Honour but Elif Shafak

I was sent this book as part of my involvement with the BritMums Book Club. I hadn’t heard of it previously (but since then, every shop I go in has got it staring me in the face). My first impression was that I loved the cover and couldn’t wait to get started. I was away for a few days in the caravan which always makes for perfect reading conditions – no internet or tv and exhausted kids that go to sleep early. Bliss! Right from the beginning I was hooked – I have talked her before about being interested in anything that involves twins, so this book was perfect for me.

The story of Turkish/Kurdish twins, Pembe and Esma. Pembe leaves her country to live in London with her husband and 3 children. The story concentrates on Iskender, the eldest son who is shortly to be released from prison, where he has been serving a sentence for an ‘Honour killing’. I don’t want to say too much about the story and spoil it, if you haven’t read it and intend to. You will really want to get to know the characters and get to the end of the story. The writing is wonderful, you get to see the situation from different points of view.

This is a book that has stayed with me throughout the month – I highly recommend it as a page turner but beware, other books might not seem quite so good afterwards!

A very rare 5 out of 5 for this one. (If you search for this book, you might also find it called Iskender from a previous title)

The Princess Diaries – Meg Cabot

Every now and then, I will read a YA Novel. My 10yo had just finished reading this book and happened to mention that a boy in her class called it a ‘dirty book’. Now, I know the boy in question and am tempted to think that anything more adult than Biff, Chip & Kipper would be ‘dirty’ in his eyes, so wasn’t immediately alarmed. It did make me stop and think though – how much do I know what my child is reading and what age are the Princess Diaries aimed at?

I saw the Princess Diaries 2 film on Boxing Day this year and completely loved it and fell in love with Anne Hathaway (who need Les Mis?) The film was very mild so I wasn’t expecting anything naughty either.

I did find the language slightly more grown up that usual though – not in a rude way but a long words type of way. I do wonder how much of the book passed my daughter by.

The main character, Mia is 14 and finds out during the course of book 1 that she is actually a Princess – The Princess of Genovia. Its a pleasant story, Mia seems a nice girl – she falls out with her mate but of course in true teenage fiction style, they make up at the end. There is talk of bodily functions – testicular cancer, periods, infertility which leads me to think that perhaps 10 is slightly younger than the target audience. I’m thinking perhaps 13-14 is an ideal age for these books.

I have since started Princess Diaries: Take Two which starts off with talk of s*x (I’m not a prude – I just don’t want the spammers hitting my blog). I do want to know how Mia gets on with being a Princess though and so far, she hasn’t been anywhere near Genovia!

3 out of 5 (but I may be being a bit unfair as I am definitely older than the target audience!)

(Image courtesy of http://www.carolinesmailes.co.uk)

The Drowning of Arthur Braxton by Caroline Smailes

Oh this author is very clever! The talent of being able to use just a few words to really convince a reader that someone is truly horrific and creepy. Just incredible.

I was completely gripped at the start of the book. Lauren, a teenager goes to work in The Oracle, an old Edwardian baths where miracles are said to occur in the water.

I knew absolutely nothing about the book and that there is a twist on what I was expecting as I went through the story. All I knew was, I really enjoyed Caroline Smailes’ last book, Like Bees To Honey.

This was a complete change from the type of book I would usually read – I’m strictly a realistic fiction type of girl and this story stretched me. I needed to continue though, the writing was just too good to stop once I realised what the book was about (Yep, you guessed it, I’m not going to tell you) – I really enjoyed the end. My questions were answered but not in a way that I felt everything was being sewn up for the sake of it.

Throughout the book, there are passages about constant heavy rain – It has been a rainy sort of week here. Every time I get soaked or look out of the window, I’m drawn back to the book. Sure sign of a good writer.

4 out of 5 – I reckon this would be a brilliant book to be discussed at a book group. The characters are so strong that people would be likely to have strong views and plenty to discuss.

In other news, Violet and I are reaching the end of the 3rd Wishing Chair adventures book – I’ve loved how we snuggle down to have a chapter and we have sometimes enjoyed ourselves that much, that we have read 2 a night. No mean feat when you have already done 2 school reading books a night too! Next on her list is the Magic Faraway Tree. I’d like her to go for Malory Towers or St Clare’s but she is adamant.

Millie has also discovered a love for reading (just in time for SATS!) I’ve been scouring the internet for recommended authors for a 10yo and discovered Cathy Cassidy. I ordered Cherry Crush (book 1 in the Chocolate Girls series) and I swear I have never known Millie be so obsessed about a book. Book 2 and 3 are on order as an end of SATS treat – I hope they are here by Friday! Highly recommended and the lead character’s name is Costello!

Why did no-one tell me about the joys of plastic figures earlier? I spent years of my life that I will never get back making teeny sugar figures and now I discover how brilliant pre bought figurines are.

