Baking for Beginners: Hot Toddy Traybake

It's not often you can say a recipe was inspired by star of musical theatre Michael Ball. On the Great Sport Relief Bake Off (side note: that was months ago; how is Sport Relief STILL GOING?), he created a hot toddy traybake with whisky, lemon and cloves. While I applaud the idea, cloves are only good for toothache. And why no cinnamon and ginger, Michael? A missed opportunity. No wonder you didn't win.

If you've got a choice of whisky, go for a bourbon - its rich vanilla notes go perfectly with this cake. If you want to omit the booze altogether, substitute for 2 tsp of vanilla essence.

Best bit about making this: you just throw all the ingredients in together, blitz, and bake. You can get it done while listening to Michael Ball doing that song that he does:




Hot Toddy Traybake
You will need: 

• 225g caster sugar
• 225g butter
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp whisky
• 275g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Grated zest of a lemon

For the topping:

• Juice of half a lemon
• 50g granulated sugar

Make it!

1. Preheat the oven to 160C / 325F / gas mark 3. Line a deep, medium-sized tray or roasting tin with baking paper.
2. Put all the traybake ingredients into a food processor and blitz for 5 minutes, until the mixture is smooth and well-combined. If you're doing it by hand, then be prepared to put some serious elbow work in. You'll probably have to listen to Michael Ball do his song again.
3. Tip it into the baking tray and level off the top with a spatula. Bake for around 35-40 minutes until golden brown and springy to the touch.
4. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then remove the paper and transfer to a wire rack. Leave for around half an hour until just warm, then mix together the lemon juice and sugar and drizzle over the top.

Advice for Pets: Ink and Sword

ATTENTION ALL PETS. For too long, you've been snoring, lying around, and making ridiculous faces. It's high time you pulled your imaginary socks up with your non-existent thumbs, and bucked up your ideas.

Thankfully, illustration and design team Ink and Sword have designed a series of retro-inspired prints to teach your pets right from wrong. You may have to read them out to your cat or dog, mind. And mount them on the wall yourself. Lazy, lazy pets.

Public Service Announcement No. 1: protect useful birds by keeping your cat indoors at night. I love the simple, blocky style of these prints. Poor cat, forced to stay inside and be taunted by some overfed robins.

I hope everyone's done this already: spay or neuter for a happier cat. Look at the innocent love of this pair! They'd be more likely to be having a fight or chasing birds, but the sentiment is sweet.

Reason #4366 why I don't have a dog: apparently you have to brush their teeth. What a palaver.

Reason #4367 why I don't have a dog: you have to walk them. Every single day, apparently. The colours and stylings of this are just perfect, especially that swoosh on the word 'leash'. Also, check out the dog's ears. Awww.

Here is my cat Swinton wondering if they Don't Overfeed: Guard Feline Health print is a passive-aggressive dig at her. She needs to lose a kilo so yes, sadly it is. Look at her! Those hips don't lie.

Each print is £15 from Bouf. They're pleasingly big at 11 x 14 inches, are printed on heavyweight paper and carefully packaged so your pet can't rip the envelope to pieces as it comes through your door.

Sluttishly Vegetarian: Pancake Noodles

Don't panic, it's not Shrove Tuesday for another two weeks, but these pancakes noodles are an excellent way to perfect your technique before the big day. These aren't really noodles, more pseudo-noodles - thin savoury pancakes, rolled up and sliced into long delicious strips. They are Pancakes In Disguise, and make a change from pasta for your dinner.

I've served them with a spicy tomato sauce, but they'd be excellent with a creamy sauce, or just some pesto and grilled vegetables.

Pancake Noodles
You will need:

For the pancakes

• 110g plain flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 60ml milk
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• Salt and pepper

 For the sauce

• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tin of whole tomatoes
• Splash of red wine
• 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
• Small handful of basil leaves, torn up

Make it!

1. Start by making the pancakes. Sift the flour into a large bowl, make a well and pour in the eggs, gradually pulling in the flour from the sides. Slowly add the milk and keep mixing until it forms a smooth batter, roughly the consistency of single cream. Stir in the oregano and season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat a little oil in a medium frying pan over a medium heat. Pour in enough batter for a pancake - not too thin or too thick - and fry for a few minutes on each side. Keep going until you've used all the batter, stacking the pancakes on top of each other.
3. Now get started on your sauce. Heat some oil in a saucepan on a medium heat. Fry the garlic for 10 seconds, then tip in the tin of tomatoes, followed by the wine and chilli flakes. Simmer for about 20 minutes, until the tomatoes are starting to fall apart, then blitz it with a stick blender or in a food processor. Season and add the basil leaves.
4. Now to magically transform your pancakes into noodles. Roll up your stack of pancakes, then chop the roll into 1cm thick slices. Unroll them into long noodles. Ta-daaa!
5. Place the noodles into the sauce, stir gently, and serve.

