Scooby Doo Mystery Mansion playset

Scooby Doo, a playful and cheerful Great Dane with a great personality, and his best pal Shaggy are forever getting into trouble, aren't they? What, with all the aliens and zombies, vampries and ghouls, ghosts and monsters, they are always trying to escape the deadly situations. They also often find themselves in mysterious and rather scary locations. Scooby Doo Mystery Mansion playset from Character Online has lots of spooky features that would keep the big dog on his toes.

My younger son Eddie loves Scooby Doo, and was thrilled to play with the Mystery Mansion. He couldn't wait for me to unpack the box. A word of warning, you will need a screwdriver with a small head to unscrew the packaging. For some reason I always struggle with that, maybe because I'm in a hurry, as there's my son standing next to me, asking when I will be able to give him the toy to play with. Oh pressure, pressure!

The playset is aimed for children 3+. Eddie is nearly 5, and he absolutely loved it. And it's not just my little man. When we had a Twitter party a couple of weeks ago, our guests made a beeline for the Mystery Mansion as soon as they arrived.

Of course, Eddie being Eddie, he mixes his characters and toys, so the Mystery Mansion has been immediately turned into a house for Ninja Turtles. Well, why couldn't Ninja Turtles visit the same house as Scooby Doo?! There's safety in numbers, after all.

The actual playset comes with a figure of Scooby Doo himself. His limbs can be moved. Take your Scooby Doo on an adventure in the scary mansion. And beware of the traps!
Stepping on a loose step at the porch opens the doors bang-open. Walk up the stairs, and the understairs door opens to show a scary clown (I don't like clowns, they make me shudder). The button on the floor opens a trap with green ghoulish hands trying to get you.

And then there's a swinging chandelier and a cannon. The missiles go pretty far, so don't stand in the way.

This playset would make a super gift for any Scooby Doo fan. It is quite slim, so doesn't take much of a storage space, and it certainly is great fun to play with. Just ask my son!

Disclosure: we received a playset for the purposes of reviewing. All opinions and enthusiasm are our own. :)

Pear, blueberry and polenta cake

I have baked this cake over two weeks ago, when we invited friends over for an afternoon tea. It was the day after my birthday, and I wanted to bake something special. One of our friends is on a gluten free diet, and he's been a trusted guinea pig experimental tester for my gluten free bakes for years. I dug out a copy of Seriously Good Gluten-Free Baking by Phil Vickery, and picked a few possible bakes. I loved the sound of soft pine nut cookies, but when I started rummaging through my supplies, I realised I didn't have any rice flour. But I had all the ingredients for Pear, blueberry & polenta cake.

I have tried to find this recipe online but couldn't, so here's a photo from the book in case you are interested how to bake it.

I didn't fancy doing a frosting for the sponge, and served it with a Haagen Dazs Vanilla ice cream.

To be honest, I wasn't thrilled with the recipe. The cake tasted too oily to my taste, and I think 3tsp of baking powder for this cake is way too much. I only used 2tsp, and even at that amount I could taste it. Our guests though liked it and it was quickly polished. Not sure if that's because they were kind and polite, or whether they really liked it, because I didn't. I might try to adapt the recipe and maybe use half/half of polenta and gluten-free flour, and also reduce the amount of oil and sugar too. The combination of pears and blueberries was a good one though.

Have you tried any recipes from Phil Vickery's book? Which ones would you recommend for me to try?

As I have bookmarked a few recipes from this book, adding my post to Bookmarked Recipes  linky on Tinned Tomatoes blog written by Jacqueline.

Bloody Mary soup

The spring has come, but hasn't decided on whether it wants to be warm or cold. One day the sun is shining, and you feel like getting rid of a coat and enjoying the fresh mild wind. The next day it's grey and miserable with the rain in different degrees from a slightly bothering drizzle to a bucketing relentlessly outpour. On a day like that, you crave comfort food. I love soups, and never get bored with them. It must be my Russian upbringing, as the Russians tend to eat soup on a daily basis.

I've been enjoying my souping boxes from Abel and Cole, of which I talked recently. 

The latest box had ingredients for Bloody Mary soup. 

I used all the ingredients suggested by Abel and Cole, but have slightly adapted a recipe. First of all, I added some vodka. How come a Bloody Mary miss such an important ingredient?! I didn't use a big chilli. In fact, the chilli has found a different kitchen altogether. I am not very good at chopping chillies, way too often I end up swearing at myself for touching my eyes or face in the process. So, I prefer to use a good old Tabasco sauce or chilli paste, which saves me time and effort (as well as my eyes).

