Brew Barrel Review

We’re getting all the niceties ready for Christmas and I’m sure you are, but if you’re stumped about what to get your Mr, then how about a Brew Barrel? If you’re guy has never tried to brew his own, or is put off at just how difficult it sounds, then fear not. Brew Barrel is super simple and takes just two weeks to provide you with enough beer/lager for him to ring in the New Year.

Andy loves making his own beer. He’s tried to make it traditionally with hops, malt and a huge container (including a floating thermometer) to the Cheesemaker bag so when I mentioned Brew Barrel his ears pricked up and he wandered over in my direction to spy the website I had open. We were offered to trial a personally styled Brew Barrel, so went through the list of goodies they have listed. You choose the beer style, then the hops and finally the flavour. We chose, Lager: Mild: Honey: Cascade.

It arrived within a few days by courier (result) and we set about pulling the kit apart and arranging everything ready to start boiling water needed, syphoning off cold water from Virgin Pure (they say you can use tap water but bottled water might be better. Virgin Pure is filtered so thought we’d give that a go). Andy added all the water needed, added the hops and the flavour. We were then told to turn it upside down for 30 seconds and leave it to rest for a few days. After then we had to rest it in the fridge for 5 days. Only then could you remove the air from the barrel by pushing the little red valve on top, then proceeded to pour out a pint.

It was a little fiddly to pour the pint out as the handle at the front wouldn’t pull out correctly, and although we removed the air the pint still poured out with such a force Andy ended up with a pint of head initially. Once it settled down we had a lovely pint of almost clear lager. Now I don’t normally drink but I just had to try it as it was our first personalised concoction. It was gorgeous. The overwhelming taste was honey, followed by a flowers. It was so nice I drank the whole pint. It’s like a very light lager that you can drink at any time. There wasn’t any “iron” taste which usually hits the back of my throat when I’ve tried lager for reviews, this was very creamy and totally delicious. It was so incredibly easy to follow too I can see me buying Andy another one for Christmas as even I could do it. Not complicated at all.

It’s a lovely little size too and fits in the fridge quite easily and comfortably, we left it on the side in the kitchen at first, then Andy put it into his beer fridge and drains a pint out for lunch pretty much every day since.

€29.00 for the basic kit, and a few extra euros to buy extras to make your barrel truly unique. Worth it? I should say so, we loved making it and Andy loves drinking it. Top notch!

Brew Barrel Review

Oh Baby London Great Sale now on

Xmas is nearly upon us and a lot of parents and other family members always get kids new clothes to wear for xmas day or for presents. Normally I find it hard to find anything really decent and cheap but this year ohbabylondon has come in handy as at the moment they have a massive sale on. No small discounts either, you can find items massively reduced. Some items which originally were £32 are now £5, and £48 down to £10 – I think you get my drift. The clothes are extremely well made as well and sizing is good most of the clothes go up to age 8-9yrs and if you don’t like buying on line you can also go to the store in Brick Lane, London as they have a great choice in the store as well.

If you are looking for the perfect xmas outfit this year then make sure you visit them. I promise you won’t be disappointed and your kids will love the clothes as they are so stylish and different they will be the envy of their friends.

Get those lovely treats for the little people in your life. Lots of bargains to be had.

Oh Baby London Great Sale now on

I"m finally Back

Eeek I’ve realised it’s been a while since I did a blog post but I’ve been so busy with things lately I’ve barely had time to sit down. I’ve decided I’m going to start making some time for myself even if it is just an hour a day to start with. For the past couple of months I have been a bit depressed as had a lot going on healthwise with depression and my weight problems BUT I have decided to do something about it.

I’ve been trying to sort stuff out with Lauren with her health problems and school things. She is in a PRU (pupil referral unit) but she is in it for behavioural problems. She has been there since January and let’s say since being there even though it is the wrong place for her we have finally got answers, some which we have been fighting to get acknowledge for a long time too. They have found out that Lauren has a severe learning disability, she has with a mental age of 4-5yrs (she’s 9). She still can’t read or write but I’m sure one day she shall get there and achieve the same academic levels of her peers. At the moment we are in the process of trying to get her statemented again and her school she is in now is 90% certain she will get it and finally get admitted to the correct school for her that will help her and she will stay there till she leaves school at 18.

So as you can see we have been going through quite a bit with Lauren. It’s been a constant stream of form filling, meetings and other things so I haven’t had time to write any blog posts but I’m sure you all don’t mind as Jacqui does such a good job on posts she keeps you all going.

Right, as I said I will be doing a blog post about my weight and what I have done about it so I shall have a post up tomorrow for you all to read Hopefully it gives some of you some inspiration if you need to lose weight.

