I’m not even sure how Mr DCB and I came to be talking about fishfinger sandwiches one day, or why I even thought that the internet may better the offerings of my culinary skills and provide some kind of gourmet fishfinger sandwich recipe that I had never seen the like of before.  But in one of those moments where you give thanks to the good lord that internet exists, I rubbed my hands with glee when I came across this. The one and only definitive fishfinger sandwich recipe. We have made it many times and I guarantee there is nothing better out there.

As the author says: “Too posh for fishfingers? Leave now”. Otherwise, read on, enjoy, and get to the supermarket pronto…

“I’m making pizza and Carol’s having a fishfinger sandwich” uttered my bestest ever friend down the telephone in answer to my query over her supper repast plans.
“I’m having a fishfinger sandwich too” I replied, “but it won’t be like Carol’s”.

Ah. Sort of got myself into that one, didn’t I. Although there was no danger of Carol ever finding out that my creation wasn’t just several of the good Cap’n’s finest slapped between two slices of Hovis and a goodly smear of HP over the top, I felt morally obliged to actually create The Finest Fishfinger Sandwich Known To Mankind. So I did. I feel the secret receipt, jealously guarded for at least half an hour now, is ready to be shared with you.

Many hours of testing, tasting and refining have gone into creating this assault on the tastebuds but feel free to alter, substitute and change anything at all which doesn’t suit your preference. Why not go out and get a Chinese even and save me the bother of telling you how to make The Finest Fishfinger Sandwich Known To Mankind? But to appreciate it in all its magnificent piscene glory, it ought to remain unedited. Actually, to be honest, I kind of made it up strolling along the aisles in Sainsbury’s towards the fresh bread counter which is at the far end of the store. Had the bread been at the entrance (which it never is because they want you to follow the lovely fresh bread smell like som
e demented Hannah Barbera creation sniffing those supposedly invisible doughy wisps right to their source which is quite naturally, past everything else in the store) the resultant creation would have been much much simpler. Again I lie, I’m spinning this out to make it interesting. I got everything I needed for this in the veg section next to the door. It was the other fourteen quid I unnecessarily spent getting to the bread that I’m annoyed about.

As ever with my things, amounts are based on one man eating ALONE. Instead of at some cheap hotel in Leicester or wherever. So multiply if you have children or partners or both.
You will require:

5 fishfingers. Don’t skimp. Get the best, this is gourmet food after all. None of that minced white fish rubbish which is probably pouting or ratfish or something else outside the cod quota. Get cod. Lovely flaky cod. With lovely crispy breadcrumbs coating it. Too posh for fishfingers? Leave now.

One tiny little hot chilli. I used a Thai one. I was going to get Zimbabwean but that Robert Mugabe eh? He’s Norman Tebbit in disguise isn’t he. Boycott! I dunno, food and socio-political comment all in one. Bet you can’t do that eh, Jamie?

A spring onion.

A clove of garlic.

Black pepper (preferably Wynand which is the finest, this is gourmet remember but any old stuff will do. At a push).

A very large table spoonful of mayonnaise. Fresh of course. Straight out of the jar.

A squirt of something citrus. I used the juice of half a lemon which is a cop out I know but I had one to hand.

A demi-baguette of French origin. Not Hovis, it has to be crusty white bread in finger form.

A bottle of Fuller’s London Pride

This is how you now combine these delicate and sought after ingredients to create The Finest Fishfinger Sandwich Known To Mankind.
Before you start, turn off your mobile. Numerous text messa
ges can drastically alter preparation time. This should take no longer than 15 minutes to create rather than the 30 it took me.
Put the frying pan on and place the five fishfingers on a medium heat as per instructions on the packet. Not difficult.
Now, slice up the garlic, the spring onion (all of it except the roots) and the chilli into very small pieces. Very very small. Be aware that your eyes will hurt if you poke your fingers into them after handling chillis and you may not wish to continue with the recipe. This is a public service announcement.
Take the fishfingers off the heat and place them in a bowl. They will be partly cooked. Mash them up and add the the other things you’ve just cut up and the pepper and mix them in. Get the pan really hot again and then throw the lot in to finish cooking.
Meanwhile, rinse out the bowl and prime it with the dollop of mayonnaise. Just before you remove the fishfingers, add the lemon juice, stir again and then into the mayo with it all. Mix!

