My offering for Slow Cooker Sunday, where we come together and share our recipes, this week is a traditional Chicken and Mushroom Pot Pie with a twist. I saw a photo of one online with a pastry perched on top and I was intrigued. As you know pastry really is a ‘no go’ in a slow cooker. In the end, I cobbled together a couple of recipes with very pleasing results and it was incredibly easy. I may try a Steak and Ale pie next.

Serves 4
Cooking Time: 6-8 hours
Temp: Low

Ingredients

500g of skinless boneless chicken thighs, cubed
2 large carrots, diced
2 sticks of celery, diced
2 TBSP butter
1 medium onion
125g of button mushrooms, halved
2 heaped TBSP of plain flour
400 ml chicken stock
Salt and Pepper

Couple of pinches of dried Thyme
1 bay leaf

140g frozen peas

Ready Rolled Puff Pastry

Method

1. Bring a sauce pan of water to a boil. Boil the chicken, carrots and celery for 10 minutes. Drain and place in the slow cooker.
2. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a frying pan and sauté the onions and mushrooms for 2-3 minutes until they start to soften. Sprinkle with flour and mix well for about a minute.
3. Gradually add the stock over a medium heat, it should thicken, season with salt and pepper. Add the Thyme and Bay Leaf. Pour over the chicken mixture in the slow cooker, mix well, cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
4. 30 minutes before serving, stir in the frozen peas.
5. To make the pastry topping, preheat the oven to 200 degrees, unroll the sheet of pastry and find something 10cm in diameter to cut circles. I used one of my daughter’s toy pans from her play kitchen. Place on a baking tray and cook for ten minutes.

Place a large serving of the chicken mixture in a bowl and top with the pastry.

Feel free to join in and add your own recipes on the Linky below. If you don’t have a blog you can always leave your recipes in the comment section below.

For more of our favourite slow cooker recipes click here.

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The best way I can describe it is an outdoor treasure hunt using GPS.  You download an app onto your phone, which is £6.99 from the iTunes Store but the rest is free. Then you navigate to the location of the cache (container) and hopefully find it.

Inside the container, depending on the size as they range from the size of a credit card to a large bin, is usually a log book, pencil and possibly a toy.  You are allowed to take the toy if you leave one of equal or greater value.

We went on our first geo-cache this weekend and it was brilliant.  As it was our first and to avoid disappointment we decided to try one that was local to us, had a low difficulty rating, checked that it had been found recently and that it was a reasonable size.  Our 4 year old daughter was transfixed by the map the entire walk there.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t find it.  I was sure we were in the right location as I checked the photos and hints.  We must have looked like a right bunch of nutters ferreting around in the bushes as this one was fairly public.  We looked and looked and looked but no luck.  Coincidentally, a family came by who had found it a couple of weeks prior and confirmed that we were actually in the right place but sadly, it looks like someone took it.

Our daughter was very disappointed, but luckily the app has a ‘find another cache nearby’ option so we found another one tout de suite.  It was a bit tricky to find as it was a micro cache, but hubby pulled one out of the bag and found it.  Phew!

The only problem was that the toys that our daughter had brought to give away wouldn’t fit so we had to make a quick dash to the local toy store to find something small enough.

We are seriously hooked, it’s a fantastic way to get out as a family, learn stuff, get fresh air and it’s all free, well, except for the app.

I’ve slept rough in a public park in Budapest, got eaten alive in a hammock in Honduras, have camped wild in Canada and I once woke up behind a chair in my sitting room; so I think I’ve done my fair share of roughing it.

So, when we were offered the chance, once I had a quick look at the website, to spend a weekend at Feather Down Farms we jumped at the chance.

For those ‘Camping Purists’ out there you may object to me calling this camping in any form as there was not a wet sock to be found and we didn’t have to sleep on the ground.  Some would prefer if I called it glamping.

We received a very warm welcome at Lipley Farm in Shropshire, by Stephen the farmer.  Who took time out of his busy schedule; they have 140 dairy cows he has to milk twice a day, to show us around.  He can recognize each cow without even looking at their numbers.

We were absolutely stunned at the tents which sleep up to six comfortably and they were fully kitted out.  The only thing we were missing was electricity and an oven glove.

Shortly after we settled in, the Farmer asked if we’d like to see a newborn calf.  I was thinking a couple of days old, but in fact, it had been born about 5 minutes before.  We got to watch it try and find its feet for the first time.

Every morning our daughter got to feed the baby lambs in the enclosure near the tents and we collected our own eggs, some of which were blue, from the chicken coup.

One of our highlights was the tour of the Dairy parlour; I was clever enough not to go down as I could see the danger of standing at the back end of 14 well fed cows.  However, hubby was not and ended getting a bit closer to nature than he would have liked.

