Tuesday, 27 September 2022
That's Books and Entertainment: Martin Martin and the Death Express
That's Books and Entertainment: Martin Martin and the Death Express: Martin Martin and the Death Express is a new satirical action thriller by Sebastian Sullivan. The book’s hero is Martin Martin, a mild-manne...
Steenbergs for funky greener, tastier Christmas gifts
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Then you should pop along to gifts Steenbergs.
Their catalogue is jammed full of the choicest and best in organic spices and teas, all hand blended in North Yorkshire and all guaranteed to 100% in plastic free. They come in fully recyclable packaging, and there are gifts for every budget and all tastes.
A spokesperson said: "At Steenbergs we take sustainability very seriously indeed. We have recently achieved the rigorous B Corp certification for both the Steenbergs and Old Hamlet brands, joining over 700 UK businesses who opted voluntarily to be held accountable to higher standards of social and environmental performance.
"Both the packaging of our products and the packaging used to transport them are plastic free and fully recyclable and we have been carbon neutral since 2020.
All our products are available for purchase online at www.steenbergs.co.uk and many are also stocked in independent retailers all over the UK."
What kind of ideal Christmas gifts can you find there?
Mulled Wine Spice Pouchettes 4 muslin spice bundles packaged in a colourful box, each one enough for one bottle of wine or fruit juice if buying for someone who doesn't drink wine.
There are also home compostable spice bundles, blended and packed here in the UK, and please remember, they come in recyclable packaging and are plastic free.
Ideal for Stocking fillers, Christmas tree baubles.
What about the Mulling Spice Envelopes? These are also perfect Christmas stocking fillers and perfect to send off in the post to distant family or friends!
Many are Fairtrade, blended in the UK in small batches to traditional recipes, also plastic free,
Christmas Chai Spices. A splendid fusion between mulled wine and tea but also a great spice blend for your festive bakes! They're organic, vegan, sugar free, salt free and plastic free.
Great for: Bakers or tea drinkers looking for a festive tipple that doesn't contain alcohol.
What about Mini Candle Gift Box. Four festive mini candles in Kraft gift box with fresh, botanical, citrus flavours to fragrance the kitchen. Hand poured in north Yorkshire, come with recycled ribbon, Kraft recyclable box, plastic free, too.
Great for: Keen cooks and bakers who want to make the kitchen smell wonderfully Christmassy.
What about this? The Essential Spices Gift Box Four of Steenberg's most popular spices and flavourings, salt, curry powder, black peppercorns and vegetable bouillon. Organic, hand blended in North Yorkshire, recycled ribbon, Kraft recyclable box, plastic free, naturally.
These are perfect for: Teenagers, students, first homers.
Loose Leaf Christmas Tea, a festive blend of loose-leaf tea with cinnamon, ginger, clove, cardamom and orange & lemon peel. Organic, Fairtrade, salt & sugar free, plastic free, obviously!
Great for: Everyone who wants a festive pick-me-up!
Christmas Drinks Gift Bag - A jute shopper filled with organic tea, tisane, mulling spices and a Steenbergs mug. Organic, reusable shopper, recyclable packaging and plastic as you'd expect.
Great for: If you can’t decide which gifts to go for then this bag has it all!
Babbico has neat Christmas gifts for the little ones in your life
If you’re planning top buy some nice Christmas gifts, then you really need to check out Babbico.
Because Babbico has some absolutely wonderful and utterly gorgeous gift boxes that you really need to buy for the special little people in your lives.
What about Esme The Elephant Plush Beige Toy & Elephant Print Blanket Baby Gift Set?
Esme needs a good home for Christmas, so at £36.99 Esme will be a good addition to the Christmas gift list for your special little person!
Or if you haven't room for an elephant, what about a delightful bunny rabbit?
Another option for the little children in your life from Babbico is Bertie The Bunny Plush Grey Toy & Star Blanket Baby Gift Set (Gift box included in the price, which is also £36.99.)
Or how about this one (my favourite, but please don't tell Esme or Bertie!) is Zizi The Zebra Stripe Toy & Grey Star Blanket Baby Gift Set (Gift box included in the price which is also £36.99.
The final wonderful Christmas plush toy is Giselle The Giraffe Plush Toy & Beige Star Blanket Baby Gift Set (Gift box included in the price, which is also £6.99.)
To learn more and to order Christmas gifts please visit Babbico at https://babbico.co.uk.
Monday, 26 September 2022
Brie & Pickle Pastry Wreath
Ingredients
• 320g ready roll puff pastry
• 6tbsp Cottage Delight Perfect Party Pickle (320g jar)
• 200g brie cheese, sliced
• 2 tbsp pistachio nuts roughly chopped
• 1 egg, beaten
Method
• Pre-heat your oven to 200ºC/180ºC fan/gas 6 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Roll the pastry and cut a large circle out of the pastry.
• Lay the large pastry circle on the prepared baking sheet.
• Mark an inner circle with a medium-sized bowl, but please do not press all the way through the pastry.
• Cut four cuts into the centre circle, this will create 8 triangles.
• Spread the Perfect Party Pickle around the outer circle then top with the brie and pistachios.
