This infographic is posted in collaboration with Roberson Wine.

Do you know which wines go with which foods?  I know I don’t.  As someone who only rarely drinks it, I find myself in a dilemma quite often if we have people over for a meal, and I have no idea which wines to make a choice from.

When Roberson Wine contacted me and offered an infographic that shows me exactly what would go well with fish, beef, chicken and even chocolate, I knew it would be handy for me to keep long term, as a reminder.

The Easter holidays are coming up, and we can get good weather at this time of year, even in Scotland, which is perfect for the first barbeques of the season.

I found this quite interesting.  I hope you do too.

This guest post is in collaboration with Thorntons Gifts For Men.

If you have a special occasion like an anniversary or a birthday coming up, finding a present for your significant other that’s truly meaningful can be stressful. Men can sometimes be difficult to shop for, and sometimes, generic just won’t cut it. Here are five ideas for alternative but thoughtful gifts for the tricky hombre that will work in just about any situation.

Alcohol

It might be something of a cop out, but rest assured: most guys will be thrilled with a booze-themed present. If he considers himself to be something of a craft beer aficionado, a mixed case of artisan brews should satisfy. If he’s more of a spirits man, you might want to opt for something which adds a bit of theatre to his evening drink: crystal tumblers, whisky rocks and personalised hipflasks are all perfectly viable options.

Food

When man isn’t drinking or sleeping, he’s usually eating, so cater to your beloved’s foodie whims with something delicious. If he’s a spice fanatic, buy him a chilli plant he can lovingly tend. If he loves cooking, opt for something culinary but manly, like a set of razor-sharp Japanese knives. You never know, he might even cook you a delicious meal with his new present to say thanks.

Gadgets

Adding the element of innovation to an everyday process can turn any chore into a delight, so consider what he loves doing and then find a way to streamline it. If he loves music, consider buying him a nifty portable speaker or Bluetooth headset; if photography’s more his style, buy him a zoom lens for his camera phone or a selfie stick.

Hamper

Sometimes, just one gift isn’t enough, and for the truly special occasion, gift hampers are a savvy choice. Usually, these will be organised around a theme, so whether he loves whisky or chocolate or wine, you’re likely to find hampers for him that are a good fit and geared around his passions.

Subscription

If your fella is something of a film fanatic, he’ll love you for getting him a subscription to an online streaming site. Netflix and Amazon Prime might already be on his radar, so consider something a little edgier; Mubi, for instance, curates and streams a different foreign or art house movie every day, and will tick all the boxes for any true cineaste.

With this gift ideas you’re sure to put a smile on his face on that special occasion. Have fun!

Mother’s Day for 2015, is Sunday, the 15th of March.  If you haven’t thought about a present for your mum, it’s about time you did.

Debenhams kindly sent me a bunch of flowers to review.  With plenty to pick from the Mothers Day Flowers range,  I was spoiled for choice.  I also have a discount code for those of you who are looking to send your own bunch of flowers to your own lovely mums, which will expire this year.

The code entitles you to 25% off a bouquet.  The only bouquets exempt from the discount, are those in the Flowers By Post range.

Code:  DFBLOG25

In the end, I settled for this lovely bunch of sweet avalanche roses with lilac & scented lilies.  My lilies haven’t bloomed yet, but when they do, they’re bound to be gorgeous.

Debenhams Flowers by Post have a range starting from £19.99 for a bouquet to go through the post to whoever deserves one in your life.  I have no excuses, I just like having flowers around the house, but so rarely get out to buy them.  I find myself looking forward to birthdays and some family visits from people who always buy me flowers.

My flowers came in a lovely big box.  I did wonder how they would get to me, but the box was big, had air holes, and the flowers were in a little patch of wet soil that kept them moist.  It was very light indeed, but held the flowers securely.

Mothering Sunday AKA Mother’s Day

It’s held on the fourth Sunday of Lent.  Exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday and most often sits in the last two weeks of March, or early April.  It’s a day where restaurants are kept on their toes, with early bookings from everyone who wants to celebrate their own mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers.  If you’re planning taking your mother out, it’s time you booked your restaurant place, or you’re very likely to be disappointed.

Traditionally, people would visit their own parents, but with distances that people live apart from these days, sending a card or bunch of flowers can often be the only way to get a parent know you appreciate them.

It’s often like another birthday in many families, with presents, cards and a special meal to celebrate.  The shops are full of cards, boxes of chocolates are stockpiled on shelves and we buy them like they’re going out of fashion.

Where Did Mother’s Day Come From?

It really does hark back to a time where people went to church to celebrate their mother.  It could have been a good excuse for a day off, but special services meant that even the scullery maid would have been allowed to go home with a little present, possibly from her employer.  It’s very possible that gifts started in this way.

