Camping VS Glamping

Unless you weren’t in the country this weekend it would have been impossible to have missed that Glastonbury Festival was on. I remember going to Glastonbury with a huge heavy rucksack on my back carrying a tent and hoping that I wouldn’t get too wet. Half an hour later I was still walking and knee deep in mud! However it would appear that visitors this year had another option – not staying in the local b and b’s no GLAMPING! Prebooked bell tents set up for you in a nice dry field with double beds and lots of room and luxury toilets and showers!

I’m a bit unsure about glamping – it feels slightly treacherous. I have fond memories of camping in a field with a tent, single hob burner and a little tent posted well away. The simplicity to me was the main benefit. You could pack up and go and as long as you remembered the cooker and ground sheet you were fairly safe. Evenings were spent playing football or cards till the light dimmed then bed and early rising.

I was first introduced to a form of glamping when we stayed in a field one day and the couple on the other side of the field had a tv!!!  They set out their deck chairs and tuned in to eastenders with a cup of tea and torch. Then more recently I discovered Featherdown Farms. I’m not alien to tents having separate spaces – we had a shower curtains separating our sections but Featherdown have main bedrooms, kitchens (with coffee grinders) dining rooms, lounge area and in some hot tubs all be it of the camping sort of variety – you have to turn the grinder yourself (no electricity)

While the first to introduce this rather upmarket form of camping they are by no means the only lot around. China plates and cups, luxury bedding, rugs & laptop chargers! Yurt holidays, bell tents, ecopods, tipi’s even gypsy caravans – the list is endless. But does it class as camping and does it compare? Yes you do wake up after a luxurious sleep (no air beds to pump or punctures to mend at 3am) under duck duvets and you have the choice of cooked breakfasts while listening to birdsong and white fluffy towels to dry off after a hot shower...but!

For a start you do pay for this luxury. With starter tents from Tesco’s at £10 the average cost of four days glamping being £650 out of season. You also can’t just pitch up where you feel like and you’re bound to have neighbours. So personally I think I might give the tent with the fitted wardrobes and the cocktail partys in the evening a miss and stick to my four person pop up tent where if I don’t feel like making polite conversation with the neighbours or  feel like wearing make up and high heels I won’t be laughed at!

I do reserve the right however to change my mind as my bones get older!



Anyone for a drink?

Today marks the longest day of the year and also the first day of summer despite what the weather might think!  There seem to be lots of recipes about for summer pudding so I thought I’d pass on a recipe for lemonade this time.

I find that once you’ve had a glass of homemade lemon juice its very difficult to choose shop bought again.

Ingredients

• 4 unwaxed lemons, washed
• 100g caster sugar

Method

1. Using a vegetable peeler, thinly peel the zest from the lemons, leaving as much white pith behind as possible. Squeeze the juice from the lemons. Place the zest, lemon juice and sugar in a large heatproof jug.
2. Pour in 600ml boiling water and stir until the sugar has totally dissolved. Cover, and leave to cool completely. Now, strain the lemon mixture into a serving jug, and discard the zest. Dilute with 400ml chilled water and sweeten with extra sugar to taste. Serve decorated with lemon slices, mint leaves and crushed ice.

If you want to make pink lemonade – chuck in a couple of handfuls of raspberries and give it a quick stir!

DiddyBears

 If you go down to the woods today be sure of a big surprise.....

This week I got the most beautifully packed parcel in the post. Inside was the smallest, cutest and most adorable teddy bear I have seen. Mine was beautifully decorated in reds matching my diddybear inside as all of them do. Each little bear  is handmade in the UK from incredible fine and natural hand-dyed wools. They are incredibly diddy at just 6cm tall but perfectly formed!

Each little bear has tiny jointed limbs and moveable head with adorable chubby tummy’s making them even cuter than you would have thought. I choose a premade bear (but you can choose a custom one just for you) as it had my nickname and shared my favourite things (peaches & books) but you can change these if you wish. They each come with their own birth certificate which makes them not only a wonderful collectable but a perfect present for anyone else.  Priced at just £12 they are guaranteed to bring a smile to anyone’s day.

 

National Fudge Day

Gosh today’s national fudge day! Yum yum yum! Surprisingly it’s been around since the 19th century. Rumour has it that it was created after an apprentice left his pot of caramel he was stirring for his boss to long and that it went grainy. The customers though apparently loved it and decided to name it fudge after the young apprentice.

So here’s a couple of recipes to make tonight.

