Sweet and Savoury Puff Pastry Bites

Puff pastry is always a great thing to use if you want to whip up a really tasty, quick and easy bite to eat. Its a good idea to have a roll of ready made puff pastry in the freezer so you can make something last minute.

My friend Rosie had some puff pastry that she needed using up, so we made these little puff pastry bites. We made both sweet and savoury ones, and they're good as you can put pretty much whatever takes your fancy inside!

We made a selection of, Banana with chocolate chunks/ peanut butter, raspberry with chocolate chunks, and Gouda cheese with spiced chutney.

Recipe: (makes 14)

- 1 pack of ready rolled puff pastry

- Little bit of milk for glazing

Fillings:

(You can choose any combinations you like, or whatever you have in the cupboard/fridge!)

- 1/2 Banana

- Chocolate chunks

- Nutella/ Peanut Butter

- A few Raspberries

- Chocolate chunks

- Gouda cheese, cut in to little cubes

- A few tsp of Chutney/ Pickle

To make:

- Lay out the puff pastry and cut the pastry in half and then in to strips. You should have 14 rectangular shapes. Lightly score a mark to half the rectangles so you can see where to fold them in half. 

- Put your chosen fillings on to one side of the pastry and then fold over the pastry to make a little parcel. With the back of a fork press down along the edges to seal the parcel. Brush with some milk.

- Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 200c, until they are golden brown on the top and bottom. Allow them to cool a little before serving as the filling will be very hot!

- Enjoy the sweet parcels with ice cream or custard as a pudding. And the cheesy parcels work well with a little salad as a starter or light main course.

- Enjoy!

The puff pastry cut in to 14 rectangles

Two of the fillings

The finished golden brown parcels

xXx

Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup

I hadn't really appreciated how easy it was to make soup until yesterday! I was with my beautiful friend Rosie and she suggested that we made soup for lunch as she had lots of ripe Tomatoes and Peppers to use up.

I didn't realise how simple it was to do - just roast a load of vegetables (any selection would taste delicious I'm sure) with some garlic and spices, add some stock and then blend in a food processor and re-heat before serving with some fresh crusty bread!

So all credit goes to Rosie for this wonderful recipe! 

Recipe: (serves 2, but can be easily doubled or tripled)

- 8 medium vine Tomatoes

- 2 large red Peppers

- 1 red onion or 2 shallots

- 3 cloves of garlic

- 1 fresh Chili or a sprinkle of Chili Flakes

- Few sprigs of fresh Thyme

- Splash of Olive oil

- Salt and pepper for seasoning

- 1 Stock cube (Vegetable or Chicken)

- 200ml of boiling water

How to make:

- Chop all your veggies up in to large chunks, pop in to a large baking tray and scatter the garlic cloves, olive oil, spices and seasoning over the vegetables and give it a good mix.

- Roast in the oven for about 30-40 minutes, until all the vegetables are looking cooked and slightly charred in places (this gives it a slight smokey flavour).

- Put the roasted vegetables in to the food processor and blend until it looks like a thick and chunky tomato sauce. Make the stock and then pour in to the vegetable mixture and then whizz again until fully mixed in, but be careful not to whizz too much as you still want to have a thick texture.

- Pour the soup in to a saucepan and re-heat until steamy, then serve with some crusty bread and cheese!

- Enjoy!

The veggies ready for roasting

The roasted vegetables ready for the food processor

Before blending

Soup is ready, along with crusty fresh white bread and cheese!

xXx

My little French BBQ and Quibelle

I am about to head off to the south of France for 3 months to learn about Wine and the French language- very exciting! So I had a little leaving BBQ at my house- French themed of course. 

Sarah, one of my most favourite people in the world was there and she is responsible for the following photos of the lunch I prepared for my lovely friends. She is also responsible for the delicious biscotti and the recipe of the peach quinoa! You can find these recipes on her fabulous blog, Quibelle: http://quibelleslk.blogspot.co.uk/ and the links to the recipes are below. I highly recommend you check out her blog, she has put together a lovely collection of fashion, food, interior design and many other things to keep you scrolling until you reach the end! 