Scottish Mum’s Mother’s Day

My mothers day usually consists of much of the same as every other day of the year.  There are still three children to feed, clothe and organise, and there’s still the elder to get up, give her medicine and get dressed., so these flowers are lovely, and I do appreciate them.  Appreciating blooms has come late in life to me, but these days, I’d take a bunch of flowers over a box of chocolates every time.

If someone in my family arranged a flower delivery for me, I wouldn’t be at all upset.  Now, perhaps I should leave a note or two lying around for the kids to find, and pass onto their dad!

How could we say no to the lovely offer of a mattress from Carpetright.  Our youngest has wanted a more grown up room, but he disliked the mattress on the bed.  He found it too hard and not comfortable enough.

When we were told which mattress we would get, I was slightly worried, as his complaint about his current one, was that it was too hard and uncomfortable.

It was a very thin mattress, and probably not a great choice for him.  We should have chosen better at the start, but we know better now, and that cheap doesn’t necessarily mean good value.

For different sleep needs, mattresses at Carpetright are tagged as either S (soft) M (medium) or F (firm).  For people who sleep on their sides, a soft mattress is recommended to protect hips and shoulder.  A medium is good for people who move around a lot, and a firm mattress is good for people who either sleep on their front on their back.  He sleeps on his back, so I believe a firm is the best choice for keeping the spine supported.

The Perfecta Comfort Mattress, which is the one we were given is rated as an F for Firm.  I did worry that he would find it too hard, but I’d told them what our problem was, and they came up with this solution to fix it for him.

It took a little while to arrive.  These mattresses are made by the Silentnight brand.   They’re handmade in the UK and also benefit from fillings that are hypoallergenic, with firm support.

The bed is a standard double, so the dimensions of the mattress were perfect.  It’s a double sided mattress so can be easily turned to keep it in tip top condition, and comes with a five year warranty.

Now, onto what littlest thought of it when it was time to sleep.

His favourite Real Madrid covers were added.  Yes, I know we live in Aberdeen, but he supports Real Madrid as a Country Team.  Kids around our way tend to support four teams, their local, the country team, an English and an International one.  For him, it’s Aberdeen, Scotland, Man U and Real Madrid, simply because Christian Ronaldo plays for them.  Whichever of those teams are playing gets his full and undivided attention.

His bedroom isn’t always this neat looking.  You’ll notice I’ve cut out part of his room, as it’s a typical boy room, no matter how often I tidy it, it looks like the aftermath of a massive party.  He’s had a few comfortable nights on there, and in his words ‘it’s beasting.’  Go figure, I’ve never heard that term either.

He’s delighted with his new mattress, and I worried un-necessarily about it being too hard.  It’s just perfect for him.

We’ve had carpets from Carpetright in the past, so we knew what the service would be like.   I’m after this rug for my hall, but as my size is out of stock, I’ll have to wait until they get more in.

I have to say a big thank you to Carpetright for our mattress, it’s just what we were looking for.  It was worth telling them what the problem was, as I’d have likely picked a soft or medium mattress without asking an opinion, and that wouldn’t have been what he needed at all.

Disclaimer:  Carpetright sent the mattress for review and asked us for our opinion. 

Any parent understands the day to day struggle with keeping the house in order, and we’ve all walked into a room to be met with spillages, breakages and general curiosity-induced chaos, maybe some innocent puppy dog eyes too.

It’s great to see the kids having fun, but all too often a play date becomes an over excited danger zone and a rough and tumble with siblings ends in tears or boredom results in a toy meeting its demise in the microwave.

This last destructive activity actually came in at number 20 on a list of the most common household damages caused by children.  The study, published in the Daily Mail, has brought to light the shocking statistic that by the age of just 10 the average child has cost their parents over £2,000 in repairs within the home.

It just goes to show how the constant clumsiness really adds up; 50% of parents questioned in the research consider the costs of fixing child-generated damages around the house as one of the ‘main drains’ on their finances and a similar percentage also believe their offspring to be the ‘root cause’ of domestic damage – even more than dodgy DIY jobs or pets!

Although all kids are guilty of destruction – whether accidental or intentional –unsurprisingly it was boys aged 4 to 10 who were voted as the most likely offenders with two out of three sons were deemed ‘hazardous’ around the house by their parents.

Drawing on walls, permanent carpet stains and broken plates and crockery topped the list of damages, with damaged furniture, foot/hand prints on surfaces and scratched upholstery closely following.

Perhaps it’s rather comforting as well as shocking to find out that 15% of the parents in the study had suffered a blocked toilet while the same number had repaired a smashed window. We’re not alone!

They may seem like relatively small amounts on their own, but these frequent expenses add up to an average £2,000 a year per child – a frightening prospect, especially for those with larger families. All in all, these findings put forward a great case for having accidental damage cover included in your home insurance.

Check out More Than home insurance accidental damage cover for some peace of mind, now with free £200 Home Emergency Assistance when you use their authorised repair network.

This is a collaborative post with More Than.

Domu is a brand, resulting form ten years experience with Designer Habitat.