Bloody Mary soup

Ingredients:

a punnet of tomatoes (about 15 small ones)

1 big red sweet pepper

1 red onion

a dash of olive oil

2 celery sticks

2 cloves of garlic

1tbsp of freshly grated horseradish

parsley, torn

zest of 1 lemon + juice of half a lemon

a dash of Tabasco

50g vodka

celery salt (optional, you can use a standard sea salt)

Roast the sliced pepper, onion and tomatoes in a tray with a dash of olive oil. Season with a bit of celery salt. Roast for about 20 minutes.

Dice the celery and chop the garlic, give them a quick fry with a bit of olive oil. Put all the veggies in a pan, add water to cover all the vegetables. Bring to boil, and simmer for half an hour, with the grated lemon zest and lemon juice, grated horseradish and a bit of Tabasco. Add vodka in the last 10 minutes of cooking. The alcohol will add a deeper flavour to the overall dish, but you can skip it for sure. Once cooked, blitz the soup with a hand blender. Serve the soup hot in mugs with parsley and a nice slice of bread.

This is an excellent zingy soup, very flavourful and tasty. Bloody gorgeous if you ask me.

If you fancy finding out what other delicious soups you can cook with Abel and Cole, check out their Superb Souping Box. 

I have used Diplomat vodka in this recipe, but I guess any good vodka will do, like Stolichnaya (only not the flavoured varieties). Actually I don't drink vodka, never have, but because I was born in Russia, people automatically jump to conclusions that I must be a vodka-drinker. Quite often when we have guests, they bring me a bottle of vodka as a treat, bless them. I don't want to sound rude, so always thank them graciously and then use in cooking. It's excellent for curing salmon for example, or making pickles. This bottle has been unopened for half a year, now that I opened it I'll need to think of good recipes for using it. What would you suggest?

Photo diary: week 11, 365

8 March, International Women's Day, a great day of celebrations when I was growing up, but widely ignored in the UK. More's the pity. There's a Mother's day of course, but then many of the wonderful womenfolk who are not mothers due to a variety of reasons don't have a day which they can claim as their own. I salute you all, women!
My late Dad absolutely loved this holiday. He took it very seriously. My Mum and I used to chuckle at him, sitting with a phone book on his lap and calling all our family friends, teachers etc to wish them a happy Women's day. He also always bought flowers for Mum and me, tulips or mimosa...
I found this beautiful crocus in the middle of the lawn, where nobody would have planted it. How on earth did it start to grow there? A total mystery.

09.03: Eddie insisted to going to school on his scooter.

10.03: Playing with our new mini-dinos from Schleich

11.03: As my husband came home very late after high table at college the night before, and we needed to talk, I enticed him to try a cup of coffee at Como Lounge, a cafe where I haven't been before. The latte wasn't bad, but the interior was very odd. I don't know if they intentionally decided to decorate it with a collection of vintage kitsch. There are walls and walls of very old-fashioned and badly executed portraits.

12.03: Ed's trying on a chef's outfit, which arrived as a prize from Weetabix for doing a Weetabuddy. I wish I had a chef's hat too.

13.03: a Friday treat to myself after running all morning, doing errands - a cup of hot chocolate Milano and a pastry at Cafe Nero. The hot chocolate looked splendid, but was awfully sweet, I couldn't finish it.

14.03: Our Italian Nonna keeps supplying us with coats. She only recently sent a duffle coat for Eddie, but just yesterday we received another parcel from her, with another coat for Eddie, this time for a milder weather.
As I'm writing, my disrespectful son calls me "Mrs Ga-Ga".

Chai cake

This morning, having sent my guys to school - Sasha on a school bus, Eddie with his Daddy, I looked around the kitchen. Time to bake a cake. I had a vague idea of making something chocolatey with the creme fraiche or Greek yogurt. A quick googling took me to what claimed to be the fastest chocolate cake in the world. It sounded quick and easy. I started by mixing the egg with the caster sugar and yogurt, then opened the kitchen cupboard and realised I've totally run out of cocoa powder. Drat! What should I do?! Moving a few items aside, I discovered an almost empty tin of Spanish drinking chocolate (one tablespoon at the most). That's not chocolatey enough. What about chai? I also have a couple of half-empty tins of Chai Latte from Drink Me Chai, so I added two heaped tablespoons of Spiced chai to the cake batter.

