Tag: food

Blogmas Day Nineteen: Mince Pie taste testing 🥧

Only 6 days to go guys! Less than a week 🎄

During December, me and my friend at work have been trying out different mince pies. We work together two days so on a Monday I would bring one in and on a Thursday she would bring one in.

We got to try six different mince pies during this time, and we rated them to see which ones we preferred.

We tried the following Mince Pies:

  • Aldi Specially Selected
  • Gregg’s Bakery
  • Sainsburys Shortcrust Bakery
  • M&S Puff Pastry
  • Waitrose Extra Special
  • Co op Locally Sourced

• The Rankings •

We went for a few categories to score each mince pie on, these were:

  • Appearance
  • Overall Taste
  • Pastry
  • Fillage

And then we gave them an overall taste each.

• The Results •

Aldi Specially Selected

Appearence: 9/10 & 8/10

Overall taste: 7/10 & 7/10

Pastry: 7/10 & 7/10

Fillage: 8/10 & 7/10

Overall Rating: 7/10 & 7/10

Gregg’s

Appearance: 8/10 & 8/10

Overall taste: 5/10 & 7/10

Pastry: 6/10 & 7/10

Fillage: 8/10 & 7/10

Overall rating: 5/10 & 6/10

Sainsburys Bakery

Appearence: 8/10 & 8/10

Overall taste: 8/10 & 8/10

Pastry: 9/10 & 9/10

Fillage: 5/10 & 5/10

Overall rating: 8.5/10 & 9/10

M&S Puff Pastry

Appearence: 6/10 & 6/10

Overall taste: 6.5/10 & 8/10

Pastry: 5/10 & 3/10

Fillage: 3/10 & 3/10

Overall rating: 6/10 & 7/10

Waitrose

Appearence: 8/10 & 8/10

Overall taste: 9/10 & 6/10

Pastry: 8.5/10 & 8/10

Fillage: 8/10 & 8/10

Overall rating: 8/10 & 8/10

Co-op Locally Sourced

Appearence: 6/10 & 6/10

Overall taste: 10/10 & 10/10

Pastry: 8/10 & 9/10

Fillage: 10/10 & 9/10

Overall rating: 9.5/10 & 9/10

So, the winner of our taste testing was… (drum roll please)

The Co-op Locally Sourced !

These are my favourite and even with trying others that hasn’t changed, and my friend agreed too.

Which Mince pies are your favourite?

Have you tried any of these ones?

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas Day Eighteen: My favourite Festive Snacks 😋🎄🍽

I LOVE festive food (& food in general) and Christmas is one of those times of year where we indulge a little more, enjoy a few of our favourite snacks and have a nice time.

… I like having some of these, particularly, at Christmas as they make me feel super festive, but obviously alot of them can be had at other times of the year!

Here are some of my favourites…

A absolute festive staple.

This is one of my favourite chocolates. I would of course eat this at other times of the year but, I often just get the grab bags or bars, saving the actual chocolate orange for christmas time.

It always feels so festive, perhaps it’s the Christmas/clementine similarity.

And thanks to old Saint Nick, I always get one in my stocking.

Now I do only eat these ones at Christmas! Mince pies.

These are a treat that I have started to like only over the last five years or so, and I love them throughout November and December.

Me and my work friend did a mince pie taste testing this year so look out for that in a Blogmas post to come.

Shortbread is my favourite type of biscuit and I LOVE them at Christmas. I especially love the M&S Christmas, musical tins. These little packs of Chritmas trees are delish too.

Tesco’s Christmas shortbread selection tins are my favourite in terms of taste, super delicious and with lots of sugar on top.

PRINGLES! The ultimate crisps.

I try not to eat tooooo many because they really are addictive!! So I always get these for Christmas as they are a buffet essential 👌🏻

Sour Cream and Chive are my absolute fave.

Hot Chocolate is a Christmas must have!

Perfect for the cold weather and these are a couple of my favourites.

I recently discovered the Cadbury hot chocolate and how good it is. I’m sure I’ve tried it before but not made it well, because I can’t get enough of it now!! I was definatly making it wrong Haha.