Their goal is to give customers very competitively priced gadgets at a lower price than the traditional brand name items.    The products allow us to get a wide variety of home and kitchen products at a much lower cost than traditional brands.  I’ve had a look around the website several times and I’ve been pretty well impressed by the range on offer and the prices for what we get.

I received a frozen dessert maker to try from the range, and although I found it a bit tricky to navigate to begin with, I think we’ve found a good way to get on, especially considering the nice big bowl of what tastes and feels like ice-cream, but is actually only fruit.  That made me persevere after my first disastrous attempt at using it.

I did try the bananas and strawberries.  The book says to freeze the fruit for at least 12 hours beforehand.  I did, but you do need to chop up the strawberries into chunks if they’re medium to large sized, as my first try ended up with strawberries that were too large to push through with the plunger.

My attempts didn’t look as smooth or as perfect as the picture on the website, but I found that by mixing the fruity pulp that comes out of the machine afterwards, that it looks more like ice-cream than it did while it was pouring out.

I found the consistency very thick, but a few more minutes out of the freezer and I was able to mix the fruit into a nice consistency.  The blade part of the machine is very sharp, as it needs to be for crushing frozen fruit, and the machine itself is very noisy in action, but I was impressed with the dessert we had at the end of it all.

We can add frozen cream and other items to it, to make it a more creamy and luxurious dessert, but to be honest, I really liked the fruit on its own.  I’d say it takes a wee while to get used to, and the banana makes the dessert much more creamy if it’s fruit only.  On it’s own, the strawberry was much like a sorbet.  I’m planning to buy the frozen bags of fruit from supermarkets and trying those next.

Desserts with zero sugar and no added fat have a distinct advantage and it’s an easy way to get fruit into kids.

I actually really like the look of the Von Shef Expresso and Coffee Machine, and am off to send an e-mail to find out if it can use any coffee pod in it, because if it can, I’ll be ordering one for my kitchen.  I hadn’t heard of Domu before, but now I know about it, I’m quite pleased about the range of products and the prices.

Much thanks to Galloway Cheddar for our hamper of goodies to try.

There were so many things from the box to consider trying, that we didn’t know what to do first.  We had wraps, haggis, macaroni, cheese, potatoes, oat cakes and even some spices.  In the end, the kids decided to opt for a good old macaroni cheese with the huge block of Galloway Cheddar.  There was even a good sized dish, which was perfect for a macaroni cheese dish big enough for all six of us.

We even planned a haggis, neeps and tatties meal, which will be posted in a recipe in a week or two.

Galloway Cheddar is a medium strength coloured cheddar, which is matured for a few months, to give it the family appeal.  It’s sold exclusively in Scotland, and produced in Scotland with 100% Scottish milk, and is also suitable for vegetarians.

Galloway Promotion

Step One

Upload your receipt.

Galloway have launched a promotion, which offers a free family meal with every pack, in the form of £5 cash back, which shoppers can claim by spending a minimum of £10 on a shop, which must include a promotional pack of Galloway Cheddar.

Your £5 will be sent in a Galloway branded wallet, with some tasty £5 family recipe ideas included.

Step Two

Share a photo of your own family mealtime at home – which must include a pack of Galloway Cheddar in the image.  You could instantly win one of 10,000 Galloway branded serving dishes.  The quality of our serving dish is well worth having.  Ours will certainly see a lot of use in my kitchen.

We must be a fairly traditional family.  We tend to eat most of our meals at the table, with only a very few meals eaten on our laps in front of the TV.  It wasn’t ever deliberately planned to work out this way, it just evolved and has stuck as simply the way that we eat our food.

I have to say, that our block of cheddar has been highly appreciated as an addition to toasted sandwiches, extra topping on pizza, and for one child, simply to eat in small chunks when he’s hungry.

There’s a reason the teen below offered to grate the cheddar !!!!!!  Needless to say, it wasn’t to “help” mum make the tea.  A fair few chunks went by way of his belly while he grated very slowly.

We had to to make two dishes of macaroni, as the youngest won’t eat anything with spices or with tomatoes.  There was a small dish just for him.

The rest of us ate our macaroni straight from the Galloway Cheddar serving dish, which I made with sauteed onions and a couple of cloves of crushed garlic.  It was how my mother in law made macaroni cheese, and we all loved it, so I stick to how she used to make it.

I cheat with my white sauce.  I simply heat milk with a knob of butter on the hob until it’s almost at boiling point.  Then I simply thicken with some cornflour mixed with milk to make a paste.  When my sauce is thick enough, I simply take it off the heat and stir in the cheese, a handful at a time, until it’s competely melted.

I add my garlic and sauteed onions to the finished sauce before pouring it into the serving dish with the pre-cooked macaroni.  To put it in the oven, I just sprinkle over some more cheese, place on tomatoes, and put it in the oven until the cheese has melted.

What would you do with yours?