Devil's Backbone American IPA Beer (Co-op) By @SpectreUK

When I usually find an American IPA in my beer fridge it is usually produced in this country by a brewery trying to create a traditional American India Pale Ale. I know that pretty much sounds like I never know what I'm going to find in my beer fridge, and that is partly true… Of course I have my regular beers in there, as well as Cinabar buys me the odd beer now and then when she's risking the shops. This American IPA was produced by the the Devil's Backbone Brewing Company, in Roseland, Virginia. So I'm expecting an authentic citrus hoppy adventure over the Blue Ridge Mountains as promised on the back of the bottle.

"There's gold in them there hills!" I've always wanted to say that… not really, but I've just re-watched all the episodes and latest film of Deadwood, which is all about the gold rush. The language is pretty ripe most of the way through, and the violence can be gruesome, but I enjoyed them nonetheless. Of course Deadwood was set in South Dakota, however the Blue Ridge Mountains have also been mined for gold and precious gemstones. This 5.2% volume American Pale Ale is a deep golden colour, which reminds me of the gold rush days of old.

On opening the 500ml bottle there was a sweet smell of pale and possibly crystal malts, and a crisp aroma of citrus hops. Big on flavour the sweet malts came to the fore on my first swig followed closely behind by those sharp lip-smacking citrus hops. These hops have a bitter bite that keeps on giving right into the aftertaste. Almost annoyingly moreish I found it pretty difficult to leave my beer glass alone after my first taste. This is a really gorgeous flavoursome American IPA, and no mistake.

Joe & Seph’s Banoffee Pie Gourmet Popcorn (Ocado) By @Cinabar

I don’t write about two items from the same range very often but made an exception for this. I bought this bag of Joe & Seph’s Banoffee Pie Gourmet Popcorn with the intention of eating without reviewing it as I had recently written about the Peanut Butter version (also nom). However I took a few pics as I often do just in case and this really paid off, it was just so good.
A banoffie pie consists of banana, whipped cream and caramel and some how this popcorn captured all of it.
The flavour was sweet and full of fruity banana tones, with loads of lush caramel. The impressive part was the cream flavour, it was the delicate aftertaste and it just worked so well with the toffee tones. This wasn’t just a sweet banana popcorn it really was a proper Banoffee Pie Gourmet Popcorn. It was amazing, and I ate my half of the bag far too quickly. Each fluffy piece of popcorn with a crispy coating was just divine. This is quite pricey popcorn but I just loved this so much that I think I’ll pick up another bag on my next order from Ocado (the only online shop I’ve found it in).

Tasty Bite - Tikka Masala Chunky Vegetable Curry - in 60 seconds! (@NLi10)

It's another lock-down dinner - what could possibly liven up this Quorn and home-grown courgette?

Why, this lunch sized curry pouch of course!

Tasty Bite Tikka Masala Chunky Vegetable Curry is essentially a whole lunch in itself, but with the super absorbent Quorn I figured I'd try mixing it all together for variety.

Originally I'd saved this to do their wrap suggestion with left over meal kit wraps, but I kept finishing them all - Quorn it is!

Bag curry has a very distinctive look...

Cooks up OK though

And serves well too - the little potato squares went really well, and although it's not as spicy as I'd usually go it worked really well as a nice summer evening dish.  Using lunch pouches as a chunky sauce with most of the ingredients already in was a success.  Shall have to try this again!

Loyd Grossman’s Pasta Italia Sundried Tomato & Basil (Morrison’s) By @SpectreUK

I usually have a pot noodle once a week or so when Cinabar and her mom have a pizza night. I'm not fussed with pizza. I used to like it, but went off it some years back after Pizza Hut stopped making my favourite, Carne Amanti… sad times. Pizza to me is very filling and often a bit too greasy for my diet. Tonight I fancy pasta, so this Loyd Grossman Pasta Italia Sundried Tomato & Basil seems like a quick low calorie and low fat healthy pot. It also saves time spent on lengthy preparation or messing with a TV dinner in our new fangled microwave oven.

The pot has a photograph with Loyd Grossman looking strangely younger than I remember him on TV. He states that this Pasta Italia is a "quick and easy way to enjoy great tasting Italian inspired pasta and sauce". I'll hold him to that, as it's supposed to be ready in 5 minutes after adding the freshly boiled water and replacing the lid for a while before stirring. This pot contains penne pasta in a tomato and basil sauce mix. I do like tomato and basil soup, so I'm expecting to like this Pasta Italia.

While the kettle boiled I popped a piece of bread into the toaster, and prepared myself a simple diced tomato, apple and baby beetroot salad (beetroot… "bluurgh" said Cinabar)… As you can see from the photograph on opening the pot there was some dried pasta and powdered sauce mixed together at the bottom of the pot. The mark to add the freshly boiled water was on the outside of the pot, which I haven't seen before, and that confused me a little as there was also an indent at the top of the inside of the pot.

Even adding in the correct amount of water and leaving the pot to stand before stirring, this Pasta Italia seemed to be missing something… oh, yes… flavour! Even with the correct amount of water in the pot it felt like the flavour was watered down considerably. It tasted like pasta in tomato and basil sauce in a bucket, so excuse me if I felt a little robbed. I reckon it needed a whole lot more powdered sauce to make this Pasta Italia Sundried Tomato & Basil a proper flavoursome meal.

Information on the cardboard pot;
each 283g pot contains 218 calories, with 0.8g of fat, 14.4g of sugar, and 1.64g of salt. With no artificial colours or preservatives, the ingredients included; penne pasta (51%)(durum, wheat, semolina), tomato powder, sugar, garlic powder (5%), sundried tomatoes (3%), sea salt, yeast extract powder, dried basil (0.5%), and (more) salt.

Mini Cheddars – Chipotle Chicken Wings (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

When I first saw this new flavour from Mini Cheddars I was a little confused, is the first flavour of product with a cheese in the title not to include cheese? I looked closer and these Mini Cheddars Chipotle Chicken Wings are both cheese and hot chicken, strange but true. The bag is bright red too and there is warning on the front about heat level, I was quite excited to give them a try.
The bags are small but there is still a decent portion of these Mini Cheddars with Chipotle Chicken Wings flavour biscuits in the pack. They have a darker than usual seasoning and a spicy smell that was appealing. My favourite flavour of crisps are chicken ones, be them roast or spicy, I was looking forward to trying this on a Mini Cheddar. Th texture is the usual soft biscuit but the flavour is remarkably impressive, it is a complex mix for the taste buds. There is a lot of smoky flavour, cheese and chicken and quite a hit of chilli. These are strong on the heat front than I’d ben expecting, I let one melt on the tongue and got quite a tingle, but they aren’t scary hot. (Personal preferences do apply here). This is very different seasoning for a Mini Cheddar but the Chipotle Chicken Wings do work, they are a bit different and rather nice as an afternoon snack.