Cooking

I’ve certainly been cooking a lot more from scratch during lockdown.  The extra time available to me has meant that I’ve had more time to experiment.  I’ve tried some new things from existing recipe books and I’ve looked online for specific recipes, but I’m in need of some inspiration.  A new cookbook is a great way to get that inspiration.  I love reading cookbooks especially when they have lots of illustrations so I can more clearly imagine the dish and dream about what it will taste like.

A Zest For Life is the new cookbook from Dairy Diary.  At a time when we are very conscious about our health, what we eat is very important. The fresh and tasty food in this brand-new cookbook will put a real spring in your step. It’s packed full of colourful, energising recipes, made with ingredients that taste great and also help you to feel great!  More than just five-a-day; cooking from this book could give you at least seven of your daily veg and fruit, plus plenty of wholegrains and healthy protein. With superfoods galore and meals that keep you full for longer, this collection of delicious, nutritious recipes is one that you’ll turn to time and again.

There is a plethora of useful tips, serving suggestions and nutritional information, as well as a glorious photograph for every recipe. There’s even space to add your own notes.
And this superb book is beautiful too, so it’ll take pride of place in your kitchen.

To add a little Zest to your life, get your copy of this fabulous cookbook at www.dairydiary.co.uk or, if you have a milkman, put a note out asking for it.

Many of you will be aware of the Dairy Diary.  Culinary enthusiasts look forward to the new edition each year as it’s packed full of cooking ideas.  You’ll love the recipes because they will be delicious, will always work (each one is triple-tested) and they use easily accessible ingredients, so there’s no need to visit countless shops for obscure foods. The 2021 edition is no exception, with the photography team raving about the recipes as ‘the best yet’!

Of course, Dairy Diary is not just a recipe book; it’s a super-practical diary that’s ideal for planning your busy life. It has a week-to-view layout, clever spiral binding so that it lies flat and has lots of useful features, such as a notes pocket, planners and memorable dates stickers. Diaries preserve special memories forever and, in our technology-dominated world, writing with a real pen on real paper is a pure pleasure.

Begin documenting your memories now with Dairy Diary. Buy online at www.dairydiary.co.uk or, if you have a milkman, put a note out asking for it.

I have a copy of each to give away to one lucky reader.  Enter via the Gleam widget below.

Competition Terms and Conditions

1. No bulk, third-party or automated entries allowed.

2. Entrants must be aged 18 years or older and resident in the UK.

3. The winner or winners will be chosen by a random draw using the competition widget.

4. Promoter is responsible for fulfilling the prize and full contact details of the winner will be passed onto the promoter to enable prize fulfillment.

5. The winner’s name may be published on this site.

6. Competition closes at the end of Sunday 23rd August 2020. 

Diary Diary and Cookbook

We cook quite a lot of meat here.  I often cook a Sunday roast for the family and sometimes we have a roast chicken in the week.  It can be tricky to know whether meat is cooked or not and I usually have to guess or start probing away with my hand held thermometer.  The problem with checking with a standard meat thermometer is that you have to get the joint out of the oven.  It can be heavy and of course when you open the door some of the heat escapes.  Wouldn’t it be great if you could know if something was cooked without getting it out and poking holes in it with a meat thermometer to be sure.

So I loved the idea of  Apption Labs’ MEATER+  the world’s first truly wireless smart meat thermometer, designed to help you cook meat to your exact liking each and every time.  I love the idea of avoiding over or under cooked meat and getting the cooking times right first time, every time.  I was very pleased to be sent one to try out.

The MEATER+ is a wireless meat thermometer that lets you monitor how your meat is doing in the oven from an app on your phone, so there’s no opening the door to let out the heat or lifting of heavy joints in and out of the oven to check on progress. It works just like normal meat thermometers, except it communicates with your phone via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or the Cloud, depending on your setup. Just use the app to see the temperature of the meat and that of the oven while it carries on roasting or grilling.

The bamboo case also acts as the charging station. There’s a place to hold the thermometer when not in use and a small LED light that indicates the battery life. If the light comes on, that means battery power is strong enough to charge the probe. It runs on an included AAA battery. Apparently you can recharge this battery up to 100 times without changing the battery.  The silver and black meat thermometer is about the size of a standard biro. There’s a line etched on the thermometer so you know how far to insert it into the meat. You do need to make a bigger hole in the meat than if you are using a normal meat thermometer, but the difference is you aren’t making multiple holes.

To make the MEATER+ run you need to do is download the free app to your phone, and follow the prompts to pair the two via Bluetooth. You can get the app from either the AppStore or Google Play.  I downloaded the IOS version with no problems. The app makes it very easy for you as you select the type of meat you want cooked and it automatically knows what temperature that type of meat needs to be to be cooked properly.  As well as the obvious beef, pork, lamb and poultry, there’s also a fish option.  You can choose how you want your meat cooked (medium, well done, etc.) and you can set up alerts to advise you how the cooking is going.

Unlike most temperature probes, which just read the internal temperature of whatever you poke them into, the MEATER+ measures both the internal and environmental temperatures. You shove the pointy end into the meat, but that black tip isn’t just a handle is also a thermometer and it measures the ambient temperature around your joint of meat.  Tracking the ambient temperature is part of the algorithm that tells you exactly how long you must wait until you can eat. The MEATER+ includes it in its calculations of rest time and residual cooking time.  The 50m range means you can be elsewhere in the house and be able to check on progress without going to the kitchen.

If you’d like the chance to win one for yourself, enter via the Gleam widget below.

Competition Terms and Conditions

1. No bulk, third-party or automated entries.

2. Entrants must be aged 18 years or older and resident in the UK.

3. The winner or winners will be chosen by a random draw.

4. Promoter is responsible for fulfilling the prize and full contact details of the winner will be passed onto the promoter to enable prize fulfillment.

5. The winner’s name may be published on this site.

6. Competition closes on 11th August 2019.
MEATER+