The ingredients listed here are for one portion, so just double up if you’re cooking for two, or triple if it’s for three etc. 

Ingredients (per person):

• 1 salmon fillet
• Half a lemon
• 2 tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce
• Dash of olive oil
• Salt and pepper

To serve:

• Couscous (I like Ainsley Harriot’s ‘Spice Sensation’ with this)
• Steamed veg of your choice 

1. Heat your oven to 190 degrees C.
2. Tear off a sheet of tin foil big enough to make a parcel to put the salmon in.
3. Put a dash of olive oil onto the sheet and place the salmon fillet on top.
4. Cut the lemon into quarters and squeeze one quarter over the salmon fillet.
5. Pour approx 2 tablespoons of chilli sauce over the fillet – just enough to coat the top.
6. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
7. Parcel up the salmon and put it into the oven for around 10-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillet.
8. While it’s cooking, steam some veggies and make up the couscous following the instructions on the packet.
9. To serve, place the couscous in the middle of the plate, then carefully remove the salmon from the parcel and place on top. Plate up the veggies and pour the cooking liquid from the parcel over the fish, couscous and veg. Garnish with a quarter of lemon.

As with most maintenance tasks, the ‘little and often’ approach will prevent this becoming a daunting task. The steps that follow should help you to keep your vacuum cleaner at a professional standard and serve it as well as it serves you. 

Firstly, the only place that should contain dirt on your vacuum cleaner is its dirt container! To safely begin maintenance, firstly unplug your appliance. Any other collections of material or foreign objects are best removed from the unit as soon as possible.

Next, follow this checklist: 

• If you own an upright vacuum cleaner, begin at the base of the unit. Remove any threads or material trapped around the brushbar. If your unit allows further access to this area, lift the removable panel as per the User Guide instructions and check that no material is trapped anywhere in the base of the machine, including any fixed sections of hose in this area.
   
• For any style of vacuum cleaner, remove the flexible hose and check this for blockage. You may wish to simply shake the hose to see if any items/material fall through, but a smooth item such as a broom handle can carefully be pushed through the hose to free any stubborn obstruction. You may then wish to drop a small ball of paper through the hose to ensure it has been successfully cleared.
   
• Many bagless vacuum cleaners feature a dirt separator (characterised by many small drilled holes) inside of their dirt container. This area should be tapped or brushed to free trapped material, but should not be wetted or washed at any stage.

The last areas of your vacuum cleaner needing regular maintenance are the filters. Think of these as the lungs of your machine – the clearer they are, the better it ‘breathes’ and the fitter it is.

Check your vacuum cleaner’s User Guide to find the location of all the filters and use the following steps to help with your cleaning of them: 

• Lift the filter from the unit and tap it over a bin to remove any loose surface material. Do not use brushes/scrapers as these can damage the filter material.
• Many vacuum cleaners have washable HEPA-style filters, built from an efficient, multi-layer material. Check your User Guide for guidance and if the filters are washable, rinse them in pure, lukewarm running water. Allow to naturally dry for at least 24 hours, or until completely dry. No soap or detergent should be used as this too can damage the filter material. 

Finally, if your vacuum cleaner has a neat parking spot in the cupboard under the stairs, well done, because we’re not all that organised! 

If your vacuum cleaner is on show, you may want it to sparkle on the outside too. It is recommended to use anti-static wipes, such as those used to clean TVs and computer screens, to clean the outside of your vacuum cleaner. This will not only remove any dust or grime, but it will also help to prevent it being attracted to the unit once it’s cleaned. 

This is a particularly useful tip for upright vacuum cleaners, whose rotary brushbars can generate static charge on the bodywork of the unit, which in turn can attract dust. 

All this information should help keep your vacuum clenaer in tip-top condition for a long time to come!

1. Make gift tags for next year
   
   This is my favourite way to recycle old cards, as it’s so quick and easy. Simply cut out characters such as Santas, snowmen and Christmas trees, make a hole the top using a hold punch, and then thread through a length of thin ribbon. Thicker cards are the best choice for this one, as the tags will stay flatter.
2. Get the kids to make festive pictures   

   This one is a great idea for keeping little kids busy for a few hours, and is also perfect for recycling other Christmas bits and pieces. Be warned, it is a bit messy, but lots of fun. Collect together all your old cards, plus any leftover wrapping paper, the shiny bits from used crackers and any used bows and gift tags. Buy some A3 sheets of coloured sugar paper and some PVA glue. Next, get your kids to each pick their favourite Christmas card and cut off the back part with the message, so they’re just left with the picture. Get them to stick the card right into the centre of a sheet of paper.

