A quick picnic while the sun shone briefly

On May 21, 2014 by battenburgbelle

 If you blinked you may have missed it, but summer was here for a couple of days and this time it coincided with the Crouch End Fun Run (I did it once – unequivocally not fun). There was no question of me attempting to run it this time, as I was co-opted to marshall for the kids’ races. These are a bit more fun – although some of the little ones didn’t look as though they were actually loving it all that much. As this was truly a very brief appearance of the sunshine, the runners hadn’t had much time to train in gorgeous sunshine, so it looked like hard work from where I stood under a lovely shady tree…

Onion tarts

Little onion tarts

After a couple of hours clapping and cheering the little kids on, Becky and I were ready for a glass of something pink, accompanied by a little picnic of bits and bobs. All the usual stuff (hummus and carrot sticks for the teens, who didn’t hang around with us for long), plus some little onion tarts, my first attempt at baguettes since my trip to the Bertinet Cookery School and a madeira cake.

Baguettes

My first attempt at baguettes – not quite the right shape but damn tasty

The tarts fall into that category of slightly too good – one is quite enough, but it’s very easy to eat several more than that. The onions are cooked very gently for a long time and they are beautifully sweet. The baguettes weren’t really the right shape (obviously – you can see that from the picture), but they tasted great. The pale ones were part-baked and are now in the freezer, awaiting the next picnic opportunity.

Coeur de boeuf tomatoes

Coeur de boeuf tomatoes

Also on the subject of “summer”, I spotted these fine looking tomatoes at the Chegworth Valley stall at Borough Market on the way home from work the other day – coeur de boeuf apparently. They tasted and smelt like being on holiday somewhere Mediterranean and fabulous. 

Tomato soup

Tomato soup

By the time I made this tomato soup with a hint of tarragon – summer appeared to be over again already, so hearty warming dinners are  still very much on the menu at Battenburg Towers.

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