Ratatouille is a dish bursting with every ingredient I adore.  Unfortunately, my boys don't share my love of these wonderful vegetables so I thought of a way I could make it more appealing, inspired by the flowering Kale on the coffee table!

Plus these look so delicate you could easily serve them for a dinner party starter. Simple but effective. 

I made these from bits I had in the fridge including a handy tub of salsa! I used radishes in place of onions, which gave an added a peppery flavour.

Ingredients Makes 4 tarts: 

• Drizzle olive oil
• One courgette
• One red pepper
• One aubergine
• Handful cherry tomatoes
• Handful sliced radishes
• 2 tablespoons red pesto
• 2 tablespoons salsa (or make your own simple version by combining chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper, garlic and oregano)
• Butter - melted to brush the pastry
• Filo pastry (I used 5 approximately 5 inch squares per tart)
• Mixed herbs to decorate

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees or Gas Mark 4.

Finely chop your vegetables and stir fry in a wok with a drizzle of olive oil for 10 minutes.  Remember to keep back some thin slices of courgette and radish for the decoration.

Add your pesto and salsa and cook for a further 5 minutes. 

Melt a little butter in order to brush the filo pastry sheets. 

Unwrap your filo pastry, and cut approximately 5 inch squares. I used 5 per tart. 

Mother in law TIP: Wrap your filo pastry in a damp tea towel as it dries out as quickly as you can prepare it. 

Line your small tins with one sheet at a time brushing with butter as you go. Layer them randomly with the edges pointing upwards to create your ornamental cabbage effect. 

Spoon your ratatouille mix into the pastry tarts and top with thinly sliced courgette and radish. Sprinkle with mixed herbs (I used some flaked chilli in mine). 

Baked for 10-12 minutes until the pastry is golden and crispy. 

Serve straight in the tins or gently tip them out and serve immediately. 

Keep a roll of filo pastry in the freezer and make a version of these with any leftover vegetables in the fridge drawer! 

Ollie loved it but Sammy was only fooled for a short time! Mama - there are green bits in it!  

Food inspired by flowers. If you like this have a peek at my other recipes here. 

I love a subtle flavour in a cake. A taste that makes you think a little, a few minutes after you have eaten it. 

Orange blossom water does just that. Subtle, not as heavy and perfume like as Rose water, (although I do love that) and a flavour that makes you want more. I've seen lots of recipes for orange cake, that use orange juice and zest, but for me that's too much.

Plus I used orange bitters in the icing so I've got the intense orange flavour covered! 

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees/Gas Mark 4

Ingredients: 

• 130g/4oz Butter
• 130g/4oz Caster Sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 130g/4oz self raising flour
• 2 tablespoons orange blossom water
• Handful of poppy seeds

Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk together. Add the 4 eggs, whisk and add the flour. Sieve the flour into the bowl and mix together. Add your orange blossom water. Be more generous depending on your taste. Add your poppy seeds. (Watch out - they go everywhere!) 

Pour your mix into a heart shaped mould like this one. Pour the mix 3/4 of the way into the mould to allow for your cakes to rise. 

Bake for approximately 25 minutes.  Test your cakes by inserting a clean skewer into the mix, if it comes out clean you are good to go!

The cakes should pop straight out of the moulds and leave on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before icing. 

Mix sieved icing powder and water (a little at a time), until you have a fluid but not completely runny consistency. Pour a few drops of orange angostura bitters into the icing and mix throughly. The flavour is subtle but leaves you wanting more!

What have you made this week?! 

I love linking up with Honest Mum and Tasty Tuesdays. As she is up in the big smoke being ultra glamorous at a fashion launch in London, I am hosting the link up this week! 

I'm linking this recipe up to Jenny and Helen because I reckon I could pass these off to my boys as mini sweetheart tarts! My take on this weeks theme.

There is a hidden treasure near Wrington, in Weston super Mare. 

The most idyllic flower farm, growing beautiful blooms for florists and brides to be in a hidden field in Somerset.

Except this is a flower farm with a little something extra. In amongst the buckets of stems are vintage gems. China, baskets, crates, everything a lover of pretty things could ask for!  

The friendly farmers explained to the boys how flowers really grow, let them eat an apple straight off the tree and even showed them the tiny turkeys that were due to join the flowers in the field next door. The boys were a little perplexed at the thought of eating these tiny creatures for their Christmas lunch! 

The farm shop had a butcher's counter bursting with organic meats of all descriptions. 

There is something special about buying produce straight from a farm shop.  

All the flowers are organically grown so could be used to pretty up any recipe.  Flowers look amazing in petal ice lollies!

A lovely Enid Blyton kind of afternoon and we got to take home 5 sweet stems to remember our trip by. 

If you get a chance to pop along and are after some flowers, vintage treasures or farm shop goodies you can find them here. The Somerset Flower Farm.