Wheat, gluten, dairy & egg free....

Ingredients

1 7 1/2 oz container Marshmallow Fluff or marshmallow creme

2 1/2 cups sugar

5 oz coconut milk (try to get the thickest part, not the clear, thin part)

1 tsp salt

1/2 stick margarine (=1/4 cup)

1 tsp vanilla

12 oz chocolate chips/chunks

Method

Combine all ingredients through margarine in a heavy saucepan with a candy thermometer. Mix and bring to a boil over medium heat. Keep stirring intermittently.

Allow the mixture to boil for several minutes (more than five), until the thermometer reads “soft ball stage”. You can’t just go by time, as coconut milk reacts a bit differently and the timing for evaporated milk doesn’t quite work.

Remove from heat, and mix in the vanilla and the chocolate chips. Stir until well combined. Pour out into a greased 9×9 or 8×11 pan.

If you are not sensitive to nuts, you can combine about 1/2 cup pecans/walnuts after adding the chocolate, or you can sprinkle some over the top of the pan of fudge.

And my favourite my James Martin......

Vanilla Fudge

Ingredients

oil, for greasing

300 ml milk

350 g caster sugar

100 g unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Grease an 18cm square cake tin.

2. Put the milk, sugar and butter in a heavy-based saucepan. Heat slowly, stirring all the time, until the sugar has dissolved and the butter melted.

3. Bring to the boil and boil for 15-20 minutes, stirring all the time.

4. When the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage (115°C on a sugar thermometer), remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Leave to cool for 5 minutes.

5. Beat the mixture with a spoon for a few minutes until it starts to thicken and the gloss disappears.

6. Pour into the prepared tin and leave to set at room temperature (do not put it in the fridge).

7. Once set, cut the fudge into small squares and store in a sealed container.

Quick Pastry Treats

With the days being dryer my boys are tiring themselves out more at the moment and I’m not a huge fan of giving them biscuits from the shops so I wanted something which I can make up in 5 mins and cooks quickly. They love these swirls, I tend to use a high cocoa low sugar chocolate spread as mine cant have dairy either but nutella works great in there as well!

Pastry & Chocolate Swirls

Chocolate Pastry Swirls

1 block of puff pastry
1 jar of nutella or other chocolate spread
200g of flaked hazelnuts (or any other nuts)
caster sugar for dusting

Roll out the puff pastry on a floured surface.

Spread the chocolate spread all over it and sprinkle with the nuts.

Roll the pastry from either end into the centre. When the two sides meet, dab a little water in the middle to help them stick.

Slice the roll into 1 cm slices and place each slice on a baking sheet covered with baking paper.

Firm them down with a palate knife and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 180°C for about 14 minutes or until golden brown.

What I'm reading this month....

I read this after watching the film! Both are worthwhile but the film easier going!

One of my favourite books. If you've never read Laura Ingalls Wilder...DO! Her family were the first pioneers across America. This book is her husbands upbringing.

I love their produce and love thir recipes.

I watched the film and found the book is wonderful on its own and even more inspiring!

Ways with coffee grounds

 I’m a big big lover of coffee – I’ll wander in to the stores just for the smell! So you can imagine the grounds pile up at our house and I hate flushing them down the toilet and decided there must be another use for them. So after doing a bit of researching online and asking or pleading on twitter I’ve managed to come up with this list! Please add to it with any of your tips!

Firstly a popular one is to rub them on your hands or to pop them in a saucer to get rid of whiffs and pongs!

(If you don’t feel like rubbing your hands with them I have to say  Ayntre Soapdo a special soap for this purpose! )

2, Hair rinse – If you have dark locks these will add a glorious shine and sheen with wonderful highlights.

3, Cellulite reducer. Mix 1/4 cup warm, used coffee grounds and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. While standing over an old towel or newspaper, apply the mixture to your "problem areas". Next, wrap the areas with shrink wrap and leave on for several minutes. Unwind the wrap, brush loose grounds off your skin and then shower with warm water. For best results, it is recommended to repeat this procedure twice a week. A little weird to be sure, but as high priced cellulite creams have coffee in them, it just might work.

4, Or even a Mud pack – Mix up into a paste and place on your face and be prepared for a free face lift!

5, Did you know that if your shopping for perfume, taking a bag of coffee with you to smell will refresh your nose between sniffing scents?

6, Food – well for your worms and plants! Chuck them on your compost bin or mix them into your soil or veg patch as an added nutrient to the soil.

