Roast Vegetable Tarts

Hello everyone!

So I got creative yesterday and made these tarts up off the top of my head- they turned out really well so I decided I'd share the recipe. This makes six tarts.

Ingredients

• 1/2 a pumpkin (or if you haven't got any, you can use squash instead)
• 3 medium carrots
• 2 zucchini
• 1 eggplant
• 1 onion
• 20 or so broad beans
• 1 1/2 tbsp dried sage
• 2 sheets of puff pastry
• 2 tbsp cream cheese
• 1 tbsp sour cream
• 3 tbsp aioli*
• salt and pepper
• tsp crushed garlic
• tsp onion marmalade (optional)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190C
2. Chop up the vegetables into small chunks ready for roasting
3. Put in a roasting tray and toss with some oil and salt and pepper
4. Roast for 25-30mins, tossing once, until soft but not too soft. Add the sage once cooked
5. Defrost 2 sheets of puff pastry
6. Cut off one third of each sheet and join the two pieces together so you end up with three bits roughly the same size
7. Halve each piece so you have six pieces
8. Score a rectangle in the middle of each piece leaving about 1 1/2 cm border around the edge
9. In a bowl mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, aioli, garlic, onion marmalade and some pepper
10. Spread cheese mixture over the scored area of the pastry and top with roasted vegetables, staying within the border. You can pile the veggies quite high because the pastry rises quite a lot
11. Turn the oven up to 200C and cook for 12mins, until golden brown.
12. Serve with steamed veggies or have on its own for lunch

Yum!

*Aioli is garlic mayonnaise

The Folks Arrived and We Watched Rugby and Ate Lemon and Chocolate Cupcakes

Hello!

So my parents got here at about midnight on Friday and after eight months away it was great to see them! We spent most of Saturday just catching up and chilling out before heading to Auckland for the game. We went to the Cloakroom in Mt Eden village for food and drinks and to watch the France v Tonga game and had a fab time- there was a really good atmosphere and the game was awesome. Go Tonga!!

Then we walked over to Eden Park for the England v Scotland game. Our seats were right up in the gods but the view was still good and we were in and amongst a good crowd- lots of singing and joking and generally having a good time with fans from all different nations. I love Rugby fans :)

The game itself was a bit of a let down tbh, and I felt for Scotland when they didn't win (and don't think England deserved it) but both teams could have played a hell of a lot better. We still had a brilliant time though and my parents were over the moon to be there.

On Sunday we drove down to Hamilton for the Wales v Fiji game which was AMAZING! My dad is welsh and he had on his official supporters shirt and was wearing it with pride. Our seats were fantastic, we were in the front row, just behind the posts and so close to the action. I think Wales are looking really, really good- they have Ireland in the quarter finals and if they make it through I think they have a real chance of going all the way.

Yesterday we went into Auckland to Queen's Wharf and the Cloud to try some of the amazing NZ food and wine they have on offer there (which was yummy!) and to do a bit of site seeing. Today the folks have headed up to the Bay of Islands for a few days whilst I stay here and work but on Friday we're off on the next leg.

In celebration of their coming, I made these cupcakes on Friday and they were rather scrummy-

Lemon and Chocolate Cupcakes

For the Cupcakes

• 225g self-raising flour
• 175g caster sugar
• zest 2 lemons
• 3 eggs
• 100g natural yogurt
• 175g butter, melted and cooled

1. Heat oven to 180C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake or muffin cases.
2. Mix the flour, sugar and lemon zest together in a large bowl.
3. Beat the eggs into the yogurt, then add to the dry ingredients with the melted butter.
4. Mix together then divide between the cake cases
5. Bake for 20-22 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean

For the Icing

• 100g butter, softened
• 200g sifted icing sugar
• juice of 1 lemon
• 3 drops yellow food colouring
• 4 tbsp grated dark chocolate

1. Beat the butter until smooth
2. Gradually mix in the icing sugar
3. Add the lemon juice, food colouring and 2 tbsp of the chocolate
4. Ice the cupcakes (when cooled) and sprinkle the remaining chocolate over the top

These cupcakes were really soft and spongey and stayed that way for a few days afterwards.

Hope you enjoy!

Helen xx