As our summer holiday fast approaches I can’t help but feel slightly disappointed with myself. I blame everything on leggings; everything.
You see, in my last proper job, when I wore proper clothes, in a proper office with proper colleagues (who mostly all hated each other but kept it together through smiling and handing out passive aggressive compliments about shoes and make up), I kept an eye on my weight. I used my suit trousers as the gauge of whether I was just thin enough, or porky and needing to cut back on the pies. I had to keep tabs on it – for if I didn’t my work ‘friends’ would.
Since leaving this world behind I spend my days with small boys who though traditional in their clothing taste (“you look lovely when you wear a dress Mummy” and “what are these things on your legs? Tights? Oh I do prefer them to jeans on you Mummy”) are the best little complimenters in the world. The other people in my life are my parents, my husband and lots of female friends, mostly other Mums. We’re all terribly nice to each other and genuinely so. It’s like a whole new refreshing world.
What’s not to like about this new social world I frequent? Well nothing other than the uniform. Despite having free reign to wear whatever I damned well want I tend to default many a day to the Mummy uniform of leggings and a long shirt, leggings under a short dress, leggings with an oversized T shirt… you get the idea. And herein lies the problem, leggings never get tight. They never force you to think about your 3pm digestive habit or your 8pm well done glass of wine. They just hug you a little bit more and allow that tummy to expand, expand, expand. My new bikini might not get an airing this year. Tummy control swim suits are what it’s all about. Honestly. Even Kate Moss is wearing one. (This is entirely untrue but imagine if she were! Oh the joy.)
So when faced with a tummy and a nearing holiday I do what any sensible girl might do and eat more. Pastry? Yes! Why not. There’s no hope so let’s just slope off into a pastry wrapped fest. This isn’t so much a recipe as an excuse to plump up cellulite. I would quite like to serve it as a dinner party pudding though one day.
One year ago: Clementine cake and Macadamia and white chocolate shortbread
Two years ago: Teacher’s pet chocolate and hazelnut oaty biscuits and Spelt loaf and Vanilla cupcakes
Three years ago: Restorative chicken and leek risotto
Puff pastry wrapped, baked peach
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 4 peaches
- 500g block of puff pastry
- A little flour for rolling
- 1 egg, beaten with a pinch of salt added
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
- Raspberries to serve
Preheat your oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Line a baking sheet with non stick greaseproof paper. Sprinkle a little flour on your work surface and place the puff pastry block on the top, sprinkle some more flour on the top and roll to about the thickness of a pound coin. Cut the pastry into 4 squares roughly the same size. Wrap each peach in a square of pastry using the egg wash to stick it together. Place on the greaseproof paper and egg wash the whole thing. Repeat with the other 3 peaches then bake for about 20 minutes until the pastry is completely baked through – brown on top and crunchy crackly. Serve straight from the oven with a little icing sugar dredged over the top and a few raspberries on the side. Ice-cream is a welcome addition too.
The observant amongst you will note the photo for this recipe is by far superior to the usual offerings from my phone. It was taken by Lyndsey James who is very clever.
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