• From the four cuts, bring one triangle of the centre outwards over the filling as well as bringing the outer edge of pastry inwards. Press the two together and continue all the way around with the remaining 7 triangles until you have a wreath.
• Brush with beaten egg then place in the oven and allow to bake for 15 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.
• Remove from your oven, allow it to rest for 5 minutes then slice and serve.
That's Christmas and That's Food and Drink would like to offer our sincere thanks to Cottage Delight for providing us with this recipe.
Please check out Cottage Delight here https://www.cottagedelight.co.uk.
Boxing Day Pickle Pie
Ingredients
2 x sheets of pre-rolled shortcrust pastry
1 x 320g jar Cottage Delight Perfect Party Pickle
8 slices of leftover Christmas ham
300g cooked Christmas Turkey
300g leftover pork stuffing (or 1 packet mix, made according to the instructions on the packet)
250g mature cheddar, grated
1 egg, whisked
Method
• Preheat your oven to 200ºC/180ºC fan/gas 6
• Grease and flour a deep, round 18cm, loose bottomed or a spring form pie tin.
• Line the tin with one sheet of shortcrust pastry and spread ½ jar of Perfect Party Pickle across the base.
• Fill with layers of ham, Perfect Party Pickle, turkey, stuffing and cheese, until the tin is full. Ensure you firmly pack in the layers, pressing them into the pie as you go along.
• Cut a lid, using the pie tin as a guide, place this on the top of the pie and crimp around the edges.
• Cut festive decorations out with the pastry off-cuts and arrange these on top of your pie.
• Glaze the top (generously!) with an egg wash and cut a hole in the top.
• Bake in the oven an 1 hour, (check and add tin foil over top if catching after 40 minutes) until golden brown.
• Allow to cool inside the tin and serve hot or cold for your Boxing Day lunch.
That's Christmas and That's Food and Drink would like to offer our sincere thanks to Cottage Delight for providing us with this recipe.
Please check out Cottage Delight here https://www.cottagedelight.co.uk
Savyll Alcohol-free cocktails
The fabulous Savyll non-alcoholic cocktail collection is the perfect way to make everyone feel they are part of every occasion, especially over the Christmas an New Year season.
Savyll cocktails are very carefully crafted using a unique and carefully chosen blend of 100% natural ingredients to recreate the sophisticated flavours, familiarity and sense of occasion that cocktails bring, with a premium selection of the world’s most popular variations.
Savyll’s collection includes a mouth-watering choice of Bellini, Moscow Mule, Mojito and Paloma Tequila.
The stylish range is also entirely vegan, is gluten free (which will be of special interest to people like my wife, diagnosed with coeliac disease) are also low in calories and available in elegant individual 250ml glass bottles or in slim convenient cans.
“Pronounced “sah-vell” which means to be ‘savoured by all’, Savyll cocktails can be served directly from their elegant signature glass bottles and enjoyed without the need for mixers or any other embellishments, you just need to chill, serve and sip!
The range is also entirely free of allergens and artificial sweeteners, too.
Savyll was founded by “dinner party mixologist” Avnish Babla. When he became an expectant father, Avnish wanted a healthier lifestyle for himself and his wife, Diana.
Moderating alcohol consumption was important to him. But! He quickly discovered there was a dearth of non-alcoholic drinks that weren’t either overly sweetened or artificially flavoured.
He teamed up with an award-winning beverage developer and Avnish turned his cocktail crafting passion into a mission to reinvent their alcohol-free namesakes, so anyone choosing to moderate their alcohol intake or completely abstain from alcohol can enjoy without compromising on taste.
You'll find them stocked at Ocado, Wholefoods, Amazon, Harrods and direct from savyll.com.
The recommended retail price is from £13.99.
You'll be able to follow them on Instagram @savyllbeverageco for the latest updates, special promotions and events.
The Whisky Tour of Scotland advent calendar
This year advent calendars are joined by a truly luxurious advent calendar, The Whisky Tour of Scotland advent calendar!
The Whisky Tour of Scotland advent calendar features 24 very special and very rare aged single cask and blended expressions from the five Scotch whisky regions to offer whiskey enthusiasts the perfect advent calendar.
Presented in the form of a handmade wooden cabinet, finished in the exact same style as a traditional whisky cabinet, it’s the perfect place to keep and store your whisky miniatures long after Christmas too.
You should be able to find it for £160 from the following retailers: Harvey Nichols, Fenwick, Master of Malt, Amazon and Costco.
Distilled and bottled in some of the best distilleries in Scotland, the whisky artisans involved are among the best and most skilled in their field.
These limited release casks offer the very best of aged, old and rare Scotch whiskies and will help the happy and joyous recipient celebrate the Christmas season in considerable style!
Each 50ml dram is bottled straight from the cask and represents an expression of some of the best whiskies Scotland has to offer from leading distilleries.
The advent calendar is sustainable and reusable in homage to the beautiful Scottish wilderness where each whisky is made.
The advent calendar contains:
24 x 50ml Whiskies, 42-50% ABV
18 Single Malts
3 Single Grains
3 Blended Expressions
The whiskies are from some of Scotland’s finest distilleries and will include examples from: Inchgower, Tullibardine, Linkwood, Caol Ila, Auchroisk, Strathmill, Blair Athol and many others besides.
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