   Once they’ve done that, they need to decorate the frame. Give them some child-friendly scissors and show them how to cut out smaller characters, shapes and messages from other old cards, gift tags or wrapping paper. These can then be glued around the picture to make a colourful frame. Any gaps can be filled in using old bows and the shiny bits from crackers – the idea is to cover the whole sheet of paper.  They can get really creative with this, using scrunched up tissue paper, ribbons, glitter… whatever you’ve got to hand.

   Display the final pictures proudly on your fridge or on their bedroom walls, or even better get them to give them to their grandparents!

3. Make Christmas cards for next year
   
   Why not save some money next year by making a supply of personalised Christmas cards from this year’s? The easiest way for a beginner to make these look professional is to buy a card making kit. You’ll probably find lots of Christmas themed ones in the sale right now.Use sharp scissors to cut out a character or a festive scene from an old card and stick it onto one of the blank cards from the kit. It’s worth spending some time cutting it out carefully and accurately, keeping as close to the edges of the shape as possible. Then stick on some of the bits and pieces from the card kit to complete the card. Finally, use a gold or silver coloured pen to write festive messages on the card.

After all this ‘to and fro’ our carpets and floors can look in need of a little care. Let’s not forget, we want the areas of our house not hidden by festive adornments to look fabulous too, and that’s where our vacuum cleaners come in handy!

Picture the scene - whizzing around downstairs with turkey defrosting times occupying your mind, and disaster strikes. A length of tinsel has disappeared and is trapped in your vacuum cleaner. A fatal mistake? Not so.

First things first, if tinsel becomes trapped in your vacuum cleaner, switch it off and unplug it as soon as you can. The quicker you can do this the easier it will be to remedy.

Then, if you’re using an upright vacuum cleaner, make the following checks:

• Try to carefully remove any tinsel around the brushbar. You may wish to use scissors to cut this away if it’s particularly tangled.
• If all the tinsel frees easily, next ensure no damage has occurred by running the vacuum cleaner and checking the rotary brushbar is still spinning. If it’s spinning as normal, then feel free to continue to your vacuuming unscathed!
• If the brushbar won’t rotating after removing the tinsel, check the instructions in your vacuum cleaner’s user guide. A replacement drive belt could be required, or your vac may need to have its brushbar reset, for example.
• To be sure no more tinsel is left trapped, check areas such as the main accessory hose or the lower hose. These can be accessed and cleared following instructions in your user guide. 

A cylinder or canister style vacuum cleaner will need similar checks:

•  If your vac has a floor tool with a rotary brush, check this first for tinsel and remove any you can find. Again, scissors can be used carefully to cut away trapped material.
• If using a floor tool without rotating brushes, check the airway through this is clear, and remove any obstructions as necessary.
• Remove the accessory hose and telescopic tube from your vacuum cleaner and remove any trapped material from these areas.

Christmas decorations spread joy all around, and so does a clean household! Whilst the odd stray length of tinsel can get in the way from time to time, this shouldn’t stop you from enjoying a clean Christmas for long.

Merry Christmas from all at Vax!

1. When choosing a tree, check it’s green and healthy, without too many dry brown needles. Tap the base of the tree on the ground sharply several times to check for excessive needle loss. You should expect a few needles to drop, but not too many.
2. Make sure the tree is not too tall for the room you’ll be putting it in. If you prefer a big tree, check the height of the room and then take a tape measure with you to check the height of the tree.
3. Remove the tree from its netting and put it into a bucket of water as soon as you get it home – not soil or sand. The trick to remember is to treat your Christmas tree the same way you would treat a cut flower.
4. Store the tree outside for as long as possible, and only bring it inside once you’re ready to decorate. 
    
5. Buy a water holding tree stand and keep it regularly topped up, as this will help to keep it fresh and minimise any needle loss.
6. Remove an inch thick section of wood from the bottom of the trunk to reveal fresh wood before putting it into the stand. Don’t cut the trunk at an angle or shave it into a point.
7. Position the tree away from radiators or other sources of heat, as heat will dry out your tree and cause more needles to drop.
8. Top up the water level daily.
9. Use small indoor fairly lights to decorate your tree, not the larger outdoor type which are too heavy and create too much heat. If you’re using last year’s fairy lights, check they are working before you put them on the tree.
10. Always switch off the fairy lights before bed and before leaving the house.

Lots of people I know use a spreadsheet to organise their Christmas present shopping. This is a specially good idea if you’re on a tight budget, as you can keep track of every last penny. 