Mint hot chocolate is my favourite flavour and there is something about the minty taste that makes me feel super festive.

Hot chocolates are so cosy 🥰

Crackers & cheese are a Christmas must have. Great as a little snack or part of an epic buffet.

& finally…

Our tipple of choice!

It’s got to be a nice, ice cold fruit cidar. I don’t really drink casually, but I do love to have a few of these in the fridge, ready for the festive period 🎄

It’s one of the times of year that I do actually fancy a casual one here and there.

What are your favourite festive snacks?

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Chocolate orange cupcakes!

Hey guys 👋🏻

So I haven’t done a recipe post for a while and what better way to start off a new year of baking than with these delights…

….chocolate orange cupcakes.I’ve used a BBC Good Food recipe because they always work out well for me.I slightly modified the recipe to make then orange as the recipe was for just plain chocolate cupcakes.Let’s take a look at the recipe. I’ll leave a link here and then you can see on the recipe below how I modified it.

•100g Plain Flour

•20g Cocoa Powder

•140g Caster Sugar

•1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

•40g Inslated Butter

•120ml milk

•1 egg

•Orange Extract

To decorate:

•Chocolate buttercream flavoured with melted chocolate orange or the orange extract.

•Chocolate orange segments

•Sprinkles

I hope you enjoyed this little recipe. Chocolate orange seems to be everywhere atm (I’m not complaining) so theres plenty of chocolate orange adornments to choose from.

I added sprinkles too because why not!!

I would usually use a piping bag but mine broke last time so I glhas to just spatula it on, so not quite a professional finish but so yummy.

Let me know if you give them a go .

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas 2019 Day Twenty Four: Christmas Eve pt 1 ☃️

This is where Christmas really starts. I definatly count this as one of the big ‘Christmas days’ inc Christmas day ans boxing day and any subsequent family Christmas days after these few days.

The day started off by having a Christmas Eve brunch with my sister and my niece Evie-Mae.

After brunch we had a look through Evies Christmas eve box…

(Blogmas 2019 Day 19: Christmas Eve Boxes )

Inside Evies box was a ‘Make your own Christmas Wreath’ kit.


Evie even created her own ‘Christmas Rhino’ to go on her wreath (you had to be there!)

It was good fun 😊

After all that craft we needed a treat… we tucked into some chocolate coins whilst watching Christmas Hey Duggee.

Yum yum, don’t tell Mummy!

Later on we made some cookies for Santa!

I think Santa is really going to enjoy them.

A lovely fun, festive start to Christmas Eve with my favourite little girly 💜

Now I have some baking and food prep to get started!

& its Christmas eve part 2 with my nephews.

I hope you are enjoying your Christmas eve! Don’t stress.

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

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Blogmas 2019 Day Seven: Pretzel reindeer 🦌❤

Pretzel Reindeers

These are so cute!

Here’s what you’ll need…

○Pretzels

○Rolos

○Red and/or brown smarties/MMs noses

○Edible eyes

○Non stick paper

○Baking tray

Heres how you make them…

○ First lay out your pretzels onto the paper (on a baking tray)

○Split a pretzel or use pretzel sticks to create antlers and place two of these underneath each pretzel, in position.

○Place rolos in the holes of the pretzels.

○Pop them in a low heat oven to melt the rolos.

○When the rolos start to go gooey you can take them out.

○Press the rolos down to spread out the gooey chocolate caramel over the surface of the pretzel.

○When its still melted pop a nose and eyes onto the reindeer pretzels to make the face.

(Make sure the pretzel antlers are pushed into the melted choc before you pop them into the fridge, so that they dont move out of position.)

I made a few with red Rudolph noses and a few with brown noses to make his pals.

○ Pop them into the fridge to cool.

Enjoy!

These would be so fun to make with kiddies, as Christmas day treats or as cute little homemade gifts popped into a festive treat bag.

18 Days until Christmas!!

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

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Holiblog: The Rome Edition

For my husband Tim’s 28th birthday I bought us a trip to Rome. As you may know from previous blogs, Italy is our favourite country and Tim’s favourite Italian city that we’ve visited is Rome, it’s been 7 years since our first visit.

