They had delicious English strawberries on offer at my local shops the other day and I took advantage of that fact to pick up a few punnets of them.



There is nothing that can beat the flavour of a beautiful English Strawberry! It is pure heaven on earth. Some of the best berries in the world!!



When I was a girl wild strawberries used to grow along the edges railroad tracks that ran along the back of our garden in southern Manitoba . . . Oh what lovely summer memories I have of spending hours in the hot sun picking them . . . the feel of the hot sun on the back of my neck, my nostrils filled with their sweet scent mixed that rather lovely hot summery outdoor smell . . . you know the one I mean . . . new mown grass, wild flowers and sunshine . . .



They were so delicious. We never got much more than enough to have a small bowl full each to eat fresh . . . lightly sprinkled with some sugar and cream.



I wonder do children still get to experience these early summer pleasures today? I sure hope so!



Anyways, I thought we would enjoy some of these lovely English strawberries this morning with some tasty Lemon Curd muffins. Oh what a lovely combination . . . sweet strawberries and tangy lemon curd. Lucious even!



You will want to use a good quality of lemon curd for these, or better yet make your own! Homemade lemon curd . . . so easy to do and so much better than any you can buy.

Lemon Curd Muffins and fresh berries. It's a good thing!



*Lemon Curd Muffins*
Makes 9 medium muffins
Printable Recipe

You want to use a good quality lemon curd in these delicious muffins. It will give a more defined lemony flavour. Fabulous eaten warm.

200g (1 1/2 cup) self raising flour
100g caster sugar (1/2 cup)
1 large free range egg
3 fluid ounces sunflower oil (generous 1/3 cup)
5 fluid ounces of milk (generous 1/2 cup)
1/2 tsp vanilla
lemon curd

For the topping:
couple TBS caster sugar
lemon curd

Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/Gar mark 5. Line 9 medium muffin cups with paper liners. Set aside.

Sift the flour into a bowl and whisk in the sugar. Beat the egg, sunfower oil, milk and vanilla together in a beaker. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients all at once. Stir gently together with a fork, just until combined. Spoon a heaped dessertspoon ful of the batter into each of the prepared muffin cups. Top each with 1 tsp of lemon curd. Top with the rest of the muffin mixture.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until well risen, firm to the touch, and lightly browned. Remove from the oven. Brush the tops of the hot muffins with some more lemon curd and sprinkle with some caster sugar. Remove to a wire rack to cool. Eat warm for a real treat!

You can find a darn good recipe for lemon curd here! Yes, it's mine and I happen to think it's the best. It's very easy to make and quite, quite delicious!!

One of my favourite late spring/early summer fruits is cherries. When we lived down in Kent at this time of year you could find lots of cherry sellers set up on the many laybys in the area, their tables just laden with glorious cherries, of several different varieties.



It was so easy to stop and purchase a paper bag filled with them . . . I know I should have taken them home to wash before eating, but I always stuffed my face with them right in the car . . . still warm from the sun. Oh my . . . but they were so sweet and soooo delicious . . . I'm afraid I made a pig of myself with them each and every year!! ☺



I am not in cherry growing country anymore . . . no cherries in the laybys up here, alas . . . *sniff *sniff



I did find some on offer at my local Tesco's this morning though, and so I just had to buy a few punnets for us as a lovely treat!! One to eat out of hand and the other . . .



The other to make this delicious summer trifle with.



Imagine it . . . layers of softened cake, rich custard, softly whipped cream, grated chocolate and lucious sweet cherries . . . all together in one scrummy glass. Each spoonful so very delicious and delightful!



mmm . . . I can't get enough of this. I think I'll be at Tesco's again in the morning to pick up some more. Not quite the same as the sun warmed ones in the paper bag . . . but needs must do what needs must do . . .




*Summer Fresh Cherry Trifle*
Serves 6
Printable Recipe

This delicious fruity trifle makes the best of sweet cherries during their short growing season. Cherries and chocolate. Fantabulous!

450g fresh cherries
(1 pound)
300g of trifle sponges or light sponge cake, cut into cubes
(about 3 cups, cubed)
3 TBS Frangelico, or Chocolate Schnaaps
(can use fruit juice)
200ml double cream
(1 cup)
1 TBS caster sugar
seeds scraped from 1/2 a vanilla pod
400ml ready made custard or vanilla pudding
(3 cups)
grated or chopped chocolate
(I used green and black organic milk chocolate)

Set aside 6 perfect cherries to top the trifles with. Put the remaining cherries and cut in half. Chop the trifle sponges into cubes and put into a bowl. Sprinkle with the liqueur or the fruit juice. Whip the couble cream until softly whipped, stir i the sugar and vanilla seeds.

Arrange layers of the cake, custard, fruit, cream ad chocolate in individual serving glasses, layering them twice and ending with whipped cream and chocolate on top. Garnish each trifle with one whole cherry. Serve immediately, or cover and chill for up to 6 hours before serving.