Petite Girl Picks: Jeans That Fit

Hello, my tiny friends. It's a while since I did a round up of the best shops for petite ladies, so I thought it was time to tackle the hardest of all purchases: jeans. It's impossible to find the perfect pair if you're over 5'4, never mind if you've got shorter legs to cater for. I can't be the only one who is continually looking for the perfect pair.

Below are some of the best shops out there, but I'd love to hear if you've found anywhere else, or want to give us a head's up on a particular range. Help a fellow shorter lady avoid wandering along the high street for seven hours, weeping gently, before giving up and going home.

Let's start with Uniqlo and their free jeans alteration service. All you have to do is get the waist size right and they'll take the legs up for you. As most petite ranges have a 28" leg, this is excellent news if your limbs are a different length. Choose from skinny, regular and ultra-stretch fit in a range of colours, priced from £9.90 to £29.90. And now they do Heattech jeans - immensely exciting, as their Heattech range got me through last winter.

This ASOS model is falling over with excitement on finding skinny jeans that fit! Hooray! ASOS have a great range of styles and fits, from slouchy boyfriend jeans to treggings, if they're your thing. They must be someone's thing, surely?

I've always been sceptical about Next - so many dowdy functional clothes - but lots of you recommended their petite jeans. Their website isn't easy to navigate but there's bound to be a Next on your high street. Just don't go on sales day. We're too small, we'll be trampled underfoot.

Well done, Topshop, on your excellent range of petite jeans. Lots of styles to choose from, in colours from gorgeous dark indigo to pale stonewashed blue. They've even got printed fabrics if you want something a bit different. My favourites are the petite MOTO black Leigh jeans, pictured. They're flattering, soft, and pull off the magic trick of being nicely thin without becoming leggings.

The maniacs at Dorothy Perkins are basically giving clothes away - these bootcut jeans are just £15 and get a reassuring amount of five star reviews from happy shoppers. Nothing in their petite range is more than £24 and they go from size 4-24.

Another excellent, affordable, varied range from New Look, from £8 in the sale to £27. I've got my eye on this high-waisted navy pair.

Minuet specialise in petite clothes (and models with half a head, apparently) and they've got a great sale on their jeans at the minute. Be quick as stocks are low in some sizes.

Gap are king of basics, and their petite jeans come with insane levels of detail about the fit if you have to buy online. Choose from skinny, bootcut, the ominous sounding 'velvet always skinny skimmer pants', and expect to pay around £45.

Sluttishly Vegetarian: Koshari

We've brought you carbs on carbs. We've brought you carbs IN carbs. But never before have we attempted the triple: carbs on carbs on carbs. Ready yourselves, my friends, because today is that day. Koshari, an Egyptian street food, is a mountain of rice, macaroni, lentils and chickpeas, layered with tomato sauce and crispy onions. It's delicious. It may also require a nap afterwards.

Koshari is comforting without being stodgy thanks to its fresh flavours and spicy sauce. It's basically an Egyptian style chilli. It's believed to be related to khichri, an Indian dish of lentils and rice that British settlers brought to Egypt. (FACT: khichri also inspired kedgeree. Every nation loves a comforting bowl of rice.)

Most koshari recipes have you cooking the rice, pasta and lentils separately, but imagine the joyless pile of washing-up that would leave you with. I suggest you simply throw them into one big saucepan. Similarly, just buy tins of lentils and chickpeas. Street food is meant to be fast, and soaking pulses for hours only to find they're still rock hard is not part of the plan.

Koshari (serves 2)
You will need:

For the sauce

• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar

For the koshari

• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 75g basmati rice 
• 75g macaroni or other small pasta
• 75g cooked puy lentils
• 50g cooked chickpeas
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Make it!

