Monday 27 August 2012

Fruit Shoot Smencils

When I was younger I received some scented pencils as a Birthday present. There were in a pack of four and were supposed to smell of Pineapple, Blackcurrant, Tropical Fruits and Orange. I say "supposed to smell" as all 4 pencils smelt exactly the same! 


Fast forward 30 years and I have received some new scented pencils for the boys to try out. Smencils  are the world's only scented pencils made from 100% recycled newspaper! Each pencils is in a plastic tube (made from biodegradable plastic) guaranteeing freshness for 2 years! 

We received the Original Fruit Shoot Smencils set which contained 5 pencils - Blackcurrant & Apple, Tropical, Apple, Orange and Summer Fruits. Every single pencil smelt just like the fruit and the boys loved them. As well as using them as pencils they kept taking them out of the tube to smell them! It will be interesting to see if they still smell as good in two years time but certainly at the minute I am very impressed.

A pack of 5 costs £5.99 from Learning Resources


If you would like to be in with a chance of winning a set of Robinsons Fruit Shoot Smencils just answer the question on the Learning Resources Facebook page. The closing date is midnight on Friday 14th September. Good Luck!

Home made Lemon Meringue Pie

This morning I made a lemon meringue pie. It smells delicious! The first time I made it I used a pyrex dish which made it tricky to serve. This time I used a spring form cake tin  which means I can take it out of the tin easily.

Here's the recipe I used

1. Roll out enough sweet pastry to line the cake tin.
2. Prick the pastry with a fork and cook for 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Make the filling by mixing 45g of cornflour with 75g of unrefined golden caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of water.
4. Bring 200ml of water to the boil, reduce to a simmer and then mix in the cornflour paste and the zest and juice of 3 large lemons.
5. Mix until thickened and remove from heat then whisk in 3 egg yolks.
6. Pour the filling into the pastry case.
7. Make the meringue by whisking 3 egg whites with 175g of unrefined golden caster sugar.
8. Spread the meringue over the filling and bake in a cool oven for 40 to 45 minutes.

Monday 20 August 2012

School Uniform

In September my eldest son starts high school. Up until now I have not been able to shop around for uniform as we could only buy it from a local stockist. Now he is going to high school I have been able to shop around for the basics and found these long sleeved white shirts from Next. The shirts are in packs of 2 and start at £8.00 for age 3 and go right up to age 16 costing £13.00.

The added bonus of these shirts is that they are easy to iron! Very important in our house as anything that helps save time is fantastic.

As well as shirts Next have a wide range of school uniform - have a look at their wide range here.

Baking

My sons love baking and as it was wet yesterday we decided to make a cake. This is the cake that we made (and it tasted delicious!)