I have followed the recipe above pretty closely, though I changed the cocoa for a mix of cocoa and chai (1 tbsp of cocoa powder to 2 heaped tbsp of spiced chai from Chai Latte) and used Greek style yogurt rather than the soured cream. I also added some vanilla spice drops and a bit of lemon juice over te baking powder.

Chai cake
Ingredients:
1 medium egg
225g caster sugar
a pinch of salt
1tbsp cocoa powder
2heaped tbsp of chai mix
1tsp baking powder with a good squeeze of lemon juice over it
a few drops of concentrated vanilla drops
250ml Greek style yogurt (I used Rachel's organic set Greek style yogurt)
150g self-raising flour

Beat the eggs with the caster sugar. Add a pinch of salt, cocoa, chai, baking powder with a bit of lemon juice, vanilla drops, yogurt and flour and mix well. Pour into an oiled cake tin and bake in the oven for about 40+ minutes at 180C. Check with a wooden toothpick if the cake is cooked.

I think it worked really well. It  turned out to be a nice spicy cake, fluffy, moist and crumbly.

Adding this recipe to a brand new linky launched by Cheryl from Madhouse family Reviews - it's called Kitchen Clearout. And oh boy, don't I need to do a major clearout. You know I keep a box of raspberry and chocolate flavoured ground coffee (still unopen after almost 12 years since we came back from the States). I guess I keep it for sentimental reasons, as we'll never drink it. It's just I really loved it, and it reminds me of the year we spent in Williamstown MA). That and the couple of spices still bought in the States  in 2003 must be the oldest food products I have in the kitchen. And I do have some jams that are verrra old too. I need to be ruthless and start either chucking the old foods out, or using those that are still edible.

Abel and Cole Superb Souping Box

If you decided to observe Lent and go meatless, soups are certainly an answer to a question What to cook? Lenten recipes don't have to be bland and lacking in flavour. If you are running of ideas though, you might consider getting a Superb Souping Box from Abel and Cole. I have been a customer of A&C for a few years, on and off, skipping some weeks altogether, or ordering for a few weeks in a row.
I love soups, and was very curious to try their recent addition to fruit & veg boxes - Superb Souping boxes. which are different each week. So far I have tried two of them (the third one was delivered just yesterday, and I'm cooking one of the soups today)
Soup boxes come with a selection of vegetables, fruit, herbs and spices as well as recipes for three wholesome soups.
To give you an idea on what to expect, have a look inside the box. The first Souping box I ordered had ingredients for 3 delicious soups, all vegetarian. The recipes suggested cooking a Winter Pho, Spanish carrot soup and Bay beet borscht. I cooked the first two soups and used the vegetables for the 3rd soup in a different dish, but I will use the recipe one day.

Winter Pho was a delightful hearty fusion soup, a mix of English and Vietnamese flavours: leeks, carrot, mushrooms and watercress were cooked with chilli, ginger, garlic, star anise, juice and zest of lime and tamari. The addition of zest and juice of a whole lime made it extra special. It was easy to make and tasted delicious. A real winner.

Winter Pho

Spanish carrot soup was a pureed soup variety, vibrant, colourful and zesty. I love carrot soups, and usually add some orange juice to it. This recipe asked to roast the carrots first. Cook the red pepper, cut into strips, with an onion, garlic and chilli. Add smoked paprika, zest and juice of one lemon and cumin seeds. Smoked paprika adds an extra warmth to the soup. It was great comfort food.

Spanish carrot soup

The second box had ingredients for Moroccan chickpea soup, Mushroom and rosemary soup as well as Parsnip, Banana and lime soup. It's the last soup that totally sold it to me. I haven't tried those flavours together in soup before, and was very curious.
Abel & Cole themselves say in the recipe "Banana in a soup may sound a bit bonkers. Trust us - it works, and adds a creamy, velvety depth". I am so glad I gave it a go.
Parsnip, banana and lime soup might not have been a looker, but oh boy, it was so good. I am definitely keeping the recipe to use in the future. It uses 2 parsnips, onion, red chilli, garlic cloves, turmeric, zest and juice of 1 lime and a banana. You have to try it.

Mushroom & rosemary soup is a classic soup, with a twist, as it included an apple as one of its ingredients. These are the ingredients which went into the soup: a punnet of mushrooms, celery, onion, garlic cloves, carrot, balsamic vinegar and rosemary. I usually add a potato or some rice, when cooking a mushroom soup, and it was the 1st time I tried it with an apple.

