Where we walked this weekend #5 - the beach picnic edition

We've been having some  productive old weekends round here lately, I honestly don't know what's gotten into us. The morning after the clocks went back, because we were all up even more ridiculously early than usual, we found that we had got ourselves ready, had breakfast, mowed the lawn and made a batch of banana oat muffins all before 9am. I'm aware this makes us sound like we've really got our shit together, but in fact this is the OPPOSITE of what our weekends usually look like, when it takes circa three hours just to coordinate getting all three of us out the door and ready to do something. So wanting to make the most of the extra hour, we got our wellies on, made a thermos of coffee, packed up the muffins and headed for a beach picnic (was toying with calling it a beach-nic, but I don't think that really works, so I'll refrain). The sun shone, Arlo chased seagulls, we contemplated a paddle (too cold) and then sat on the slipway, with tin mugs of coffee and a muffin, and just felt a bit bloody lucky to live in this lovely place, to have Sundays to ourselves, and to get an extra hour of family time every once in a while.

Mother's Day recipe: cheesy smoked salmon tart

I celebrated Mother's Day yesterday by cooking my lovely mum some lovely lunch, and I ended up taking some quick snaps on my phone as I went, so I thought I'd do a little recipe post to remember it by. I've never done a recipe post before, but because this was all my own creation (essentially made up as I went along - this may become more apparent as you read on) I thought I'd share.

I made a big cheesy smoked salmon tart - it was so easy and really yummy. This would make an egg-cellent Easter family lunch too - it had bonus points for being something you could cook beforehand and have ready and waiting to go, plus Arlo loved it just as much as us so we didn't have to faff around with separate toddler dishes (although he steadfastly refused to eat anything green with it. Sigh.)

What you'll need:

• A roll of ready-made shortcrust pastry
• Smoked salmon (the pack I used was 120g, which was about right for us. You could adjust that up or down depending on how fishy you'd like your tart)
• Five large free range eggs
• Cheese of your choice - I used grated cheddar. I had fancied using something a bit softer like ricotta, but Alex vetoed that while we were shopping, so cheddar it was! 
• A decent splash of double cream - I sloshed in about a third of a 300ml tub
• Salt, pepper and herbs of your choice (I used some dried basil, but wish I'd had some dill)
• A sense of adventure

And here's what you do:

• Stage One: get your pastry ready. Unfurl your pastry on the counter. Grease your tart dish and pop a piece of greaseproof paper on the bottom. Lay the pastry over the dish, and press it into all the edges so it's nice and snug all the way around. Cut off the edges round the top with a knife, and use a fork to prick little holes in the bottom (I found this bit strangely satisfying)

• Stage Two: blind bake your pastry. Put a sheet of greaseproof paper on top of your pastry, and put something on top to weigh it down while it bakes. A seasoned baker may well have special baking beans in the cupboard to do this very job. I used the dregs of a pack of pearl barley that'd been knocking about in the cupboard since 2011. Now, we don't have a fan oven, just an electric one that I suspect doesn't get quite as hot as it says it does. I baked the pastry for 12 mins on 200c, but lucky people with fan ovens may want to adjust the heat setting down a bit.

• Stage Three: put some fillings in. In a separate bowl with a picture of a small horse on it, I whisked up the eggs, cream and seasoning with a fork. Then I assembled the rest of the fillings into the pastry case - about half the cheese on the bottom, then the smoked salmon, ripped into bite-size chunks and laid in little folds and curls, then the rest of the cheese on top. Then just pour the creamy egg mixture all over the top, making sure it goes right to all the edges. Final touch is a sprinkle of herbs on top. If I was doing this again and suddenly became a much more organised person at the same time, I'd throw in some fresh dill. Then I cooked the whole lot at 200c again for 25mins. Nb. I rotated it halfway through cooking to make sure we had even 'brown-ness', because our oven really isn't the best.

• Stage Four: wolf it down. We had some salad and asparagus to go with. Polished off by three generations in less time that it took to bake!