1. Start by making the sauce. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a saucepan over a medium  heat, then fry the garlic for around 30 seconds. Add the chopped tomatoes, chilli flakes and red wine vinegar, and let it simmer away for 15 minutes until it's thickened up. You can either blitz it to make it smooth, or leave it chunky.
2. While the sauce is cooking, heat a little oil in another saucepan over a medium heat and fry the onions until golden brown and crispy. Set them aside on some kitchen paper to drain.
3. Wipe out the pan and add the rice to it, along with 250ml of water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes until the rice is tender. 
4. Add the macaroni to the pan and simmer for another 10 minutes until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the macaroni is soft. Add a splash more boiling water if it's all been absorbed before the pasta is cooked.
5. Add the lentils, chickpeas and spices, stir well, then pop the lid on and leave for five minutes for everything to warm through.
6. Serve it by ladling the koshari into a bowl, topping with the sauce, and scattering over the onions.

Etsy Pick: Ms Spanner

Right kids - who's sick of being sensible with money in austerity January and ready to buy some delightful household nonsense? I say "nonsense" in the nicest possibly way, because everything Ms Spanner makes is guaranteed to brighten up your life. You'll get change from £20 from everything below.

This grumpy cat pillow is saying what every cat says to every request: "um... no." He's £13 and is guaranteed not to shed all over your sofa.

Cooking can be an emotional business. Especially when you've poured a whole bottle of wine into your Drunken Spaghetti and forgotten to leave any for sampling. Quick - to the corner shop! This emotional apron is £18.

It's Monday. Punch every Monday in the face. This tea towel is £10 and would be equally at home by your sink or on your wall.

If you'd be comforted by carrying a totem in your pocket, then choose between a pocket manfriend (this is Eric, he's a graphic designer, enjoys combing his beard) and a pocket kitty (this is Chloe, who presumably enjoys sleeping and chasing balls of foil, like all cats). They're made from clay and painted with acrylic and gloss. Eric and his manly friends are £7, while pocket kitties are customised from photos of your cat and cost £13. I'm absolutely getting one of my idiot cat Swinton to coo over.

Sick of cats? Fine (you weirdo). Here's a mini border terrier cushion for £5...

...and a pocket mirror with a horse on it saying "it's such a wonderful life". So true, Mr Horse. He costs a mere £3.

Go explore the whole shop - I haven't even touched on her bags, tattoos, prints and postcards. Even better, spend over £15 and you'll can choose a free tote bag. Hint: the taco kitty one is best.

Sluttishly Vegetarian: Moroccan Parcels

Puff pastry, as previously discussed in some depth, is a party pastry. It looks nothing special when you're rolling it out, but then bursts into life in the oven, all light and flaky and begging to be sliced open. Pies are all well and good, but sometimes you want something crisper and less heavy for your tea.

We use puff pastry in this super easy recipe to make delicious Moroccan parcels, full of gently spiced vegetables and pulses. The spices add warmth for the cold winter nights, while the mint and olives give a freshness to the dish, meaning it doesn't feel stodgy. I've added chickpeas to this because I cannot get enough of them, but you could substitute for black eyed beans or whichever pulses you prefer / have loitering in the back of your cupboard.

Moroccan Parcels (makes 4)
You will need:

• 300g potatoes, cubed (you want tiny cubes, approx. 0.5cm long)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 small tin of chickpeas, drained
• 25g olives
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
• 1 tbsp flaked almonds (optional)
• 500g puff pastry (I got the ready rolled stuff as I'm unashamedly lazy) 
• 1 egg, beaten

Make it!

1. Heat a little oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Fry the potato and onion until the potato is cooked through and the onion is soft. Leave to cool, then add the other filling ingredients. Mix well.
2. Roll out the puff pastry (or, ahem, simply unwrap it) and divide into 4 squares of roughly 20cm by 20cm. Divide the filling into four and place a dollop in the middle of each pastry square. Fold the corners into the middle and pinch to seal.
3. Lightly oil a baking tray and place the pastry parcels on it, sealed side down. Let them chill in the fridge for 10 minutes while you preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.
4. Brush the parcels with the beaten egg, then bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. 

Eat, enjoy, and check out our favourite puff pastry recipes to plan tomorrow's dinner.

Skint But Stylish: Lunch Boxes

It's January, we're skint, there's an unfeasibly long wait til payday and the days of swanning to Pret for a Christmas sandwich are long gone. But just because we have to get up early and make a packed lunch doesn't mean that (a) it has to be joyless or (b) we have to carry it in a boring tupperware box with a mismatched lid.

Let's start with a statement of intent:

Hooray! It's LUNCHTIME! You're halfway through the working day (unless you've cracked and opened it at 10am)! This sunshine yellow lunchbox is £4.79 from Temptation Gifts.

