When we went to visit the showroom, we were left to browse at our own leisure with no hard sale reps hassling us, but once we needed help and assistance there was a sales person to help. The sales person (Martin) was very helpful and thoughtful throughout our visit. We were astonished with the quality of the kitchen showroom, the choice of style, gadgets and colours were outstanding.

Customer service rang a couple of days before the scheduled delivery to advise that the cooker hob we had ordered was out of stock, which gave us time to order the hob from another source to ensure that the kitchen would all be completed.

Delivery of the kitchen units was as on the date promised, the delivery people were happy to carry the boxes and put them where I had requested with no fuss.

The whole process from visiting the show room, sitting down with the sale person and designing our kitchen online, ordering the kitchen and delivery of the kitchen was all very professional and hassle free.

As you can see from the pictures, our kitchen is fully installed, the design and quality of the units are first-rate, which has totally transformed our kitchen. You can also click the image to see other pictures I have taken.

Thank You Wren for your superb and proficient service throughout, we will definitely be recommending you to family and friends.

Craig.

Rob and his family we’re suprised live on air on Viking FM 96.9 this morning when Rosie from the Paul Foster Breakfast Show turned up on their doorstep with a brand new Wren kitchen and a team of fitters.

The fitters have been busy all day and hope to finish later this afternoon.

Below Rob’s plea for a new kitchen, which won him the new Wren Kitchen, are photos and videos from today.

Sorry, can't think of a word to describe how brilliant it would be...

The Final 8

We’ve had hundreds of entries to our VikingFM Nightmare Kitchens competition and we just like to say a BIG thank you to all of you who entered.

The judges have read all your emails and looked at all your photos and after long deliberation they’ve picked the top, or should we say bottom 8 …

Rosie from VikingFM’s Paul Foster Breakfast Show will be visiting 4 of the finalists so we can make the final decision.

So here they are, in no particular order. Is yours one of the final 8? Or maybe someone you know?

If you have been selected, Good Luck for next week, Wren Kitchens could be visiting you. Kitchen Heaven is just around the corner for one luck winner.

Daisy Hall

Hi viking FM, I'm sending the pictures of my kitchen for the competition.

Hi viking FM, I’m sending the pictures of my kitchen for the competition.

I’d just like to say my kitchen has been like this for two years since I got the house. It didn’t have a kitchen in to start with and over the months I have just made do with a few second hand cubboards that have seen there sell by date. The work top is just two odd short pieces placed on the top of the old cubboards, I did get some cheap cubboard doors to make it look a bit decent but it’s still getting me down. I have no sink area as you can see by the pic, there are just pipes sticking out every where with two taps on the end of them. It just looks so dull and i’ve been waiting for this for so long.

It would mean so much to me to just come home and see a beautiful kitchen there, it’d be like a dream come true… please help!

Penny Day

This is my nightmare kitchen!

This is my nightmare kitchen!

I’ve lived with it for nearly seventeen years now, and it really gets me down! It was given to me by my mum, so nothing fits properly. I can’t get into some of the cupboards without doing a contortionist act and now it’s falling to pieces too!

Pleeeeeeeese HELP!!!!!!

Shane Haggie

I would love a new kitchen I am so fed up with rubble in my food...

I would love a new kitchen I am so fed up with rubble in my food ,cost a fortune at the dentist,kids would like a packed lunch that didnt contain dust and bits as you can see there are no tiles ,no flooring and only a kitchen sink very difficult to make anything nice in.

As a family it would be great to sit and eat in a kitchen that isnt cold dingy and very scruffy.Worksurface whats that Help Help Help this is a kitchen nightmare no chance of top chef coming to cook in my HELLS KITCHEN.I feel that it is not me that deserves a nice kitchen but the kids very embarrassing for them when bringing friends home, Please help and save us from this kitchen nightmare no sweet dream here.

Rob Petchey

Sorry, can't think of a word to describe how brilliant it would be...

Two years ago we moved house. Our reason for moving was to cater for our growing family’s needs. We (the wife and myself) have five sons. The property we moved to was two flats and we have restored it back to its original state of one house.

Over this period of time, my wife has cooked for our family of seven:

Firstly, out of a tiny kitchen in the upstairs flat – she moved out as the chimney came down and we had a gaping hole in the ceiling and a massive hole in the floor. Now, she is cooking for us all out of a temporary kitchen in the living room. I am to be made redundant at the end of this month so we have made no further plans for our new kitchen.

