Quick Lemon Meringue Pie

Have been wanting some lemon meringue pie and found this easy recipe which is yummy. I did cheat and used a ready made case.

Ingredients
1⁄2 x 375g packet sweet pastry
For the filling:
397g can condensed milk
2 medium egg yolks
Finely zested rind and juice of 2 lemons
For the meringue:
2 egg whites
125g caster sugar
24cm (91⁄2in) round enamel pie plate

Method
Set the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7 and place a baking sheet in the oven to heat up.
Roll the pastry out and line the pie plate. Prick the base and pinch the edges to pattern them. Chill for 10-15 minutes.
To make the filling: Mix together the condensed milk, egg yolks, lemon rind and juice. Pour the mixture into the pastry case.
To make the meringue: Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gradually whisk in the sugar. Spoon the meringue on top of the pie, either leaving it just in the centre or covering the top of the pie completely.
Place the pie on the hot baking sheet and turn the oven temperature down to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the meringue has turned a light golden colour and the pastry is cooked.

Petplan Toy Test

Petplan has provided me with these toys as part of their Pet Toy Test review programme. Visit the Petplan UK Facebook page for more information and a chance to win the winning toy!

Tyre 

 This comes in a handy carry bag and easily fits together.  There are two uprights which have a spike in the ground enabling it to stand up, the spikes are a decent length so are quite sturdy.  There are four connectors which the frame sits in, these can also be used as jump cups if you didn't want to have the tyre jump in place.  The corrugated piping then just velcros onto the frame.  

It is a great piece of kit, it can't go very high as the top of the frame is only about waist high, but if you just want to have a go at agility then it is ideal or if you have a competing 'small' dog (ie under 35cm) then it is also fine.  

The frame sits into the jump cups so can't be dislodged however when using the equipment as a jump you can rest the poles on the jump cups enabling them to be easily knocked for safety.








Weaves


These come in a set of 12 (6 orange & 6 blue), they have a long spike on the bottom to enable you to put them in the ground.  The poles themselves are probably about half the width of regular competition weave poles.  They also come with a handy measuring tape which has standard KC competition widths marked on it, this is brilliant as it helps you keep the weaves straight and evenly spaced when putting them in the ground.  You then just take the measuring tape out to use.

All sounds great, however the major flaw which I find with these is the colour of them, I think they need to be white.  My dogs are experienced competition agility dogs and compete at grade 6 (out of 7 grades) and struggled with them.  I am not sure whether it could be due to them being thinner than normal or whether it is due to the colour, I personally think it's colour.  My sheltie seemed to skip the orange ones when they were at the end of the set.  So my solution was to put some white PVC piping over the poles and then then completed them fine every time.  The spikes were long enough to keep the weaves quite sturdy however there were a couple that ended up a little bent.  


I found it useful as you can change the weaves into a V formation or a channel which is great for teaching new dogs to weave and there are full instructions on how to do these on the case for them.  
Tunnel

The tunnel comes flat packed but easily folds back flat as it just collapses and is held closed with velcro.  There are 2 points either end of the rigid tunnel which allow you to peg into place.  There is then an attachment which allows you to attach a floppy chute to the main tunnel, this just attaches around the rigid part as it is elasticated and has veclro attachments.  


However there aren't any points at the end of this 'floppy' section to peg into the ground, therefore it moves around a lot, I ran my sheltie through and she almost got stuck.  I therefore didn't use it further as I felt this could be dangerous especially with a bigger, more powerful dog, I wouldn't run my collie through as he could have broken his neck.  I therefore just used as a rigid tunnel which is quite short, if the 'floppy' section had some peg points at the end it would be perfectly fine.

All in all these are fantastic for anyone wanting to teach their dogs a bit of fun agility, there could be some amends made to the equipment which would make it a lot better.  I would also use some myself for competition practice, I just would add some piping over the weaves and wouldn't use the floppy material attachment to the tunnel.  Therefore my favourite out of the three would be the tyre.  I also reviewed on video - below.

Dolphins!

When we were out on the boat in Spain we came across a pod of dolphins, they were amazing, words cannot describe how awesome an experience this was. They were right at the front of the boat, jumping and playing with us. Towards the end they were doing back flips and flicking their tails on the water. It was totally magic, we caught most of it on video:

Coffee Cake

I made a lovely coffe cake, have been looking for a decent recipe for a while and this is one!  I love lots of buttercream and this has it.  I didn't use coffee essence, I used espresso which I made up with 1 tablespoon of coffee and 6 tablespoons of boiling water which I left to cool.  I also set the temperature to 170degrees as we have a fan oven and left it in for 20minutes.

