Tag: me

‘Come Dine with Me’ with Class: A Feast through India

What do you get when you cross a Canadian, Australian, Irish Woman, Indian, Mexican and a couple of Brits?

It sounds, like a start to a really bad racist joke, but in fact, it was the start of a wonderful evening.

I have to admit that prior to being invited to a Supper Club I had absolutely no idea what it was all about.  It loosely resembles ‘Come Dine with Me’ but the biggest difference is the host is an amazing cook and the people are really nice.

As we walked up to the front door we were greeted by the most amazing smell and knew we were in for a real treat.  Within minutes we were enjoying a cocktail in the garden chatting with the other guests.

Sheba had been busy all day cooking ‘A Feast through India’ for us.  Check out this menu.  The pictures don’t do it justice I can’t begin to tell you how amazing the food was.   I wish the pictures were scratch and sniff!

The menu

Appetisers 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Parippu Vada (Kerala) –  Lentil & shallot fritters served with coconut chutney
  • Bonda (Kerala)  – Spiced potato balls with mustard seeds & curry leaves


Mains

Rogan Josh (Kashmir)
Aromatic lamb slow cooked with cardamom, cloves & fennel seeds


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kozhi Kuruma –  Home style chicken cooked with poppy seeds, coconut and cashews

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Payar Thoran (Kerala) – Green bean sautéed with a delicate combination of spices
  • Coconut Rice (Andra Pradesh) tossed with garlic, red chillies & cashew nuts
  • Jeera Rice (Basmati rice with cumin seeds & ghee
  • Carrot & coriander raita (North India) seasoned with cumin

Dessert

  • Ethakya Porichathu (Kerala)
  • Caramelised plantains with lime, nutmeg & coconut milk

Masala Chai

  • Sweet tea infused with cardamom and cinnamon

Verdict

I’m now a convert and will definitely go again.  What a wonderful way to meet new interesting people and sample some amazing food.  It’s probably the best dinner party I’ve been to in ages!

The next ‘Kerala Summer Supperclub’ is on the 21st of July inSt Albans.  I’d highly recommend it.  Thanks to Sheba for all her hard work.

Disclosure:  Dinner was compliments of Absolute Indian Cookery

 

The Land of Me – Interactive Story Book

I don’t know why I didn’t think I was going to like this, when in fact I really did.  There are 6 Chapters that you can download for children age 2-6 (Shape, Size and Colour, The World Outside, Making things, Rhythm and Dance, Songs and Rhymes and Story Time).  I absolutely love the music in the intro, the characters are gorgeous and what I like most of all is that there are over a 100 printable activities.

You follow the 3 characters Buddy Boo the bear, Eric the raccoon and Willow the owl through the Land Of Me.   At each stop, children have the opportunity to choose elements of the adventure.  My favourite is Anthony the Mexican Anteater in the desert, he’s a scream.  We made a castle out of jelly in the mud!

There’s also the opportunity to explore Literacy, with a place to add your own text, there’s also information about the creatures and places you visit and if you watch carefully, in the background, you may see the other characters getting up to all sorts.

The only negatives I found were that it takes quite awhile to download. So, make sure you do this before you sit the kids in front of the PC.  Secondly, as I’m a user of iTunes and rarely pay more than .59p for kid’s apps, I thought that £6.95 per chapter may be a bit dear.  However, you can download the first chapter for free from here.

Plus, this weekend they are offering a whopping £10 off.  All you need to do is type ‘happy’ into the discount code panel at checkout.

Disclosure:  We received all 6 chapters in return for this review

Things Kids Say….

and 9 other things that make me smile.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBaDHUt67eQ]

Thanks to Heather @notesfromlapland for tagging me for this one.  I think she took pity on me, as noone had tagged me yet.  As usual, I’d like to make this open to everyone (not sure if this is against the rules) but it would be great to know if you do, so I can link back to you.

All you need to do is write a post, it doesn’t have to be a video of 10 things that make you smile and add this little badge.