It's a Lego lunchbox, allegedly for children but most certainly for adults too, judging by how many are in the fridge in my office. Choose between pink, yellow and black at Debenhams, each priced at £9.

There's something wonderfully simple about lunch carried in a brown paper bag. Less pleasing: the inevitable disintegration just as you're stepping off the train. So well done Luckies, who have made a tough, insulated, tear-proof carrier that looks just like a brown bag but is made of tyvek, which sounds made-up but is dead strong and that. It's yours for £11.95 from Not The Usual.

Let's head to the future now with these incredible Foodskin flexible lunchboxes that mould themselves to the shape of your food. No need for your beautifully made baguette to rattle around in a plastic box all day, leaving you to reassemble it at lunchtime. The elasticated silicon skin perfectly hugs whatever you put inside, keeping it as fresh and unsquashed as it was when you made it. Firebox has them in three different colours, each £19.99.

Let's keep the futuristic theme by heading to the Science Museum and these thermo-pots that will keep your food hot for five hours. Not only that, those clever scientists have thoughtfully added a magnetised spoon that sticks to the side. Take your porridge, soup or chilli to work and don't worry about queueing for the microwave. They're £30 but come guaranteed by SCIENCE, so what more could you want?

And as for what to fill them with - take a look at our soup recipes, the world's greatest sandwich, our best chickpea recipes (tasty, cheap and filling) and our favourite winter warmers.

Sluttishly Savoury: Christmas Eve Dumplings

Photos courtesy of intergalacticneil on Instagram (and his Polish in-laws)

The proper name for these miniature savoury dumpings is uszka, and they're basically a Polish version of ravioli. Also known as 'little ears' because of their shape, they're traditionally made the night before Christmas. Mushrooms and onions are gently fried with herbs and spices, then carefully wrapped in thinly rolled dough. The delicate flavours are a revelation if you're used to eastern European recipes resulting in bold, hearty fare.

Here's the fun bit: each batch has a few surprise dumplings that contain either garlic, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, ginger or dates. DO NOT EAT THESE ONES. They're like the sixpence in a Christmas pudding. Each ingredient represents your fortune for the coming year - the photo in the top right of the collage explains it all.

Filling and folding the dumplings is a pleasingly time-consuming process. Don't try and rush it - just sit down with family or friends, crack open a bottle of wine, and gradually roll, fill and fold them. Once cooked, they're traditionally served in borscht, but you can eat them simply drizzled in olive oil or melted butter.

Christmas Eve Dumplings
You will need:

For the dough:

• 300g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 100ml water

For the filling:

• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 250g mushrooms, chopped
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/2 tsp rosemary
• 25g breadcrumbs
• Small handful of fresh parsley, chopped

Make it!

1. Make the dough by sifting the flour and salt into a large bowl, then making a well and gradually adding the egg and water. Mix together until it forms a dough, then knead it briefly until smooth. Set aside for half an hour to rest.
2. Now for the filling. Heat a little oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Fry the garlic briefly until it releases its aroma, then add the mushrooms, onion and rosemary. Fry until the onion softens, then add the breadcrumbs and parsley. Season to taste, then leave to cool.
3. Lightly flour a clean surface and roll out the dough very thinly. Cut it into squares roughly 3cm by 3cm. Put a spoonful of the filling in the middle of each.
4. Now, the folding. Place the dough in front of you so the corner is pointing towards you. Moisten the edges and fold the near corner to the far one, so the dough forms a triangle. Press down to seal it. Moisten the bottom corners and fold them in to the middle. It should look like the dough is giving itself a cuddle. Awww.
5. Cook the dumplings in boiling water in small batches. They only take 3-4 minutes and are ready when they float to the surface.

Design Your Own Jewellery With Kinnari

Ever fancied designing your very own jewellery? Ever been too afraid to go into a jeweller and ask about it, for fear they either (a) laugh you out of the shop, (b) tell you it will be eleventy million pounds, or (c) both?

Well, fear no more, because - as ever - the internet has the answer. Kinnari lets you customise your own jewellery at prices that won't make you do Laura Dern Letterbox-Mouth Cry Face™:

What a pro.

Choose a base - either earrings, ring, necklace or ring - and then simply click away to change the metal, finish, size, style and gemstones.

Ta daa! I made this weave basket ring in approximately 3 minutes. Once you've made your piece, you can spin it around for a 360 degree view before adding it to your basket.

Hello, shiny pendant bedecked with sapphires and amythysts.

Hello, ring that looks like it's made of sunshine!

