Tag Archives: Competition

Cooking with children

For parents and grandparents alike, the summer holidays offer endless opportunities for family fun.

Not only is it important to keep children amused and ward-off boredom related grumpiness, it can be incredibly rewarding too.

Just So FestivalI am lucky enough to be attending a children’s festival at the weekend – my first festival for a long time and no doubt a lot different from the ones I attended pre-children! Just So Festival is a wonderful event with many activities, ranging from art projects, to musical entertainment and story-telling www.justsofestival.org.uk

For those of you not able to visit the festival, look out for lots of family fun tips in next week’s blog. Or buy the 2011 Dairy Diary – on sale now – which has a full feature on keeping kids amused.

Win a set of fun cookie cutters
In my experience, children love cooking. Try out these Gingerbread Clown biscuits and have a go at winning a set of fun cookie cutters by clicking on the following link.  http://dairydiary.co.uk/mailinglist.html

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Dairy Book of Home Cookery

Last Monday evening I took part in a very enjoyable research group with 13 ladies.

Each had been using the Dairy Book of Home Cookery over the past few weeks and had recorded their thoughts on it in the Dairy Diary.

Dairy Book of Home CookeryWe were trying to find out how to improve the book for its new launch next year – the overwhelming response was ‘don’t fix it if it aint broke’! Everyone who uses this book – from young to old – loves it! So with a few very minor teaks I think we can make a great book even better. The ‘tweaks’ we agreed on were:

  • Modern cover
  • New more contemporary recipe shots
  • Nutritional information for each recipe
  • Better portion sizes (this was its only criticism)
  • The addition of some new ‘classics’, such as wraps, tacos and risottos
  • Remove fondues!

As a Dairy Book of Home Cookery fan, do you have any suggestions for the new book?

Win a set of silicone cup cakesWin a set of muffin cases
Many like to use the book for baking. As a very special treat I have a set of 8 silicone muffin cases to give away.  To win visit http://www.dairydiary.co.uk/mailinglist.html

You will have to wait for a sneak preview of the Dairy Book of Home Cookery, but try these irresistible Orange Iced Cup Cakes from Good Food, Fast – Dairy Cookbook, available from September..

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Battle of the Boyne

Those of you lucky enough to live in Ireland have a bank holiday today – I hope you’re all having fun. The rest of us workers are very envious!

King William III

King William III

Today’s bank holiday commemorates the Battle of the Boyne. For many years I have edited this in the Dairy Diary but I have never really known much about its history. Time to find out…

This year’s bank holiday will mark the 320th anniversary of King William’s victory in Ireland. Interestingly, it is very important to the history of the British Monarchy (I think we should all be entitled to this bank holiday!)

Because of his old church beliefs, in 1688 powerful establishment figures forced King James to abdicate and invited William to take the throne. King William III was the Protestant head of the Dutch royal house of Orange. When James and his wife Mary landed in England, the royal army defected and James fled to France. James was deterrmind to win back his throne and, with the help of the French King, amassed an army of 25,000 (mainly Irish Catholics and French).

He landed in Ireland and fought against King William. William’s 36,000-strong army conisted of protestants from several European countries and both kings led their armies in person. It was a bloody battle at Oldcastle, near the mouth of the river Boyne, which saw a victory for William and it glued William and Mary firmly on the throne. It consolidated the momentous changes in the British way of government known as the Glorious Revolution.

Today’s fabulous Blueberry Crumble recipe comes from Just One Pot, Dairy Cookbook – still available for just £2.99 – and makes the most of this seaon’s delicious blueberries.

Clever Cooking for One or TwoWin a copy of Clever Cooking for One or Two
We have 5 to give away http://dairydiary.co.uk/mailinglist.html

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Celebrate Summer

It’s a celebration of summer this week with Midsummer’s Day on Thursday and the Summer Solstice today. Midsummer’s Day is primarily a Celtic fire festival, which represented the middle of summer.

It dates back several millennia, and many stone circles (such as Stone Henge) are aligned to the sunrise on this day.

Midsummer fires would be lit all over the countryside, and it was customary for people to jump through the fires, folklore suggesting that the height reached by the most athletic jumper would be the height of that year’s harvest. After Christianity was adopted in Britain, the festival became known as St John’s Day; the birthday of St John the Baptist. Traditionally St John’s Eve was seen as a time when fairies were thought to be at their most powerful (hence Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream).

Back to reality and modern life, I don’t think too many of us will be jumping fires on Thursday, but we can enjoy today’s Summer Solstice. And what a glorious day for it! The sun is shining, and hedgerows and gardens bursting with flowers.

Why not make the most of the extra daylight and make the Foliage Fountain – it’s an elegant hanging basket and it only takes an hour. And for such minimal effort, what a result! The vivid colours will brighten up any porch or doorway.

Win a Portable Gardening Set with Dairy DiaryTo celebrate summer, we are giving away two portable gardening sets

Each portable set contains a handy pouch with a fork, trowel, dipper and secateurs. It takes just a few seconds to enter online – so why not do it now? Good luck.

Project taken from Seasonal Garden Ideas now available from the Dairy Diary store.

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Wonderful weekend weather

Did you enjoy the fabulous weather over the weekend? Many people did, evidenced by the shortage of barbeque fuel in some shops!

Well, following the best weekend of the year to date, it may be unrealistic to expect the same for the bank holiday weekend.

But, if it does turn out to be a pleasant weekend, what better way to enjoy it than to get out and enjoy your garden. This weekend we will definitely try the Peppers in a Pot mini-project from Seasonal Garden Ideas. And enjoy a leisurely barbeque with friends – fingers-crossed!

Are you lucky enough to have tickets to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this week? I am envious. If you haven’t got tickets the bad news is that the show is sold out. But you can follow the show on BBC – here’s the schedule.

Around Britain Dairy CookbookFancy winning a copy of the fabulous Around Britain Dairy Cookbook? Simply click here to enter. Good luck.

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Win A Dairy Diary Address Book

And now for a little treat……win a Dairy Diary address book.

We have ten up for grabs, so just enter your details at http://www.dairydiary.co.uk/mailinglist.html before Monday 26th April and you could win! Easy!

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