List all the friends and family you’re buying presents for in the first column, then create a second column for your target budget. If you’re planning to spend £25 on your mum, then put that next to her name, and so on, until you have an amount next to every name. If you highlight all the amounts in this column and click the ‘autosum’ button, it will give you a grand total of how much it’s all going to cost. Then, if it’s too much, you can tweak each person’s budget until the total reaches an amount you can afford.

The third column could be for your present ideas. If you’re stuck for ideas, try browsing around online stores or visit a specialist gift shop such as Firebox.com or Iwantoneofthose.com as they have plenty of ideas for all budgets. If you’re unsure whether to buy something or not, copy the link to the page and paste it into the spreadsheet, so you can visit it again later. Clicking on the link will launch the page again. If you have more than one idea for a person, add in an extra column or two.

The next column should be the name of the present you actually bought that person and the last column should be the amount you spent. If you ‘autosum’ this column, you’ll be able to keep track of the total amount you’ve spent. That way you can make sure you’ve got enough money left to enjoy a mince pie or two.

Luckily these day it’s perfectly possible to wash your front room in just 20 minutes, leaving it dry enough to walk on again in just an hour or two – that’s quicker than the wash and dry cycle on your washing machine!

The key to easy carpet cleaning is to invest in a good quality carpet washer with deep cleaning, quick drying technologies. Then follow our top tips to get the very best results…

1.  Deal with spills immediately

To avoid an accidental spill becoming a stain, deal with it straight away. If your carpet cleaner isn’t immediately at hand, place some sheets of kitchen roll on top of the spill to soak up as much as possible.

Don’t rub though, as that will drive the liquid further into carpet.

2. Always vacuum thoroughly first

Vacuuming up any surface debris before you wash your carpets will make the job much easier and will stop your carpet washer from getting all clogged up. This is especially important if you’re cleaning up after a Christmas party, as tinsel and pine needles can play havoc with your cleaner.

3. Use the right solution

It may be tempting to try something other than the recommended cleaning detergent in your washer, but it’s really not a good idea, as it could damage your carpet, damage your washer and even invalidate your warranty.

The detergent that’s been designed for use in your washer is specially formulated so that it won’t overfoam or leave any sticky residues on your carpet, which can attract more dirt.

So for the very best cleaning results, always use the recommended detergent, and if your carpets are made from wool look out for the ‘Woolsafe approved’ logo on the bottle.

4. Check a small area first.

If you’ve never washed your carpet before, it’s always best to try it on an unobtrusive area first, just to check the carpet is not affected by the solution, colour fastness or the cleaning action of the machine.

5. Pre-treat if possible.

For the best results on carpets that are very dirty or stained, apply a pre-treatment cleaning solution before you wash. Some models of carpet cleaner include a pre-treatment kit, typically consisting of a bottle of solution and an applicator wand, or you may need to buy these separately.

Usually you spray the pre-treatment solution onto stained areas and leave it to work on the stains before you wash as normal, but always follow the instructions on the  solution bottle.

6. Start furthest from the door.

When you wash a room, start in the corner furthest away from the door and work back towards the door. That way you won’t be walking on damp carpet.

7. Clean in straight lines

For the most thorough clean use straight, parallel strokes with your washer, allowing a small overlap of approx 3cm to help prevent streaking.

8. Don’t oversoak

If you get your carpet soaking wet it will take longer to dry. To avoid getting your carpet too saturated, don’t use more than  four wet strokes per area of carpet. Use more dry strokes than wet strokes, and finish with lots of dry strokes, until hardly any water is being sucked up.

9. Rinse if you can

If you have a carpet washer with a ‘rinse mode’, use this after washing with solution to remove any residue of detergent from the carpet before drying.

10. Wash stairs and upholstery too

Make sure you buy a carpet cleaner with a flexible hose and wash tool included, if you want to be able to wash carpeted stairs, upholstered sofas and chair seats.

11.  Concentrate on stubborn stains

Stubborn stains and ’high traffic’ areas, such as doorways and stairs, are best tackled using the wash tool and hose, as this will give you more concentrated cleaning power. Pre-treat these areas if possible and then use the wash tool to scrub and wash away the dirt.

A top tip – of you have a difficult oil-based stain, try spraying on some hairspray before you wash. The solvent in the hairspray will help to dissolve the stain.

12.  Don’t forget corners and crevices

Some washers provide edge-to-edge cleaning, but there will always be corners and crevices that you just can’t reach. So use your washer’s wash tool and hose to reach into any corners.

 13.  Leave doors and windows open

To speed up the time it takes your carpet to dry, leave doors and windows open. If you’ve been careful not to oversoak your carpets they should be dry within 1-3 hours.

