a nice touch and give the winners families an affordable and memorable reminder of great sportmanship.
Gold Medal stamps will be on sale at 500 selected UK Post Offices by lunchtime the next day, and on the Royal Mail website after each gold medal win by Team GB. They will then be distributed three times during the Games to a further 4,500 Post Offices nationwide. As a first for Royal Mail, many of the 500 Post Offices will open on a Sunday for the first time during the games.
In 2008, at the Beijing games, Team GB won 19 gold medals, so it would be nice if we could have several stamps to remember our Olympic event.
Moya Greene, Royal Mail Chief Executive, said:
“Royal Mail is proud to be involved in this once in a lifetime event and to recognise the success of Team GB.
“Our Gold Medal stamps will be unique souvenirs of the Games, marking the great achievements of our talented athletes. They will be a special way for people across the country to celebrate Team GB’s gold medal wins and help mark their amazing achievement.
Royal Mail and the Olympics
Royal Mail has a proud history of commemorating the London Olympic Games. For the 1948 Games, Royal Mail issued stamps bearing the five Olympic Rings. Olympic stamps were not issued to mark the 1908 London Games as Royal Mail stamps could only carry images of the reigning monarch.
The Olympic Collection can be bought from Royal Mail. Register your interest now to be one of the first in line.
Sponsored Post
Viral video by ebuzzing
I often have pots of soup on the go, and this one was an experiment as the kids all love cauliflower cheese. I wanted to make it into a meal in a bowl, so with some extra mature cheddar from Andrew Gordon, our local butcher and fine food store, we were ready to go.
I was pleasantly surprised by the Little Black Bomber Cheese from Snowdonia UK. It was quite soft and crumbly and was perfect for making soup. I even tried some on charcoal biscuits and it was quite a mild taste with a lovely creamy texture. It’s a new find that will now be regularly on our shopping list as the kids really loved it.
Ingredients
Method
This is a complete and utter cop out for cheesecake but is fabulously easy, quick to make and the kids and visitors are always impressed.
Ingredients
Method
Hey presto.
There is only one thing that all bloggers like to do, and that is to write. How we write, how often, and how well is not always something that is planned. For spontaneous moments, our mobile pocket gadgetry and good iPhone apps are very handy indeed.
Having written about the top iPhone apps for cooking over on Yahoo, it’s easy for anyone to see that I am a huge iPhone fan, even though I only have the old style 3GS version. I haven’t felt the need to upgrade yet, although I suspect I might be tempted by the next version which will be due out in a few months.
When I do move over to a newer and better model, there are some fabulously good iPhone apps that I would be making sure I copied over to the new phone.
I love to write, and writing is becoming my passion. As a prolific blogger, the best iPhone apps are going to be ones that I can use day to day to record my life, and any anecdotes or fleeting inspirations which come my way.
WordPress
An all important app for me to organise my life on the go as a blogger, has to be the WordPress app. There are times when it has worked, and times when it hasn’t. As a rule, it is there to help me to write a quick blog post, or store one as a draft for writing up later on my laptop when I have time.
If I just want to upload a quick picture when I am out and about, it is just snap, click and it’s in my media library on my blog.
Statistics are also important to any blogger, no matter what bloggers say. We all like to have our work recognised, even if we pretend that we don’t. The WordPress app had a pretty nifty section where I can check how many people have read my blog, which words were used in search engines to find my blog, and what posts they read.
The app seems to allow us to add up to 8 WordPress blogs, and they can either be the free WordPress.com blogs, or the self hosted WordPress.org variety.
Photo
The photo app that comes with my iPhone is invaluable. If I want snaps to add to my blog posts, then the built in camera does a fabulous job to make sure I have a regular visual material to add to my writing, and ensures that the image is topical, recent and relevant.
Notes
The second of the built in apps that I couldn’t be without for blogging, is the simple notes feature. Quickly opening it up and adding a note means that I never forget anything that might pop into my head when I am taking the kids to school, or waiting for them to finish an activity.
Time that would previously have spent idly people watching, now turns into planning, plotting and organising.
