Degustabox October

We're celebrating a spooky season this month, yet October isn't just all things candy-related. It's also earlier evenings with cosy meals, like bowls of comforting soup and stew, and of course, enjoying hot chocolate, preferably with whipped cream and marshmallows, and baking simple treats like rocky road and caramel squares.

Degustabox is a monthly food and drink subscription box. It's an excellent way of discovering new products which have only just appeared in the shops, or those which have been around for a while, but you haven't had a chance to try them yet.

Thanks to Degustabox, I have found new favourites to add to our shopping list, including some products which I otherwise wouldn't have tried.

Each time a monthly box arrives, its contents are a total surprise. You get a good selection of foods and drinks.

If you haven't tried Degustabox subscription box yet, and would like to have a go, I have a £3off discount from your first box (and you can unsubscribe any time), just use code DKRLN when placing an order. 

What did we get in October Box Degustabox?

Product of the Month - 

Barilla Pesto alla Genovese con Basilico Italiano (£3.35) is an aromatic and colourful pasta sauce, made in Italy.

Made with real Parmesan (unlike many pestos in jars, which are made with less expensive cheese), this sauce will enhance a variety of Italian-inspired recipes, from pasta to griddled or baked chicken with pesto, from pesto pinwheels to artichoke tart.

Basil in this sauce comes from the sustainable agriculture.

Nutritional values: 482kcal and 3.25g of salt per 100g (one jar is 190g)

Our favourite pasta dish with pesto is pasta alla Genovese, cooked with cubed potatoes and green beans, and coated with a generous helping of pesto. And don't forget the grated parmesan. Mmm, an ultimate comfort food.

Available at Ocado, Amazon, Co-Op, and Morrisons (selected stores).

Brioche Pasquier Pancakes (£2.20) are a lovely breakfast or brunch treat, soft and squishy. 

French family bakery since 1936, Pasquier offers a wide selection of baked goodies. My family loves their brioche, and I buy the pancakes occasionally too, especially when I don't have time to make my own from scratch. Lovely with all kinds of toppings, and with a cup of tea.

Great for lunchboxes, for on the go, eat them as they are, or put in the toaster to warm them up.

Nutritional information: 124kcal and 9.8g of sugar per pancake; free from preservatives, suitable for vegetarians.

Available in Morrisons and Co-Op.

SlooOW Rustic Multigrain Baguette (£1.60) is an organic wheat baguette, partially baked and made with the best and 100% natural ingredients. The bread dough is given more than 24 hours to rise, to later become a very tasty crusty bread.

Bake it in the oven for 12 minutes for a crispy crust. 

Great for bruschetta, with tomatoes, basil and olive oil, or make hot mini sandwiches with it, with lots of grated cheese. 

Nutritional values: 143kcal and 0.51g of salt per 50g serving.

Available in Tesco and Hello Fresh.

Proper Corn Smoky & Sweet Paprika/ or Tangy Chilli/ or Cracked Black Pepper & Salt popcorn (£1.90) is a super snack with a warm kick for the tastebuds.

Three new flavours of Proper popcorn are going to be a big hit. 

Popcorn is naturally high in fibre, and wholegrains are a source of magnesium and zinc.

Nutritional information: 90kcal and 0.6g of sugar per serve (20g), contains natural flavourings, gluten free, vegan.

Available in Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Ocado. After we enjoyed the new Smoky and Sweet Paprika, I've spotted the new packs in Waitrose. While we will eventually try all flavours, I have already bought the paprika one a couple of times, as it's so moreish.

You should receive 1 item in your box.

Three Robins Little Smoothie (£1.89) is a dairy free oat smoothie with real fruit and veggies. Their motto is Tasty Goodness for Kids.

They come in two lovely flavours: Super Berry and Totally Tropical. My son enjoyed the smoothie.

Nutritional values: 46kcal and 8g of sugar; no added sugar, made with real fruit and veg, fortified with vitamins and minerals; no artificial flavours.

Available to order on the Three Robins website.

Knorr White wine stock pots (£1.90)  are stock pots, made with half a glass of full bodied white wine

Melts in rich flavour in seconds, perfect for risottos and casseroles.

I used one of the stock pots, while cooking a chicken stew with dumplings. 

Nutritional values: 4kcal and 1g of salt per 125ml; free from artificial colours, gluten free, vegan.

Available in the major supermarket chains.

