Do you love your kitchen cupboard?

Advantages: Cheap, simple recipes
Disadvantages: Some ingredients may be hard to find

...If you don't have the time or culinary skills to follow in the footsteps of celebrity chefs but won't be satisfied with ready meals that take just a few minutes in the microwave, Tom Norrington-Davies' 'Cupboard Love' could be the ideal cookbook for you. The idea is to establish an up-to-date version of an old-fashioned larder in your kitchen. This may entail an initial outlay to build up a well-stocked cupboard, but once you have the basic ingredients you can produce a variety of home-made dishes with the addition of fresh produce in a short time and without too much fuss. It does of course mean that you are in control of the ingredients and can use olive oil or butter rather than hydrogenated fat, and pure sugar as opposed to dextrose or corn syrup. The cover features bottles, jars and tins, some as familiar as Heinz Tomato...

denella 24.12.2006 · Read review
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Review of Cupboard Love - Tom Norrington-Davies

Cubboard

Advantages: cute story
Disadvantages: not for all

...Lucy Daniels is without a doubt one of my favourite childhood authors. She writes a series known as Animal Ark - a collection of animal stories based on the life of a little girl named Mandy Hope. Her parents are vets and she is animal crazy. I too was crazy for animals at a young age and loved these! One of the titles in the series is Cup in the cupboard. The cover of the book is important as it is the first thing we see. Thankfully the cover for this one is not too bad! There is a beautiful wooden effect for the background, with the most adorable little fox cub sitting on the front. He is so cute and looks really fuzzy. He melted my heart and made me want to read straight away! The story is about Mandy and James, and when they find an injured fox. While the fox is being seen to, it leaves her cub abandoned so they need to find...

Amy69 18.08.2009 · Read review
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Review of Cub in the Cupboard - Lucy Daniels

One Determined Man!

Advantages: Interesting and true stories
Disadvantages: None

...The Boy in the Cupboard is a book which I just picked up by chance walking through the supermarket as I had nearly finished the one which I was reading. I did not know much about the book as I had not read the back cover but it was a true story so I thought it may be good. The book is written by Shane Dunphy who lives in Ireland and works in the child welfare profession. He tells the story of 3 boys in the book all 3 of which made the greatest impact on his life whilst he was working. The first boy is Craig, or Litovoi which is his real name. His parents moved to Ireland from aboard as the father was in some kind of trouble. Litovoi's parents changed his name to try to help him to fir in. Shane first met him when Litovoi was at crèche as he would just sit in the corner without talking to anyone or playing with the other children...

sewbizzie 10.01.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Boy in the Cupboard - Shane Dunphy

My cupboard staple!

Advantages: Saves you getting smelly hands.
Disadvantages: Still gives you smelly breath!

...I decided to start reviewing some of my cupboard staples, and I apologise in advance there are quite a few! The first one I will start with is one I am never without, used in almost everything I cook, the product I will now review is "Gia, tomato and garlic puree". The packaging is simply yet effective, the outer box is a long rectangular box with the picture of tomatoes' and garlic against a red background. Inside this is a soft metal tube featuring the same picture as the outside box. This is topped off with a white plastic screw cap, under which is a foil sealed top, this can be opened by simply turning the screw lid over and piercing the foil with the spike inside the lid. Once pierced the thick red puree is very easy to squeeze from the tube and the smell leaves you in no doubt as to what it contains. This product is very...

sarahbarrow 26.08.2008 · Read review
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Review of Gia Tomato and Garlic Puree

My flexible store cupboard friend

Advantages: -
Disadvantages: -

...Passata is one of those wonderful products to keep in the back of your cupboard until you feel creative, and then make some lovely food . Passata is essentially just sieved tomato . Unlike your tinned tomatoes, you won't find any chunks in this - its a thickish smooth tomato sauce, on it's own pretty bland, but you can make all manner of things with it - it can replace tinned tomato in any dish, or with the addition of some spices, some worcestershire sauce and a generous slug of vodka, can make a very passable bloody mary . The packaging is pretty simple - a foil lines tetra pack complete with lift and snip flaps at the end to make it convenient for pouring, its decorated rather stylishly in red and black, with a lovely picture of some fat and juicy tomatos on the front. For a 500g pack, it costs 42 pence . It tastes, surprisingly...

Thehonesttruth 11.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Asda Smooth Passata Sauce

The Second of Five Books in THE INDIAN IN THE CUPBOARD Trilogy

Advantages: A really inventive tale; teaches history (of sorts) in a fun non-judgemental way.
Disadvantages: You want to know what will happen next to the people.

