Eating al fresco

So its finally here?! The sun has finally arrived in London. And believe me this year we have had a cruel winter, its been a long and tiresome 5 months and we are long over due some sunshine! So its 6 am wake up times (since even the black out blinds are really not doing their job properly), wearing a t-shirt (but with a jacket close by in case of cloud cover) and lots of trips to the park. The days are definitely longer but my kids and I couldn't be happier. Its amazing how the weather can make a distinct difference to one's disposition.

Sunshine = play time but it also means eating all those fun things outdoors such as ice cream and fruit lollies. My daughter's purpose, besides the sand and swing in the park, is to have a picnic in the park. It doesn't matter if we are sharing a punnet of strawberries. She just loves to remove her shoes, sit on the picnic blanket and munch in the sunshine. And who doesn't? Often I like to carry small snacks to the park such as vegetable sticks with humous, or small sandwiches, chopped up mango and pineapple and so on.

On a number of occasions I have taken a picnic lunch but my kids are so distracted that they tend to graze rather than eat anything substantial but then i just forget about it and take them home for dinner where I will know they will eat properly after a day out in the park.

So last week, the kids and I made borek, which is a savoury Turkish pastry. We rolled out shortcrust pastry, cut squares and stuffed each one and sealed with egg wash. I popped them in the oven for 10-12 mins and they turned out crispy and flakey. My kitchen was a mess at the end, what with the kids covered in flour, bits of feta cheese and egg, but it was a fun activity to do and the best part was sitting on the table together munching on our boreks! We made two kinds, one  stuffed with spinach and feta and the other with garlic mushroom and cheddar. This is definitely another item to add to the picnic basket! The best part was that it was the perfect snack and my hubby and I had it later on for dinner with a large salad.

Enjoy the sunshine!