7, On the gardening theme they repel ants –  Pour them round where you don’t want the ants or just pour them in a circle around the ant hill! - Earl Proulx's "Yankee Home Hints" recommends sprinkling coffee grounds around your garden to eliminate cutworms and ants. He also says that "to get rid of ants in the lawn, mix about 1 pound of coffee grounds in 1 quart of hot water and pour this on anthills. Red ants, which make big hills, will require a big dousing."

8, Wormerys? Mix horse manure and coffee grounds for your 'soil', just like the professionals.

9, Grow mushrooms – Apparently a great place to start growing your mushrooms and less smelly than manure!

10, Keep cats from using your garden as a kitty box by spreading used coffee grounds and orange peels throughout flower beds.

11, Have plants that have turned yellow in the winter? Revive them by feeding the pot plant a mixture of coffee grounds & sugar, and water regularly.

12, Add a little bit of water and using a cotton wall bud touch up any scratches on your wooden furniture.

13, Love a fire? Sprinkle damp coffee grounds over the ashes to keep from becoming engulfed in the plume of dust ashes create when you need to remove them.

14, Finally for your home made pirates - steep coffee grounds in water to make a 'bath' for sheets of paper. Dip them, then lay out to dry to make imitation parchment – Perfect for  treasure maps!

Farmyard Tales...

 After spending lots of time and money trying to interest my eldest in books we have finally cracked it! And after trying all the Thomas Tank Engines and Fireman Sam what captured his attention? The Farmyard Tale books by Usborne!

A gift from his grandparents after a day when he was running round the walls I took one out and settled him down next me prepared for him to jump up again in seconds and from the first page he was hooked. The books have wonderful pictures in and every time we read these books we find something different to look at. Each book starts with “This Apple Tree Farm...” and we now recognise those words on other pages of the book. The books are designed to grow with your child. Jacks quite happy to sit on his own and tell himself the story through the pictures and as he learns to read the top of each page has smaller easier to read words and still tells the story with the adults or older children reading the greater description below. I can’t recommend these wonderful books enough!  If you have any little boys or girls who are reluctant to read or calm these are a fabulous investment!

10 Things to do with Vinegar

I should imagine all of us have vinegar in our cupboards, be it lurking in the back or at the front to chuck over chips or drizzle as a dressing. There are plenty of uses for vinegar in cooking but what about outside of the kitchen?

1, Hair Shiner – With the amounts of products used on hair these days it seems very difficult to deep cleanse it all out but thats what rinsing it in vinegar will do (don’t worry rinse afterwards so you don’t smell!) and will leave you with a lovely glossy shine!  (also fights dandruff)

2, Weed or grass killer – Spray this undiluted straight on to weeds or grass which occurs in the cracks on pathways and eventually they’ll shrivel up and die!

3, Colour Setting – I hate buying lovely dark clothes (especially jeans) which after a couple of rinse loose their deepness of colour so I let them soak for a bit in vinegar and water and they stay looking vibrant for longer!

4, Making a Rocket – you do need a bit of baking soda to help you out here!

Get a one litre bottle.

1. Put vinegar into the bottle so the bottle is filled up about one inch.
2. Put some baking soda (baking powder works too, but not as well) in the middle of a sheet of plastic wrap.
3. Pull all the corners together and stick it in the bottle.
4. Close the bottle all the way.
5. Shake the bottle for at least 4-5 seconds.
6. Loosen cap
7. Throw down onto pavement.
8. Make sure the cap is facing the ground, but make sure that you throw it away from yourself.
9. Watch the bottle fly up high in the sky! whoosh!!!!

5, Ok I know this is a usage in the kitchen but its not for cooking so I’m not counting it. A little on a clean dry cloth will clean off grease and sticky fingerprints off all chrome objects – fridge, breadbin, kettle etc etc

6, Salt Stains on boots – If like me you tend to go for a walk along the beach or countryside in leather or suede you’ll often find when its been damp you get lovely white stains. Use a cloth and dip in vinegar and wipe away the marks!

7, Soothe a bee, sunburn or jelly fish sting – Dab the infected area with vinegar and it helps neutralise the sting and take a bit of the discomfort away.

8, Freshen cut flowers or vegs – For flowers place two tablespoons of vinegar and one teaspoon of sugar for every litre of water and for vegetables – soak them in two cups of water and one tablespoon of vinegar.

9, Keeps Cats away – Spray where you don’t want them to wonder or scratch and this deters them wonderfully.