My wife has recently gone back to work, part-time, as a Skills for Life tutor and is finding working and juggling the family hard. She is also studying in the evenings for her PGCE as well as looking after us all.

I hope you will consider us for a new kitchen. It would mean a lot to me but to my wife it would be …..Sorry, can’t think of a word to describe how brilliant it would be for my wife.

Daniel Abela

I am emailing you with regard to my poor excuse for a kitchen.

I am emailing you with regard to my poor excuse for a kitchen.

We bought this house a couple of years ago with the intention of doing it up but thanks to a head on meeting with a drunk driver I have been left physicaly unable to do the work and as my boss went under soon after the accident I am far too skint to do it!

The remnants of the original units are over 40 years old and rotted through with the doors hanging off and the work surfaces are knackered, not to mention the olive green and tounge & groove decor.

Please consider us for a new kitchen as we are in desperate need!

Rebecca Snowley

We really do believe our kitchen is a kitchen from hell!

We’d like to enter your kitchen from hell competition. We really do believe our kitchen is a kitchen from hell!

It all started some time ago when my husband decided to rip our kitchen to bits as it had been in a long time (from previous owners) and really needed doing. The plan was to slowly do it up when we had the cash but then my husband lost his job, so there went the new kitchen idea! With a cooker that does not work amongst other things it really isn’t a practical kitchen, which does not help with 3 young children.

Kevin Smith

Its been two years and its not quite finished yet! God our lass has some patience.

Its been two years and its not quite finished yet! God our lass has some patience.

Kevin Smith

Kitchen smells like rotting woodlice, and we can't afford a new one.

Kitchen smells like rotting woodlice, and we can’t afford a new one. Save me from the pong!

The signs, to be used in Sainsbury’s, will offer a breakdown of the alcohol units contained in the drinks, helping them to keep track of their intake.

Whereas existing labeling may tell consumers the strength of a bottle of wine or how many units are contained in the whole bottle, the new signs in Sainsbury’s will reveal the units contained in a glass.

Sainsbury’s Justin James said: “People don’t necessarily drink wine by the bottle, they drink it by the glass, and our new signs address this by breaking the bottle down into the measures in which it is likely to be consumed.

“They show, for example in the wine section 125ml, 175ml and 250ml glasses and the units per each glass, at 12.5% ABV (alcohol by volume).

“Other shelf edge labeling placed in the alcohol aisle will explain the maximum recommended daily units, so customers can cross-reference product alcohol units against the government’s guidelines.”

Copyright © Press Association 2009

Watercress has become increasingly popular as health conscious people flock to get hold of the latest “superfoods”, with sales doubling in the past decade from £30 million to £60 million.

The National Farmers’ Union Watercress Growers’ Association is becoming concerned that traditional methods of growing watercress in flowing water channelled through sloping gravel beds is being threatened by land-grown alternatives.

The new production methods are cheaper to produce and require less infrastructure.

As a result, the watercress association, which has seven members, is applying for protection for their method of growing watercress under the EU’s Protected Food Name Scheme.

The association claims the traditional crop has a superior taste to land-grown cress. Farmers also say their method of growing the semi-aquatic plant – in an industry which is concentrated in the south of England where chalk springs provide an abundant supply of clean water – helps to protect headwaters of streams.

It can be cultivated all year, without artificial heat or light, the producers added.

Copyright © Press Association 2009

Kitchen Nightmares? Win a new new Wren kitchen.

Are your old kitchen cabinets getting you down? Do you look at your kitchen as the original kitchen from hell? Why settle for hell’s kitchen when you could have a luxury Wren kitchen for FREE as part of our prize giveaway?

Wren Kitchens offer affordable luxury kitchens at prices you can afford. Wren’s range of traditional kitchens, contemporary kitchens and top end appliances ensure you’ll never have to suffer another kitchen nightmare.

One lucky winner will get a brand new set of kitchen cabinets from Wren’s range of luxury kitchens and will be given the opportunity to say goodbye to their personal kitchen nightmare forever!

Escape hell’s kitchen once and for all and enter today. To be in with a chance of winning this amazing prize, simply visit the Viking FM website for more details:

Good luck.

