Oxo Good Grips Kitchen Tools are a real bonus in the kitchen. I've reviewed a few now and continued to use them all the time because they really are so handy. Here I'm using equipment I've been sent to make Meringue And Puff Pastry Slices With Berries - a gorgeous Summery recipe.


The 3 Piece Berry Bowl & Colander Set is an incredibly useful bit of kit. As you'd expect it's a great size for rinsing and washing berries, grains and all manner of other ingredients.

The colander holes are smaller than rice and it has handles at either side which aren't uselessly flimsy - something that often annoys me with colanders. The bowl has a snap on lid which is great for keeping everything fresh and safe in the bowl if you are picking your own fruits.


The set stores in one neat unit and comes with a snap on lid for the bowl - this is great, especially for soft fruits, it makes picking, rinsing and storage incredibly easy.


The 1.7l bowl has a non-slip silicone base which is brilliant! If only all bowls had this, it's far better than putting a tea towel underneath to hold it still.

I'm using the 3 Piece Berry Bowl & Colander Set to assist me in making Meringue and Puff Pastry Slices with Berries from  the Cooking With Fruit recipe book from Parragon.

Meringue And Puff Pastry Slices With Berries

Ingredients

Approx 500g ready rolled puff pastry (if you are using shop bought e.g. Jus Roll then 2 sheets)
Plain flour, for dusting
1 egg yolk, beaten
30g flaked almonds
200ml whipping cream
125g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
2 egg whites
125g blueberries
200g redcurrants
125g raspberries
icing sugar for dusting

Method

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5. Line a 30cm x 40cm baking tray with baking paper.

Divide the pastry into 2 piles, using 3 layers of pastry in each (if you are using shop bought pastry cut each sheet into 3). Dust with flour and roll out to a thickness of 5mm. Lay the pastry on the prepared tray.


Brush the top of both slabs of pastry with the beaten egg yolk. Sprinkle the almonds over the top and bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for around 15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.


Whip the cream with 25g of the sugar until it holds stiff peaks. Cover and chill in the fridge until required.








Halve the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds. Whisk the egg whites until they hold soft peaks, whisk in the remaining sugar a little at a time and add the vanilla seeds. Beat until the egg white is glossy and holds stiff peaks, then fold in the whipped cream.
 




I'm really impressed with the 3 Piece Berry Bowl & Colander set. It actually did make the job incredibly easy, mess free, and quick! It was much better storage for my prepared fruit than my usual efforts too, and I was able to leave the fruit in the colander with the lid on so that it could drain without drying out.

The Oxo Good Grips 3 Piece Berry Bowl & Colander Set is available from High Street stores everywhere.

Cooking With Fruit from Parragon Books has an RRP of £8 and I've reviewed it here.

I saw Karen at Grumpyishmum review Good food products and I was really intrigued. I've never used any hemp products to cook before, and only knew of hemp milk, I hadn't come across hemp oil and seeds used as food ingredients in the UK.

Good sent us a selection of products to try out...


All of the products are vegan, and they are really good sources of Omega 3 - in fact the oil is one of the very best sources of veggie Omega 3 that there is as it is found mainly in meat and fish. When you are pregnant and breastfeeding Omega 3 is vital for baby's brain development, and it is required by everybody for good vision, correct immune response and building and repairing cell membranes, so incredibly important, but all of the supplements I've found are fish oil based.

As well as being vegan and high in Omega 3 the Good Oil, Good Seed and Good Hemp Milk products are suitable for a Raw Diet, they're high in Omega 6 and contain no trans fats, sugar or artificial ingredients. You can find out more about the Omega fatty acids and Good products by clicking here.

So what do they taste and cook like? 

Good Hemp Oil works exactly the same as any other oil. It can be used raw as a dressing or cooked. It has a very slightly nutty taste that it barely noticeable, so it really can be used in place of any oil. I've used it in several dishes and no-one in my family has commented at all.

We've used it frying sliced vegetables on a raklette, I used it to cook a Chinese noodle stir fry last night and I made roast potatoes in my air fryer by tossing them in a couple of tablespoons of Good Oil before cooking. I've even fried my mushrooms and onions with it to add to a burger.


