One of my favourite things to do on christmas eve is cook lots of yummy picky bits, here’s a few things I’ll be making this year, not difficult but should be very tasty

Chicken Satay

100ml Soy
4tbsp Peanut butter
Chicken fillets

1. Heat soy and peanut butter in a pot, once it’s melded together leave to cool completely.

2. Pour marinade over chicken and leave for up to 24 hours.

3. Bake chicken for 15-20mins or until cooked.

4. Thread onto skewers and serve.

Coronation Chicken Vol au Vents

Mayonnaise
Curry Paste
Grapes
Chicken
Mango Chutney
Vol au vent cases
Lettuce

1. Bake vol au vent cases as per recipe and leave to cool.

2. Mix mayonnaise with tbsp of curry paste. Add spoonful of chutney and quartered grapes.

3. Line cases with lettuce and add a spooful of coronation chicken to each and serve.

Goats Cheese & Red onion Vol au Vents

Goats Cheese (welsh)
Red onion
Olive oil
Vol au Vent cases

1. Bake vol au vent cases and leave to cool.

2. Gently fry onion with a little olive oil until soft.

3. Add a small amount of onion to each case and crumble over a little goats cheese. Grill for a couple of minutes and serve.

Dipped Strawberries and Marshmallows

Hardly a recipe required as it’s so straight forward, I use milk chocolate for the marshmallows and Green & Black’s white chocolate for the strawberries.

This is a video of the mummy blogger trip to Port Aventura. In this video; accommodation, mummy bloggers posing, port aventura rides, hotel burn and the halloween parade featuring beetlejuice and frankenstein.

A conversation between Nana and Erin while I was away in Port Aventura.

Nana: What job does daddy do?

Erin: He drives buses [he's a bus driver]

Nana: What about me?

Erin: You look after children [she's a childminder]

Nana: …and what does Granny do?

Erin: …looks after old ladies [she's a careworker]

Nana: What does Mummy do?

Erin: She player ‘pokers’ at the dark castle [hmmm...think I need to put her straight on a few things]

Think about it for a minute because it’s easy after seeing so much television coverage to become immune…

A little girl snatched away from her family. I’m a Mum, are you a Mum? Please watch the video, god forbid it’s me or you that one day needs the help of the world’s parents to find our child.

Tara started this one (she starts a lot of things) and I was tagged by Linda. Basically I had to get Erin to do a drawing of me, and here it is…

Erin’s three. I have a head which seems to double as a body, long arms and I look like a cross between a Little Miss from Mr. Men and Hitler, an interesting combination. The squiggles at the side of the head are my cheeks, they often hang off the side of my face. My hais is a mess at the moment as depicted in the picture with many, many squiggly lines.

So there you have it Little Mummy as drawn by Erin.

This is a slideshow of our food at the Port Aventura theme park in Spain. This will appeal to the hardened foodies (englishmum). See below for details of the dishes.

Slide 1: Ribs, chips and side salad at The Steakhouse self serve restaurant in the Far West. Tasty but expensive, a bit cold by the time we sat down to eat.

Slide 2: Ham and cheese breaded fritter from the children’s counter at the Gold River evening buffet.

Slide 3: The worst creme brullee I’ve ever tasted and a strawberry cheesecake.

Slide 4: More nasty creme brullee, fresh watermelon and ricotta and tomato tart that was surprisingly ok.

Slide 5: Pork knuckle, wild mushrooms, potato and parsley butter.

Slide 6: Chocolate brownie and ice cream, probably the nicest thing I ate!

Slide 7: Sweet and sour chicken and rice, ‘cream with nuts’ for desert. The desert was a cup of cream with chocolate and pecan nuts, needless to say I couldn’t finish it.

Slide 8: Tara and Alice at Venosfera the tapas bar we had a nice meal in in the mediterranean section of the park.

The Journey

On ‘Daddy’s’ recommendation we took the nine and a half hour ’scenic’ route which took us through Whitby and Scarborough (amongst other places….many….other….places). The six and a half hour route thr AA recommends may be a better option if you’re travelling with children.

Games played en route – 7 (it felt like more)
Roads driven – 47 ? (I lost count at Kingston upon Hull)
“Are we nearly there yet mummy’s” – just 4 (a miracle)
Wee’s at the side of the motorway – 1
Times I considered divorce – several hundred (thousand!)

Day One

Well, what can I say, Butlins is FULL ON. There’s so much to see and do that by two thirty we’d seen two puppet shows, been to the arcade, the soft play and participated in an Angelina (or should I say Man-gelina) Ballerina dance class. Predictably we passed out during the afternoon and vowed to plan our days more wisely for the rest of our stay.

That evening Alex made a valiant attempt at getting back into my good backs and offered to do the bedtime routine. After washing the candy floss out of Erin’s hair it was time to use the archaeic hairdryer that is included in the ‘Gold’ apartments. A minute or so in and said hairdryer begins licking flames threatening a halloween halloween horror story of our very own. Shaken up but unsinged Erin and Alex emerge alive. Butlins were quick to replace the offending item with a replacement that was missing half the plastic shell off the plug (!), nevermind, at least they’re offering hand sanitizer at the restaurant.

Day Two

Erin enjoyed Bob the Builders Yard where there’s a selection of children’s rides. These are free as are a number of the attractions and the remaining activities and food are very reasonably priced, often cheaper than back home. Be in no doubt that Butlins is a childrens holiday, Erin loved the constant activities but Alex and I found that there was little we could enjoy, especially as we don’t drink.

Even though there is lots to do I felt the park was too busy to cope with the half term crowds. The shows and craft activities were particularly over subscribed which led to long queues and a few disappointments.

The swimming complex is large with several flumes, older children could probably enjoy a couple of hours there everyday. There is a small toddlers area which could do with being larger and having a bit more to do.

Day Three

We (Erin) enjoyed the opening ceremony and to give the redcoats credit they are highly motivated and enthusiastic, even in the morning, something I find difficult to comprehend.

Most of the fairground attractions are free, rides include a full size carousel (apparently “too slow” for Erin) and dodgems, although be warned they are the boring British-style ones where bumping is banned, you could probably pedal faster than they travel and a one way system is constantly in place, all the rules render this ride completely pointless and dull, you’ve more chancing having a ‘bump’ on the M6.

The Verdict

Overall Butlins is a good product but it won’t suit everyone. Chances are if you love Center Parcs you’re gonna hate Butlins and vice versa.

I can imagine Butlins being a teenagers dream with bowling, quasar, the fairground and above all the unlimited freedom.

There were a lot of multi-generational families enjoying time together but on the flip side there were some parents completely losing it, perhaps the sugar rush is a bit too much?

Butlins offers families value for money, and that, I would say is their main selling point. Although I won’t be returning to Butlins I think it’s a good holiday for many British families, and an institution that has stayed true to it’s core values of good fun at a price you can afford.

A lovely puking pumpkin of our very own