Category: Competitions and challenges

Win a Sugru Rebel Tech Kit for Father’s Day

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Great for dads who love their tech and a bit of tinkering, the Rebel Tech Kit comes with four packets of Sugru mouldable glue in red, white, black and silver-grey, along with a booklet with 14 killer projects that will keep him entertained for weeks! I say ‘him’, but I fully intend to make good use of the kit too…

If your tech breaks, fix it. And if it’s not broken, pimp it to make it work even better.

The Rebel Tech Kit is a collection of 14 project ideas inspired by people all over the world. It combines the most popular, most useful and most ingenious Sugru tech hacks for the first time; with easy step-by-step instructions in a booklet full of information. Continue reading “Win a Sugru Rebel Tech Kit for Father’s Day” →

Foodies Festival ticket giveaway

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Earlier in the month we spent a delicious day at the Foodies Festival on the Bristol Downs. It’s a proper family event with lots of live music, a kids tent and cookery school, health living zones, demos and vintage teas. And while the festival may be best known for all the celebrity chefs you can spot there, for us it was just lovely to kick back and enjoy all the fine food and drink on offer from the masses of stalls. I’m still dreaming about those crispy duck pancakes…

Now’s your chance to enjoy a Foodies Festival in my ticket giveaway! There are Foodies Festivals taking place all around the UK in the coming months, so winners will be able to choose from London, Newcastle, Birmingham, Tatton Park, Edinburgh and Oxford. Full details of locations are on the Foodies Festivals website. I have five pairs of tickets up for grabs, which can be used on all three days of each of the festivals taking place this summer.  Continue reading “Foodies Festival ticket giveaway” →

Our ghastly Halloween showstopper

Posted in Cakes and biscuits, Competitions and challenges, Puddings and desserts, RecipesTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 7 Comments

Every year I watch the Great British Bake Off and every year I feel inspired to get the kids in the kitchen to join me in creating some crazy, outlandish showstopper-style masterpiece*.

The problem is, and I know I’ve said this before on the blog, but I’m just not a natural-born baker. That’s not to say my bakes don’t taste good. Nine times out of ten they most certainly do. But all too often they just don’t look good. And that’s the whole point of a showstopper, isn’t it? To impress? To wow? So perhaps our attempt this year at a ghoulish bake for Halloween is more a pause-glance-and-nod-approvingly before moving on than a full-blown stop-them-in-their-tracks-in-awe showstopper. The children loved it though, and that’s what’s most important.

*easily interchangeable with ‘monstrosity’, but quite appropriate really for this time of year. Continue reading “Our ghastly Halloween showstopper” →

Chilli beef pasta with Savoy cabbage and caraway for the #OrganicUnboxed Challenge

Posted in Competitions and challenges, Meat, RecipesTagged , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

cat in a box 2

Like many of my fellow food bloggers, I’ve been taking part in the #OrganicUnboxed challenge this last few weeks. The idea of the challenge is simple. Organic UK is sending bloggers a big mystery box of organic produce to see what easy, every day dishes they might come up with to inspire more people to switch to organic. In my excitement I failed miserably to get a picture of the organic goodies being unboxed. Which is why I’ve brought you a gratuitous shot of our cat Tango in the box instead. Now, hasn’t that brightened your day? Continue reading “Chilli beef pasta with Savoy cabbage and caraway for the #OrganicUnboxed Challenge” →

Wyke Farms giveaway: win a collection of three Cheddar cheeses

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Wyke Cooler Bag Comp_CroppedIn follow-up to my recent Cheddar and apple rough puff pie post, I’ve teamed up with the good people at Wyke Farms to give you a chance to try their delicious range of Cheddar cheeses yourself.

We’ve got three sets of Wyke Farms Mature, Extra Mature and Vintage Cheddar to give away, all supplied in special edition Wyke Farms coolbags. Continue reading “Wyke Farms giveaway: win a collection of three Cheddar cheeses” →

Christmas cheeseboard challenge and giveaway

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cheese board2

If there is one food I could never, ever, ever give up, it would be cheese. That would be a hell on earth just not worth contemplating. There are so many incredible cheeses out there waiting to be discovered and my idea of food heaven is being presented with a heavily laden cheeseboard, groaning under the weight of a carefully selected assortment of fine, artisan cheeses, partnered with tasty biscuits, fruity chutney and a good full-bodied red wine or port. Sheer bliss.

So when Davidstow invited me to take part in their Christmas Cheeseboard Challenge, I really didn’t need to be asked twice. Continue reading “Christmas cheeseboard challenge and giveaway” →

Review and giveaway: Copas Traditional Turkeys

Posted in Competitions and challenges, Meat, Recipes, ReviewsTagged , , , , , , 113 Comments

Copas Turkey Collage

Normally I try not to start thinking about Christmas until at least the first of December. Yes, I know the decorations are already up in our shopping centres and our social media timelines are chock full of festive cheer, but it just seems wrong to be talking about Christmas until the first door of the Advent calendar has been peeled open.

Which is why it felt very strange to be roasting a turkey in November for this review. But at the end of the day, it’s really only a rather large relative of the chicken, so why consign it to just a couple of days in December? Our friends in the States will be consuming vast amounts of turkey this week after all to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Copas Traditional Turkeys is a small family business that has been producing free range, hand-plucked and game-hung turkeys just for Christmas for the last half a century. Based in the beautiful Berkshire countryside, Copas has a reputation for combining centuries old production methods with state-of-the-art facilities, as well as taking their time for a superior taste. Continue reading “Review and giveaway: Copas Traditional Turkeys” →

Raw chocolate giveaway for National Chocolate Week

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chocomega01

National Chocolate Week is almost upon us. From 12 to 18 October 2015 people across the land will be celebrating and indulging in the joys of chocolate in all its forms (from three-course chocolate ‘experiences’ and chocolate cocktails to chocolate and meat pairing and even chocolate massage!) and you can fully expect your social media timelines to be chock-full of choccy-related banter and images. The excitement is already building – check out #nationalchocolateweek to see what I mean.

To get in on the chocolate action, I’ve teamed up with Elements for Life, the makers of incredible raw chocolate products and based just over the border from me in Wiltshire, to bring you this awesome chocolate giveaway – make your way down to the bottom of this post for the full lowdown on the delicious prizes up for grabs and how to enter.
Continue reading “Raw chocolate giveaway for National Chocolate Week” →