The earthy flavours of mushrooms were enhanced by the fruity note from an apple and rich acidity from balsamic vinegar. It was an interesting recipe, but I still prefer to add a potato instead of an apple.

Mushroom & rosemary soup

The last of the three was a Moroccan chickpea soup, another colourful dish with lots of flavours going on.

Moroccan chickpea soup

As I was editing the photos for this post, a new soup was simmering on the cooker from my 3rd Superb Souping box - Watercress, Salsify and Crispy Garlic Soup. Black salsify looks quite ugly, like a dirty rough-skinned carrot. But under that rough skin there's a delicate soul. I have tried it before, in a salad (see my old post Black salsify and wild mushrooms warm salad)

Black salsify

The soup recipe included onions, carrot, black salsify, celery, juice and zest of one lemon and watercress, with garlic thinly sliced, fried and scattered over the soup. Very flavourful and quite unusual. I liked the addition of crispy garlic, though I think the delicate salsify is a bit overwhelmed by the peppery watercress and garlic. Still, top marks to A&C for developing varied recipes every week. I still have to cook two more soups - Bloody Mary and Asian apple beet soup.

Each soup box costs £12.50 plus delivery. It includes all ingredients, from vegetables to fruit, from herbs to spices and sauces.

Have you tried a Superb Souping Box?

Watercress, salsify and crispy garlic soup

Disclaimer: I haven't been asked to write about soup boxes. All products have been purchased by me.

New mini-Dino world from Schleich

Every week I help in Eddie's school as a volunteer, taking Reception children to the library, collecting the books they return and issuing new books. I have noticed that each time the shelf with books about dinosaurs is emptied very fast. The dino-books literally fly of the shelves. Dinosaurs are such a fascinating topic, and aged 4 Eddie probably knows more about dinosaurs than I do (as Daddy and he enjoy reading books on the dino-world together). Schleich, a much loved toy brand, has released a new range of mini-prehistoric animals.
We often pop into the local toy shop, and always admire the miniature world of Schleich toys. Their craftsmanship is of high quality, with great attention to detail. Their animal and fantasy figures appeal to both children and adults. When our older son was little, we started a collection of animals, which later was "inherited" by our younger boy. They are excellent for imaginative play, and they don't fade with time.
This year Schleich has introduced a new collection, and I can see this new range will be very popular.
Eddie loved the new collection (he's got 6 out of 10 new mini-dinos, and now wants the whole set, so we'll be visiting the toy shop soon enough).

Eddie calls them bad guys (omnivores) and good guys (herbivores). Let's start with the bad guys, and the "baddest" of them all, according to my little man, a T-rex. With a height of almost 7 metres and a length of almost 13 metres, the T-Rex was too big and bulky to be a good hunter, he was more of a scavenger.

On the contrary, Velociraptor was the perfect hunter. It is considered to be a very intelligent dinosaur. Small and fast, they hunted in packs and could overwhelm a much bigger prey. Just look at its flat snout and sharp teeth!

Triceratops might have looked scary, but it was a herbivore. Its head was the weight of a small car and about one third of its body. A long tail kept the body balanced on the ground. The name derives from the three horns on its head.

Pentaceratops is quite similar to Triceratops, with five horns on its head. It had the largest known skull of all terrestrial animals, how amazing is that.

Saichania is known for its distinct appearance, with the thorny excrescences all over the top of its back. It could defend itself with a club-like tail.

Stegosaurus is a real beauty, with spikes on the tail and plates on its back. Though ten-metres long, it had a tiny brain, not more than a size of a walnut.

This is a beautiful collection, great for imaginative play and with an educational aspect. Children will want to discover more about these prehistoric animals.
Great fun, according to my son Eddie. We have looked up all the animals online, as I confess I couldn't name all of them (I got 4 out of 6), and enjoyed discovering the facts about these fabulous creatures who roamed the Earth millions of years ago.

Disclosure: we received a selection of Schleich toys for the purposes of reviewing. All opinions are mine.

Ceramic Heart Dip Set

Mother's day is almost upon us... Are you still looking for the perfect gift? Special Mums deserve special gifts. Whatever you decide to do, a personalised gift will surely make it a special occasion. As a foodie, I'm happy to receive any kitchen or food and drink-related gifts. As you might know, I love pretty china, both patterned and plain, classic or fancy-shaped, and was thrilled with a personalised Ceramic Heart Dip Set from Treat Republic.