... The Second of Five Books in "The Indian in the Cupboard Trilogy" FIVE BOOKS? . . . IN A TRILOGY? . . . Doesn't "Tri-" mean "Three"? There seem to be quite a few books I've been reading lately which started out fairly simply as a single volume, developed into a "trilogy" and then became much more . . . well . . . I've just finished reading "Mostly Harmless" which was (according to the front cover) "the fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy" . . . and Orson Scott Card's fourth "Shadow" book was a continuation of the many faceted Ender's Game "trilogy" of five (or six?) books. But I digress. "The Indian in the Cupboard" Series This is a series of stories suitable for "Middle School" and "Junior High School" children ~ aged approximately 8 to 14 yrs...

jesi 29.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Return of the Indian - Lynne Reid Banks

Ever present in my store cupboard

Advantages: Cheap, tasty, easy to store and easy to use
Disadvantages: None

...Whilst sorting out my cupboards the other day I came across a couple of tins of Tesco Value Chopped Tomatoes and realised that this is one product that it always present in my store cupboard. Now if it is something that I can?t do without I guess I?d better tell you about it! The Tesco Value range simply provides a low cost alternative to most of our basic items such as soap, fruit juice, tea, coffee, cola, cereals etc. Now there are some of these that I would not touch with a bargepole the obvious one being the cola! This is a case of the cheapest not being a good option, but when it comes to chopped tomatoes you can?t really go wrong. After all tomatoes are tomatoes whatever the label on the can says and whatever the price! Tesco Value Chopped Tomatoes currently retail at 35p for a 400g can as opposed to other brands...

SusanLesley 10.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Tesco Value Tinned Chopped Tomatoes

quick cupboard curry

Advantages: so easy even a bloke can make it
Disadvantages: fact is the blokes will probably want you to make it

...This is a recipe that my Mum has used for years and uses things that you are bound to have in the cupboard. All you need is a deep frying pan or wide saucepan and a tin opener. I have used this recipe many a time to feed my hungry lot at the end of the week when finances can be a little thin on the ground. You will need the following (I use large tins to feed 2 adults and 5 children but you may only need small tins) 2 onions 1 tin tomatoes (drained) 1 tin baked beans 1 tin oxtail soup 1 tin tomatoe soup (op) 2 tins corn beef (cut into chunks) 1 tin new potatoes (op) Curry powder to suit I start by frying the onions til softened then add the curry powder and cook off until all onions are coated, If you are added the new potatoes I would do so now so that they are coated also. Then simple empty each of the tins...

tazhull 23.02.2003 · Read review
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Review of Recipes for Main Courses

Raid the Cupboards

Advantages: cheap, tasty, strong flavour
Disadvantages: not the best quality, unhealthy

...Yesterday I wrote an opinion on Walkers Sensations crisps. They most certainly come under the category of Posh Crisps. And sometimes posh crisps are good. If you?ve got a spare £1.19 to spend and want to eat crisps while still looking sophisticated and cool at the same time. The message you?re sending out to the world is ?I have expensive tastes?. But at other times, posh crisps just don?t do it. Sometimes I don?t mind sending out the message that ?I?m a cheap student and I like cheap things?. And Space Raiders certainly send that message out loud and clear. I used to eat Space Raiders crisps when I was a child at my cousins? house. They always had a massive box of them hidden away in their cupboard, although I have no idea where they got them from. My sister and I would stay with them occasionally and we?d have ?midnight feasts...

materialgirl 19.05.2003 · Read review
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Review of Space Raiders Pickled Onion Flavour Corn and Wheat Snacks

The best Cookbook ever!

Advantages: Brilliant!
Disadvantages: Some people will want pictures of every recipe.

...I have to let all into a little secret of mine. I absolutely love cookbooks; I just can't get enough of them. I have loads, I don't follow the recipes but I get so much inspiration from reading them. I think that they are really beautiful things to look through and to own. As a Christmas, (wow, doesn't it seem like so long ago?), present to myself I got two new cookbooks; "River Café Two Easy" and "Cupboard Love". I must admit to being really disappointed with the first one as I thought I was buying a "River Cottage" cookbook, I must learn to pay more attention when I am buying things online! "Cupboard Love" however, more than made up for the disappointment of the River Café book; it is truly one of the best cookbooks I own. Cupboard Love was written by the very talented Tom Norrington-Davies. Tom has also written a cookbook called...

donnabroom 16.02.2006 (17.02.2006) · Read review
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Review of Cupboard Love - Tom Norrington-Davies