Slice your baguette in half and coat each liberally with butter. Or Golden Churn if you’re a tight wad. Spread the fishfinger mixture onto the lower half of the baguette and replace the top half. Failure to follow this procedure will result in a great deal of mess due to the effects of gravity.

That’s it. Finished. You have successfully created The Finest Fishfinger Sandwich Known To Mankind. If you’re lucky, the breadcrumbs will still be crispy too. I served mine up with thinly sliced and lightly oven roasted potatoes (or oven chips to give them their correct name) but you may care to have it unaccompanied.

Switch your mobile back on again and drink the beer.

Then look no further than Go Real – The Real Nappy Information Service! I met their marketing manager Rebecca Rapson at The Designer Baby Show in November 2009 and was really impressed with the concept of this social enterprise, run by (mainly) parents.

Bright and colourful prefold nappy at Go Real

Trying to find the right real (or natural) nappy for your baby can be a bit of a minefield, and it almost seems that as there are now so many wonderful products on the market, the choices become more complicated and the decisions tougher to make. Flat nappy (of which there are 3 main types!) or shaped nappy? All-in-one or separates? Where is the support, the reviews, the instructions? And why are we reverting en masse to natural nappies when previous generations would have been desperate to escape the tedium of endless nappy washing? The answers to all these questions as well as every question you didn’t know you wanted to ask  can be found at Go Real.

They take you through the benefits of real nappies, as well as all the different types and where to find them. You can read reviews, learn top tips and sign up to their forum to share your experiences with other real nappy parents. Go Real also end up on the road at different events where you can meet them in person and ask advice, and they offer great company discounts AND fab competitions!!

For the month of March, you can enter their current competition to win a DaisychainBaby prize of: PacMan playsuit, Raw Gaia moisturising salve and organic baby wipes, packed up in one of our organic cotton bags for life! To find out how to enter, click here.

If you want to keep up with Go Real, join their Facebook fan page and follow them on Twitter!

If someone had said to me 10 years, 5 years or even 2 years ago that I would soon be finding myself spending at least half my weekends each year on a market stall, my next utterance would have been to ask if they’d taken something of the mood enhancing variety. Early morning starts and cross-country driving to put ourselves completely out there were not at all what Mr DCB and I had in mind for the early years of our marriage. One year on (give or take a few days) since our very first market, and I think we now consider ourselves market traders, albeit of a part-time, slightly-cheating-because-we-both-have-other-jobs variety.

Yesterday we were back at Duckpond Market in Ruislip, and there’s something about it that we both just really love. The atmosphere is so warm and welcoming, the other traders are all super-friendly and for the most part it’s nearly always a success for us. We’ve built up some lovely regular customers and it really feels like coming home. Of course it’s nice to do the very different events that we’ve had a taster of over the past year, and there will be many more of those to come in 2010, but it takes a lot to beat DPM.

If you’re local and you’ve never been then SHAME ON YOU!! The emphasis at this place is very much on shopping locally, and if I’m honest, there’s very little that you would need to get anywhere else. From fresh bread and cakes to olives and steak sandwiches; from toys to crafts to cosmetics to gifts and cards, there is something for everyone here. It’s FREE, easily accessible and there is adjacent parking – it’s really such a fab day out. Running from 10am to 3pm the 3rd Sunday of each month, swing by some time and say hello, we’d love to see you!

Click here for the DaisychainBaby boutique!

Tomorrow we’re going to be back at our very first and still beloved monthly Duckpond Market in Ruislip. We love this place for so many reasons – it gave us our first (and enormously successful) taste of eventing, it is extraordinarily well-run and we’ve made some good friends there too. It kind of feels like coming home in a way. It was also the place where I spotted some rather gorgeous fabrics made into beautiful dresses, and was cheeky enough to ask their owner/creator Nicky Cooper if she would like to make some for DaisychainBaby.