Good Hemp Seeds can also be eaten raw, or added to meals.

I added a tablespoon of Good Seeds to my Quorn, vegetable and penne pasta the other night. I could taste the seeds because they were very slightly nutty, but no-one even commented, and everyone ate the whole meal. With a table full of children and young people there's usually someone to complain whenever you try something new....


The seeds have a slightly heady taste and go especially well in savoury meals that might suit mustard or cumin. I added 2 tablespoons to the batter for toad-in-the-hole and it worked excellently, it really complimented the thyme sausage.


My partner really is incredibly keen on the seeds raw and has been adding them to sandwiches as well as eating them straight from the tub as a snack. Eaten like this they are reminiscent of nuts, with a little subtle warmth.


Good Hemp Milk can be used exactly as you would use cow's milk. It can be a drink, mixed into a drink or used in baking and cooking. When you drink the Hemp Milk it has a slightly sweeter and with a hint of grass taste, but only the sweetness seems to come through in the cooking.

I decided it would be nice to make something that is milk based, and make the most of the fact I can adapt it to be vegan.

One of the simplest desserts is the humble Rice pudding, simple and comforting, and easily adapted to taste with spices, jam, honey or even cocoa powder...

Oven Baked Vegan Rice Pudding 

 

Ingredients

1 litre Hemp Milk
500ml Water
90g Pudding Rice
35g Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
1/4 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
Pinch of Cinnamon

Method

Grease a medium to large baking dish (or a slow cooker).
Put all of your ingredients into the baking dish and stir.
Place the dish in a cool oven at 150c/130c fan oven/Gas Mark 2 and bake for around 2 1/2 - 3 hours stirring every half hour and adding extra liquid if it needs it.


When the rice is soft and the pudding reaches the consistency you like, it's ready.
Top with whatever you wish or leave as it is, serve and eat.


Everyone agreed it was delicious, but incredibly filling - possibly because of the 'porridgey' consistency.

I haven't cooked with Hemp Milk before, and the differences I found were that it was sweeter so didn't need as much sugar, and it didn't absorb into the rice as quickly as I'd have expected and took longer to cook so therefore dried out more. I added 500ml of water, but I think realistically it would have been better with a little more, or more hemp milk, which I didn't have!

Being in charge of a household isn't always about the exciting and fun, actually most of the time it's the humdrum and day-to-day.

My shopping list has plenty of 'household' on it and as time's gone on it's been lovely to see how everything has become more considerate and thoughtful of the impact it has on the Earth.

When I was young I used to trek miles to buy Eco-friendly products from independent shops, but as people have become more aware and understanding over the past 20 years the products I used to pay a fortune for - when I could find them - are now everyday. Eco-friendly options are available in supermarkets eveywhere. And dare I say it, they actually work a lot better now too....

One of the most news reported changes that's affected everyone is the simple light bulb. My first 'low energy' light bulb cost me £15 as opposed to 25p for a standard bulb. Everyone could see it made total sense, but the outlay was massive. Thankfully nowadays if you want eco-friendly lightbulbs then  you have a far easier and cheaper task.


We rarely used our kitchen ceiling lights because we have 9 spotlights up there which were ancient. You could practically hear the dial on the meter spinning round when you switched them on. It's been a standing joke in our house that we use them for birthdays, Christmas and embroidery only....

I was given the opportunity to review Lightbulbs.co.uk and I realised this was really an ideal time to change my spotlights for the lower energy Halogen Spot Lights (currently £1.99 each).


These Halogen Spot Lights use 35 watts of energy to give an equivalent to 50 watts with an old-style incandescent bulb, and last around 2000 hours, whereas the old bulbs were only expected to last half that.


We also chose a replacement bulb for my bedside light costing £9.99. This is an LED bulb, and it really is the future. It works in an entirely different way to incandescent bulbs and my 3.5 watt bulb gives the equivalent light to 25 watts and has an expected lifespan of a stunning 25,000 hours.