Take care

I"m finally Back

Christmas 2015 with Hotel Chocolat

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without chocolates and as usual Hotel Chocolat have come up trumps with the amount of Christmas themed choccie goodies for us to buy our loved ones.

I chose a few little gifts this year rather than a larger box so there will be something for everyone saving the regular “I don’t like truffles, and I don’t like cremes” conversation that you will no doubt have sometime Christmas Day when Auntie April passes round the box for everyone to choose from.

Hotel Chocolat have quite an extensive Christmas Collection so let’s take a look at a couple in more depth to whet your appetite:

The Elf’s Stocking:

A super cute little stocking filled with white vanilla bells, caramel trees and milk chocolate santas. Priced at just £10 it’s perfect for little ones in your family or for secret santas where you have a maximum of £10 to spend. Stocking is made of cotton and includes a little hook for you to hang up over your fireplace for when Santa pops in.

The Christmas Chorus:

A glorious gift bag with 4 taster selections. Coconut Snowballs, a Christmas Duo of Nutmeg Praline and Christmas Mess; Milk Dizzy Praline and Santa’s Slab. The coconut snowballs are my absolute favourite being a small truffle filled with creamy coconut liqueur. Much like a cross between a bounty bar and a spoonful of condensed milk. Just £12, it’s a lovely little selection and perfect for one (if you don’t want to share).

The Mint Box:

Mints are my thing. Never a week goes by without me asking Andy for a box of After Eights or other chocolate covered mints, and so this I thought might be the answer to my prayers. £10 a box and described as being a “journey through mint”, sadly I think I missed the bus. They were not a peppermint flavour but were more akin to a wild mint that you pick for a Sunday roast. I think it’s the only time that I’ve felt a little disappointed and sadly this box let me down. The chocolates themselves look stunning, as does the majority of the Hotel Chocolat selection but the flavour was such a let down in this box. Saying that though, if you do like a very lightly flavoured wild mint flavour, then these will be perfect.

If you’re looking for some chocs to splash out on rather than buying the regular stock that you see piled 10 high in local supermarkets then Hotel Chocolat is the place to go online.

Jacqui

Christmas 2015 with Hotel Chocolat

Competition Time

Fancy winning a gorgeous box from our friends of MicroBarBox?  Then visit the competition page now and get your entries in!

Good Luck xx

Competition Time

It"s Cocktail Time with MicroBarBox

Cocktails!! One of my favourite things (I don’t drink a lot of alcohol but do adore a little tipple now and then). Cocktails are fabulous when you don’t want a regular drink and are feeling a little daring. We have another subscription box to share with you that makes that job a little easier. It’s also unique enough to make someone feel very special at Christmas when they open up the first of their gift box subscription.

Microbarbox supply both one off boxes and subscriptions with their Monthly Tasting Box to allow you to explore your exotic side. The box which we received had already tempted my tastebuds with the taster shown online so when it turned up I couldn’t wait to break into it. Sadly it was only Saturday morning so I couldn’t blag it enough to get Andy to make the cocktails at 10am in the morning. However come 6pm in the evening we were more than ready to grab the bottles and nibbles for a fun night. We lined up all the bottles, grabbed the card that explained what we were to expect and got mixing.

Our box contained:

Funkin Mixer Mojito x 120g

Bacardi White Rum x 50 ml

Cawston Press Cloudy Apple Sparkling Apple Soft Juice Drink x 330 ml

Coole Swan Irish Cream Liqueur x 50 ml

Feigling Apple Pie Liqueur x 20 ml

La Perle by Paul Sapin Merlot Pay d’Oc x 187 ml

Raisthorpe Wild Vodka Toffee/Caramel Liqueur x 5 cl

Cambrook Sesame Peanuts x 45g

and Schwermer Zombie Liqueur Chocolates x 50g

Unlike the previous cocktail box I tried, this had a couple of drinks that I had not partaken before, so I was quite excited to find out what a “Toffee Apple” or a “Toffeetini” was and to be honest, they were both simply stunning. I’ve never tried Coole Swan Irish Cream Liqueur however it’s a much lighter version of Baileys which tends to hit me like a brick with the alcohol volume. But mixing that with Raisthorpe Wild Vodka resulted in a Toffeetini (and which Andy didn’t get to try as I drank the lot). This one will be my drink of choice for Christmas too, so will be purchasing a larger bottle of those two for sure.

Snacks were also pretty tasty with the peanuts (which are very, very similar to a Japanese snack of Karinto Crackers) and liqueur chocolate bar (this was pretty strong, and not a good idea to nibble at 10am when you get the box).

