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Bonfire Night recipes

September 26, 2012 By

Remember, remember the 5th November…  If you usually play online bingo on an evening, Bonfire Night is the ideal opportunity to have a break from the norm! It’s not far away now so get ready for bonfires and sparklers galore and prepare some tasty and delicious Bonfire Night dishes to warm up the whole family after an evening spent watching the fireworks.

Toffee apples are a traditional Bonfire Night treat, so why not try toffee apple pudding for something a little bit different? To make this indulgent and warming pudding, simply grease an ovenproof dish with butter and mix milk, egg, butter and vanilla extract in a large bowl along with sugar, flour and baking powder to make a batter of a smooth consistency. Spread over apples in the dish and then pour on sugar and boiling water. Finish with pecan nuts and bake for around forty minutes until the toffee apple pudding is a golden colour and has risen. You can serve it with hot custard, ice cream or cream. Yum!

For a savoury Bonfire Night treat, you can’t beat jacket potatoes. Filling, warming and comforting, jacket potatoes make the ideal Bonfire Night meal or snack. For an even more warming and delicious Bonfire Night baked potato, serve with spicy homemade chilli. Chilli is super easy to make and you can make your version vegetarian or meaty, depending on your preferences.

To make your baked potato chilli, simply fry onions, garlic and chilli in a little oil in a large work. Add your mince or veggie mince and heat until browned. Then simply add sieved tomatoes or tomato passata, kidney beans and any further seasoning (black pepper, a dash of red wine, whatever takes your fancy) stir in, then cover and simmer for at least twenty minutes, allowing all the flavours to marinate and merge. Hey presto, a perfectly spicy and delicious Bonfire Night baked potato filling!

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Inside activities for kids

September 20, 2012 By

If you have young children then you will know only too well how difficult it can sometimes be keeping them entertained and finding fun stuff to do as a family. Of course, lots of us have tight budgets to take into consideration, so fun day trips out to exciting theme parks and so on aren’t always an option. Whether it’s the school holidays or just a rainy weekend, finding fun and cheap stuff to do in the house is essential to stop you all going mad!

Baking and cooking

A fun activity to do together is baking or cooking. You could make fun and easy sweet treats such as peppermint creams or fairy cakes, or you could pick something simple but tasty to make for the evening meal. Baking and cooking together is not only a good way to keep the kids entertained, it will give them an appreciation of food and what goes into their meals, and should make preparing family meals more enjoyable for you too.

Arts and crafts

You don’t have to be a whizz at arts and crafts yourself to get the kids into it. It’s all about having fun, getting creative and getting messy, rather than being an amazing drawer or a dab hand with the paint brush. There are loads of arts and crafts you can try together, from making your own personalised cards out of used cards or from scratch with pieces of card, colouring pens and glitter, to painting cheap plant pots with pretty patterns to be used inside or outside the house where the kids can plant seeds and watch them grow.

There are loads of additional activities you can try that don’t require huge amounts of effort of money, just some time. You could play hide and seek, read together, make a den or sort through some photos and start a family album.

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Bingo – Not Just For The Blue Rinse Brigade!

June 19, 2012 By

Not that there is anything wrong with blue rinses of course. Many of us can’t wait until we reach our silver years and we have the free time to spend doing what we want, rather than traipsing to our 9 to 5 every day. But there has long been an assumption that bingo is the reserve of the retired, and this is no longer true.

These days, young and old and male and female enjoy bingo equally. So, what has caused this apparent shift in the bingo-going demographic? Well, there are many factors. One of the biggest is the dominance of the internet and the new accessibility for many people to games such as bingo. The anonymity of online bingo means that the bingo-curious have been able to try out bingo games without entering a bingo hall, and have realised how fun it is!

There is no stigma to playing bingo if you are online, so whether you’re a man or a woman, young or old, you can enjoy the game to your heart’s content. This has led to a whole new group of people discovering for themselves the fun of bingo, and taking their newfound hobby offline and into the bingo halls, giving them a new lease of life.

The bingo halls have not rested on their laurels either, and have marketed themselves as a fun and lively alternative to a night out at the local pub. Nowadays it is not at all unusual to see groups of work colleagues, young friends or couples on a date at the local bingo. The fact that many halls offer alcohol and food certainly doesn’t do any harm either!