Rather than passing electricity through a filament to make it glow, LED's work by movement of electrons within a semi-conductor material. There's no filament to eventually burn through and no wasted energy forming heat and escaping into the air. They're far more economical both financially and with the planet's resources.

All of the bulbs arrived safe and sound and we're pleased with them. The LED light is slightly whiter than my previous light, and the kitchen bulbs are so much brighter than the old ones that the room is really amazingly light with them on now.

Lightbulbs.co.uk sell bulbs in any size and shape you can imagine and stock all of the big brands. One of the things that impressed me most of all was the easy navigation around the site despite my having hardly any prior knowledge about bulbs. I was able to find what I needed very quickly.

Look at the size of that book! 290 pages!

I promised I'd show you MetalBeard's Sea Cow, and here it is...


It's massive! It's a huge set with 2741 pieces and it is around 2ft high and 2ft long. This is without a doubt the most fragile model we've built and, completely unlike the Simpson's House, not suitable for younger children to play with because they just trash it and everything falls off. It is however absolutely gorgeous and the design is amazing.

As well as the ship you have 4 minifigures - the fabulous Benny, Wyldstyle, Emmet and Vitruvius, as well as Queasy Kitty and MetalBeard himself.


This MetalBeard is a smaller version than the movie version and the MetalBeard 70807, I imagine because to get it to scale correctly the ship would have to be ridiculously big and expensive.








This isn't a build for someone new to LEGO. The kit has a suggested age range of 14+. This is spot on, it would be an incredibly hard and frustrating build for any 10 year old however much LEGO practice they'd had.,It uses tricky techniques and as we've found to our cost, there are plenty of easily dropped sections that if your 4 year old removes them, you have to strip it and rebuild from the bottom up.


It does however have an astounding number of cannons, including 6 below deck that actually fire. In the movie this is what the boy makes from what he can find, and it's got everything a child would put into a build. Tons of guns and every engine you could possibly think of!






MetalBeard's throne is at the top of a ridiculously high tower which threatens to overbalance the build as you are working. The ship itself all rocks as if it were on water really easily. It makes it a bit more challenging to say the least.




Inside the ship is just as gorgeous. Although this is more of a display piece and not a model for active play it certainly isn't non-working. The anchors lower, the cannons fire and the rear doors open to reveal the boiler room complete with swinging chandelier and an amazing Captain's Room with treasure, the ship in a bottle, maps and blueprints.



All in all this is a thing of beauty and a really satisfying build for an adult LEGO fan. The design is amazing and really satisfies the child in you as well as the adult. It's an expensive kit at £160, but has a lot of pieces for a set of that price and is definitely more interesting to look at for 2 hours than your average night's TV.

I've been tagged by Tami over at Mummmy Of Two in the 'Blog Your Heart Out' meme. It's quite a sweet post and one that I've enjoyed reading on other blogs. So here's me....

Question 1. Who/What encouraged you to start blogging?
I have had blogs before, I've been using the internet a long time, but none like this though! I started The Brick Castle because I was reviewing toys and games for IzziwizziKids and Playfest and needed somewhere to store my reviews. I'd considered it for a while and it was the push I needed really.

Question 2. How did you choose what topic to blog about?
The Brick Castle was always going to be about play and entertaining my lot, because I had toy reviews to add to it from the start. I wrote my 'about me' and I've never changed it. I didn't forsee how much cooking I'd be blogging....

Question 3. What is something most people don’t know about you?
At 15 I started my first proper job as a Copy Telephonist at a Press Agency. I worked Sundays for £12.50 and I read out news copy over the phone. I was made redundant 2 years later with the introduction of the Fax Machine.

Question 4. What three words describe your style?
Casual....erm.....lazy.....comfortable.

Question 5. What do you love to do when you are not blogging?
When I'm not blogging I'm usually cooking or in some other way catering to other people's needs, so I love to have genuine time off. A bath, a trip out, knowing I'm not cooking tea or watching a movie in bed with the laptop off.

That's me, and I'm tagging -

Pippa from Red Rose Mummy
Jen from My Mummy's Pennies
Karen from Grumpyishmum