I temporarily came out of retirement to make little Hugo’s cake – He’s special enough to me that it was worth it! Actually I really enjoyed having a potter and Cara (Hugo’s mum) is a dream to cake for (its a verb you know!) – She gives me complete freedom and even went and bought the figures to put on the cake.

Cake purists among you are probably shouting at the screen about a non-edible medium being used – Sterilise the figures with alcohol (vodka or gin). It will evaporate. Also if you are using sugarpaste to stick the figure to the cake, the blob with come off on the feet of the character so the plastic won’t ever touch the cake.

I think I may start the odd session of pottering about with marzipan/sugarpaste but am definitely not about to start the business up again. The thought of taking orders and being responsible for wedding cakes still makes me quiver slightly. Could be something to do with how busy I am being Mum’s taxi.

For info, the Scooby Doo Characters are currently £6.99 at B&M – now try to convince me that homemade sugar figures are better!

Hope you like! What has everyone else been up to this week? Had a creative week? Feel free to show off your creations by adding to the linky below.

A little girl who turns 10 today and that 6 horrible years ago went missing whilst on holiday in Portugal. A beautiful little girl that should be with her family now, should be in year 5 of school enjoying being one of the biggest in the school, should be enjoying teaching her little sister and brother about what is cool (and what isn’t).

I’m sure there’s not a mother alive, who knows about Madeleine, that doesn’t wish as much as I do, that she is found safe and sound and returned to her family. What that family continue to go through is just unimaginable. 2 year ago, I went to a mass at my local church where Madeleine’s grandparents talked about her and the family – It would take a heartless soul not to be affected by how much she is missed.

The case of the 3 women found in America this week must give hope that this can still be possible.

There’s a huge community of bloggers who are uniting today to keep Madeleine in everyone’s minds and prayers. On Madeleine’s 10th birthday, we are trying to do everything possible to refresh people to keep their eyes open and spread the word that Madeleine is still missing.

There is so much we can do:

• Put the campaign posters up – in the backs of cars, in shops, in workplaces
• Use the bookmarks – if you lose bookmarks as often as I do, it might just be the time that the right person picks it up.
• Use luggage tags – We must keep people in every country looking for her
• Keep talking about Madeleine – tell our children, be on the lookout
• Keep RTing, forwarding information on, share FB posts to keep her in the news
• Keep up to date with news about Madeleine and the campaign – I follow the Official Find Madeleine Campaign on Facebook which is updated regularly by her family.
• Keep saying your prayers – whoever you pray to, whatever faith you are – it can’t do any harm but can do so much good.

This time it is a delicious orange curd – when I came to make the Cake-a-long bake I discovered I didn’t have any orange curd in so undeterred made my own. Delicious! And so easy in the microwave. All the way through, I was convinced I’d mess it up, my eggs would curdle and it would taste awful – but NO – IT WAS A HUGE SUCCESS! We are now eating Homemade Orange Curd with everything – the kids might draw the line at Orange Curd Tuna Pasta however.

I’ve never heard of a Torta Columbina before – I have googled and found Tarta Columbiana which sounds very similar. This cake was the brainwave of Euan Greig who blogs over at Signor Biscotti, a lovely blog that will have your mouth watering. Euan’s version of the cake looks so much better than mine and you can find the recipe here. I’m going to try to interview Euan in time for the next round up in 2 weeks to find out more.

The cake itself was not too complicated – I did seem to end up with far too much egg white mixture for the topping though and had to crack it to make sure it was cooking. I personally would have liked a stronger orange flavour but I’m sure this is just me. I loved the addition of the almond flavouring too – it really added an interesting aftertaste. I’ve spotted Millie dipping into the cake over and over again which is a sure thumbs up!

So there is the Cake-a-long for this fortnight. I will do a round up on Monday 20th May (the linky will be open until approx 8PM on Mon 20th May) and the new Cake-a-long will start on Tuesday 21st May. It is never too late to start joining in with the Cake-a-long. If you would like to suggest a cake for us to make, please feel free.

Our next bake will be the Giant Lemon Fondant Fancy on page 231 – Eek! Be brave with that fondant!

Another one of these recipes is the now infamous Costello Chutney. This was the first attempt I made at making chutney and it was fabulous. I now make it every Christmas for gifts and at least one other time during the year.

A spicy, chunky chutney with a real kick. Perfect with cheeses and hams (and even prawn crackers – try it!)

I am working with Sainsbury’s to promote their ‘By Sainsbury’s’ range as part of their Kitchen Heroes campaign. You have the opportunity to enter one of your signature recipes or family heirlooms – The winning recipe entered into my blog competition will receive a £50 voucher. The winner will then be put to a public vote on the Sainsbury’s Facebook page – imagine over 610,000 people making your recipe!?!

To enter, you simply have to do the following:

• Post your recipe online – a Blog Post, on Flickr, On the Casa Costello FB page, on Pinterest anywhere will do.
• You then either leave a blog comment on this post with the URL of your recipe
• Tweet @CasaCostello and @sainsburysPR the link also using the #KitchenHeroes hashtag.