Read on to see what we got up to!

Day One

It was a early start for us to begin our Rome adventure, from Gatwick!

This meant we had a whole day to start exploring.

But, first lunch! And an ice cream stop at the highest rated ice cream place in Rome, it didn’t disappoint!

Trip Advisor: Best Gelato in Rome

We stumbled upon the National Museum of Rome and this was a great find. The architecture was amazing and we had a audio guide which was really interesting.

After all our exploring and walking around we had a chilled evening back at our room. We grabbed some take away pizza slices and a couple of ice cold cans of coke zero and enjoyed a them in our cosy room.

Day Two

Today we headed out early to have a look at the Colosseum. We went inside it on our last trip to Rome so this time we just went to have a look at it again from the outside, as well as the area around it.

We enjoyed a nice lunch and some ice cream before heading back for a siesta and our evening activity.

That evening we enjoyed our Italian cooking class, the first of our three planned activities for the trip.

It was originally going to be a pizza class (my husband is obsessed with pizza and this trip was planned by me for his birthday) but they changed the menu to pasta, as a summer alternative. Even so we had a great time!

We made pasta, a similar one to tagliatelle, Gnocci and then for dessert we made an amazing summer berries and white chocolate tiramisu. It was so good and it was so fun to cook proper pasta. You can really tell the difference.

Day Three

I think this was my favourite day of the holiday.

We had a nice early start to have a look round Palentine hill and the Roman Forum. We missed out on seeing these last time as we didn’t get there early enough and it is horrendous in the heat!

So, we made our way there nice and early and spent the morning having a look at the amazing Roman Ruins.

For lunch we headed over to the highest rated pizza place in Rome and it was delicious. This was my favourite meal and the man who owned the shop was so helpful and friendly. It’s a small little shop but so worth it.

Trip Advisor: Best Pizza in Rome

In the evening we headed to Piazza Campo de’ Fiori to have our second planned activity, a ‘By night walking tour of Rome’ Our guide was absolutely brilliant, born and raised in Rome so very knowledgable.

We saw so many different sights that we hadn’t seen before, such as the Pantheon and my favourite, the Trevi fountain (Which is SO beautiful) and much bigger than I expected. I’m so glad we got to see it this time.

Day Four

On day four our planned activity was an evening walking food tour, unfortunately it was cancelled so we had another think about what to do.

In the end we booked a morning trip, including a guided tour of the Vatican city. The tour included access to the Vatican museum, the Cistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basillca.

These places were all amazing and the artwork, tapestrys and architecture were amazing, as well as the history.

After a delicious lunch of Caprese salad, Pizza and the most amazing tiramisu we headed home for another afternoon siesta!

In the evening we took a stroll down to the Colosseum, after dinner, to have a look at it all lit up at night. It looked beautiful!

Day Five

On our final day we didnt fly out until the evening so, we wanted to make the most of our last day.

At breakfast we had a look on Viator to see what we could do.

As we didn’t make pizza at the previous cooking class we booked onto a pizza class for midday.

We stumbled across the Spanish Steps whilst we were looking for the cooking class location which was cool! Another landmark to tick off.

The cooking class was brilliant, with a lovely group of Americans & a Canadian lady. I really enjoyed making an authentic pizza in Rome and I loved seeing Tim make his favourite cuisine too.

They were really tasty!! A great lunch for our last day.

One of the other members of the cooking class mentioned a 5D experience that they were visiting later that day and as we had no other plans we thought we would check it out too!

We went for the full package 5D experience watching the history of Rome, the evolution of life and we looked around Roman landmarks with a VR headset on.

Once we had done all this it was a good time to slowly amble back to Termini to grab our bags and get the coach to the airport.

A great end to the holiday.

We had a brilliant time in Rome and I would 100% recommend it to anyone thinking of visiting Italy, especially if you are a first timer as there is so much to see and do.

& of course the food is amazing.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little post about our trip!

I wonder what next years Holiblogs will be about!? Time to start thinking for 2020.