Millie Blue Vintage-Style Turquoise Dress ~ £15.00

Thankfully Nicky agreed and I’ve been in love with them ever since. They really epitomise everything that DCB is about – using pre-loved fabrics; bright, bold and individual creations; minimal impact on the environment (whenever Nicky made them I just collected them at the market, we didn’t even get the postieman involved!)

Millie Blue Vintage-Style Green Dress ~ £15.00

It hasn’t seemed to matter where we’ve taken the dresses, they’ve been resoundingly popular and we didn’t actually get round to putting them online for other customers to see – shame on us! Sadly Nicky is taking a break from her talented craftwork so it maybe a little while before we have some more gorgeous dresses in stock. With this in mind, we’ve listed the dresses, and LOWERED their normal retail price so that everyone can grab a one-off bargain…if you’re quick! We only have limited styles and sizes, please take a look and see what’s available.

Millie Blue Vintage-Style Purple Dress ~ £15.00

Each dress is 100% cotton and look really lovely with our range of long-sleeved organic cotton babygrows from Greenline. Whilst the dresses are lovely and light when it’s really nice and warm, we have to face the fact that the weather in this country leaves much to be desired, so it’s always ideal to layer. And when little miss gets too big for it to be a dress, it turns into a great top with jeans or leggings! Hopefully Millie Blue will join us again; for now, we hope you enjoy xx

Millie Blue Vintage-Style Dress ~ £15.00

You know those weekends where at the start of them you have a huge long list of all the things you want to get done? And the knowledge that it’s all perfectly achievable in the first few hours of a Saturday morning…but by the time Sunday night comes around you’ve done nothing and are not in the best of moods? I’ve just had a weekend like that – it was a bit of a non-starter really.

Thankfully the balance was re-dressed this morning as I sauntered through a freezing yet blisteringly bright London on my way to Islington’s Business Design Centre for Bubble London. My first visit to Bubble was in June where we picked up our lovely brand Fozia, but imagine my delight when I realised that nearly all our suppliers were exhibiting at this event, AND I was to get the opportunity to see their up and coming Autumn/Winter 2010 ranges, as well as potentially picking out new peops to join DaisychainBaby.

I’m sure most would agree with me that visiting the trade shows is one of the more fun aspects of running a business like this. I feel like I’ve deserved this little treat having spent much of January battling my way through accounts filing at Companies House and the previous quarters VAT returns, and was thrilled with what Bubble had on offer.

For our loyal customers who love certain brands, we saw a sneaky peek of “Chapter 5″ from Little Shrimp – their Sunsets and Surf Collection. Keeping their best-selling garments as well as introducing tons of new styles, we’re sure the latest range will be as popular as all it’s predecessors when it hits our store around June 2010.

Little Green Radicals are overhauling nearly their entire collection with new vibrant colours, brand new slogans and fab motifs. We can’t wait to be stocking their new t-shirts and playsuits in Spring 2010 as well as a gorgeous new line of dresses and even shoes for later in the year!

Green Cotton is almost a new brand as far as our site is concerned, they’ve been with us since November 2009 but we’ve been a little overwhelmed with shows at the end of 2009 and still need to work on getting everything on to the site. I’m a firm favourite of their wonderful Scandinavian colours and designs, some of it is a little mad, but bland you will not find. They do style in spades and we’ll load up what we have and look to move it on by Autumn 2010 in order to keep up with their seasons!

Fear not PacMan lovers – we love Green Eyed Monster and so do our customers. When I found out that they had licensed use of the Moomins for some new clothing, I did a little dance and they will be in store just as soon as I can get my hands on them. They’ve also got some new t-shirts and shorts and we love it all.

I’ll stop there for now as I don’t want to ruin every surprise…sshhhh…there’s more to come but we all know that good things come to those who wait!

Click for the DaisychainBaby eco-boutique!

I have a yummy Belgian bun staring at me, but I’ve just told Mr DCB that I’m not going to eat it until this blog post is done. Because although I did English Lit. at A-Level, a predominantly literature & history based degree AND a PGDip in Journalism, writing does not always come naturally to me. So you see how important it is for me to have little rewards when I don’t always feel like writing, which is normally after a day spent in front of a PC at work, sending hundreds of emails. All I really want to do is hang upside down like a sloth, and eat my bun. 