As I mentioned, there was no electricity (but I did find a sneaky plug socket in the Larder to charge the iphone and ipad) the only source of heat was the wood burning stove, and I would be lying to you if I said it wasn’t cold.  In fact, it was freezing, we could see our breath when going to bed at night, but it was April. They do supply bedding but we had brought our own Duvet, which is heavy enough to smother a small child and were pleased we brought it.

All our cooking was done on the wood burning stove.  The thought of this at first was daunting, but we quickly adapted and cooked everything from a full English breakfast to Sausage and Smash to a Sunday Roast.  My only suggestion would be too take something with you, that only needs heating on the first night, as you can’t check in till 4pm and you may not be able to get the stove up to temperature quick enough.  We brought a Chilli from home.

The weather wasn’t brilliant, but it didn’t put a damper on it.  We were happy to sit back, relax and enjoy the farm.  We really didn’t feel the need to go beyond the farm. But there was a lovely wood down the road that we went for an umbrella covered stroll in and we also found a pub near a canal for a sneaky half which would be amazing in the sunshine.

Overall, we would thoroughly recommend a weekend at Feather Down Farms and a huge thank you to Stephen, Tracey and the boys for a wonderful weekend.  We will be back.

Disclosure:  The weekend was compliments of Feather Down Farms.

We’d had a big lunch out so only needed a light dinner but don’t get the impression that it’s not a full meal as it was very filling. This was absolutely perfect.  As usual, it was inspired by Sara Lewis the Slow Cooker Queen.

Serves 4

Temp: High

Time: 2-3 hours

Ingredients:

• 25 g of butter
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 300 g potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
• 70 g of pancetta
• 750ml fish stock
• 125g of frozen sweet corn
• 1 bay leaf
• 500g Haddock, skinned and cubed ( I found it easier to skin whilst partially frozen)
• 150ml double cream
• Salt and pepper
• Few pinches of dried parsley (garnish)

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a pan and sauté the onions, potatoes and pancetta for 3-5 minutes, transfer to the slow cooker.
2. 30 minutes before serving add the fish, place in a layer on top and slightly push under the surface.
3. Prior to serving, break the fish up with a couple of forks.  Add the cream, stir and allow to heat through.
4. Ladle into large bowls, garnish with parsley and serve with crusty bread.

For more of our favourite slow cooker recipes click here.

Disclosure:  The haddock was compliments of Regal Fish and part of Fish is the Dishes campaign to encourage families to eat more fish from sustainable sources.

My 4 year old daughter is really into dressing up at the moment.

So, I bought her a basket to store all her costumes in.

However, every time she wanted something this is what happened.

So in the end, I had one of these made.  What do you think?

I originally came across it on Ana White’s Homemaker blog via Pinterest, with all of the instructions and dimensions.  So, if you or someone you know is handy with tools you could knock one up easily with a bit of MDF.  However, I am not, so I had a local carpenter make it for me.  It was very reasonable, I had it in a day and he gave me a discount as I offered to paint it myself.  He is interested in doing more.

Ours is a bit girlie, but you could have an under the sea theme, pirates or whatever strikes your fancy.

We gave it a coat of MDF primer and then two coats of satin.  I found the letters (£1.50 each) and mirrors (.99p) at Hobbycraft.  I hung the mirrors with those No Nails strips.  Fingers crossed they don’t fall off.

If you’re local to St Albans and would like one, drop him an email at christophe.laget@hotmail.fr. Do tell him I sent you!

You may not be aware but Slow Cookers are making a huge comeback, soon they’ll be as trendy as knitting. Did I see a Gwenyth Paltrow uses one?

They’re no longer used for just Stews and Casseroles. Many of us are getting more and more adventurous with our slow cooking and on a Sunday we come together to share and be inspired. I’ve been truly astounded by the quality.

For those of you with blogs, simply link up old or new recipes at the bottom of the post. If you don’t have a blog you can always leave your recipe in the comments section.

I can’t wait to see what you’ve all been up to. If you do try some of the recipes do come back and let us know how it went.

Feel free to grab a badge but you don’t have to.

Thanking you in advance and I hope you find it as useful as I do.

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When I first put all the ingredients in the slow cooker, I really wasn’t convinced and if I’m honest, I thought it was going to be gross. But, I was pleasantly surprised as it was gorgeous and we’ve had it at least another 4 times since.

I was actually scared of my own dinner! I don’t mind a bit of kick but Cayenne pepper and Tabasco was worrying. However, in the end it wasn’t too mind blowing. Sadomasochists may want to add a few more dashes of both!

