There are literally thousands of food blogs on the internet ranging from collections of recipes to world class chefs attempting to educate the masses on food.  Recently, we came across the food blog of a young lady out of Australia that was a pleasant surprise compared to many we have seen in the past.  Today we take a brief look at the blog known as Go Bake Yourself.

Fresh Perspective on Food

When one first heads over to gobakeyourself.wordpress.com, one may expect that the writer of the blog is an overly pretentious foodie who is out to “educate” us about food.  The reality is that the blog owner is well rounded 17-year old high school senior who happens to be a great baker and lover of great desserts and sweets.

The perspective given in this blog isn’t from someone how has spent years in culinary school, decades in a kitchen, or someone who has nothing better to do with their life than to cook.  Instead it is one of a young lady who is just getting started on life, who has a passion for food, and is clearly an up and coming talent. The result is a fresh perspective that is fun, entertaining, and one that keeps people coming back.

Extensive Recipe Index

Have you ever went to a food blog, saw a recipe you liked, and then went back months later to try and find it again?  What happened?  That’s right, you had to sift through months and months of posts to find your dish.  You won’t have that problem at Go Bake Yourself because Choc Chip Uru has created an extensive recipe index that saves you from having to hunt for your favorite dessert.

Her index is broken down into sections for drinks, breakfast dishes, desserts, brownies, and much more.  This list is a fantastic index of the dishes she has made in the past and one that you definitely should put in your favorites list.

Great Healthy Alternatives

Food blogs are excellent ways of learning about how to create new dishes, but many either fail to give you solid healthy alternatives or they give you alternatives that lack sufficient flavor for anyone to enjoy but strict health nuts.

Choc Chip Uru has put together a fantastic list of dishes on her site and among them are great alternatives for people looking to not only cut back calories, but also those looking to live an all-around healthy lifestyle without sacrificing taste.

One post that caught my eye was her article about the wonders of Coconut Oil in seven simple ways,  from your favorite desert that helps in burning fat, up to an easy-to-make home remedy. Healthy options are no good if one cannot stand the taste of them and Choc Chip Uru clearly gets that with her blog. Bon appétit!

“The Cook Who Knew Nothing is a food blog born out of a food photographer’s desire to learn to cook for herself, and cook really well. Tanya Zouev is a professional food and people photographer from Sydney Australia who has over 20 years experience and is a self-declared obsessive of all things culinary. The blog contains wheat-free recipes mostly written by Tanya which have been tested thoroughly to ensure success in the kitchen and her mission is to encourage those who can’t cook to do so and to have fun doing it.

The site explores unusual flavours as well as traditional ones with beautiful food photography to accompany the recipes and articles. The emphasis in the food photography is on sustainability and recycling and the greater majority of the props used are secondhand and found objects, often pulled out of the trash. Her aim is to create beauty out of waste and bring environmental issues to the reader’s attention.

New stories and recipes are posted every week, usually tying in with special events and holidays such as Valentine’s Day and Christmas. Written in an entertaining and engaging manner, Tanya endeavours to engage the reader’s senses to whet their appetite and create a passion and enthusiasm for food and drink. Be sure to check in weekly at www.thecookwhoknewnothing.com.

It’s true that when you go camping with your kids, you need to double your effort, time, and most of all, your patience in packing, planning, and preparing for the trip.
Yes, camping with kids seems a little more tiring and stressful than the usual camping trips when it was just you and your spouse. Aside from the thorough preparation, consideration of the kids’ needs take top priority, leaving little or no room for you and spouse’s.
Although the drawbacks may sound bad, as a parent you know that the rewards are priceless. The precious time that you are able to spend with your kids at the trip—playing, exploring nature, and doing camping activities are simply rewarding.
Because you love these little creatures so much, you don’t mind putting that extra effort to your camping trips because you know it won’t be memorable without them anyway.
But just to help you get by before they drive you crazy and you want to pull your hair out, here are some helpful tips for camping with kids:
1.Get the kids involved with the planning and preparation. Ask for their suggestions and ideas regarding camping activities and places to visit. For example, do they want to go hiking or fishing or both? Allow them to pack their own things while supervising them along the way.
All these things would make them see that you value their opinions and that you treat them as mature responsible adults. They are likely to act so because they would want to prove to you that they are.
1. Try backyard camping if it’s your kids’ first camping trip so they know what to expect and they won’t get homesick.
2. Elicit their help in setting up the campsite. Teach them how to pitch their own tents and ask them to help Mom with the cooking. No, they don’t need to chop and slice or boil water over the stove. They should only be involved with kid-friendly chores.
3. Teach them how to use camping equipment like compass and rain gear.
4. Do some campfire singing and story-telling.
5. Show them the wonders of nature by taking them into an environmental tour through a day hike. During the educational tour of acquainting them with the flora and fauna and the creatures that reside in the forest, be sure to incorporate valuable lessons on respect for nature.
6. Don’t forget to teach them how to keep themselves safe at the camp. No playing with fire and no swimming in the lake alone are just some of the many rules they have to be familiar about.
7. Create games out of camping chores to make them more fun and interesting. For example, engage them in a race for the fastest clean-up.
8. Do some bird watching.
9. Apply insect repellent and sunscreen on your kids.
10. Flashlights and glow sticks are nice companions during the night when your kids’ anxiety grows as night time falls.
11. Do some star-gazing.
12.Don’t forget to bring the very important first aid kit for small accidents or mishaps.
13. Have some night snacks. Not inside the tent of course. Before you go to sleep, a few chats and chips will surely be a great finale to a great day.
14. Bring toys that will make the camping even more fun. For instance, a kiddie magnifying glass will make exploring of insects even more interesting.
15.Make sure you capture these priceless moments by bringing a camera and ample film and batteries.
Family camping trips are a fun way to spend quality time with your children. Although it takes double the effort, just seeing the delight on their faces or hearing their squeals of laughter all make the trip worthwhile.
For more tips and information about tents, check out