This stylish set comes in a sturdy box, and consists of 3 heart-shaped dip server bowls and a solid base made of bamboo. Not only that, it is personalised.
My guys and I love dips and what my men call "snacky things": hummus, guacamole, salsa, soured cream and herbs, olives of all sizes and kinds, sun-dried tomatoes etc etc. And though I have a nice little selection of bowls for dips, none of them are heart-shaped.

It's a perfect set for dips or nibbles. The board is sturdy and smooth, and of course bamboo is an environmentally friendly material. The board has carved grooves for the bowls (I've been singing all day "Groove is in the heart...").

Ceramic dishes are deep and durable. Just imagine how good they will look when you are entertaining. And the personalised message is just the icing on the cake. Needless to say, I love it.

For other gift ideas for Mother's day or any other occasion, have a good browse at Treat Republic.

And if you for one reason or another cannot afford a purchased gift, don't worry. Us Mums are easily pleased with a big hug from our loved ones, a cup of tea in the morning, a homemade card and a mini posie of flowers picked in the garden


Disclosure: I received a dip set for the purposes of reviewing. All opinions are mine.

Our first Twitter party with Blaze and the Monster machines

My younger son Eddie loves parties. He's a true social animal, and is counting days until his next birthday party (which is in July). Despite me showing him on a big calendar when July is, and how many months are still in between now and then, he is talking about his party as if it's going to happen tomorrow. He tells me who he is planning to invite and what cake he wants to have (at the moment it's a split between Spiderman and Ninja Turtles). Being so enthusiastic about parties in general, he was absolutely thrilled when I told him we were going to host a NickJrBlaze party.

Waiting for the arrival of our guests, sitting in the big box which contained all the party goodies before

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen my avalanche of tweets before and during the party.
We invited Eddie's nursery and school friends (as well as their Mums). All the boys settled on the sofa to watch the premiere of Blaze and the Monster Machines on NickJr.
Just who or what is Blaze?
Blaze is Axle City's greatest hero and its number one racer. He is super fast and fearless, but also smart - he knows a lot about science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). He uses his scientific knowledge in the difficult situations. His best pal AJ is a driver and a techie expert.

The boys were literally glued to the screen. You should have seen them, quiet and absorbed into the new show. I even joked to their Mums, saying how angelic they looked. The boys are all four years old (turning 5 in summer), except little C who is just over two. They all gave the new show thumbs up and told me they enjoyed the race on the tracks the best.

Eddie and his buddies watching Blaze and the Monster Machines

Since Friday my son watched the DVD of the first episode several times already (we were sent a preview DVD).
Having fortified themselves with some tasty snacks and drinks, kids were happy to do the activities, and for the next hour and a half we were very busy. You can say - chaos reigned supreme.
First activity was quite an easy one.
The boys had to follow the maze and help Crusher find Pickle.

They were happy to create mini-cars from Milky Way bars, making Smarties' wheels and Jelly Babies' drivers. I made one in advance to show how it was supposed to look like. When the time came to do this activity, I got all flustered: "Where's the driver?" Eddie looked at me with guilty eyes and said "I ate it". Never mind, there were plenty of jelly babies to make another one.

Boys assembled their cars with great enthusiasm. And then, mini-cars, quickly disappeared.

The next activity was the most challenging: we had to build cars from cardboard boxes, wooden sticks, wheels, using stickers and plasticine.

We split into three teams, and worked hard on our cars. We kept laughing, saying we'd never be good as the Blue Peter presenters.

That's Eddie's and mine creation, it didn't last very long, as the wheels kept falling apart.

After a car-building session we moved onto a colour, shape and number sorting activity.

For technology we tested the laws behind buoyancy - in simple words, finding out which items sink and which float. I had to to take the bucket out in the garden, so that we don't splash the floors.

Lemon Clock from Great Gizmos was a big hit. I had to read and re-read the instructions, as I'm not very good at techie things, but this was easy enough.
We were all amazed when the clock started working. This is such a fun little gadget, and will make a fab gift to anyone who loves technology.

It was our first Twitter party, and we had a fantastic time. All the boys were thrilled with their goodie bags. Little C uttered his first words of the party (he's been pretty silent until then), exclaiming "um-bella, um-bella! wain, wain!" Older boys were as excited. When it was time to go home, and C's Mummy tried to put the umbrella in the bag little C had a bit of a meltdown as he didn't want to part with his um-bella even for a second.
It was a great fun, and a lovely active party for all the boys.
If you ask my son, he's ready to host another party any time.

Disclosure: we received all the party activities and goodies bags to host a Twitter party.