The mother of all roast dinners, the Christmas dinner is less than a fortnight away. We are heading to my parents for ours this year, she has offered, who wouldn’t say yes? I’ve cooked Christmas dinner a few times now and I make a mean Sunday roast, so when Oven Pride asked me to put a celebrity chef’s roast dinner recipe through its paces I jumped at the chance to shake up my “usual” Sunday roast choices.
(Disclaimer: Recipe book and voucher supplied towards the cost of ingredients).

We have a Sunday roast dinner a couple of times of month. Like many families in 2014 we don’t have Sunday roast every week religiously, like tonight for example we had lasagne. I’m not alone with nearly three quarters (72 per cent) of British parents like me, who could look forward to a weekly Sunday roast at home when they were young, fewer than a third (29 per cent) of families are now eating it on a weekly basis.

I was asked to cook Gordon Ramsay’s roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and red wine gravy. Typically we are more of a chicken, pork or lamb roast dinner so a definite step away from the usual. I served it with roast potatoes, glazed carrots and broccoli. There were a lot of ingredients – just getting everything out to begin took my clean, clear and tidy kitchen to one with full worktops! I managed to stay on top of cleaning up along the way but there’s no tidying up as you go along when it comes to the final 45 minutes when everything has to be pulled together and served up.

Here’s what the four hours of Sunday lunch in the making looks like condensed down to 2 minutes in this time lapse video:

The finished result – it tasted as good as it looked too, if I say so myself!

The food was delicious, the kitchen a mess and the oven was dirty to start with so now was in even more of a need of cleaning. I have to confess to being an outsourcer when it comes to oven cleaning, however at £50 a go I can always find a better way to spend £50, oddly enough! Given I can buy 10 bottles of Prosecco for the cost of an oven clean I will most certainly be putting the bottle of Oven Pride to use before Christmas, or the oven will be smoking my Christmas guests out of the heart of my home whilst I heat up the party snacks!

This Christmas Oven Pride is encouraging everyone across the UK not to let their oven put them off cooking a full Christmas dinner with all of the trimmings. Whether the oven needs a clean before having friends and family to come and stay, or the festive fare leaves it in need of a scrub – Oven Pride’s quick and easy system is here to make cleaning your oven less of a nightmare this Christmas.

Are you cooking Christmas dinner this Christmas? Is the Sunday roast tradition alive and well in your home? Did you like the video? Share your thoughts with me on a comment, I love hearing from you …

Claire x

Thanks very much to Debenhams for sending me a Teksta T-Rex to review. It is on Lil H’s Christmas wish list and I’ll be honest, it was a toy I was not overly convinced about, so to have the chance to test it out and leave the £60 it costs in my bank account was a chance I jumped at.

Mr L and I loaded the T-Rex up with the necessary 4 AA batteries, making a mental note to refresh the battery stocks ahead of the big day. We turned him on and got set to with putting him through his paces and seeing what this piece of plastic tech can do. I didn’t get much chance to have a go as my tech addicted hubby started challenging the dino to respond to voice, light, sound and hand gestures.

The T-Rex walks, wiggles his hands and tail. He roars and snaps his jaws just like a real T-Rex Dinosaur and when he’s hungry you have to feed him with his dino bone to see his ultimate trick, watch him crunch, munch and launch it away, followed by an almighty burp! It can do over 100 different physical and app-based activities so combined with a tablet or smart phone it has hours of entertainment ahead. The T-Rex is more solid and sturdy than I was expecting, I’m not sure I would be as pleased if I had paid full retail price but if you can pick one up on a deal or in the sale you’d be getting a good toy. It’s a pet that doesn’t poop, it gets my thumbs up!

The challenge of being a blogger and a parent with children who have tablets connected to my iTunes and You Tube account means I’ve been unable to create any photos or content of my own as my little ones are avid viewers of this. The smalls haven’t quite reached my blog URL, yet, however please be assured that Mr L and I have spent an evening in with this T-Rex and he’s now been reset, put back in his box and is wrapped up ready to surprise and delight Lil H on Christmas day!

There is no doubt Winter is most certainly here, the nights are long and dark and the weather is cold and too often wet.

