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...

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...

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 ...

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...

Sticking to my ethos of attempting recipes and making mistakes so that you don't have to, today's "recipe" is Orange Smoothie .  Now, bearing in mind that I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom today and found a blender that I forgot I had, this was just a " chuck in what I think is supposed to go in " attempt at a smoothie. Ingredients: A blender (it doesn't have to be new) Some oranges or satsumas (I used five medium sized satsumas) 2 cups of milk ⅔  of a cup of sugar 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract Some ice cubes or 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream Method: Squeeze the living daylights out of the oranges and extract the juice.  Don't do what I did and just pick all the pith off and throw them in the blender because you don't have a juicer as you'll end up with "issues"*.  However, this does give me an opportunity to share this picture with you that hasn't had enough attention over the last two ...

A bit of fun on a Saturday. Pippa challenged me to "vlog" my kitchen.  I believe she possibly thought it was going to be as bad as  my fridge but I'm afraid that my husband is quite kitchen proud and gets a bit OCD where the kitchen is concerned.  Apologies for the crappy quality but the video has been taken on my phone.  I REALLY want a Flip Camera but I will have to wish hard for that.  Anyway, for your delectation... my kitchen