Right, that's enough from me. There's also a shop where you can buy ready-made pieces, like these drop oval earrings.

Prices start at £56 and happily spiral upwards to whatever your budget is. It's too late to order a customised piece for Christmas, but you can still order vouchers - and frankly that's what you'd want as a Christmas gift, right? Make someone's Boxing Day by getting them a voucher so they can ignore their family and design their own perfect jewellery. Or simply make your Monday by creating something you can wear in the new year.

Sluttishly Sweet: Snowballs!

Like all of Team Sluttery, I've decided that baking all my Christmas gifts is too much of a palaver (plus it's MID DECEMBER, who allowed this to happen? I'm NOT READY). So these sweet snowballs join Laura B's stained glass window biscuits and Caleigh's peppermint bark in the 'incredibly easy to make' camp.

These snowballs are basically chocolate tiffin, but rolled into spheres and covered in coconut. For the cake crumbs, either use some leftover cake (hahahahaha, 'leftover cake', as if) or buy a small version of your favourite cake. I've said 'cake' too many times and now I really want some.

Snowballs!
You will need:

• 400g white chocolate
• 4 tbsp golden syrup
• 150g cake crumbs
• 50g dried cranberries
• 50g Maltesers, crushed
• 50g  mini marshmallows
• 150g desiccated coconut

Make it!

1. Break up the white chocolate into a glass bowl and add the golden syrup. Gently heat it over a saucepan of boiling water (don't let the bottom of the bowl touch the water) or stick it in a microwave for a few minutes. Stir occasionally until it's melted.
2. Meanwhile, put your cake crumbs, cranberries, Maltesers and mini marshmallows into a bowl and stir. Pour the melted chocolate and golden syrup over the top and mix well. You want the mix to be sticky but to hold its shape. Add more golden syrup or cake if it's too dry/not staying spherical.
3. Scatter the desiccated coconut over a plate. Get a tablespoonful of the snowball mix, shape into a round, and roll in the coconut. Repeat with the rest of the mixture. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, then eat and enjoy, or put a few in a cellophane bag to give as a gift.

Festive Christmas Nails

It's only at Christmas that I'm allowed to go full Liberace and apply sequins, sparkles and glitter liberally across my clothes and body. It's now fully acceptable - nay, borderline obligatory - to bedeck yourself with shiny things. When it comes to finger nails, it's time to up your game from delicate nudes and office-appropriate reds to FULL ON FESTIVE. I've rounded up some of the best ways to Christmassify your nails.

Got your Christmas jumper this year? If, for some reason, you don't want a singing kitty on your torso, these Nail Rock Xmas jumper press-on nails could be just the thing. Sure, you could follow a YouTube tutorial on how to use a teeny brush to create delicate snowflake designs, or you could simply pay £7.99 at Firebox to get festive fingernails.

Thought you'd run out of surfaces to apply glitter to once you'd scattered it over your eyelids, hair and body? Think again, my friend: you've dismissed the globular keratin proteins at the ends of your fingers. Decorate your nails with this Halo Futuristic Nail Glitter, available from ASOS at £4.50. Either place it carefully onto wet nail polish with a tweezers, or shake each tube over your nails like a happy toddler.

Models Own is an enormously underrated brand who make my all-time favourite nail polishes. They come out with glorious colours that apply beautifully and don't chip, and produce collections called things like Fireworks, Mirrorball and Wonderland. Velvet Goth, pictured above, is perfect for Christmas. The five intensely dark colours apply matte yet sparkly, and look even better with a glossy topcoat. AND they have fuzzy lids! What more could you want for £5? Even better, add the £20 box set to your Christmas list.

Look at all the shininess! All of this is from Essie, a happy, creative nail polish brand that's stupidly hard to find in shops - so thank goodness for Nail Polish Direct. The gold top coat, As Gold As It Gets (top right), leaves golden flakes over your nails. Stroke it lovingly over a dark colour for regal nails that will distract you while you're typing. Jazzy Jubilant top coat (bottom right) provides a glitter effect that's either "a perfect counterpoint to pared-down minimalism or the finishing touch on over-the-top embellishment", i.e. perfect whether you're after something quite subtle or full-on HALLO BLING BLING LET'S GET THE PARTY STARTED WHOOP WHOOP.

After something even simpler to jazz up your manicure? Then Essie Oh My Gold! (they're terrible at puns. These are like dad jokes) nail stickers can be layered over nail polish or plain nails to add a golden geometric pattern.

