Welcome Spring & a lunch to celebrate with friends

Hasn’t the weather just been gorgeous lately? I am so happy the sun has been shining, the heater has been turned off & Chloe & I can finally spend a lot more time outdoors, not that the bad weather ever stopped her from wanting to go outside, she would spend every waking moment outdoors, rain or shine if she could.

So the other day in some beautiful sunny & windy (can do without that part) weather Sim & Maya came over for lunch & a catch up. I cooked these delicious vegetarian tarts for lunch & made a batch of these fantastic cookies for the girls to munch on afterwards. Chloe is finally at the age where she sort of lets me cook now, especially anything containing chocolate as I bribe her with promises of spoon licking at the end. The tarts were form a recent mag, sorry cant remember if it was Delicious or Donna Hay. As you can see from the pic of Chloe they were very much appreciated.

Roasted tomato, basil & goats cheese tart

Serves 2

1 red onion, chopped
2 roma tomatoes sliced
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
200g goats cheese
¼ cup (50g) fresh ricotta
2 tablespoons chopped basil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
sea salt & cracked black pepper
1 sheet puff pastry
extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Preheat oven to 200c. Combine onion, tomato, garlic & oil in a baking dish. Roast for 25 minutes until softened. Combine the cheeses, basil, lemon, salt & pepper & roasted garlic in a bowl. Cut pastry sheet in half & score edges with a knife to make a border. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper, spread over cheese mixture, top with tomato mixture, drizzle with oil & bake for 15 minutes or until pastry is puffed & golden.

Oaty Choc Chip Cookies

Makes about 25

125g unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (110g) caster sugar
½ cup firmly packed (100g) brown sugar
½ tspn vanilla extract
1 egg
1 ¼ cups (110g) rolled oats
1 cup (150g) plain flour
½ tspn baking powder
½ tspn bicarb of soda
175g good quality dark chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 170c. Line 3 baking trays with baking paper.

Cream butter, sugars & vanilla until pale & thick. Beat in egg until just combined. Fold in oats. Sift over flour, baking powder, soda & ½ teaspoon salt over mixture & fold in. Mix in the chocolate.

Place balls of about 1 heaped tablespoon of dough on trays about 4cm apart. Flatten slightly then bake for approx 10 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool so biscuits can crisp up.