For my French themed BBQ, I made Turkey and courgette burgers, Halloumi and Mediterranean vegetable skewers, a Peach Quinoa salad, Greek Tzatziki and a healthy Potato salad (recipe below). 

For a treat afterwards I made some chocolate and pistachio biscuits (recipe in a previous blog post of mine) and a fruit salad, and my friend Fee bought a fabulous Tarte au Citron that she had made and then the biscotti from Sarah!

Halloumi and Mediterranean Vegetable skewer Recipe:

(makes about 25 skewers)

- 2 Courgettes

- 1 Large Aubergine

- 3 Peppers, yellow or red

- 2 Red onions

- 3 very large Mushrooms

- 2 Packets of Halloumi

To make:

- Simply chop all of the ingredients in to similar sized chunks and thread on to some bamboo skewers

- Then either BBQ them or grill them for about 10/15 minutes until the vegetables are cooked and the Halloumi is nice and crispy around the edges!

Peach Quinoa recipe from Quibelle:

 http://quibelleslk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/nectarine-cucumber-and-basil-quinoa.html

Biscotti recipe from Quibelle: http://quibelleslk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/cranberry-and-almond-biscotti.html

A selection of delicious treats! And a salad of strawberries, nectarines and blueberries

My French themed patio with red, white and blue bunting!

The lovely Flo and I dressed up in obligatory French stripes! 

xXx

Pre-Christmas Pheasant!

Hello, so it is very nearly Christmas.. about 5 days to go now! Very exciting!

We had my godfather over for lunch and I made 2 very tasty roast Pheasants! The recipe was courtesy of BBC food website, http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roast_pheasant_with_18760

Here is our little Christmas tree at home, with some homemade decorations that I made for it!

So heres the recipe for the Roast Pheasant with Celeriac and Bacon!

Recipe: Serves 4 generously 

Pheasant and roast vegetables:

-2 Pheasants

-Olive oil

-4 rashers of streaky bacon

-2 Bay leaves

-1 leek, chopped

-1 onion, chopped

-1 carrot, chopped

-250g Mushrooms (about 6!), chopped

-4 garlic cloves, smooshed

Recipe for the Celeriac and Bacon:

-1 whole celeriac, cubed 

-8 rashers of streaky Bacon, chopped

-1 leek, chopped

-Half a bottle of Cider

-200ml of chicken stock

-100ml of cream

How to make:

-Preheat the oven to 200c

-First prep the pheasants, put a little butter inside each of them and then place 2 rashers of streaky bacon and a bay leaf on top of each one. Sprinkle with a fair amount of olive oil and seasoning. 

-Place all of the chopped veg in to a deep sided baking tray and then place the pheasants on top of them.

-Pop this in to the oven and roast for about 45/50 minutes

-Whilst the pheasants are roasting then make the celeriac and bacon!

-Fry the streaky bacon in a heavy based frying pan until crispy and then add the  celeriac and leek. And cook these for about 8 minutes.

-Then add the half bottle of cider and reduce it by half. Then add the chicken stock and reduce that by half as well. 

-Add the cream and season generously with salt and pepper. Let this all cook together for a little longer and then serve with the pheasant!

-Carve your pheasant, or just cut each in half and let your guests do the hard work! Then enjoy! YUM! :) 

Here are the 2 pheasants on top of the vegetables waiting to go in to the oven!

I also made some yummy roast potatoes! These I made my slitting the potatoes down to nearly the bottom and then I smothered them in oilve oil, rosemary and salt! They were so good!

And of course I also did some Brussel Sprouts.. because secretly I love them!

This is the celeriac and leek, all chopped and ready to be cooked!

Here is the celeriac, bacon, leek, cider and stock simmering away!

Here is the finished roast Pheasants and celeriac and bacon! The celeriac was wonderfully creamy, and it went really well with the crispy pheasant and potoatoes! I highly reccomend this recipe if you can get hold of some pheasants, if you cant then im sure it would work really well with a chicken as well!