And if that sweet Cherry Trifle isn't enough to get your tastebuds raging, hop on over to Gordon's page, What Should I Have For Dinner Tonight later on today, to see what I cooked up for the England match of the World Cup today . . . it's Pundit Pie!!! Go England!!! (I hope I did us proud!!)

Have you heard of the superfoods? All foods have nutritional value, even deep fried Mars Bars, but some foods are so high in nutrients and vitamins that they are known to be superfoods!!



Things like apples, bananas, beans and broccoli. Olive oil, oats and tomatoes. Berries, turkey, nuts, oily fish and avocado. All these foods are so good for you that we should try to get as much of them into our diets as we can!!



We usually have oats for breakfast, along with some berries or bananas. I think we eat tomatoes in one form or another almost every day, and I use olive oil for most purposes. We eat whole grain breads and fish several times a week. I'm not overly fond of mackerel though . . . so it is usually salmon or cod, and sometimes tuna.



This salad is chock filled with super foods! It has turkey, avocados, tomatoes and olive oil in it. Sure, it also has blue cheese and bacon, but hey!! I reckon the superfood quality of the other things kind of outweighs any bad.



It is delicious, Delicious, D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!! I could easily eat this every day of the week. Creamy avocado, crunchy lettuce, salty bacon, tangy blue cheese, sweet tomatoes, lettuce and a scrumptious blue cheese mustard vinaigrette that sets it all off perfectly!



*Turkey Cobb Salad*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

This is a delicious salad which contains no less than 3 of the super foods!! Turkey breast, avocado and tomatoes! Bacon and cheese aside, I reckon it is pretty good for you!

2 TBS white wine vinegar
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3 TBS good quality mayonnaise
4 TBS olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
8 slices of thick cut bacon
1 head of iceberg lettuce, cored and thinly sliced
2 small avocados, peeled, stoned and cubed
4 small plum tomatoes, chopped
8 ounces cubed turkey breast (1/2 pound)

First make the dressing. Whisk together the vinegar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, mayonnaise, oil and a pinch of pepper in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in a quarter of the cheese.

Fry the bacon in a heavy frying pan over medium heat until crisp. Drain well on paper towels, then crumble.

Add the lettuce to the dressing and toss to coat evenly. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Divide the lettuce amongst 4 chilled plates. Arrange the avocados, tomatoes and turkey on top. Sprinkle with the bacon and the remaining cheese and serve.

The World Cup kicks off today. Don't forget to hop on over to Gordon's page What Should I Have For Dinner Tonight where he is hosting a series of cooking competions throughout the World Cup featuring food bloggers from all over the world! Make sure you tune in tomorrow especially, when My dish representing England will be featured!

 

I found this recipe amongst my many cookery books one day and photocopied it to try. It sounded good and also quick and easy. I can't remember which book it was though . . . I have so many . . . but I suspect it was in one of the Good Food 101 series.



Each week, I go through my books and photo copy the recipes that I want to try in the coming week, and work them into menus. Sometimes I end up using them, sometimes I don't, but it makes Todd happy to see me planning meals and it's good for me to have some sort of idea in my head of what I am going to be doing when I go to the shops to buy in the food for the week.



Sometimes I end up not using all the recipes I have photocopied and so I put them in a file of ones that I want to do later . . . (I am well intentioned!) This recipe was one of those so that's why I can't remember where it came from! DOH!



This crumble was a bit different than most in that you don't have to go to the trouble of rubbing butter into flour. You just melt the butter and then stir in some muscovado sugar and oats. Easy peasy lemon squeasy.



The orignal recipe called for a tin of summer fruits, but I had lots of fresh berries in the house so I used them instead and just added the juice of an orange and some sugar to make up for the syrup in the tin.

It turned out absolutely gorgeous! We loved this and it was sooo easy!! It is now in my file of easy favourites!!



The topping is nutty and buttery and the fruit was just right. With a bit of cream on top it went down a real treat, and I will be making it again for sure! I am thinking that you could use this easy topping with all kinds of fruits! I see it now with some nectarines and raspberries.

Nom Nom!!



*Red Fruit Crumble*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

The topping for this is so easy to put together. It makes the whole dessert a delicious doddle!

4 eating apples, peeled, cored and chopped
300g tin of summer fruits in syrup
(I used 1 tea mug of blueberries, 1 tea mug of raspberries, 1 tea mug of strawberries, along with the juice of one orange
and a bit of sugar)
4 ounces butter (1/2 cup)
2 ounces light muscovado sugar (1/3 cup)
5 ounces porridge oats (2 1/2 cups)
ready made custard, ice cream or cream to serve

Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/Gas mark 5. Place all of the fruit into a large saucepan along with the juice from the orange and a bit of sugar. (If using the tinned fruit add the tin of fruit, undrained) Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the apples are cooked, stirring occasionally. This should take 12 to 15 minutes. Pour this mixture into a shallow gratin dish.

Melt the butter and then stir in the muscovado sugar and the porridge oats. Mix together well and then spoon this over top of the fruit in the dish.

Bake for 20 minutes, until the topping is golden and the filling is bubbling. Serve warm with some custard, ice cream or cream.

