Birds Eye Rice Fusions

I am starting to become quite popular in the office. Every few weeks, somebody sends me something to try and more often than not, the fruits are shared amongst the office floor. This time around, a big box of Birdseye Rice Fusions arrived, a selection of four different flavours of microwaveable rice.

Being stuck in an office, any cheap and quick lunch options are always well received, so with a 3 and a half minute required in the microwave, we started to plow through each flavour one by one.

My personal favourite was the Country mushroom flavour, creamy and nice enough, although it needed a serious pinch of salt and pepper to liven it up. Each individual pouch was pretty small but would form a good side dish to a nice bit of protein. I liked it enough that I would definitely consider buying it. But mainly because I am incredibly lazy.

Sausages from Barbecoa

A few weeks ago, I was one of a group of bloggers who were sent a few sausages couriered straight over from Barbecoa HQ. Comprising of a variety of flavours, each blogger was given 6 different flavours to try and to enjoy over the Bank holiday weekend.

The varieties I received included names as intriguing and peculiar as "Fire of London" and "Scarborough Fayre", immediately instigating conversation amongst my desk buddies. As I was heading out that evening, I handed them out to my colleagues to enjoy and get their feedback.

On the whole, the feedback was very positive. The meat was unsurprisingly considered excellent quality although probably a little too meaty and firm. I guess a little extra fat wouldn't have gone astray to keep them moist. There was high praise for the jerk although the Scarborough Fayre being slightly on the overly herbal side (being packed with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme).

The sausages were accompanied by a flyer to the Big Feastival, which looks pretty ace. I am pretty sure that there will be some sausages there.

Small Adventures in Cooking by James Ramsden

It looks like 2011 is the year of the blogger. Well, when it comes to cook books anyway. As we head into the 6th month of the year, we have seen a slew of bloggers get book deals, and we are just beginning to see them drip into the market.

Rambo (or James if you prefer) is someone I have known for a while, and has a good pedigree in the kitchen. A regular on the "foodie" circuit and fresh from a stint at Ballymalloe, he has spent his years making a career out of food writing, and even started up his own supper club (known as the Secret Larder) to keep his culinary skills sharp culminating in Rambo gettting included by Quadrille under their "New voices in food", to write his own cook book comprising of some of his recipes.

I was lucky enough to be sent a copy by Quadrille, and packed in between those covers are a multitude of homely recipes. Rambo may be my friend, but it's an impressive array of recipes and well worth a look. Get a copy while you can!