Every two years a massive Thai Festival is held in Milford, Surrey, to raise funds for the Murdita Trust, and since Thailand is one of most favourite destinations, I just had to go along this weekend.
The Murdita Trust raises funds to educate underprivileged children in Thailand, and keep them out of child prostitution.
The whole site is turned into a mini-Thai town for the weekend, with dozens for food stalls (I always go hungry!), craft stands, Thai clothes shops, music plus displays of Thai dancing and martial arts.
It is a great place to stock up on all those hard to get Thai ingredients and try some great food. We had some pork and chicken kebabs to start. Red Thai Chicken Curry for our main course (so good & hot it made my nose run and my Mum's lips go numb!) ................
and then a very non-Thai ice cream for dessert!
As I'm feeling in the Thai mood, this week's recipe email will feature some fab Thai recipes for you to try at home. Click here to sign up!
I have a stack of lovely foods to review, I have created some recipes I'm really proud of to share with you, but I haven't been blogging. Why? Well, every year at my daughter's nursery they have "Summer Club" in August, where each week has a theme. And each week has a fancy dress day. And each fancy dress day needs a costume.
I'm not particularly flush with cash (still waiting for the EuroMillions Lottery to look my way) and I do like trying to make something out of what I've got, so here's what I made this year:
Week one: Olympic Week. Yes, I admit, I didn't need to make anything for this one, just borrowed a football kit my friends daughter had grown out off. Week two was Beach Week:
And the dressing up theme was Haawaii. The skirt started out life as one of those curtain/screens you hang at the back door to stop flies getting in. A great jumble sale find by my sister. I cut it down, added snaps and velcro to make a skirt and added some flowers to the waistband.
The flower necklace was a boot sale find and the sunflower in her hair something that had been in my hair-do's box for ages. Week three was all about People Who Help Us & Superhero's.
This is Super Emma! (Her Super Power is being able to eat three times her own body weight in food everyday. Well, that's what it seems like) I dyed a bodysuit red, cut out some cotton diamonds from an old sheet for the front and back and sew on the "E" and edging in ribbon. And for her SuperHero cape.....
Yellow and black ribbons cut to length and tacked on at the neck.
Back to cooking next week!
What is the best way to test and review mixers? Obviously, you invite some friends round for a range of opinions and plenty of cocktails!
We were testing three mixers from 1870, Light Tonic Water, Lemonade and Ginger Ale, and here we all are, hard at work (note the paper and pencil on the table for note taking - we take our work very seriously!)
We started with the Light Tonic Water, which is described as "using water from our own spring, which we carbonate and blend with the finest essential oils from Brazil to create a crisp, dry and distinguished flavour refreshing enough to drink alone or mixed".
We tried it first on its own, then with gin (Bombay Sapphire). The tonic was sharp, which we liked, and made a really refreshing drink on its own. However, when we added the gin, it rather overpowered the gin, which was a shame as Bombay Sapphire is an excellent drink.
Our verdict - best drunk on its own or with an average/own brand gin
Next up was the Ginger Ale, described as "we take extracts of ginger from Jamaica, India and Africa and blend with our spring water and a subtle hint of lemon and lime creating a fresh, light and well balanced taste."
Lots of fizz on opening and a great colour - champagne coloured, with a hint of pink. I had never tried ginger ale before and it certainly smelled very ginger-y, but it wasn't very strong tasting (not as strong as ginger beer).
Our verdict: better as a mixer (especially with whisky) than as a straight drink.
Lastly, we tested the lemonade: "We start this recipe with our own spring water, which we carbonate and blend with Argentinean lemon oil and a hint of lime to create a zesty, fresh finish."
"Ohhhhh, different!" was the immediate response from one of my testers. Again, lots of fizz and it was very sweet. Excellent as a mixer with Pimms.
Our verdict: One for those with a very sweet tooth, needed more lemon and definitely more lime, as we couldn't detect that at all.