My friend Gordon of What Should I Have For Dinner Tonight is having a slam up Event over the next few weeks in honor of the World Cup!

Quoted from his page:

On Friday the 11th of June, the biggest sporting event of all, the FIFA World Cup, kicks off in its nominated destination for 2010, South Africa. This is the first time that the four-yearly tournament has ever been held on the African continent and it is likely to prove to be something special, for that fact alone.

As advised a couple of weeks back, I have decided to invite and engage the assistance of a number of food writers from around the world to showcase their talents on this blog during the month long tournament, preparing a dish representative of their respective countries, on a date upon which their country is actually playing a match. I have labelled this project, "The Unofficial World Cup of Food 2010."

Anyways, to make a long story short, I am representing England, competing against America on Saturday and I have created a real special dish for the occasion! I really put a lot of thought into it and I think it is something that screams England! I hope you'll all keep tuned to the event on Gordon's Page and also be sure to check in on Saturday to see exactly what I cooked up!

I love recipes which are quick to do and use things that I, generally speaking, have on hand most of the time. Things like tinned fruit,plain yoghurt, cream and chocolate covered biscuits.



I bet any one of you would probably have those things in your larder and fridge right now as well!



This recipe is so very versatile and the perfect recipe to have up your sleeve when un-expected company drops by. I have used apricots here, but you needen't limit yourself to apricots . . . fresh strawberries, lightly crushed . . . raspberries and blueberries . . . blackberries . . . tinned fruit cocktail, pears, peaches . . . you name it!!



I don't think there are too many fruits . . . tinned, frozen or fresh . . . that wouldn't be pretty tasty done up this way.



Likewise the biscuits. Any chocolate covered biscuit works . . . chocolate covered hobnobs, digestives . . . chocolate fingers . . . chocolate covered malt biscuits . . . any chocolate covered biscuit works very well!



Imagine punching your spoon down through a cinnamon sugar sprinkled creamy mixture of yoghurt and cream, stogged full of crisp chocolate covered biscuits . . . blanketing a layer of fruit.

Ohh mmmm . . . creamy and crunchy and rich and sweet.

Perfect . . . simply perfect.



*Cookies and Cream Dessert*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

A quick dessert that is not only very easy to make, but uses things I normally have on hand. You don't have to use apricots with this. Try strawberries when they are in season or a mixture of berries. You can use chocolate coated hobnobs instead of chocolate covered digestives. Delicious! Please note that this dessert needs to be served as soon as it is made as it does not keep well.

411g tin of apricots in juice
(14 ounce)
284ml carton of extra thick double cream
(1 heaped cup ful)
200g carton of thick Greek Yoghurt
(1 heaped cupful)
10 chocolate covered biscuits
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 TBS demerara sugar
(Turbinado)

Drain the apricots, reserving half of the juice. Chop up in rough pieces and divide them between 4 dessert bowls. Spoon the reserved juice over top.

Whisk together the cream and yoghurt. Break up the biscuits into rough bits and then stir them into the cream/yoghurt mixture. Spoon over top of the fruit.

Mix together the sugar and the cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over top of the cream mixture. Serve immediately.

The weather was so nice today we took ourselves off on a road trip into Wales . . . Prestatyn to be precise. (Pronounced Press Stat In) It is a lovely seaside town on the North coast of Wales . . .



When we lived up here before, we often went there on a warm day. It's not as commercialized as the other seasides and it doesn't get quite as busy.



There's a lovely beach that have a stretch of pavement that you can walk along for a very long ways. We do a bit of walking . . . a bit of paddling . . . and always stop for a drink and a treat.



Sometimes it's ice cream . . . seasides and ice cream go very well together. Other times its something else. Today we had a lovely slice of buttered Bara Brith. It was some good. I really must make us a loaf to enjoy at home sometime.



We like to go early in the day and then be back home before the roads and beach get too crowded. We got home early in the afternoon and I was able to bake Todd a lovely pie for a teatime treat. He's been ever so good this week, eating properly . . .



A treat once in a while can't do much harm can it? He had one slice and then I took the rest over to a friend, who very much appreciated it.



*Black Currant Plate Pie*
Makes one 10 inch plate pie
Printable Recipe

This is a Welsh recipe, known in Wales as cacen blât (literally 'plate cake'). Simple ingredients and very easy to make. Wonderful flavour. Serve warm with some thick cream for a real treat!

400g of black currants (about 1 pound)
200g of granulated sugar (1 cup)
sufficient pastry for a two crust pie
milk
Caster sugar to dust the top



Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/Gas mark 4. You will need a 10 inch oven proof plate.

Roll out half of the pastry into a circle large enough to cover the base of the plate. Top with the black currants, leaving an edge. Sprinnkle the sugar over top of all. Roll out the remaining pastry to cover. Dampen the edges and press them together. Trim and then crimp with a fork. Vent the top to allow steam to escape. Brush with a bit of milk and then sprinkle with some caster sugar. Place on a baking tray and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the pastry is done and the pie is nicely browned, with the fruit bubbling through the top. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before cutting into wedges to serve.

Cream or vanilla ice cream are very good with this!