National Breakfast Week

Win a fantastic selection of Kellogg’s cereal and a family set of limited edition cereal bowls, and some runner up prizes of limited edition cereal bowls.

It is widely accepted that breakfast is the most important meal of the day but amazingly one in five adults, and one in six children skip breakfast regularly.

In fact, research shows that a shocking £656 million is spent each year by British chidlren on a sweet shop breakfast of crisps and chocolates on their way to school because they leave the house hungry. 

That’s why Kellogg’s, during this year’s National Breakfast Week (6^th -12^th September), is challenging everyone in the UK to start the day with breakfast. It doesn’t have to be cereal, it could be eggs on toast or a croissant or whatever else takes your fancy first thing in the morning. The important thing is that you have yours.

If having breakfast at home is a bit difficult for your family, see if you have a local breakfast club by clicking here (http://www.kelloggs.co.uk/whatson/breakfastclub). Since 1998, Kellogg’s has worked with learning charity ContinYou to develop over 450 school breakfast clubs serving an extra 1,000,000 breakfast every year.

To get you ready for National Breakfast Week, we are giving you the opportunity to win a terrific selection of Kellogg’s cereals and bowls in a lovely hamper.  To be in with a chance of winning just email me the answers to these simple questions.....

Which of the following is correct?

1. Special A
2. Special K
3. Special J

How many Rice Krispies on Average can be found in a Rice Krispie Bar?

    A. 348

    B. 287

    C. 299

Just email me your answers to  andy@andyskitchen.co.uk

The competition ends at 18.00 on 13/9/10 and all winners will be picked at ranom.

Some interesting facts about breakfast…

• Tony the Tiger disappeared from Frosties packs in the 1950s and was replaced by a kangaroo called Katy
• In 1957 Kellogg's gave-away plastic toy atomic submarines. The toy was even tested at the Royal Navy's submarine base - HMS Dolphin
• Corn Flakes disappeared from British shops in 1943 due to war restrictions on the import of corn
• Kellogg's is an official supplier of breakfast cereals to HM Queen Elizabeth II
• The first inserts in Kellogg's packets appeared in 1949. First to hit consumers were picture cards of famous British sportsmen
• Jonathan Ross starred in a Rice Krispies ad in 1970
• There are 239 groups on Facebook dedicated to Rice Krispies
• Special K started life as a high protein health cereal – originally aimed at men
• There is on average 299 Rice Krispies in a Kellogg’s Rice Kripies bar
• Kellogg employee Mildred Day concocted the Rice Krispies Square snack as a treat for a camp fire girls fundraiser in the early 1930s
• In 1984, the singer Tori Amos beat (a then unknown) Sarah Jessica Parker to front the Kelloggs ‘Just Right’ advertising campaign
• The Beatles featured on the back of Kellogg’s cereals boxes in 1963 – you could win the chance to see the band play live in a tent in Manchester
• Kellogg’s Corn Flakes was the only cereal to be eaten aboard Apollo 11, the first lunar landing.
• Thanks to Rice Krispies, Kellogg’s is the second biggest importer of rice into the UK – only Ambrosia imports more.
• If laid end to end, the packs of Kellogg’s cereal eaten since 1906 would stretch to the moon and back 160 times.

Many thanks to Chris who sent us this great recipe for Spicy Mexican Sun Dried Tomato Meatballs.

Chris and Rosie run a successful company in Lincoln selling Chilli products, and can be found at the Central Market Hall on Sincil Street in Lincoln.

Please check out the Volcano Chilli Website

500 gr lean beef mince

1 finely diced red onion

2 finely diced jalapeno chillies

3 minced sun dried tomato

2 or 3 diced tomatillo

4 cloves garlic finely minced

6 minced papalo leaves

medium egg to bind

sea salt

Ordinary tomato can be substituted for tomatillo but obviously the taste of the tomatillo is superb
Vietnamese or Indian Coriander can be used instead of Papalo, but if using Indian Coriander, then add a few leaves of basil.

Mix all the ingredients together and bind with egg. Form into descent sized balls (About 8 or ten) and place into a tray and bake in a medium oven at 150c for 30 minutes. The fat in the meat will be enough to cook the meatballs.