It’s the time of year I become a total home bird, there’s no nicer feeling than arriving home, getting my comfy loungewear on, grabbing some warm, wholesome comfort food and just being at home with my family. It’s all good except my home interior is all “just making do for now”. Our major renovations are still on track for 2015, finances permitting, but that makes my dream interiors just that, dreams.

So, I have put together a Pinterest board with cosy looks for the home reflecting the 2015 interior trends to keep homes looking good, on trend and stay warm and cosy over the winter. 

Follow Cheshire Mum’s board 2015 Interior Inspiration For Cosy Homes on Pinterest.


As you will see there is a big grey theme going on I’m all about the colour grey – light, dark, bluey – grey is definitely the hottest neutral these days. Magnolia who?

This post is created as an entry in the Duette Blinds competition as there is not a window in Villa Lancaster that isn’t letting out the heat and leaking in the cold – brrr! New blinds for me please!

I don’t know about you but I find Mr L one of the hardest people to find the perfect Christmas gifts for. I focus so much of time and money in the children’s presents gifts between ourselves are singular, we have “not bothered” in previous years but that feels pretty rubbish on Christmas day. So don’t struggle with gifts for him, here are some suggestions to leave for your guy under the tree this Christmas.

1. For music lovers or those who prefer the TV on louder than others! Bluetooth Wireless Headphones £44.75

2. Keep him looking and feeling his best with RE9 Advanced for Men:
Exfoliating Wash £25.00
Shave Gel £19.00
Post-Shave Balm £25.00
Facial Moisturiser SPF 20 £34.00
RE9 Advanced for Men set £89.00
I have recently become an independent Arbonne consultant. If you would like to know how to know more about the RE9 products or how to purchase at a discount then please contact me by email or on twitter @Cheshire_Claire

3. A book like no other from the man reinventing Star Wars - S. by JJ ABrams £20.40

4. The budding mixologist - Bar10erTen-in-One Bartending Cocktail Tool £35.21

5. Clockwise – Spikes and Sparrow Leather Wallet £42.75,  be spoilt for choice for mens pocket candy at walletking.co.uk
Bluetooth Tracking Device £22.49
MADE BY DAD awesome blueprints for making cool stuff £12.95
Slippers reinvented for the modern day, Mahabis £49.00

6. A family favourite in this house & a modern day essential for parties a Bluetooth Wireless Selfie Stick  £12.99

7. A weekend / travel bag from Cabin 1 will mean your Mr is ready for your next mini break £29.99

8. Playful and sporty gents btbgrooming.co.uk from £6.95

9. So much more than a pen it also comes with an inbuilt flat-head, a Phillips Screwdriver, a ruler, and a spirit level! Tech-Tool Pen £8.39

10. Make Bluetooth Speaker System £34.99

Last but by no means least, in fact it might just be my favourite, HUBSAN Q4 NANO QUADCOPTER an adorably tiny, lightweight helicopter for just £29.95

Do these ideas help you? What are you getting the man in your life this Christmas? Let me know your thoughts on a comment below!

I love it when the knock on the door is a flower delivery and quite frankly it doesn’t happen as often as I’d like! So when Appleyard Flowers asked if I’d like to receive a delivery of their latest Christmas flowers I didn’t hesitate, although it did take me a while to choose from all their beautiful bouquets.

I was torn between the Hot Toddy as I’m a big fan of grand prix roses …

Or the simplicity of white roses with hypericum berries and gold cinerea eucalyptus in the Gold Leaf boutique.

But it was the colour ways of the roses nestled between glossy red berries and blue veronica of the Rose Envy bouquet that swung it for me.

The knock on the door delivered a tall grey box, inside the blooms looked just like the photo on their website. How exciting, although I reserved judgement as too often have I started to unwrap a bouquet to have one or more heads snapped off in transit and left behind. No such disappointments here, the bouquet was further wrapped in bubble wrap and the stems keep the blooms fully watered.

I’ve throughly enjoyed these flowers for two weeks now here’s them at their best.

If you’d like to treat yourself or a loved one to a beautiful bouquet head to www.appleyardflowers.com and use the discount code below to get 40% off their entire range (excluding flowers by post).

Use Discount Code:  BLOG40