The competition will run until Midnight on Tuesday 14th May 2013.

And so back to the chutney …

So go on, get telling me about your ‘Signature Dishes’ its well worth your while. I will pass on all your entries to Sainsbury’s who make the decision as to the winner. As soon as I know, I will post an entry announcing the winner. Best of Luck!

Disclosure: I have received a £50 as part of my work with the Sainsbury’s Food Blogger Network to recreate my signature dish using Sainsbury’s ingredients – all items are available at time of printing from most Sainsbury’s stores. I cannot find my picture of the chutney so am using a really exciting red pepper for a couple of days!

Last Sunday we were having a family getogether as we do every year around the time of our Dad’s anniversary and Mum’s birthday. As usual, I had been mad busy during the run up to the day. I had every intention of producing a masterpiece but thought it would end up being a Mr Kipling/Costco special.

On Sunday morning though, 4 of us did the Swimathon raising money for Marie Curie. Amazing how a swim can leave you feeling energised and utterly needing cake!

I came home and thought Swiss Roll like you do. A quick nosy round at old cookbooks and I came up with a recipe of my own. I was wanting to go for HUGE while we were expecting 13 of us.

I’ve not done a Cake of the Week post for ages – Feel free to join in if you’ve been producing masterpieces recently. I’ll do a round up at the end of next week if we get entries.

Well, the syrup arrived and smells divine so I have set out experimenting with recipes. I’m big into making homemade gifts and saw several pics of meringue kisses in lovely gift bags and sellophane. I’ve never even tried to colour meringue before never mind flavouring it but will give anything a go. Fair to say, my first attempt was a complete disaster. Underterred, but a little short on time, I decided to have another go and actually follow the rules of meringue this time – and they worked!!

I only gave the meringue kisses a mild taste of violet as I wasn’t sure how much of the syrup, the beaten egg white could tolerate. I reckon if I did it again, I could get away with slightly more violet syrup.

Just to prove that disasters happen but perseverance pays off, here’s a pic of the first attempt at meringue kisses – hmmm look delicious?

And here’s what I was hoping to achieve …

I think I managed to have my own version of a Pinstrosity and a Pin-n-tell.
I’m also entering my attempts at Violet Meringue Kisses into this month’s PinAddict’s Challenge.

To put the photo in context, here is another pic of Tara having a ‘moment’ just before the bunny got launched. The joys of holidaying with a 2 year old.

I’m joining in again with the mighty Mammasaurus Blog who hosts ‘Saturday Caption Day’. Pop on over to see the other entries this week if you can.

Click here for more entries into the Month of Soup collection – Feel free to add any good soup recipes that you recommend

Anyone else found themselves really struggling towards the end of term for school dinner ideas? That last week of term holds such excitement at the thought of not coming up with new combinations of lunches every day.

I am determined that this last term of the school year will be different though. I’m armed with sparkly new packed lunch boxes (that don’t have ‘that’ smell) and I’m turning to the net for support.

I have been receiving emails from Supersavvyme for ages now but always thought it was a site for promoting products – little did I know that they were brilliant for kid’s packed lunch ideas too. I’ve a feeling I’ll be on there a LOT!

I’m sure my kids are not unusual in that they are not fans of too exotic flavours but want something a little bit different. I have found combinations of every day ingredients that I would never have thought of putting together but just seem to work.

Our Top 5 Tips for Successful Lunchtimes are:

• Freeze a bottle of water/juice/smoothie/squeezy yoghurt – Kids love anything frozen and the novelty of having something that is still refreshing at lunchtime doesn’t seem to wear off.
• Lots of little different flavours and foods rather than a huge portion of one or two things. No matter how interesting the sandwiches are, my kids will not eat more than 2. I am the Queen of mini plastic boxes.
• Raw vegetables chopped into different shapes seem to con the kids into thinking they are having something different – Cucumbers chopped into star shapes, peppers into miniscule thin slices.
• Have a selection of long life ready packed food to hand – Everyone has days when they sleep in until 8.30am right? Prepacked cheese straws, pepperami sticks, Mini packs of crackers all last ages and save a life if you are running super late.
• I tell my girls in which order to eat things – Let them know the things that MUST be eaten before they move onto their crisps/favourite food. I’ve packed Vi off with just a few blueberries today as part of getting her to try new foods. She knows that if she eats them she can happily move onto her strawberries.

Isn’t it a minefield? Massive sense of satisfaction when a near empty lunchbox arrives home at the end of the day though – I say ‘near empty’ because I would worry I’d not fed them enough if it was totally empty! We are lucky at our school that we are allowed a certain freedom over what we include in our children’s lunches – I try to make sure they are healthy and low sugar but do include crisps. A bit of a worry that most packed lunches are considered to have only 1% of daily recommended nutritional value – I particularly like seeing exactly what my children eat and find them an excellent way of getting them to experiment with new foods.