Typecast

When I found out that I had the opportunity to review the Cosori Air Fryer I immediately jumped on Facebook and asked my friends what I should make first.  The 100% response was CHIPS! I've never been able to understand how you can fry food without oil but was quite excited to try it out, especially because I'm following a Slimming World eating plan and I would normally have to "syn" fried foods.  However, (here comes the science bit...) the Cosori Air Fryer works by circulating hot air and a small amount of oil around the food at high speed and a high temperature to initiate the browning reaction achieved by frying.  Therefore, you can cook and brown foods such as the aforementioned chips, chicken, fish, steak, pastries and so much more. The Cosori Air Fryer has a new sleek design which has a quick-touch LED display that includes both preset and manual settings.  There is also a "shake" reminder alarm, a preheat setting and a keep warm se...

I'm very much a ''throw it all in and hope for the best" type of cook. I sort of follow recipes but always experiment and attempt to try out adaptations.  I recently had a whole load of vegetables that were about to become past their best and needed to use them up so I had a glance at a recipe online, took note of what I had, threw it all in a pot and kept my fingers crossed.  It was one of the best things I've ever made and has become much-requested in this house. If you have ever followed any of my other recipes , you'll know that I don't do much measuring so everything is adaptable.  This recipe makes six to eight large portions and is ideal for lunch with a crusty loaf or as a starter for a main meal.  Video : How To Make Vegetable Soup in 18 seconds Ingredients 4-6 carrots 2 sweet potatoes 2 peppers (any colour) 2 sticks of celery 1 large leek 6 smallish potatoes 2 small onions (I used red onion) ¼ celeriac 1 litre of ...

In the run up to Christmas I'd really recommend that you sign up to Suppose.com  to grab yourself some bargain presents.  The great people at Suppose are currently sending me email alerts to their best price drop products so that I can try them out - and I'm not disappointed. I've recently acquired this  Joseph Joseph Elevate Kitchen Utensil Gift Box  set which price-dropped to £23.00 (down from £37.10) and it's going to make a fantastic present for my daughter in her new house. How does Suppose.com work? Suppose are passionate about finding great deals from major retailers.  After signing up for an free account on Suppose , you can search for an item on the website, track it and then receive an alert when the price drops.  Yes, it's that simple! You can also receive alerts your favourite UK retailers and access the pricing history to ensure that you are getting the best price.  Watch out for more recommendations from Suppose...

You can watch what happened in this video as I demonstrate how to make Peanut Blondies from the Hungry Student Easy Baking Book .  It's worth it, I promise...  Ingredients Vegetable oil or butter, for greasing 100g white chocolate, broken into squares 60g butter, softened 100g caster sugar 150g light brown soft sugar 2 medium eggs, beaten 1tsp vanilla extract 150g peanut butter (crunchy works best but smooth is fine too) 80g plain flour 1/4tsp baking powder pinch of salt 20cm square cake tin non-stick baking paper Method Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas Mark 6. Grease a 20cm square cake tin and line with non-stick baking paper. Melt the chocolate (traditional or microwave method).  When the chocolate is melted, set it aside to cool for around 10 minutes. In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter and both types of sugar until pale and fluffy. Combine the beaten eggs and vanilla extract and add to the mixture along with the peanut bu...

I'm fascinated by the crafts and the cooking pins on Pinterest but know that I'll never ever be able to replicate most of them.  However, these looked fairly easy so I had a go.  I'm not going to change the world with them but at least it's keeping me out of mischief! First of all, I'm using my *mason jars as storage.  Since tackling my spare room to make it more of an office area for me, I realised I needed to tidy up my 'bits and pieces'.  Plus, storing my washi tape in a mason jar seems to make it even more pretty... When I crocheted my first hoard of granny squares I wasn't too sure what style of blanket/throw I was going for.  Then I saw that someone had edged their blanket with black yarn and this really gave more 'pop' to the colours that they had used.  You can read more about this project here .  The blanket is now residing on our spare bed. Cooking from Pinterest is a bit hit and miss - usually more of the latter....

I fancied baking something this week and got out my trusty recipe book but then realised that I hadn't got quite the right ingredients in to make some cookies.  In for a penny, in for a pound, I replaced some of the ingredients and hoped for the best.  My 14 year old chief taster has pronounced them "not bad really" which is high praise indeed.  I love the rustic look of them too so here is the recipe for you to try this weekend. This recipe makes about 12 cookies. Ingredients  125g butter or margarine 75g of brown sugar 1 tsp of vanilla essence 125g of self-raising flour 15 glace cherries (chopped into small pieces) Large baking tray covered with a layer of baking paper. Method Preheat the oven to 180F/Gas Mark 6. Beat the butter/margarine, sugar and vanilla essence until soft. Sift in the flour and mix well. Add in the chopped cherries and mix again until the mixture forms a soft dough.  It will be slightly sticky Wrap the s...