Sluttery By Post: Kitchen Nomad

Hands up who has a foodie friend to buy a Christmas gift for? And keep those hands in the air if you haven't got a clue what to get them, having bought all the obscure / interesting / fancy ingredients and hampers and Lakeland accessories already?

Well, put your hands down and apply them to your keyboard, because Kitchen Nomad may be just what you're after. Every month, they'll send you a box of ingredients and recipes from a different country. Last month saw Masterchef winner and Wahaca founder Thomasina Miers curate a Mexican box, with treasures like chilli honey and Mexican oregano that you're unlikely to find in your local supermarket. One of her recipes was chilli honey crumble, which frankly sounds worth the subscription price on its own.

I love the inclusion of the recipes - all from specialty chefs who know what they're talking about. It means that instead of exiling the cassia bark from June's Greek box to the back of the cupboard, you'll use it to flavour fig and walnut bake. Very clever.

And who knew you could put tahini in truffles? No longer will it languish in my fridge til I decide to make hummous.

You can either subscribe to Kitchen Nomad or order a one-off box. Prices start at £20 a box if you sign up for 12 months. It's good value for what you get, and they promise the cost of the box will always be similar to the price you pay for it. Go and explore - it's an excellent way to discover new tastes and flavours, whether you're a kitchen novice or just need a little guidance to start cooking a whole new cuisine.

Jewellery For Under £10: Sour Cherry

Confession: I like my jewellery to be cheap, cheerful, and a little bit silly. Not novelty pieces, but not potential heirlooms either. I would rather have a ludicrous diamante fox ring than a delicate Alex Monroe necklace, as beautiful as they are. I'd only break or lose something teeny and precious.

So hooray for my new discovery Sour Cherry, who make the sort of jewellery that will brighten up your winter without breaking the bank. Quirky, kitsch and made in Sheffield: whatever you're into, they'll have something for you. They have collections as wide ranging as Alice in Wonderland, video games, elephants, and - oh, glory - Mean Girls.

I love classic tattoos - on other people. This sweetheart tattoo necklace is an excellent way to show your love of old-school tats without making a permanent commitment. And at £9.95 it's cheaper than a tattoo parlour. It's cheaper than a compass and a biro, for goodness sake.

Missing our Doctor Who week? Show your love with this TARDIS and Dalek ring set for £6.95. Their whole Doctor Who range is worth exploring, especially if you're buying Christmas gifts for Whovians.

Hat tip to anyone who's drawn Frances for Secret Santa: these Vogue dress pattern necklaces are just £4.95. Perfect for anyone with a love of all things vintage.

At £5.95, these martini glass earrings are the cheapest cocktail you'll find outside of happy hour. You can get them as clip-ons too.

Any Mean Girls fans in the house? Show your love with this perspex That's So Fetch necklace. It's £7.95 and you can choose from 17 different colours. We can still make fetch happen!

Oh.

Sluttishly Vegetarian: Winter Tagine

If you're after a comforting, healthy dinner for winter evenings but you're sick of chilli and curry, then get your tagine on. It's a rich, Moroccan stew, normally made with meat - this version substitutes the hearty chickpea instead. Cook it in a traditional tagine if you have one; the cone-shaped lid cleverly re-condenses the steam as it rises, keeping the dish tender. It's a slow cooked dish, so if you're lucky enough to own a slow cooker, simply put all the ingredients in and leave for several hours.

You should really add chopped apricots and raisins, but I hate stealth fruit in my dinner so I've left them out. A tablespoon of honey adds some sweetness, but you could always ditch this and add more chilli powder if you want a more fiery dish.

You will need:

• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 onion
• 1 red pepper
• 1 courgette
• 1 stick of celery
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 carton of passata
• 2 tsp harissa paste
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tin of chickpeas, drained
• 500ml vegetable stock
• Handful of fresh coriander, chopped
• Small handful of flaked almonds

Make it!

1. Crush the garlic and chop up the rest of the vegetables. Heat a little oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, throw in all the veg and cook for 8-10 minutes until softening.
2. Add the ginger, cumin and cayenne pepper and stir well to coat the vegetables. Pour in the passata, then stir in the harissa paste and honey.
3. Add the chickpeas and then the vegetable stock and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover the pan and leave it for 20-25 minutes until the sauce has thickened, the chickpeas are hot and the vegetables are soft. 
4. Sprinkle over the coriander and almonds, then serve with cous-cous, rice, baked potatoes or enormous amounts of fancy bread.