Bonfire Night, falling on 5th November each year, celebrates the foiling of Guy Fawkes’ Gunpowder plot as we all know. Traditionally marked with blazing bonfires and fantastic fireworks, it’s the perfect excuse for a feast for friends and family as you wrap up warm and head outside for an evening of rockets and sparklers.

 I was recently sent samples from The Berry Company of  three of their delicious range of juices.

Superberries:  A blended juice drink made with Red Berry Juices from concentrate.  The mix combines Pomegranate, Aronia, Cranberry and Grape juice concentrates.

Blueberry:  A blueberry juice blend made with fruits from concentrates, sweetened with natural flavours and natural sugars.

Acai Berry:  An Acai juice drink blend made with fruits from concentrates, sweetened with natural sugars and natural flavourings.  This amazing berry is packed full of taste and goodness; proving that not everything that is good for you tastes like medicine.

I found all to be very delicious.   They were very fruity with no aftertaste or artificial tastes.  I would buy these.

All of the Berry Company drinks are Gluten and Dairy free, with no artificial colourings, sweeteners or additives and no GMO's.    They come in both 330ml cartons for on the go, and 1 litre bottles for keeping the refrigerator stocked.   They make the perfect breakfast drink.

To find out more about these and their other drinks do check out The Berry Company website.

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Charlie Bigham's, makers of delicious dishes for two, have launched brand new recipes for their signature Cottage Pie and Shepherd's Pie dishes as they look to serve up the most delicious versions possible of these two British Classics.

I have long been a fan of Charlie Bigham's meat pies, having first tried them when we lived down South, and so I have been keen to try these new dishes!




























Charlie and his team have been busying themselves away over the stove to create some sumptuous flavours, including the richest red wine and thyme tomato ragu the chefs have ever made.



This is the ragu they use in the new Cottage pie, which features tender, slow-cooked British beef, topped with creamy mashed potato, breadcrumbs, Parmesan and Cheddar Cheese. 

  

Charlie's Shepherds Pie now has an even more tomatoe-y ragu wih an extra sprinkling of thyme to give it that rich, deep flavour.  Originally the Shepherds Pie was made with a beef and lamb combination, but following customer feedback, it is now all lamb based and is succulent and full of flavour.

I like the idea that at Charlie Bigham's they are not afraid to take customer feedback on board and make changes to enhance their existing recipes making them even more delicious!  

One thing I love about the Charlie Bigham's products is that they can be ready in minutes and provide a homely supper which is just as good as homemade and from scratch.  In fact they taste like homemade and that's not bad.

These new improved pies are now available to buy in stores nationwide via Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Booths, Budgens and Ocado, RRP £7.00

For more information do check out the Charlie Bigham's website.
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I've been experimenting here and there, trying to come up with lower fat and sugar versions of some of our favourite treats, thinking that Todd could benefit from them as well, even though he doesn't have to watch his sugar intake, he does have to watch his cholesterol.

I confess I am a real pasta lover.   Todd, not so much . . .  but I adore pasta in any way shape or form.  I do confess that more often than not I eat pasta shapes.  I also really love Gnocchi, and I have used it alot.   I was recently given the opportunity to try some pasta from a Company called Dell' UGO and I was sent three different types to test.  Two filled and one gnocchi.   I cooked them all at the weekend and here is what I thought!

I love recipes like this which are so very simple that you can throw them together at the drop of a hat, and yet they end up tasting like you have taken a great effort to put them together.  I guess it is the simplest things in life which bring me the most pleasure.   I don't think cooking has to be complicated in order to taste good.   I don't really enjoy jumping through a bazillion hoops to get to where I want to be and that goes for cooking too!  I did enough of that when I was working.  Now simple and tasty will do it for me.

I wanted to bake some cookies to take to church for the young Missionaries this week.  I thought they might really enjoy a change from the usual chocolate chip ones and so I baked htem some Caramel Apple Oaties.  These are like all that is good about autumn stogged into a delicious cookie!

I've been experimenting a lot with my baking since my Type2 Diabetes diagnosis, and I have to say in all truth a lot of my experiments have been quite disappointing . . .  it seems that when you take the sugar and fat out of things . . .  and pile in fibre, the results have been largely nothing to write home about.  One exception has been these lovely wholemean pumpkin pie rolls!

