Happy New Year, everyone!

Apologies that it’s been so long since my last post. Anyone who has been following this from the off probably would’ve caught wind of my love of Christmas and may have been surprised not to see a big Christmas post in December, but there is an unfortunate and reasonable explanation to follow.

You may have noticed that I treat this blog very much like a diary, and I intend to keep up this level of honesty, be it good or bad news.

On December 10th, Josie left me. There’s no more information that anyone other than me or Josie need to know, but I was certainly shocked and saddened.

SO, moving forward, the face of this blog will now change to say the least! While the main focus will continue to remain on great love of food and family, I am no longer living in London as my parents have very kindly taken me in temporarily, in light of the above, while things are settled and sorted. There are also a number of surprises and what I’m sure will be exciting tales approaching, but for now I can say no more! Do stay tuned!

The honest accounts of goings on, and of course delicious recipes, will most certainly continue!

Pastry Pinwheels!
There are certain things that I find extremely therapeutic to make, and this is one of them. Delicious and easy, whip a few of these up after a tough day at work and you’re guaranteed to feel better. You will not get sick of these,  I cooked up several batches over the Christmas season, and intend to cook more when I see my good friend Colin Moore this Thursday in celebration of my birthday. As with many of my recipes there is a vegetarian version, so you can’t go wrong!

Ingredients

• Puff pastry (make your own if you want the extra work!)
• Sundried Tomato Paste
• Fresh Basil
• Mozzarella cheese
• Diced Chorizo (unless, of course, you are doing the vegetarian version)

Here we go…

1. Pre-heat your oven to 190

2. Roll out your puff-pastry to about 1/2 a cm thick and, using the back of a spoon, gently spread with your Sundried Tomato Paste

3. If you are using chorizo, dice it up and then fry it for a few minutes (this will bring out a smoky caramel-like flavour when these bad boys hit the oven). Remove chorizo from frying pan and place on top of kitchen towel, dabbing with another piece of kitchen towel to remove as much excess oil as possible. Sprinkle onto pastry.

4. Slice up the mozzarella and evenly distribute on the pastry.

5. Finally, roughly tear up your basil leaves and add to the pastry party.

6. Now my favourite part (I find it inexplicably satisfying!) Take one edge of your pastry (I prefer starting from the left, go figure) and fold it inwards by about 1-2 cm. Now using the palm of your hands, roll it up so it looks like this:

7. Now get a big, SHARP knife, and slice pieces off about 2cm wide. You need to be firm and quick with this cut, or you’ll just squash it.

8. Line a baking tray with grease proof paper and place your pinwheels on it.

9. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. The cheese CAN make it difficult to get off the tray, but it’s worth the work.

10. Scoff. Delicious hot or cold!