Chewits Fruity Jewels (£1.30) are sugared chewy gummies with fruit flavour (rhubarb, cherry, strawberry, pneapple and apple).

This is the same Chewits brand that you're familiar with, but with a lower sugar content and a new fruity mix. 

Nutritional information: 77kcal and 8.5g of sugar per 4 sweets; no artificial colours or flavours

Fruity and Sour Jewels mix are available in Tesco and Morrisons now.

Tarczynski Kabanosy Extreme Piri-Piri (£2.30) are Polish Kabanos with Piri-Piri stuffing. This snack is designed for convenience, and is packed with flavour. 

Piri piri gives kabanos an extra oumph, and will rock your tastebuds. 

Nutritional values: 421kcal and 5.7g of sugar per 100g.

Available in the world food aisle of all major supermarkets.

Nestle Carnation condensed milk (£2.39) is made from all natural ingredients: fresh whole milk and natural sugar.

This classic product is well-known, and is used widely in baking and puddings. You can make Millionaire's shortbread or fudge, rice pudding or ice cream, Banoffee pie or cheesecake, the possibilities are endless.

Nutritional values: 161kcal and 27.5g of sugar per 50g serving; a good source of calcium.

Available in the major supermarket chains.

Mardel Alfajor De Dulce de Leche Negro and Blanco (£1.50) are soft cookies, filled with Mardel dulce de leche (milk caramel) and covered with either dark or white chocolate coating.

Gave my boys one each, and they enjoyed these cookies a lot. A lovely sweet treat, Alfajor is an iconic product from Argentina.

Nutritional information: 398kcal and 43.5g of sugar per 100g (one package is 50g).

You should receive 2 items in your box.

Available in international Latin shops.

Three international products in the latest box might give you a taste of what's to come in the International edition of the advent calendar from Degustabox. I have pre-ordered mine a while ago, and can't wait to discover all its treasures.

Photo diary: weeks 7 and 8, project 365

 As birthdays go, mine was quite unremarkable. Not that I minded much, in fact I'm not the type who expects celebrations and fireworks. Since going out for dinner is out of question, I bought a Neapolitan cake from Waitrose, and we had a long walk in town catching Pokemons. That's as exciting as it gets these days. Eddie said that Pokemon Go had a special raid day yesterday in my honour. 

I'm not moaning. In fact, here I am sitting by the laptop and dancing in my chair, singing to the tune of One way ticket to the Moon by Eruption. I remember that song when it first appeared. I was 10 years old, and loved it. Still do. That hairstyle haunted my dreams, I so wanted to have those dangly braids with beads. 

In the last couple of weeks we watched two seasons of The Umbrella Academy on Netflix. We were late to the party, and it took me a few episodes to get into it, but I did find it entertaining (not as good as Marvel films though). 

The garden is looking pretty, with a carpet of snowdrops and crocuses. The yellow crocuses have been gobbled up by some critters almost overnight, I haven't had a chance to take a photo of them. I wonder if they taste better?! Why are they eaten up every single year, while the purple and blue ones stay untouched?

One of the books I read recently for the blog tour was Gordon Square. It is a psychological thriller, with Gothic undertones, quite harrowing. 

Pancake day seems like a distant memory now. I made buttermilk pancakes, both bigger size and small blini, and served with different toppings. Eddie is still amused by the face with a whipped cream beard and marshmallows. I bought a bottle of Percy Pig syrup to try, and all my guys loved it. As for me, I prefer either honey or maple syrup with my pancakes.

Walking in town, and looking at the reflections in the puddles. After snapping the sun reflection, I realised that the tower looks, ahem, very erect.

Eddie is a big fan of Liz Pichon's Tom Gates series. He's been counting the days until the latest book was out, and read it in one day.

I bought a book shelf two years ago, and it was sitting in a box all this time in the summerhouse. We finally paid someone to come and assemble it. Eddie and I divided the ownership, top shelf for his books, the lower one for mine.

I love this time of the year, when the garden looks pretty. It also looks pretty messy, and I need to start the spring clean very soon, including getting rid of the revolting deposits from the neighbours' cats who use our garden as their private toilet. 

In the last week Eddie's been studing the Maya civilization. One of their home learning tasks was to draw a Maya mask, and this is the result. Rather colourful and ferocious.

We walked to the Tower Hill Cemetery, which is a big place with amazing old trees. It feels very peaceful there. As it is on the hill, you can see the town below.