Serve with potato or rice. I used a side of Raspberry and Chipotle sauce which worked perfectly with the meatballs.

GET YOUR HANDS ON THE PIZZA THAT’S GUARANTEED TO BE A WINNER!


Are you as obsessed with The X Factor as the rest of the nation? Do your ‘Saturday nights out’, turn into ‘Saturday nights in’ between August and December? Have your days been dull since last year’s show ended?



If so, you’re going to love the guys at Chicago Town TAKEAWAY for bringing you the official The X Factor pizza!



This winning pizza will be in supermarket freezers from August - just in time for you to stock up, ready for this year’s show to hit your screens – and is guaranteed to tickle your tastebuds just as much as the show’s contestants tantalise your TV!



Made with Chicago Town TAKEAWAY’s famous fresh dough that rises in the oven and its delicious BBQ-stuffed crust, it’s topped with Ham, Sausage, Onion, Mozzarella, Red Cheddar and X-tra large Pepperoni – well, what did you expect? This is the only pizza with The X Factor!



You’d be forgiven for thinking nothing could make this better. But that’s where you’re wrong!



They’re also going to give you the opportunity to share your pizza with one of last year’s contestants. Yep, you heard right!



If the pizza alone wasn’t enough to get you excited, Chicago Town will be running a competition on its facebook page www.facebook.com/chicagotown giving you the chance to win an intimate personal appearance from Danyl Johnson.



The super-hot singer will make his way to your very own living room and serenade you and your mates ‘til your heart’s content! And when he’s done with the singing, you can chat over the free pizza, nibbles and drinks the lovely people at Chicago Town will be throwing in too!



And it doesn’t stop there. The Chicago Town TAKEAWAY The X Factor pizza will also be running an on-pack promotion giving you the chance to win tickets to the live shows, plus The X Factor merchandise and Chicago Town Pizza Packs!



They sure know how to spoil you, don’t they?



First they gave you the Footie Feast - perfect to snack on while watching the World Cup - and now this… the only pizza with The X Factor!



Chicago Town TAKEAWAY – it’s the pizza that just keeps on giving.



Chicago Town TAKEAWAY The X Factor pizza will be in most supermarkets with RRP of £3.49.

There is a new healthier cereal about to be released this month (August 2010) in shops across the UK, and we at Andys Kitchen were lucky enough to be sent a sample box from Kelloggs for review.

It has taken Kelloggs 2 years to get Choc 'N' Roll right, but what makes this cereal so different from other cereal out there, well here a few things that you can expect to find in Choc 'N' Roll:

• High in fibre
• Made with wholegrain
• A source of 6 B Vitamins
• A source of Iron
• A source of vitamin D
• A source of calcium (even without the milk)
• Low in fat
• Low in saturated fat
• Less sugar than leading children's cereals including Coco Shreddies, Nesquick & Sugar Puffs
• Less salt than leading children's cereals including Cheerios & Shreddies
• Less fat than leading children's cereals including Weetos, Cheerios and the new weetabix Choc
• A lower price than all other branded children's cereals

But what is it about the cereal that the kids are gonna enjoy and get them wanting to eat there breakfast well..

• Chocolate.....always a plus.
• This cereal has been tested and approved by children, it has taken over 100 recipes and 2 years to get right.
• A fun shaped cereal.

Here are a few more facts and some interesting points about the new cereal:

" Kellogg’s Choc N’ Roll cereal will be on supermarket shelves in August, with a suggested price of £1.89 per three hundred and fifty gram packet (Coco Pops Original price £2.20).

The balance of nutrients in Kellogg’s Choc N’ Roll means the cereal passes the Food Standards Agency’s nutrient profile and Kellogg confirmed an existing product in the Coco Pops range would also pass the FSA’s nutrient profile following further renovation in mid 2011.

The announcement is consistent with Kellogg Company’s continuous journey to improve the nutrition profile of its products, both current and new, without compromising taste.

