Friday food for friends and family

It’s been a very busy day in the kitchen in the Smith household as birthdays and a family get-together collide. Never one to shirk a challenge, I’ve impressed even myself with today’s culinary output!

Birthday baskets

 

One of the promises I have made to myself is to try to make gifts for friends for birthdays rather than buying more “things”. I figure that not only is it more sustainable, it’s a very personal way to show someone you care.

Thus far I’ve been a bit crap at it – full of good intentions, but usually failing to deliver. My attempts to make good friend Pete something “different” (he bakes better bread and cupcakes than me, so I needed to pull the stops out) ended in unmitigated disaster. The cake collapsed and the pumpkin and vanilla jam was more like toffee. Lesson one learned – stick to what you know. Sorry Pete – I promise you’ll get your birthday goodies, but in the meantime, I have some other birthdays to attend to.

With three girlies to come up with birthday presents for, I hatched the ingenious, or bonkers – you decide – idea to make each of them a mini picnic basket filled with a jar of homemade pickle, a loaf of my bread, a hunk of cheese from the marvellous Cullenders Delicatessen & Food Store and a couple of cupcakes.

I made up a batch of sweet onion compote using a recipe based on the one in Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook, three mini loaves of Challah (another Andrew Whitley recipe although I confess to short-cutting on the plaiting!) and some cupcakes topped with some improvised spotty icing. A rummage through the cupboard unearthed some pretty chintzy fabric, and I got some lovely baskets from Nina at the Vintage Tea House.

I am, though I say it myself, very pleased with the results. Two have already been delivered, with one friend tucking into the bread and cheese almost immediately – I’ll take that as good sign!

The finished picnic basket - very pretty

And the rest ….

 

This weekend, we’re off to Herefordshire for a Smith family gathering. It’s been a very long time since my husband’s family were all together and these days there’s quite a lot of us! My mother-in-law has instructed us to come with contributions to the meal and my job is two salads and a dessert, so in between the frenzied picnic basket preparation, I’ve whipped up another of those delicious chocolate beetroot cakes, a roasted vegetable and cous cous salad and a failsafe favourite carrot and sultana salad that is loved by kids and adults alike.

Final bake of the day was the family dinner of a roasted tomato and goat’s cheese flan from my current favourite Canteen cookbook (of the chocolate and beetroot cake fame). It is so pretty, I just had to share ….

Roasted tomato and goat's cheese flan