To ease us into the New Year those incredibly nice people at Innocent Drinks have come up with three delicious new recipes, each only available for a limited time.

Beetroot, Apples, Pears & Ginger: January’s smoothie of the month
The UK’s only beetroot smoothie is back for one month only. Did you know that since Roman times beetroot has been considered an aphrodisiac?

Where from: Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Starbucks, Somerfield, EAT & lots of lovely independent shops.

Price: £1.89 for 250ml

Yoghurt, Wholegrains, Figs and Pears

Here’s the perfect snack for when you’re feeling a little bit peckish. Think along the lines of tasty low fat west-country yoghurt, sweet figs, juicy pears and spelt fresh from the fields. This ancient grain has never been used in a smoothie before, so we’re quite excited

Where from: Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Somerfield & lots of lovely independent shops.

Price: £1.99 for 250ml Available: from end of January

Blackberries, Raspberries and Boysenberries

This one’s all about berries. In face it’s bursting full of them. We’d like to welcome the tasty boysenberry to the recipe – full of vitamin C. Add some handpicked blackberries and raspberries and hey presto – a healthy bottle of purple goodness

Where from: All major supermarkets & lots of lovely independent shops.

Price: £1.89 for 250ml / £3.19 for one litre Available: from end of January

There are now well over 140 UK based food and drink blogs offering constantly entertaining and enlightening content. Topics cover all forms of cuisine from traditional English through to Caribbean specialities, South African, Indian and Far Eastern foods. Restaurant and pub reviews, wine tasting notes and all forms of commentary are all available.

A full list of the UK food and drink blog scene is maintained on SpittoonExtra. The site also includes a wonderfully useful search facility covering the 140 plus strong list.

Six reasons for eating locally produced food:

1. Over 60% of all packaging is for food
2. Distributing food across the UK causes more than 9 billion pounds worth of environmental damage every year
3. Food distribution is responsible for a quarter of all HGV traffic on the UK’s roads with the associated pollution and food miles.
4. Traceability – buying local is the only way to know where the food comes from, how the animals are reared and their welfare
5. Fifty years ago 50p-60p in every £1 spent on food and drink went to farmers. Today it is just 9p in the £.
6. Every £1 spent with a local supplier is worth £1.76 to the local economy but only 36p if spent out of the area.

Supermarket lorries travel 408 million miles a year. This is the equivalent of going around the M25 nearly 3 million times or to the moon and back 854 times. Buying locally negates this.

Why is the UK not self-sufficient in milk, in cheese, in apples and so much more?

It is not that simple of course. Should we really abandon the developing world where providing foodstuff’s to the West is the only life-line from poverty? And should we also ignore our colonial cousins such as New Zealand and Australia where our cultures and shared history are so closely intertwined?

Topped with a spicy pepperdew tempered with a cooling swirl of cream cheese and a slice of Chorizo, a dollop of tomato relish and a slither of crumbly cheddar – these Nairn’s Oatcakes make for great party food [other toppings are available].

The oatcakes are organic, free of artificial colours, flavours and preservatives. No hydrogenated fats either. The plain oat cakes contain 84% wholegrain organic oats while the herb variant come with added pumpkin seeds, rosemary and thyme. Practically all the ingredients are organically produced including the palm fruit oil.

Nairn’s Oat Cakes are widely available for 89p for the plain version and around £1.29 for the herb varient.

[More photos on SpittoonExtra]

Arguably the best cookery program on TV this season is Antonio Carluccio’s investigation of Bartolomeo Scappi the famed 16th Century chef; declared by many as the world’s first celebrity chef.

Scappi was the chef to many popes and published the Opera Dell’Arte del Cucinare a cookbook detailing 1000 recipes. This contained the first known picture of a fork, declared parmesan to be the best cheese on earth and noted that “the liver of [a] domestic goose raised by the Jews is of extreme size and weighs [between] two and three pounds”, indicating that Jews of the time were practicing the overfeeding needed to produce foie gras.

Antonio delves into recipes that are more than 500 years old, cooking eel in Venice, porcini mushrooms in Lombardy, and stuffing a suckling pig in Rome, where he ends his journey with a banquet fit for a pope.

Recipes recreated include Riso alla lombarda (Lombardy-style rice), Torta di funghi (Wild mushroom tart), Sarde in saor (Venetian-style sardines), Pomi sdegnosi (‘Disdainful apples’, a sixteenth century recipe for baked aubergines) and Ravioli con polpo di cappone (Ravioli made with capon breast).

Carluccio and the Renaissance Cookbook is on BBC2, 8pm on Thursday 27th December.