Root ginger is one of the world’s most cultivated spices and although popularly used in cooking and food, gingerbread, ginger ale, ginger beer and even ginger tea, historically it has long been known for its strong medicinal value. 

Zingiber officinale, is ginger’s botanical name, which means “shaped like a thorn”. The strange looking ginger root is called a rhizome.

Root ginger belongs to the family Zingiberaceae along with many other plants including tumeric, another common spice used in curries. 

In ancient India, the name for ginger was translated as “universal medicine”.  Root ginger has been studied for thousands of years in Asia for its medicinal properties. Ginger is known to help digestive problems, relieve colds, reduce fevers, treat nausea, improve circulation, help rheumatism and menstrual problems.

So next time you are cooking and want to spice up your food with an interesting ingredient, consider ginger. Or when you are munching on gingerbread, gulping down ginger beer or ginger ale, realise what can ginger cure?

Ginger can even fight parasites in raw fish, thats why it is served with sushi!  1200 years ago, Chinese sailors used ginger to fight off scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency – long before more modern day sailors discovered the use of limes to fight scurvy.

Have a go at brewing your own beer & wine at home.  All you have to do is type in “Home brew” and up come a whole host of online suppliers of home brewing kit.  Add your local city and then maybe more local suppliers will come up. You can also try EBay, plenty of suppliers will ship the stuff to you at reasonable costs.  Once you have the starting kit then its just a case of getting the ingredients sent to you.My biggest problem is having to be patient and wait for the fermentation and conditioning to take place.  But believe me it is better to wait out the recommended 4-5 weeks, depending on what you are brewing, because some of the stuff can still taste pretty raw if you rush it.

I tried brewing beer and started with a proper plastic fermentation bucket that has a tightly sealing lid and a vent that allows gas out, but not in.  First and most important is to sterilize everything properly because you can easily contaminate your brew if you dont have clean equipment.  Then I boiled some water, mixed it together with the raw ingredients or wort as it is called, added water and finally sprinkled the yeast on top of the malty smelling mix.

Before sealing the bucket you take a reading with a hydrometer, so that later you can check the alcohol content of your brew.  I waited a week for the fermentation process to be complete.  Then I transferred the beer to a finishing cask, I added a little sugar to give the beer some gas or head and left it alone for 4 weeks.

Home brewing is a fun way of experimenting and trying to come up with your favourite beer.  There are loads of different home brew mixes that you can get online.

Meantime brewery is a relatively small brewery based in Greenwich, London.  Founded in 2000 by Alastair Hook a Brew Master, passionate about creating new beers, with interesting flavors, brewed with care and a long time to maturation.  Meantime first won a medal at the World Beer Cup in 2004, and since then it is the only British brewery to win medals every year at the World Beer Cup.

In 2007 and 2008, Meantime had four of its beers ranked in the “World’s 50 Best Beers” by the International Beer Challenge – no small feat!  Have you tried a Meantime brew?  Next time you are in Greenwich, London go on a Meantime Brewery tour or have a meal at their pub “The Greenwich Union”

The British Guild of Beer Writers named Alastair the “Brewer of the Year” for 2008.  Passion, vision and innovation were the qualities that earned Alastair this title and have continued to grow the Meantime brand.

Meantime Beer in Champagne Bottles

One of their novel ideas was to bottle their beer in champagne bottles, creating attention towards their brand.  In spring 2010 Meantime brewery will open a new brewery and restaurant in a building called the “Old Brewery” at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. The Old Brewery dates back to 1717, brewing beer alongside the Thames river for pensioners of the Royal Naval Hospital.  Meantime have restored a Grade II listed building to its former heritage.

Well worth a visit if you are ever in London, or at least try one of their ales that are found in many of London’s pubs.