Serves 6-8
Cooking time: 7-8 hours
Temp: Low

Ingredients
TBSP of oil
500g of skinless chicken thigh fillets, cut into bite-size chunks
Salt and pepper
1 onion chopped
225g of Chorizo Sausage, chopped
3 sticks of celery, diced
1 green pepper, diced
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
250 ml of chicken stock
2 dashes of tabasco sauce
2 tsp of dried oregano
2 tsp of dried parsley
1 tsp of cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp of dried thyme
200 g peeled king prawns

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, season the chicken with salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes until the chicken is sealed. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to slow cooker.
2. Sauté the onions for about 3 minutes till soft.
3. Add the sausage, celery and green pepper and cook for a further 2 minutes.
4. Pour in the stock and tomatoes, add the dried spices and tabasco, stir and bring to a boil. Pour into slow cooker, mix, cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours.
5. 30 min before serving add the prawns.

Serve on a bed of rice. If you find it too hot, serve with plain yoghurt.

There is a very good reason I buy the majority of our Toys from Cuthbert Toys in St Albans, not just because it’s local, Kirit (@cuthberts_toys) is a rather nice guy or the fact, that he’s bought me the odd glass of wine.  It’s simply because the level of customer service that he has offered via Twitter has been outstanding.

I just wanted to share with you a couple of examples.  This is in no way a sponsored post.  I just like to share when I find something good and to say a special thank you to him.

What did he do?

At Christmas, I bought my daughter a puppet theatre, which then needed a few puppets.  The trouble was that my daughter was on school holidays and I couldn’t get into the shop to buy one, especially with her in tow.  So Kirit, took a photo of all the puppets, which I could then choose the ones I wanted and he offered to bag them up so I could just pop into the shop to pay and collect, with her being none the wiser!  Now that’s what I call service.

There have been more than two occasions of him going above and beyond but this one really sticks out in my mind.  My daughter has a thing for ‘minis’ not sure if it’s because they are child-like, but being awkward she wanted a ‘yellow’ one.  We tried to source one online but to no avail.  In the end, my husband asked me to check with my ‘friend’ from the local toy store to see if he could find one and low and behold he did. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of him first.

It took me awhile to work out how much effort he actually went to.  Check this out…..

He painted it by hand himself!!!

Business owners take note!

Do you have any examples of outstanding customer service via twitter?

I really liked this list published by the National Trust, except for the addition of the health and safety bits which annoyed me and contradicted the entire article.   However, the article made me rather nostalgic, thinking back to when I was growing up in Canada in the great outdoors.  We were chucked out the door first thing in the morning and wouldn’t return until dinnertime.  The majority of time was spent roaming the neighbourhood and playing in the woods with very little parental interference or direction.

However, I was saddened to read that fewer than one in ten children play in wild places regularly, a third have not climbed trees, and one tenth cannot ride a bicycle.  I have to admit that as a family we don’t spend as much time ‘doing’ nature as we should.

I had a long discussion on the phone with a researcher from the Globe and Mail, discussing why this might be the case and honestly, I can’t pinpoint one exact reason.  Is it over protective parenting?  Is this the fault of the media for putting the fear of god in us about stranger danger and cyber stalking?  Is it overcrowding/busy streets? Unrealistic expectations on parents? Could it be lack of time due to work commitments?  Or knowing what to do with our kids when we do have time?  Can we blame the weather?  Seriously, what is it?

I’m taking this as a ‘gentle’ reminder to get my daughter out more as there are so many benefits from ‘green’ play; I think a lot of us should really.  I can’t wait to have a go at geo-caching now that I’ve worked out what it is.  However, I’m not too keen on my daughter catching crabs!?!?!

I think we haven’t made too bad of a start so far.  The plan is to keep updating it as time goes on.

1. Climb a tree
2. Roll down a really big hill
3. Camp out in the wild

4. Build a den

5. Skim a stone
6. Run around in the rain

7. Fly a kite

8. Catch a fish with a net

9. Eat an apple straight from a tree
10. Play conkers
11. Throw some snow

12. Hunt for treasure on the beach
13. Make a mud pie
14. Dam a stream
15. Go sledging

16. Bury someone in the sand
17. Set up a snail race

18. Balance on a fallen tree
19. Swing on a rope swing

20. Make a mud slide
21. Eat blackberries growing in the wild
22. Take a look inside a tree
23. Visit an island
24. Feel like you’re flying in the wind

25. Make a grass trumpet
26. Hunt for fossils and bones
27. Watch the sun wake up
28. Climb a huge hill

29.  Get behind a waterfall
30. Feed a bird from your hand
31. Hunt for bugs
32. Find some frogspawn
33. Catch a butterfly in a net
34. Track wild animals
35. Discover what’s in a pond
36. Call an owl
37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool

38. Bring up a butterfly
39. Catch a crab
40. Go on a nature walk at night
41. Plant it, grow it, eat it
42. Go wild swimming
43. Go rafting
44. Light a fire without matches
45. Find your way with a map and compass
46. Try bouldering
47. Cook on a campfire

48. Try abseiling
49. Find a geocache
50. Canoe down a river

I’d love to hear your thoughts on why kids aren’t spending enough time outside.  Please do leave a comment below.