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Chocolate Orange Brownies.

I thought I would do another recipe post and what better than brownies, Chocolate Orange ones none the less!!

Rich, gooey, indulgent and orangey.

I love baking and for any of my fellow Terry’s Choc orange lovers out there, you will LOVE this 👌🏻

My twin sister Sarah tagged me in the video for this recipe on Facebook. I will leave the details linked down below.

Chocolate Orange Brownie Recipe

❤🍊🍫😋

Ingredients

  • 150 g Dark Chocolate

    • 150

  • g Terry’s Chocolate Orange

    • 200

  • g Unsalted Butter
  • 3 large eggs (or 4 medium)

    • 275

  • g Caster Sugar
  • 90g Plain flour

    • 35

  • g Cocoa Powder

    • Zest

  • of 1 Orange (or 1tsp orange extract
  • 300g of Terry’s chocolate orange chopped

Before

After

I love the texture (& of course the taste) of the Choc orange segments that are pushed into the tops of the brownies, amazing.

These were so gooey & sticky and I am just obsessed with chocolate and cake and chocolate orange as a flavour combo so these were an absolute winner.

I took these to my Nieces 2nd birthday party and they went down a treat.

Let me know if you give these a go, and what you think of the recipe too.

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Easter hols diary: Week Two

🐣 Week Two 🐣

Saturday 13th April

Football

Unfortunately it wasn’t the best outcome as my team got relegated after this match! So, its League one for us next season. I still enjoyed watching the football non the less. COYB!

Sunday 14th April

Kaitlyn’s 4th Birthday party

My friends little girl turned 4 so we had some fun at soft play & cake of course!

Wednesday 17th April

Breakfast with friends

Today I met my twin sister, nephews & our friends Livy, Demi & CC for breakfast at our local Harvester! (Because let’s be honest, breakfast food is the best food!!)

It was lovely to catch up, especially as one of my friends is very close to her due date so it was lovely to see her before she becomes very busy!!

Thursday 18th April

Evie-Mae’s first sleepover at Auntie Ro Ro’s & Uncle TT’s

It was lots of fun having Evie to sleepover!

Friday 19th April

Good Friday

In the morning, once Evie was up, baths had been done & breakfast had been served, we went for a play and a lovely walk to the park.

It was beautiful weather & Evie loved the play area. We then sat down for a refreshing drink & snack at the park cafe before mummy & Daddy collected her 😊

In the evening we went out for a family meal to celebrate my brother in laws 30th Birthday.

Saturday 20th April

Our first BBQ of the year!

On Saturday the beautiful sunshine continued and it was glorious!

We had our first BBQ of the year, at my father in laws.

Sunday 21st April

Easter Sunday

I love Easter Sunday (& not just because of the vast quantity of chocolate that is consumed) but because it’s just a lovely day and as a family we always get together.

For as long as I can remember we have gathered on Eastet Sunday for a Chinese (delish!) My Nana started this tradition and I’m determined it continues (& again, not just because of the delicious Chinese food consumed haha) but because I like traditions and there is something really lovely about keeping them alive.

In the morning I did some Easter baking with the boys and I took another trip, to another local park, with the boys for a play in the sunshine. This was lovely before our Chinese.

We also enjoyed our Easter eggs and swapped treats with each other.

The boys and Evie were really pleased with their Easter buckets.

Monday 22nd April

Easter Monday

This was one of my favourite days of the bank holiday. Tim took me to his work (which I hadn’t seen before) & showed me a lovely walk that him and his colleagues often do at lunch times.

We walked some of the way, stopped for a yummy lunch, at Suffolk Food Hall, in the sunshine and then walked the rest of the loop back to the start.

It was a beautifully sunny day and I really enjoyed myself, the walk was stunning

&

it was a lovely way to spend some time together ♡

& that’s a wrap! A brilliant Easter holiday full of fun, sorting out, Spring cleaning & relaxing… perfect.

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Half term diaries part 2

Part two of February Half term!

Here’s what I’ve been up to.

Wednesday 20th February/Thursday 21st February 2019

During both of these days I was at work allday 7.30-6.