There is nothing the Toddster enjoys more than a good British banger.   They are not something we eat really often, but when we do we tend to opt for a quality banger . . .  something which is meaty and well flavoured . . .  without a lot of fillers and ingredients that are questionable, and if they are wheat, gluten and dairy free, so much the better!  I like knowing exactly what is in my sausage!

I wanted to share this tasty dip with you before Halloween.  I made it for the Missionaries the night of the party we had for them.  It's a variation on my Mexican dip, with the main variations being in how you layer everything in the dish and in presentation.

I scored some cheap Turkey Breast Fillets at the shops last week.  We love turkey in this house, turkey burgers being a real favourite.  You often see turkey steaks or turkey chunks, but I have only ever very rarely seen Turkey Breast Fillets, so I did what any turkey lover would do.  I bought them.  I froze one and then used the other one to make this delicious casserole!

I was recently sent some Serious Pig Charcuterie to review in the way of several snacking salami sticks, notably the Classic and the Chilli and Paprika.

“Serious Pig” is a  British company, a London based craft meat business, whose idea for snacking salami was thought up over a couple of pints and a few less-than-mediocre snacks eaten down at their local.  Since then, the pair have created arguably some of the best snacks in the country in the shape of two snacking salamis and a sliced lean offering, which they call snakingham.  All products have been expertly crafted using the finest British pork available and seasoned to perfection. They are now leading a crusade to inspire food brands to be more transparent about their ingredients.

The Peckham based charcuterie business has launched a "craft not crap" campaign to stop brands from misleading customers about unhealthy, overly processed junk foods and get the country snacking on more authentic products.

This campaign comes after leading scientists, writing in the British Medical Journal recently called for a pan on artificial trans fats from processed food which they claim (the BMJ) could save 7,000 lives.  As it stands at the present, there are no laws specifically designed to ensure food manufacturers label trans fats associated with processed foods.  Serious Pig founder George Rice claims that Producers hold the power to do this.

As a part of its initiative, Serious Pig is pledging to be fully honest with it's customers by adfding images, tasting notes and descriptions of two breeds of pigs to its website.  They are then hoping to encourage people to vote, via social media, for the pig they think would taste best in it's next batch of snacks.   The campaign aims to educate larger food manufacturers about the benefits of being transparent with it's customers and give consumers a rare glimpse into an honest, and open product creation process.



My thoughts -  The Chilli and Paprika had a bit of a kick, but not in any way which I found to be overpowering.  I quite likes.   The Classic was gorgeous with a delicious combination of spices and herbs,  and a mix of black peppercorns which really enhanced the flavours.  In all, the classic was my favourite.   Both were meaty and I can see where they would be a popular nibble for with drinks.  I like that they are a 100% British product and I like the company's ethos in wanting transparency and honesty when dealing with the consumer.   That really strikes a positive note with me!  Many thanks to them for sending me these to try.  As always any and all opinions are my own.

Available at Boroughbox and Ocado.

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 There is one ingredient that I am never without in my store cupboard and that is tinned tomatoes.  I just adore tinned tomatoes.  

The other night we had a bit of a Halloween "Do" for the sisters and elders in our care.  I know it was a bit early, but transfers are this week and we wanted to do it while the ones we have at the present are still here.  The next lot will have Thanksgiving and Christmas, but this lot gets Halloween.  They're not allowed out and about on Halloween or Bonfire night for their own safety, which is a good thing.  You can't take chances with these youngsters who are so far away from their kin and homes.  So we celebrated Halloween a week and a half early.  Nobody complained.

I have spent the last month and a half experimenting with baking this, that and the other . . .  trying to bake something which is diabetic friendly that is satisfying and toothsome . . . I'm still working on it.  So far most of my efforts have been incredibly lacklustre and pretty blah.  I find myself yearning for a cooking I can sink my teeth into that actually tastes good.  Sigh . . . I feel a bit disheartened at times when I think will I never ever be able to eat a cookie or a cake that tastes good again????