A new decade is upon us, and whilst I haven’t changed my New Years resolutions in the last 10 years (lose weight, stop biting nails…a bit like a school report…Lindsay has potential if only she would concentrate. She must try harder), I am about to turn 30 and have decided that whilst I’m still working, the best way for me to continue to grow DCB is to embrace technology. I was probably the last undergraduate still handwriting essays at the end of the 90s and royally p*ssing off my tutors with endless amounts of Tipex, until my Russian roomate dragged me into the 21st century and introduced me to email. What was this brand, shiny new thing which would enable me to keep in touch with my friends and family whilst holded up in Nebraska for a year, and more importantly why was it being demonstrated to me by someone from a tiny town in Siberia???

I decided to give the old emailing thing a go, and quickly realised that the power it gave me was a special one. I learned to type properly just in time to write my dissertation (the subject of which I’ll probably get round to blogging about at some point, as it’s a bit of an interesting one) and decided that email was my new best friend. But that’s really as far as technology went, until I was introduced to Facebook in 2007. Yet in 2009 it seemed that all manner of crazy terminology was being bandied about as blogging stopped being geeky and started being cool, and everyone became twits. Or is it tweets? Or maybe even tweeps? In fact I’m fairly certain that enough new words have emerged over the past 18 months to reinvent the Oxford English Dictionary!!

So whilst the jowls may be sagging (along with the tummy) and the frown lines may be furrowing ever deeper, I’m determined that although Team DCB may not necessarily know what’s topping the charts or what’s down with the kids, we’ll not be left behind these young whippersnappers and all their techy wizardry. This old dog is going to embrace this shiny new decade by learning some new tricks and it’s going to be fun!

Click for the DaisychainBaby eco-boutique!

I’m probably not alone when I say that food shopping leaves a lot to be desired. Especially on a Monday night after a long day at work (Mondays are bad enough without trolley bumper cars!) but as Mr DCB & I really were giving Mrs Hubbard & her infamous cupboard a run for their money, we thought we’d better hotfoot it to the supermarket and restock our Malteser supplies.

And so I found myself on a miserable Monday night, coming out of Earls Court station and being instantly transported back to January 2002 when I arrived in London to make my mark on the journalism world. Walking slowly down Hogarth Road tonight, I must have looked like the “tourist” I was nearly 8 years ago, just with a few more wrinkles and grey hairs…the Manila supermarket was still there, as was the Chinese takeaway, but the sandwich kiosk had been replaced by mobile phone servicing (hasn’t everything?!). I stopped for a few seconds outside No. 54 which had been my shoebox home for my first 18 months here and wished that I could have gone in to see if it still looks the same.

It’s almost impossible to describe the 3m long by 1m wide space that was my flat. 2 hob rings for 18 months, a ladder up to my bed (which was a mattress on a platform), half a wardrobe and a sofa which if moved to such a position so as to completely obstruct the tiny space was, in fact, a sofa bed. It was pretty grimy, and I shared the very scummy broom cupboard bathroom with a strange lady next door.

Yet I LOVED that flat. It had a balcony and with the addition of a George Foreman health grill, I was almost able to make culinary masterpieces. More wine than I care to remember was drunk (if walls could talk….), parties were held (albeit small ones) and plans for the future were made. In one unreal week in the summer of 2002 it played host to 2 of my girlfriends as all 3 of us found ourselves single in the space of days, and it was with these same 2 girlfriends that I embarked upon a 6 hour TV viewing marathon of The Thornbirds. More of my friends saw that flat than anywhere else I’ve lived in and even now when we reminisce, chances are that the scenes of just about any crime took place there. It was where I was living when I got the DJ (dayjob) that I still do now, and it was the place I (somehow) managed to cohabit with a boyfriend for the very first time. Not all memories are necessarily happy ones – It was the place I retreated to, shell-shocked, after my Dad left out of the blue one Christmas – but independence was mine, and it was (and still is!) totally joyous.