Ingredients

·         250g butter or margarine

·         200g caster sugar

·         60g golden syrup

·         4 large eggs

·         250g self-raising flour

·         1 level tsp baking powder

·         3 tbs coffee essence

For the filling and decoration:

·         200g unsalted butter, at room temperature

·         400g icing sugar

·         2-3 tbs coffee essence

·         tsp cocoa powder, for dusting

·         2 x 20cm (8in)sandwich tins, buttered and base-lined

Method

1.    Set the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5. Putthe butter, sugar, syrup and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Sift in the flour andbaking powder, and add the coffee essence. Whisk together for 1-2 mins untilthe mixture is smooth, light and fluffy.

2.    Divide the mixture between the two tinsand spread evenly. Bake in the centre of the oven for 25-30 mins, untilwell-risen and firm to the touch. Turn the cakes out on to a wire rack to cool.

3.    To make the filling: Beat the butter, icing sugar, coffee and 2 tbswater together until smooth, light and fluffy. Place one of the cakes on a flatserving plate and spread with half the buttercream. Place the second cake ontop and spread with the rest of the buttercream, swirling the top. Dust withcocoa powder. Slice to serve. Store in an airtight container. It will keep acouple of days.

Wakeboarding

Neither of us had wakeboarded before. We had water skii'd which Mark had done well at but Gina had struggled with so this time Gina was determined to do well!

Attempt One
We had watched some YouTube tutorials on how to get up and practiced our position at the house so had an idea of what we needed to do.Mark tried first and struggled to get up & get the board out of the water, Gina also had the same problem. Giving it another go and Mark managed to get up for a while but said it didn't feel right. Gina also managed to get up but not for long as just couldn't get balanced.

Upon going back to the house and doing some research we realised we didn't have a wakeboard and it was actually a kite surfing board. So off to Decathlon we went and came home with a 2011 Jobe Crypt Wakeboard!

Attempt Two
Armed with our proper wakeboard (on comparing the two there is quite a difference) we were ready for action.Mark went first and managed to get up quickly and stayed up for a while, he mastered how to turn quickly and felt a lot more stable on the real deal!Gina next and she got straight up, on her last go she also mastered turning back and forth across the wake of the boat.The only trouble is it absolutely kills your arms and lower back so we couldn't have many goes before we were dying lol! Next time we need to work on our position and technique!





Attempt Three
Three days later we went out again having done some watching on YouTube on how to turn best we were ready to put it all into practice.
Gina went first and started to feel more comfortable and controlled with turning, finding that with altering her position it didn't feel so uncomfortable and painful!  Gina was trying to keep the board in line with the boat and move from side to side which some videos suggested.
On the other hand Mark was practicing changing direction by turning the nose of the board into the direction he wanted to go which other videos suggested to do, this resulted in sharper and quicker turns.
Unfortunately the sea got a little too rough so we only managed to squeeze in a couple of attempts otherwise we might have been explaining how we started to learn jumps!  Now we're back home and eager to get back to try again!!

Here's our video with our first attempt on the proper wakeboard, followed by our third day's attempts and then the view from the wakeboard!

Amazing Tapas

Alaska is a fab little Tapas bar in Torre del Mar. We originally found it on trip advisor, it has since moved locations to Avda. Andalucía 94, Torre del mar.
We have been countless times over the last 2-3 years and love it. You do have to get there at about 7.30-8 otherwise you struggle for a table - every time we have been it gets packed at about 8.30-9ish
A tapas and a drink costs €1.50. I have a Tito de Verano which is a longer drink so is therefore €2.

When I say tapas they aren't like a normal tapas, portion sizes are big.
We had the fried withing which was about 5 decent sized pieces of fried white fish always freshly cooked. Next I had the marinated porkmeat which was two skewers full of pork and chips, the pork is always very tender and the marinade is yummy! Mark had shrimps pilpil (prawns in a garlic oil) which are always very tasty. Then it was time for fried prawns which have a lovely light batter and some alioli (garlic mayonnaise). Mark could manage a 4th and had the 'Alaska' special which was chips, a fried quail egg and a small chorizo.

Wakeboarding practice

Mark had a go in the sea last summer but didn't manage to get up on it so this time we decided to watch some video tutorials and have a go in the swimming pool!


Gina's attempt:


Mark's attempt:

We do some stupid things!!!