Working with kids is good fun though and we did lots of fun activities.

I really enjoy planning fun activities to do during the holidays.

Friday 23rd February 2019

In the morning I met up with my twin sister and my nephews for some bowling fun.

Both of the boys really enjoyed themselves as Noah only had a go at bowling when he was very little and Casey has never been before.

The boys had a great time and they were really good at bowling, it’s safe to say Auntie Ro Ro lost 🎳

Afterwards we had some lunch and some treats (of course!) DOUGHNUTS!!

In the afternoon we headed to Norwich to stay with my Auntie and cousin for a long weekend.

We popped into the Norwich Primark en-route, in order to see if they had the onesie of my dreams…

…they didn’t disappoint!! & it was the only one left 🙌🏻

Once at my Aunties, we settled down for a delicious Mexican taco feast.

Saturday 23rd February 2019

Today me & Tim started off the day with a Parkrun in a nearby village.

Once we got back we spent the rest of the morning/afternoon chilling out, having lunch and playing games.

The Pointless Mini game was a particular fave.

In the late afternoon we went and saw my cousin, his wife and kiddies for a catchup up and a cuppa, which was nice!

We rounded off the evening with a delicous meal out together at Zizzi’s.

We played a few more games when we got back too. Love a board game!

Sunday 24th February 2019

Today we went out l to enjoy the lovely sunshiny weather, you’ve got to make the most of it when you get it here in the UK!!

We stopped off for a yummy snacky lunch at a lovely pub in Ranworth.

We shared some stuffed peppers, Cheesey chips, homemade houmous, falafel & flatbread and some onion rings, yummy!

After that we went for a little walk along the river. It was so pretty and just lovely in the early Spring sunshine.

A great weekend rounded off with a scrummy roast beef dinner and baked Apple dessert, when we got home.

It’s been a great half term!!

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Half term diaries pt 1

Hi guys!

I thought I would document my half term, here on my blog. After all, I started this blog to capture memories, and so I thought that since I have a few things planned this week, this would be a nice way to document them.

Friday 15th February 2019

Half term is here!!

And what better way to roll in the half term than a delicious meal with a friend.

Me & my friend Steph met up for a long over due catch up at Wagamamas.

I tried a few things that I hadn’t had before and it was super delicious.

Then we rounded the evening off with a trip to Creams, a nearby dessert restaurant.

They do amazing crepes 😍

Saturday 16th February 2019

Me & my hubby Tim spent the day relaxing at a local spa ‘Aqua Springs’. This was our Valentine’s treat and a great opportunity to relax and spend some time together.

We rounded off the day with a couple of games of Cluedo with my mum and dad.

I’ve been wanting to play for ages but it’s not so good with just 2 players so we’ve had to wait.

I love their original Cluedo board!!

Unfortunately, I was the only one who didn’t win a game 👎🏻

Sunday 17th February 2019

Today, me & Tim visited my uni friend Kirsty and her little ones in London.

It was lovely to have a much needed catch up and Tim got to meet the newest edition to the gang, little Bella.

We had a great time chatting, playing some silly games and eating pizza.

Monday 18th February 2019

Today me and my friends Steph met up again, but this time in the day time so that I could see her boys too.

We had a lovely time at the soft play centre, a bit of lunch and then back to hers for a cuppa and a chat.

In the evening we went round to my mother in laws to see her and give her, her birthday present.

Another nice cuppa and a catch up to round off the day.

Tuesday 19th February 2019

Today me and my older sister Charlotte, and my niece Evie, went for Afternoon tea.

We successfully resisted any treats in the staff Room for the whole of the half term, and this was our reward.

We havn’t been here for Afternoon tea before but it didn’t disappoint!

There were four different finger sandwiches each (Chicken, Tuna, Cheese & Ham)

And a lovely warm sausage roll 😍

There was also a scone with cream and jam and a assortment of cakes, very nice!

Once we had finished we got the bus back into town, visited Elmer and then went back to Charlottes for a play.

My favourite girly 💜

What have you been up to this half term?

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

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