It’s not often that the BBC manages to rile me with their style of reporting.   It is one of our national institutions and has become my go-to place to find an even-handed report after hearing snippets or rumours on social media channels.   However, after the last 24 hours, I have come to the conclusion that they have been taking lessons in the Daily Mail School of Journalism , i.e. create a blatantly biased article, wait for Twitter to explode with rage, experience high volumes of hits on website, get people talking. It’s a theory I think a lot of people will back me up on.   But... The choice of subject matters was those that I believed Auntie Beeb would have produced a more balanced approach due to the way in which our economy currently stands.   I’ll break it down for you. To start with we had The Great British Budget Menu .   Firstly, putting “Great British” in front of a programme name appears to be the current trend with the BBC because of th...

Recently we have been enjoying a broth that my husband has been making.  His mum gave him the recipe and he has spent a couple of weeks honing and perfecting it.  It is a one pot broth that can be made on the stove or in the slow cooker. We have this sitting in the pan for a couple of days, reheating it when hungry.  It's a great lunch-time meal or evening supper warmer with plenty of crusty bread. We use shin beef but we are going to try this will all different types of meat.  Of course, the veggie version will just omit the meat! Here's the recipe, with my usual style of measuring out ingredients ( i.e. some, a bit, a handful ).  This method makes a really large pot (casserole pot or slow cooker size) and is super-easy for beginners and is idiot-proof for people who profess not to be able to cook very well! Ingredients 1lb of shin beef (or left-over meat from your Sunday roast) 2 packs of vegetable pot herbs/broth base ...

Amanda must really hate me. A few weeks ago she rang me up and invited me for a coffee and a catch-up.  The hook was that she had a present for me.  Now, Amanda has a hot pink A5 Filofax, unused and unloved, languishing on her desk. I have hinted about adopting it on a number of occasions and actually dared to think that she had finally decided to give it to me. We met at our usual haunt and she was carrying a rather un-Filofax shaped package with her.  We ordered our coffees and sat down.  She handed me the package. If I could have raised one eyebrow I would.  It was heavy.  I shook it and she screamed, "DON'T SHAKE HIM!" Him?  HIM?  What the actual... I opened the package and was greeted with a mason jar full of some gloopy mixture.  My heart sank. It was a fucking 'Friendship Cake'.  The type of gift you only give to frenemies.  I have survived almost twenty-two years of parenting without ever accepting ...

I was drooling over Aly's Union Jack Crock-Pot® a few weeks ago, mainly because of its unusual design (I'm a sucker for a Union Jack) but also because I've been hankering after a new slow cooker for a while now. Well, Aly is a bit of a cool chick and recommended me to Crock-Pot® who sent me this completely lush Crock-Pot® to try out (see the end of this post for the finer details). I already have a slow cooker - it is really  ancient and just has a basic on/off switch. It is enormously heavy as it has a good, old-fashioned ceramic pot but it does the trick, even though I've never really used it for more than chucking meat in to cook  ready for tea or for making a hotpot. I keep reading the 'Slow Cooker Sunday' suggestions ( #scsunday on Twitter) and thinking "I must try that one day" but wondered about the High/Low settings suggested for a lot of the recipes. So, killing two birds with one stone, I thought I'd try out the new slow co...

Toad in the Hole is basically just sausages and Yorkshire pudding with a few onions thrown in, isn't it?  What can go wrong?  I'm great at cooking sausages and my Yorkshire puddings are world-renowned (trust me on this one and keep reading) so I thought I'd give it a bash.  Here is my ingredients list and method.  I sort of cooked it 'blind', like I do everything.  It worked for my Nana so there's no reason it shouldn't work for me.  Just make sure you have all ingredients available before starting so you don't have to send one of your children to the corner shop half-way through making your Toad in the Hole. Ingredients: Sausages (I have no idea how many you will need.  I cooked 18 for four people, the dog nicked one during preparation and then had four that were left over.) 1 or 2 large onions (you'll probably need 1 as I always over estimate) 1 tablespoon of sugar per onion 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil per onion Plain f...

[ picture credit ] Yesterday we had some left over boiled potatoes and thought I'd make some potato cakes.  My memory of potato cakes is of mum buying them from a cafe in St Annes-on-sea, just off the Square, and frying them up in a little bit of butter for tea.  They looked a little something like this ~~~~~~~~~~~> Now, I know mine wouldn't look like that but I googled "potato cake recipes" and was presented with a whole host of different methods .  I scrolled through a few and thought: how hard can it be?  I hate following recipes anyway - that's boring!  Plus I don't have a food processor or a potato ricer (Huh! A what?) and neither did either of my grandmothers.  What was good enough for them is good enough for me so here's my method with some do's and don't's and Top Tips.   * Ingredients: Some potatoes, cooled and mashed Just over half a very large onion, grated Some cheese, grated One egg, lightly beaten salt and pep...

When your 11 year old asks you to go out and buy ingredients to make cakes, make sure he is going to be around to actually help out and not bugger off to town all afternoon and then arrange to stop over at a friend's house at night.  Dear Reader, without supervision, I decided to carry on regardless and make the ginger cake anyway.  I hear some of you quaking already...