By mid-2011, Kellogg will remove fifteen per cent percent of sugar in all its Kellogg’s Coco Pops cereals, effectively reducing sugar content to one and a half teaspoons per serving and removing almost seven hundred and fifty tonnes of sugar from the nation’s diet annually.

The sugar will be replaced with starch from grains and glucose syrup; no artificial sweeteners will be used as a result and calories will be maintained at around one hundred and sixteen calories per serving.

The move by Kellogg hopes to help busy busy parents keep an eye on their childrens’ sugar intake by providing them with a balanced start to the day.

A portion of Coco Pops cereal will now provide around 10 per cent of a child’s Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) of sugar.

At the same time, a portion of any Coco Pops cereal will provide 10 percent of the recommended daily amount of vitamin D, which British children do not get enough of despite the fact it is essential for bone health.

This planned sugar reduction applies to all four Kellogg’s Coco Pops cereals sold in the UK. Coco Pops Moons & Stars will re-launch in early 2011. Renovated Coco Pops original, Coco Pops Mega Munchers and Coco Pops Rocks will launch by the middle of next year."    source The Food & Drink Innovation Network.

But most importantly what did we think of them...well they were lovely and were soon eaten and thoroughly enjoyed, they are a great way to get some important fibre into your (and our kids) bodies, with the added benefit of having more of the good stuff and less of the bad stuff.

So please look out for this great new cereal in all leading shops and supermarkets, and let us know your thoughts

Why dont you visit the Kelloggs Choc'N'Roll website to find out more.

All of us at Andys Kitchen are very pleased to have Bel posting some great Guest reviews for us, and here is the first of hopefully many, with a great review of the Criterion Restaurant in Central London.

 August is upon us, London is heaving with groups of painfully loud Spaniards and irritatingly slow camera clicking folk from the Orient. The City is on hibernate mode, all motorways and A Roads are crawling at a pace that even a snail would laugh at and of course, the Tube is stiflingly hot.
The Criterion, however, is rather busy. A restaurant with a long and sometimes slightly chequered past is overcoming all the doom and gloom of recession and is fast becoming THE restaurant to go in Central London.

Slap bang in the heart of Town Criterion is famous for being the place that Stamford took Dr Watson to in order to introduce him to the great, if slightly crazy Sherlock Holmes on Arthur Conan-Doyle's famous book. It was a restaurant then, and still is. Now independently owned with a newly (and extremely carefully) cleaned gold mosaic ceiling, some oversized chairs and decent lighting it still oozes grandeur and sophistication.

I had been looking forward to my lunch there for a while and had been instructed that I ought to try a signature dish or two. Greeted with a chilled glass of fiercely bubbling Champagne we got comfortable in the afore mentioned oversized chairs and began to discuss the reason for our lunch - London Restaurant Festival which, I might add, is going to be epic!

The bread was subtly placed on the table with some very homemade looking butter, I was of course aware that Chef Matthew Foxon is known not only for the wondrous food that come out of his kitchen, but for the time, effort and creativity that goes into it all. The butter had, of course, been churned on site and the bread (that smelled divine) baked on site as well. I, rather reluctantly abstained from the bread an butter because, being the greedy little so and so that i am I had ordered a starter that contained scallops and truffles and a main that included a fillet steak and Fois Gras - all this for a Wednesday Lunch!!!

My starter of pan fried scallops, pea and truffle puree, pancetta, pea cress was just heavenly. The truffle in the pea puree was so finely balanced that all flavours could be distinguished, and the scallop - perfectly cooked was divided in two by a fantastically crispy bit of pancetta.

The main course, although I really really didn't need it on a weekday lunchtime, was heaven. Look at the picture above, it really did look like that! I must say, for all my expensive tastes, I usually prefer a Sirloin Steak,but this fillet was beautiful, gorgeous and pink and tender and and and...... The Pont Neuf Chips in their little basket were some of the best tasting chips I've had in a long time, and because of the basket, they didn't go soggy in the jus!

We tried several desserts... All miniature versions of the normal menu. And I can't fault them.

All in all, the service was fantastic, the food was divine and the place itself; really something that has to be seen to be believed (in a good way!!). Here comes the cliche, this restaurant really is, I believe, rising from the ashes and is set to be great, very great indeed.
Keep an eye out for the Criterion as you walk through Piccadilly and during the London Restaurant Festival.