Despite the title of this post, I haven’t actually physically gone a long way at all since I left Hogarth Road - I moved from Earls Court to Olympia, and then to Brook Green (between Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush) which has been home for me and Mr DCB for the past 3 and a bit years. The next move will doubtless be a biggie as we look to try and buy somewhere, but a little bit of my heart will forever belong in SW5

Click for the DaisychainBaby eco-boutique!

It may seem an inconspicuous date to most, but for us 3rd November is a very special day – it was the day last year that we threw a HUGE party to officially launch DaisychainBaby.co.uk!! Its been a momentous 12 months and to celebrate we’re offering all our customers a massive 30% OFF EVERYTHING from right now until midnight on Wednesday 4th November. To claim 30% off your purchase, please quote HAP001 at checkout.

Postage costs just £2.95 for First Class, and all purchases include one of our gorgeous organic cotton bags for life. You don’t even have to think about looking after the planet whilst you shop as we take care of all that – all our products are organic, ethically sourced or made in the UK.

So don’t delay and get shopping…3 and a bit days of lovely bargain hunting!

Click for the DaisychainBaby eco-boutique!

Carol Smith has blogging down to a fine art – it all began with her New Mummy blog following the birth of BG (Baby Girl) where she chronicled life as – you guessed it – a new mummy! This was recently followed by another blog, New Mummy’s Tips where Carol scours for great deals and bargains and rounds them all up which is such a fab idea for time-poor parents. Here she is sharing the joys of those “firsts” that a baby brings:

The best thing about having a baby (apart from actually having a baby of course) is all the firsts you get to experience. You never know when they are going to happen, but when they do your heart swells and your pride grows.

I’ve been really lucky to have experienced so many firsts with Baby Girl and she’sonly 9 months old.
 
The first hold, the most amazing feeling in the world is that first hold of your child
 
Their first feed
 
We’ve had the first smile (you have to be sure its not wind)
 
Her first Christmas, she was only 6 weeks old but it was special
 
Her first proper laugh which she did Mother’s Day while we we’re playing. It was a real belly laugh which bought tears of joy to my eyes.
 
First time she rolled over, BG had been teasing us for months, she would roll on her side, almost roll over to her belly then roll back on to her back. Once she got the hang of it she rolled very quickly around the room!
 
Her first foods, baby rice and purred carrot everywhere
 
Her first sounds, ga ga, ba ba, da da (she would say da da before ma ma)
 
The first time she slept through the night! (We ran to check on her, the worst thought crossed our mind!)
 
The first tooth
 
The most recently the first crawl and the first wave, as they get older they realise that they’ve done something new and become very proud of themselves!
 
Of course as with the good, comes the bad -
 
The first nappy change, its not nice!
 
The first time they are poorly, BG had a virus it was really unpleasant and you feel helpless as there is nothing you can do
 
The first tooth (teething for us is a nightmare)
 
The first time they fall down and bump their head
 
The first time you leave them, even if just for an hour its heart renching
 
The thing is, it doesn’t matter if the first is a good or bad experience the memory will always be there, and that’s what matters.
 
I can’t wait to see what BG’s next first with be.

Carol Smith is a mum of one and author/editor at New Mummy and New Mummy’s Tips. You can also follow her on Twitter.

Click for the DaisychainBaby eco-boutique!

One of my former colleagues had a bit of an obsession with sea horses, albeit a relatively recent one. I think it all stemmed from the fact her boyfriend said she runs like one (I know, seahorses don’t have legs, therefore they can’t run, but anyway!) Putting a positive spin on it, we decided that what he actually meant was she is cute like a seahorse…and so it snowballed. Clearly, they are quite fascinating creatures, and so we loved the fact that Little Shrimp have included them as part of the base design for their current collection.

We’ve finally got around to uploading lovely new stock to the site, and are delighted to see that firm faves like the Nancy Wrap Dress and hoodies are back, as well as new long sleeved babygrows. There are some staunch Little Shrimp lovers amongst our customers and we know they won’t be disappointed. Check out the full collection here.