High-res version

It’s been a little quiet on my blog lately, I always feel a little down if I haven’t posted anything in a while. I use my blog as my inspiration to keep going with my food ambitions so it’s such a positive thing to have in my life. I’m pretty addicted to food blogs, a few of my favourites from across the pond are  Joy the Baker, Sprouted Kitchen and Munchin with Munchkin. Their ideas are original with stunning photographs that make me want to crawl into and live in their world.

I’m so glad food photography has moved on from those overly saturated, flat, candlelit images you find in cook books in a bargain bookstore. There is a whole new way of photographing food that makes it seem like a piece of art, and if I am honest, I would rather spend all day looking at the images from the Sprouted Kitchen blog than the works of Damien Hirst. Controversial, I know.

I’m still learning and exploring so it will take some time to get my blog up to scratch and look how I want it to look. So if anyone wants to buy me a present and send some nice new lenses my way, you’re very welcome.

Let’s get down to business shall we? The business of using up unused food on a bright Sunday before you start the weekly shop.  It’s always a fun challenge to see what you can make out of the things in your kitchen cupboard/fridge, it also cures the need to create something on the day of rest.

Mr G and I made a Beef and ale pie last week. Finally at 5 o’clock on Monday evening, we decided that we would make a pie for dinner. We didn’t start cooking it until 6pm, and eventually got round to having dinner at 10pm. This is not an unusual occurrence in this household, I tend to have a taste for things that take forever to cook.

This is a little creation inspired by something that Mr G created after dinner when the pie wasn’t enough (This is also not unusual) He decided to make dessert out of the left over pastry and some Strawberries that were just sitting in the fridge. One of his finest thrifty moments yet, I knew there was a reason I was with him!

There was a little bit of pastry left in the fridge from Monday night that had dried up a little around the edges, so I removed the dried bits, squashed it all up together, and rolled it out again to stretch it out further. There were some Farmers market Strawberries in the fridge waiting to be used. Put two and two together and you get these little bites of sweetness.

This are a very kiddy friendly recipe, they’re simple to do and look pretty but you could spice them up by soaking the strawberries in your favourite tipple or try balsamic vinegar for a different flavour.

Ingredients

A roll of sweet-shortcrust pastry, ( you can use shortcrust and sweeten it with a sprinkle of caster sugar)

A punnet of organic, local strawberries

2 tbsp of Honey

Sprinkling of caster sugar

Sprinkling of icing sugar

Preheat the oven to about 200 C/ 400 F. Cut as much pastry out with any shape cookie cutter (you don’t have to make them as girly as mine)  and lay them out on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Slice the strawberries length ways and arrange in the middle of the pastry. Glaze the strawberries with honey using a pastry brush and sprinkle over a little caster sugar. Pop them in the oven for about 20 minutes. Top with icing sugar, serve warm or cold with a dollop of Creme Fraiche or natural yoghurt.

Enjoy!