PayPal
If I am doing any updates, or Internet shopping, then my PayPal account is needed. I use it to pay for my blog hosting, stock photos for projects that need them, and for any extras that I decide to buy. I also need it for any payments that I take in for advertising and sponsored posts.
I have found that is far easier, and much quicker for me to use the PayPal app to check my balance or pay blogging bills on the go.
E-Wallet
This is my last, but I’d also say the top of the top apps for iPhone for me on my mobile. It is where all my blogging usernames and passwords are. Inside the deceptively simple e-wallet, I can separate private, work, and blogging, into separate categories with their own passwords.
Inside each category, I can choose to assign and give any item a name. I can split into credit card, website, id, username, phone and address details, passwords and much more.
I can also customise the fields to say what I want them to say, and I never lose my passwords. They are updated on my iTunes account so they’ll be on whatever device I want them to be, and the app is no use to anyone else.
I feel a bit safer about the prospect of my personal information being secure, just in case I lose my phone.
I’m happy to host this guest post from the fashion management students at my old Uni, The Robert Gordon University, who are raising money for The ARCHIE Foundation for children.
———
Since it began in 2008 the annual charity fashion show at Robert Gordon University has raised tens of thousands of pounds for deserving charity foundations.
Now into its fifth year third-year fashion management students are hoping they can raise more money than ever before.
On the night of May 25th the Aberdeen Business School will be transformed on to accommodate 400 guests for what is hoped to be a marvelous and memorable evening of fashion, shopping and entertainment, with The ARCHIE Foundation being the sole beneficiary of the show.
This year’s show takes on the theme ‘Best of British’; rather fitting in the year of 2012 which sees both the Royal Jubilee and the London Olympic Games and plenty of patriotic celebrations along with them!
Catwalk themes including the British seaside, countryside, music, sport, people, designers, royals and the traditional tea party will showcase the very best of British style, and what’s more guests will be invited to enjoy a whole host of other entertainment on the night too.
Alongside the fashion catwalk there will be some fantastic on-stage performances and the opportunity to indulge in some of Britain’s finest foods and not to mention lashings of cocktails too!
Guests will have the chance to browse and buy within a unique shopping area dedicated to hosting a variety of local retailers; from fine wine to fashion there is something for everyone. To add to the mix there will be a both a silent auction and a prize raffle on the night too.
With everything from cocktail mixology sessions to designer handbags, restaurant vouchers to fitness memberships, there are some fabulous prizes up for grabs and plenty of chances to win. With all proceeds going to The ARCHIE Foundation the students are determined to raise enough money to make a considerable contribution to the charity and its work.
As the official charity of the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital, the Children’s Wards in Inverness and Elgin and Community based Child Health throughout Grampian, Highland, Orkney and Shetland, the ARCHIE Foundation is dedicated to making a difference to the lives of sick children through providing state of the art medical equipment, specialist staff, funding into research and of course lots of toys too!
The ARCHIE Foundation is so incredibly deserving of financial donations. Its work really is invaluable to sick children and their families.
With the aim of surpassing last year’s total of £11,000 the third-year Fashion Management students have been up to all sorts in order to raise money in the lead up to the show. We’ve had our measuring scales and mixers out to host bake sales on campus, and we’ve put our creativity to the test too with kids’ crafts and face painting at the Bon Accord.
We’ll be proving our knowledge with a special Best Of British pub quiz, be doing supermarket bag packing and we’ve been out and about in the pubs and bars of Aberdeen promoting the show and collecting donations too all whilst planning what is sure to be the biggest night in Aberdeen’s fashion calendar.
The Best of British Fashion Show will be held on May 25th 2012 in Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University, and Garthdee Road, Aberdeen.
Tickets for the show are priced at £15 each, or for VIP ticket priced at £25 guests will receive special goody bag, front row seats and access to the exclusive VIP room, and are available by contacting:
fashionshowrgu@gmail.com
We announce all of our exciting news and fundraising updates on Facebook and Twitter too:
We also have a Just Giving page where online donations to The ARCHIE Foundation can be made:
Donate to The ARCHIE Foundation
Can I put cooked garlic mushrooms in the fridge for a couple of days
Neeps is just short for turnips.
Made this last night and it as perfect , i never made bread before and its the first time i…