That's another snap from the same walk.

Another series that Eddie loves is Alex Rider by Anthony Horowitz. He was a bit disappointed that Alex didn't make an appearance in this book, and it was all a backstory of Yassen Grigorovich (this name gives me the giggles, it's such an obviously invented "Russian" name).

One more assembly in the house, this time a desk for Eddie. He's been working, using the dinner table downstairs, but now can do it in his own bedroom. Ordered the desk from Amazon, and booked a technician for assembly. Waited for 4 hours for them to appear, then contacted Amazon, asking what time the technician would be arriving, as the slot was coming to an end, but they said he didn't plan to come. What a waste of time. And they didn't even bother to text me in advance to warn that they couldn't do the job. Thankfully, a friend offered help, when I asked on FB if anyone knew a trustworthy handyman locally. He refused to take any payment, even if took over 2 hours to build the desk.

And a new keyboard for the new desk...

How was your week?

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Photo diary: week 7 (project 365)

We're on week 7 of Project 365 (take a photo each day), and I'm already losing my mojo. Maybe it was because this week we're on midterm break, and I found my hands full and mind distracted.
In my understanding if you have children, parents need to work as a team. I appreciate that this might be a purely theoretical and idealistic view. But when your husband never bothers to check any holidays or breaks in advance and plans his trips abroad exactly at the same time when the school is off, I call it pisstaking inconsiderate.
Most photos I took this week were of food that I was cooking and garden, as I felt totally lacking motivation.

Last Sunday I decided to make pancakes. These were Russian-style honey pancakes, and they were very tasty.

I finished reading Dance of Death by Edward Marston. I enjoyed the book, though I prefer his Railway Detective series. I used to collect vintage photos and cards, and this is some of my stash, acquired at the flea markets years ago.

Tuesday was a Pancake Day. Apologies for another pancake photo, but it was either that or the toy review image which I did that day.

On Wednesday our Papa was off to the States, and we didn't see him when he got up to catch an early bus to Oxford. Our friend Jen offered her services as a driver, and we visited the Burford garden centre, which both boys love. Sadly, by Sod's law, it was raining, so we didn't do much apart from having coffee and treats at the cafe, having a quick look at the food shop (where we must buy a box of jelly beans for Sash - he thinks that is an essential part of going to the garden centre) and about 10 minutes max at the playground. Such a shame, it was raining, the next two days we had perfectly sunny mornings. sigh

I was in a gloomy mood on Thursday, as Sash was extremely restless, and I was annoyed with my husband for gallivanting around the globe yet again, while I'm tied in like a prisoner with kids and home.
Apologies if I sound resentful, because I really am. Not so much for his freedom, but my lack of it.
The photo I took in the garden that day sort of matched my mood. Melancholy and decay.

We've inherited that dog-boot scraper with the house and garden, when we moved in here. He's been living in the garden, unmolested by our boots. Also I do need to start the spring-clean of the garden.

On the plus side, the snowdrops are taking over the garden, and look so pretty. For me they are a symbol of spring.

And just this morning I found out that we have a few dark purple hellebore under the plum trees. I always think of them as something suitable for Morticia Addams.

Russian-style honey pancakes

I was reading an online pancake recipe post by some minor celebrity the other day, and she chirped that it was good that we only eat pancakes once a year because technically they're just fried batter.
So, what's the problem?
 Yes, there is a tendency among some Brits to eat pancakes only on Pancake day, but I think they are totally depriving themselves of the most delicious food for no good reason.
I'm sure I moan about it every single year.

If you worry about pancakes being unhealthy, then just swap some of the ingredients.
Use coconut oil rather than butter, or those bottles with oil spray which cover the pan with just enough of oil mist to fry.
Swap plain flour for buckwheat or wholemeal flour, use a skimmed milk, or dairy free milk - the possibilities are endless.
I'm not very keen on vegan pancakes, sorry, the recipes I've seen, looked like those pancakes were deprived of all joy. If you use just flour, water and oil, then it is a sad semblance of a pancake. I'm sure they are edible, but not for me. Apologies for not appreciating the recipe. I'm sure I'm committing some non-PC crime by saying that.

And since we eat pancakes pretty often, I made a batch today of Russian-style honey pancakes. They are not exactly a diet food, but then I have no regrets. They are very tasty.