If you are still a bit of a bingo-sceptic, ease yourself in with UK Chit Chat Bingo now and you’ll be having a whale of a time with Online Bingo Site games before you know it. Next stop, bingo halls!

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A Woman Calls The Foster’s Helpline!

May 24, 2012 By

The Fosters funny beer ads that have captivated the British nation have taken a definite twist with the appearance of the latest Good Call ad in May.

Brad and Dan, the relaxed and easy going hosts of the Foster’s phone helpline, are quite taken aback when they receive a call from a woman. Lucy from Manchester calls in and immediately launches in with her problem. “My boyfriend thinks the whole world revolves around him.”

Yes? say the boys – they can’t see any problem with that. Lucy continues: “He never listens…He’s always doing something else and all I want is his full attention…”

Yes, say the boys again, and we see them both, not listening, but absorbed in reading their books. Lucy rambles on, listing all her boyfriend’s many faults, while we see the boys busying about in the shack, Brad pouring a draught glass of his favourite lager, and Dan trimming a bonsai tree.

When Lucy pauses and says “What do you think – are you there?” the boys aren’t even in the shack anymore! They come dashing back in wearing tennis gear and say: “We’re not here to give you a solution, Lucy, we’re just here to listen…” This, of course, is music to Lucy’s ears. She’s delighted and says wistfully: “Why can’t he be more like you guys?”

Brad tells her: “If you look deep enough, I’m sure you’ll find he’s just like us.”

Of course, Lucy doesn’t realise how truthful these words are, but as the camera shows us her boyfriend sitting next to her, completely unaware of what she’s been saying, we all know that it’s yet another ‘good call’ by the Foster’s agony uncle duo!

This is the tenth Foster’s good call ad, and they don’t show any signs of comedy fatigue yet. We just wonder where Foster’s will take it from here!

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Marquee Hire

April 26, 2012 By

If you’re looking to organize any kind of event during the more temperate months of the year – and let’s say these are March to October inclusive for argument’s sake – then hiring a marquee can be a very cost effective tool.

And this literally can be for virtually any type of event as marquees come from the hire companies in all shapes and sizes.

Of course the big problem in northern climes is the weather. But good marquees are water-tight and can even be kept nice and warm with warm air blowers which aren’t too expensive nowadays – particularly for short periods. Usually marquee hire companies have a partnership with portable heater suppliers or simply hire out their own portable units.

Also, there’s usually a good deal to be done if you need a suitable venue for the marquee with places like large public parks and stately homes etc., if you can demonstrate some form of commercial advantage for the venue provider – in bringing visitors to the wider venue, for example. It’s usually a far cheaper form of venue hire than the main venue hall or hotel etc., itself.

Alternatively, if you have a large garden, or access to a large garden, a marquee can give you real peace of mind for an event should the guests need to take cover from the elements for all or part of a wedding function and party, for example. It really is a far more versatile and under-used tool than most people give it credit for.

A marquee can also be a good alternative for small conferences with a slightly more informal feel about them – the kind of event where you want people to mingle in an informal setting – but come together no and then for a talk or presentation.

Outside the coldest months of the year – a marquee can be a great solution.

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Eating Healthy While Dining Out.

March 15, 2011 By
Eating Healthy

Eating Healthy

This work is for people that have the difficulty with tedium. If you have that difficulty, then this is for you. Studying this article you find out what to do when you don’t know what to do. Read it and beat apathy. * Mayo * Butter and butter-based sauces. * Fried and roasted foods. * Cream You can make flavorful and healthy decisions without feeling you’re depriving yourself of a treat, even if you do not feel you can adhere to all the beliefs of a Low GI diet when dining out, at least make efforts to adhere to as much as you presumably can to gain the most health benefits. You’ll feel great.

Try and imagine, you will not feel that terrible stuffed and swollen feeling afterwards that customarily incorporates eating too much rich and unhealthy food. Rather than soda pop or alcohol, try water, tea, or maybe diet sodas ( if you cannot go fully without your pop ). When you do not wish to give up pudding consider sharing with a mate. [Read more...]

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