14.  Wash regularly

Don’t leave it too long between washes. Even if you vacuum every day, to keep your carpet looking at its best you still need to wash it regularly. That’s because a surprisingly large amount of dirt gets trapped between the fibres and can’t be sucked away by your regular vacuum cleaner, which only lifts dirt and dust from the very top layers.

As you walk on your carpet this embedded dirt gets ground in. As the dirt is abrasive it damages the carpet fibres so they start to look frayed and worn. So regular washing will prevent this happening, making your carpet look newer for longer and saving you money!

You could try treating the area with an air freshener or odour eliminator spray, but these can only mask the smell for so long. To get rid of the lingering odour completely, you need to remove the residue that’s trapped between your carpet’s fibres. The best way to do that is using an extraction carpet washer.

Washing your carpets is not only good for removing visible marks and stains, it also helps remove the most potent of pongs, as well as any water marks left behind by pet urine and similar messes.

To banish unpleasant pet smells from your carpet, simply follow these easy steps. No more nose-pegs, as it’s as easy as 1-2-3! 

1. Use a high-quality carpet washer to thoroughly clean the affected area. For best results do this as soon as possible after the ‘accident’ occurs, to prevent it soaking into the carpet fibres. Choose a carpet washer with powerful suction and either rotating SpinScrub brushes or a rotary brushbar to achieve the deepest possible clean. By agitating the carpet’s fibres, the brushes help remove any deeply embedded particles that can cause odours to linger.
2. Look out for a carpet washer with twin air path ‘Dual V’ technology for the deepest cleaning results and fastest drying times. These models remove most of the dirty water from your carpet, so they’ll be dry again in just an hour or two. All traces of any pet mess will be consigned to the carpet cleaner’s dirty water tank, ready to be tipped away down an outside drain.
3. To get the best results when dealing with pet-related stains and spills, use a specialist cleaning solution that’s designed specifically for the job, such as Vax AAA for Pets carpet cleaning solution. It’s specially formulated to neutralise pet odours by working with your machine to banish bacteria which, if left behind, can cause pet odours to resurface over time. Best of all, you won’t be replacing one smell with another, as it works to neutralise and exterminate odours, not mask them.

Even in a pet-free household, from time to time we all know the kids can accidently trample food, drink and other messes into your carpets. Even a common and innocuous mark, like that caused by soil from your garden, can in time leave a stale, earthy odour.

To freshen up your carpets, choose a carpet cleaning solution with a floral fresh scent, such as Vax Ultra+ or AAA Spring Clean. These leave behind a fresh  fragrance that will leave your whole home smelling clean.

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts (skin on or off)
80g stilton
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
50g butter
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
1 onion, finely diced
150ml cider (good quality)
200ml double cream

Pre-heat oven to 170 C / 335 F / Gas Mark 3.5

Prepare the chicken

• First get a small knife and make a pocket in the top of the chicken breast, just under the flesh, big enough to get your finger in.
• Split the stilton into four equal portions and put this into the pocket in the chicken.
• Heat a medium sized frying pan on a high heat.  When hot, put in oil and swirl around – BE CAREFUL AS THE PAN WILL BE HOT.
• Put the chicken in the pan, top side down and cook for 2 – 3 minutes.  Then turn it over, add half the butter and cook for a further 2 – 3 minutes, basting the chicken with the melted butter.
• Then put it in the oven for 15 minutes.

Make the cider sauce

• Put the other half of the butter into a saucepan and heat on a medium/high heat. 
• Add the onion, cook for 5 minutes, stirring.
• Then add the apple, cook for further 2 minutes.
• Add the cider, cook and reduce for 10 minutes.
• Add the cream and cook for further 5 – 10 minutes.
• Add salt & pepper to taste (or sauce will seem sweet).

Assembly

• Put the stilton chicken on a plate, spoon over the sauce.
• Serve with mashed potatoes and vegetables.

Thanks to our guest blogger Nigel from Vax for this great recipe!

Ingredients:

• 14 prawns
• 2 tablespoon green curry paste
• 500 ml coconut milk
• 40 grams diced pumpkin
• 40 grams diced carrots
• 40 grams string beans, cut into pieces
• A few pieces of broccoli
• 2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon fish sauce
• A few sprigs of sweet basil

Directions:

1. Place half the coconut milk into a frying pan.
2. Add the green curry paste.
3. Fry at a medium heat.
4. Add the pumpkin, carrots, broccoli and string beans.
5. Season with fish sauce and brown sugar.
6. Let the curry simmer for 5 minutes
7. Add the sweet basil
8. Serve and enjoy!

Special thanks to our guest blogger Nigel from Vax for this scrumptious recipe.