It is at this point that i must come clean - I have just started working there. But, for those of you that don't know me, I am utterly terrible at marketing and thus writing imaginative copy, so what i have written is all true! Friends will back me up in that one... Cross my heart.

So once again Bel thanks for a great review, when Im next in the City I think I will search the Criterion out, also please check out Bel's great Blog which can be found here

The 29th May was then the hottest day of the year, and this was the day that myself and a colleague (dave) from work had come to the Shires Cookery School, for a morning cookery course, the course in question was the World Cup Curry Challenge, so oh boy this was gonna be a hot one.

The 3 hour course was set out to show us how to cook a chicken tikka masala, onion bhajis  and pilau rice all from scratch.

Our chef for the morning was the wonderfully enthusiastic Richard Curtis, who " trained at Westminster College in London, then mastered his trade by working in the West End of London at various hotels and restaurants. After a  move to the East Midlands he was appointed Head Chef and Executive Chef for differing hotels in and around the area", Richard was an absolute star who was very thorough and made it really easy to follow all the different steps.

We were greeted by Wendy & Richard on arrival and after introductions we were offered refreshments which on a warm day like today these were well recieved, once everyone had arrived we set about the cooking.

We were asked to gather around the top table where Richard showed us a couple of steps, and answered any questions that we had, and we then went back to our stations and completed the steps that we had just been shown, help was always at hand if anyone had any problems, I really cant emphasise how much fun we had, the group were great and very entertaining and once the gas was on, the whole room filled with the lovely smell of indian spices.

We all created some lovely dishes, and were all given the option of eating our produce there and then or we could take some food containers and fill them up and take home our offerings for our friends and families to sample.

I would like to thank Wendy for organising a fantastic morning, and Richard for being a great teacher.

I will be posting the recipes on my recipe section shortly with all the tips that we were given, and if you enjoy cooking and would like to further your cooking skills, or you are a complete novice then please check out the Shires Cookery School website  and I look forward to visiting another class shortly.

all images are courtesy of the shires cookery school

I recently purchased some lovely Duck Eggs from our local farm shop Smiths , and I had to make a sponge as due to their high protein content, duck eggs make cakes rise high and stay that way, while their high fat content gives baked goods a richer taste and colour.

I had also brought some Banana and Apple Jam from Humbers Homemade  and decided that this sponge would be a great way off showing off this lovely produce.

Now the way that I cook my sponge cakes could not be easier, all you need to do is weigh the eggs still in there shells, and whatever the weight, you measure the same amount of butter,caster sugar and self raising flour, it really could not be simpler.

So the ingredients are as follows:

Duck Eggs

Self Raising Flour

Caster Sugar

Softened Butter

1 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

10fl oz double cream

3 table spoons icing sugar (or just add to taste)

1 Jar of Banana & Apple Jam (or a jam of your choice)

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 350ºF/180ºC (140º for fan oven) or Gas Mark 4
• Cream your butter and sugar together until light and creamy.
• Break in 1 egg at a time, and whisk until all eggs have been added.
• Sift in the flour and baking powder.
•  Add 1 tsp of the vanilla extract and whisk together until mixture is smooth.
• Pour into a nice deep baking tin, and cook for roughly 40 minutes, please check after 35 mins, it should be nice and springy and a lovely golden colour.
• Once cooked take out the oven and cool, remove from the tin and cut into half and sandwich with the jam.
• Now add the cream to a mixing bowl and add the icing sugar and 1tsp of vanill extract and whisk until the cream has stiffened to the soft peak stage. You can add the sugar a little bit at a time if you wish to avoid a cloud of icing sugar taking over your kitchen.
• Spoon the cream over the top of your cake, sit bake and admire, and enjoy.

Sometimes everyday life takes over writing blogs, and what with holidays,family bereavements, and other things you just done seem to have the time.

Coming shortly I have some lovely summer recipes and new restaurant reviews so watch this space, we are also looking for recipe book reviewers and guest bloggers so please contact me if you are interested.