Each box is £24 + £3.50 p&p with themed boxes ranging from £29-£35. If you’re interested we have an exclusive code for readers of Us Two Friends to get you a huge £12 off your first Monthly Tasting Club Box just by adding “USTWO” in the discount code box and wait to be spoilt for choice.

However, if you don’t want to take up the deal just yet, I won’t spoil it for anyone else and go into what the rest of the box makes as we have a fabulous giveaway for you to receive your own MicroBarBox on our competitions page (ends 30th November 2015) and you can then find out for yourself.

Jacqui

It"s Cocktail Time with MicroBarBox

Uzuma Juices

When it comes to a few weeks before Christmas, TV and magazines are usually flooded with “Party Diets” and great big grand schemes on how to lose that vital stone in time for Tinsel and Turkey but do any of these diets ever work? Are they healthy? How expensive are they?

In the last month I’ve had the pleasure of trialling Uzuma. Uzuma is a system of cold pressed juices and the initial reviews I read were quite promising so I was quite intrigued to try it for myself.

One of the major advantages of Uzuma juice is that they are preserved through HPP (High Pressure Processing). Many juices are pasteurised as manufacturing it this way the pasteurisation stops deterioration of flavour and nutrients, so on paper it sounds like a first class alternative diet.

When they arrived they were still frozen so I had to take a portion of them out for the very next day to defrost ready. First thing I noticed was the colours of the juice – they looked pretty amazing, but whether or not if would taste as good as it looked I wouldn’t know until the next day. The individual bottles are named, so depending on what program you are following: Slim, Steady, Fit or Detox, you will have a mixture of bottles to arrange for your daily allowance. You can download the app to follow the plan, which rings an alarm every 2 hours so you don’t forget to drink it. Over the 3 days I used the juice, this got a little annoying as it felt like all I did all day was drink to the clock, so perhaps just giving the user an idea of what to drink would be best rather than a timetable.

Anyhow, the next day the juices I was to use that day were defrosted and still cold, so I started to use them. They were ok, some were nicer than others. The green juices were a little less enjoyable than the orange and red ones (mainly because the base of the green coloured ones were filled with kale, and I have a distinct dislike of kale at the best of times). The juices that contained carrot were beautifully sweet and the dark red contained beetroot which although was quite earthy were still quite palatable.

You have to drink one of these juices every 2 hours. I thought this was a little much when you’re also asked to drink vast quantities of water as well. The first day I constantly felt full but not fulfilled. To me, it was far too much liquid. Yes the drinks do have quite a bit of fibre in them but by the end of the day I struggled to find the enthusiasm to drink the very last drop.

That night I slept amazingly well. I haven’t had a night sleep like it for years. I slept all the way through so once I woke up I felt quite rested. Next morning I woke up after 10am so I had already missed 2 of my allocated juices, so drank them those and the one allocated for that hour in the same hour. Bad move. I got the most horrendous stomach ache, with numerous trips to the toilet shortly after. So there’s one hurdle to overcome. Move the alarm to a later time if possible. What I didn’t expect to happen though was over the next few hours to feel euphoria. I felt really well. Aches I had in my back had subsided (and that was just after 1 and a half days worth). So I had massive hopes for the next day when I finally made it to bed.

Shortly after going to bed, I became very, very cold. My bones ached, I was shivering all over and felt quite unwell but I managed to get to sleep somehow. Next morning though was a whole different kettle of fish. I sat lifeless on the sofa, not wanting to eat, drink or even watch TV. It felt as if I had the flu. I couldn’t move without my body aching, I felt sick, dizzy and thoroughly horrible. I couldn’t stomach any drinks at all that day, so just went to bed and slept.

Next morning I felt the same, and the very next day, and this went on for nearly 2 weeks. Somehow I think the juices were pulling all the toxins out of me after 2 days, but it was so bad that I never managed to make day 3. I have never felt so ill before and although weight loss by the end of the 2 weeks was immense it wasn’t through drinking the juices (unless it’s supposed to bring out illnesses to kick start your metabolism or not) but as much as I loved the taste of them, I don’t think I would do it again. I loved how I felt on the morning of day 2 but by the end of it I was a wreck.

Whether or not I had a reaction I don’t know but some of the feedback I’ve read does suggest that sometimes it can be a little delicate on some stomachs – looks like I might be one of those, however if you have tried juice diets before and have had some fabulous results (again, I’ve heard some amazing things about losing weight just drinking juice) then why not have a go. For 3 days worth of Uzuma it’s around £52 and for that you get 21 bottles of really fresh juice, frozen from store to door which you just have to defrost. Simple and easy with no worries about shopping or delivery fees.

Have you ever tried juice diets? What’s your opinion of them?

Uzuma Juices