Fridge Cake

Here is how he did it

Ingredients
335g digestive biscuits
115g butter
50g granulated sugar
45ml golden syrup
100g plain chocolate
25g glazed cherries (optional)
25g flaked almonds (optional)
25g raisins (optional)
*Andy decided not to bother with anything resembling fruit or nut. He just added more chocolate.
Method
1. Weigh digestive biscuits. Put them in a plastic food bag and hit them with a rolling pin until they are just crumbs
2. Weigh butter, sugar and golden syrup and put them into a saucepan. Break the chocolate up and put them in the saucepan with the butter, sugar and syrup
3. Turn the heat on low and melt the ingredients in the pan
4. When the ingredients have melted turn off the heat and stir in biscuit crumbs until smooth
5. Next put in the cherries, almonds, raisins, etc (if you’ve decided to add them)
6. Spoon the mixture into a baking tray and smooth it down with a spatula or knife and put in the fridge to cool

*Andy’s handy hint: syrup is easier to measure if you heat the spoon first.
There you have it, cook on, lesson over!

Partly, because as many of us have found to our cost, freezing often serves as nothing more than a half-way house en route to the bin.

Now, some timely advice should ensure that at least some of it makes it through to the winter, when garden-fresh fruit and veg is just a happy memory.

Fruit-wise, raspberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants are best frozen in single layers on metal trays, and then stored in plastic bags containing enough for one meal.

But strawberries, which usually end up a soggy mess while defrosting, are best made into a puree, which can perk up winter ice cream or be used used as a coulis with chocolate pudding.

Meanwhile, most veg freezes well, particularly dwarf French beans, garden peas, broad beans and mangetout. Again, each bag should hold just enough for a family meal.

And if they`re going to be stored for more than a month, blanch them first – colander, boiling water, three minutes – before cooling them in a bowl of iced water.

Copyright © Press Association 2009

Wickes Price Comparison

Unlike most kitchen companies, who offer discounts of up to 80%, we provide our customers with the same fair price all year round, and still manage to offer a significantly lower price than our competitors.

We compared the every day price of our kitchens against the sale / discounted price of the Wickes nearest comparable kitchen… here’s how the results came in on Thursday 23rd July 2009 …

Please note that our kitchen cabinets price comparisons are changing all the time on our website. For all the latest competitors comparison prices, please click here.

Nicola’s Ebony and Ivory chocolate cake caused quite a stir in the office this morning. In fact, such was the impact, the entire Ebuyer Marketing team was inspired to pen a song about ebony and ivory and how the two should live in perfect harmony but we soon realised Sir Paul had beaten us to it by a good 27 years pipped at the post!

Here’s how she did it!

Doctor, Doctor .... it's death by chocolate

Ebony and Ivory Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

8 ounces of each of the following:
Margarine
Sugar
Eggs
Self Raising Flour

Method:

1. Cream the margarine and sugar together until pale and fluffy
2. Beat eggs together separately then add to sugar and margarine slowly, beat well
3. Sieve flour then add gradually to sugar margarine and egg mix
4. To make into chocolate cake; add the following to the above mix: 1 dessert spoon of Cocoa blended with a little hot water, mix well then add to the cake mix
5. Add chopped up chocolate or broken flake to the cake mixtures
6. Bake cakes in middle of oven at Gas 6 for about 50 mins, cake should spring back when pressed on top or insert skewer into centre if it comes out clean then cake is cooked.
7. Allow to cool well before assembling the cakes together using:
4 ounces of Margarine
8 ounces of Icing Sugar
8. Cream margarine until pale and soft add icing sugar and beat together carefully until creamy.
9. Use either as it is or add chocolate, spread onto one cake and place the other cake on top, this can also be used for the topping, spread and sprinkle with chocolate.

Decorating the Top

1. Place about 12 squares of Cooking Chocolate plain or milk into a microwave bowl cook on full power for 1 minute then stir cook on full power for 30 seconds then stir until all has dissolved.
2. Pour gently onto top of cake a little at a time, using a knife, run the chocolate all over the cake, keep adding the chocolate as much as you like, don’t be too worried if it runs off the sides, scatter with chopped chocolate or broken flake chocolate chips etc

When using chocolate for the cake covering it is best to use a sharp knife dipped in very hot water to cut through the chocolate, this helps to prevent the chocolate cracking and breaking.

Now that is a recipe bake fans death by chocolate? This is pure annihilation and Willy Wonka is behind the bomb, ENJOY