Russian-style honey pancakes (makes 9 big + 12 small pancakes)
Ingredients:
400ml milk (semi-skimmed)
1 tbsp honey
a pinch of salt
40g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
200g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
2tbsp olive oil
butter, for frying, about 25-30g.

Warm up milk in a small pan with honey, until honey melts. It should be warm, not hot.
In a big mixing bowl beat the eggs with sugar and salt. Sift in the flour and baking powder. Add the oil and milk, and mix well with a whisk, so that the batter is smooth and lump-free.

Fry in the pancake pan with butter. I use a special pancake pan which allows me to cook 4 pancakes at a time, but I've seen a Swedish plett pan on amazon which holds 7 small pancakes, and I'm very tempted to buy it.

I couldn't take a photo of the whole stash, as people would pinch pancakes as they were cooked.

Eddie loves both small sized pancakes, and big ones, and I let him go free with chocolate buttons, marshmallows and cream.

Serve them hot with honey or any syrup you like (maple, agave, carob, golden) or dust with a bit of icing sugar.

Yukon flapjacks (sourdough pancakes)

Inspired by last week's Bread Week challenges at GBBO, I fancied making something different from my usual cakes and bakes, though certainly not a bread sculpture.
When it comes to baking bread, I'm a rather hesitant baker.
I'd love to do a bread workshop one day to properly learn the basics.
Last year I reviewed Jane Mason's Perfecting Sourdough, and since then I haven't done much with it apart from looking at the photos and reading recipes but that does not count.

Yukon Flapjacks was one of the bookmarked recipes. They look pretty similar to Russian blini or Scottish pikelets, but they are made with a sourdough starter.

For white wheat sourdough starter I suggest you visit Jane Mason's Making Sourdough Starters page at Virtuous Bread. I have followed her recipe, as printed in the book, but it's exactly the same on the web page.

Yukon Flapjacks are not what we know as flapjacks in the UK. These are sourdough pancakes.

If you don't have the book, the recipe could be found on Jane Mason's blog - see Easy recipe for delicious sourdough pancakes.

You will get a big amount of pancake batter. Since my pancakes were smaller in size than suggested 10cm in diameter, we ended up with more than 25 pancakes. I wasn't sure if I could just halve the recipe, but Stasher did just that, see her post for Yukon flapjacks.

I'm glad I have tried the recipe. Sourdough pancakes have a definite sour note, which works well with honey or maple syrup. Saying that, my blini are a good competitor, and my family prefer my pancakes.

Curd cheese pancakes

Eton-mess style pancakes

I make pancakes almost every weekend, and don't quite understand how some people eat pancakes only once a year on Pancake Day. It is tantamount to the attitudes of people in Middle Ages who washed once a year, and thought that was enough. How can you possibly avoid pancakes for the rest of the year? Incomprehensible. That's one of the easiest meals, and one of the most versatile too, as you can vary the ingredients and toppings ad infinitum.
Anyway, to please my younger son I baked a very small batch - let's call it a limited edition - of Ninja turtles pancakes, using matcha tea and food colouring. Eddie participated by adding touches with a chocolate icing pen. And here is our result, ta da! Have to say that the blue food dye didn't survive the heat and got very pale, almost grey. The red one was OK, and green matcha was the best colour.

For grown-ups I have made curd cheese pancakes and offered them with a selection of syrups and toppings.
My favorite toppings are maple syrup and honey. I prefer to buy honey which is not a blend of different countries, so usually go for either Greek, Australian or English wildlife when buying in supermarkets or buy the local honey from the farmers' market.

I also served a few pancakes with crushed meringues, strawberries and whipped cream.

Curd cheese pancakes
Ingredients:
2 medium eggs
 4 heaped tbsp curd cheese
1tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 heaped tbsp self-raising flour
1tbsp caster sugar
75ml milk
butter for the frying pan
a selection of honeys and syrus for pouring (optional)
strawberries, meringues and cream (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together to a thick consistency. Butter the pancake pan slightly, pour a tablespoon of batter per pancake. You will get about 12+ pancakes, depending on the thickness you want.
Serve hot with any syrup or honey, or just dusted with icing sugar.

What are your favourite ways of serving pancakes?

Adding my recipe to this month's Tea Time Treats linky hosted by Lavender and Lovage and The Hedgecombers  which is all about Pancakes, Hotcakes and Waffles