Summer holidays mean hazy sunny days in the garden and hungry boys!

I have a deep love affair with ready to roll puff pastry and it's always handy to keep a roll in the freezer. You can whip up all sorts in minutes and make a meal stretch a little further if you suddenly have extra guests.

Try these chorizo and pancetta parcels for a simple brunch or tea idea. And if you are not a chorizo fan just substitute it for ham or prosciutto.

Ingredients:

• I roll puff pastry
• Sliced chorizo
• Cubed pancetta
• Eggs
• Oregano, pepper and salt to season
• Olive oil

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees/Gas Mark 4.

Roll out your puff pastry (Preferably onto the baking tray as once filled they are tricky to move. You only find that out after you've tried it on a board!) and cut into 4 inch squares. You will need a base and a lid for each parcel.

Fold the corner of the pastry sheet over to create a triangle to give you an accurate square shape for cutting. A 4 inch square parcel will feed 2 small children.

Tease up the edges of your base to create a lip around the base, this will stop the egg from leaking before it's cooked.

Layer your slices of chorizo and sprinkle your pancetta, herbs and top with an egg. 

Place the pastry lid on the top and using the back of a fork press down the rim of your lid to the base. Brush with olive oil.

Bake in the oven for approximately 15 mins until the pastry has puffed and is golden brown.

Slice and eat. I served the boys with baked beans and they loved it.

And if you are thinking of what do do with the left over pastry, why not try these ideas?!

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Open Cherry Candy Floss Pie

Puff pastry allotment cones

Eton Mess bake

Continuing my love affair with ice pops is today's idea in honour of the great tennis Championships Wimbledon - a strawberry and cream dream!

We are big tennis fans in our family. My Mum spent an entire 2 weeks, late in her pregnancy with me, chained to watching Wimbledon eating strawberries and cream and my Grandpa was a huge fan of the game, both playing and watching. My mother in law has played tennis for years and plays every week at her local club, inspiring Sammy to want to take up lessons last term at school. 

So even without our Wimbledon hero of 2013 out of the Championships, here is a delicious ice pop recipe to keep you cool during the semi's and finals at the weekend!

Ingredients:

• 1 tin coconut milk
• 6 large strawberries
• large pinch of dried rose petals
• large pinch of freeze dried strawberries

You can source dried rose petals and freeze dried strawberries in Waitrose.

Strain your coconut milk into a jug to remove any lumps.

Cut up your strawberries into 6 smaller pieces.

Take your ice pop moulds (Which you buy in both Sainsburys and Waitrose as well as on Amazon and eBay.) and fill a third full with coconut milk.

Add a sprinkle of rose petal and freeze dried strawberry, pop in 2/3 pieces of cut fresh strawberry and poke with a knife to the bottom, mixing the ingredients together at the base of the mould.

Set in the freezer for approx 45 mins. Repeat the previous step twice over until your moulds are full. If you want to fill them straight up from the start then add more fruit to ensure the fruit is evenly distributed on freezing.

Remove from the freezer and eat from the mould or squeeze free and wrap with a piece of baking paper.

Enjoy!

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Ok so making Pimms Ice Pops the other week was a little unfair on the boys, seeing as they were packed full of alcohol!

So this week for after dinner treats in the garden we made Haribo Pops!

These are all kinds of awesome and would be fab for a Summer party.

I used coconut water with passionfruit and pineapple as the base of the lolly and set a third of the mould at a time with 4 sweets from the packet of Haribo Star Mix each time.

The best thing is the fruit water freezes around them and has just enough depth of colour to give you only a flash of what surprises are hidden inside.

You could add the passionfruit seeds for extra crunch or try it mixed with blue food colouring first, if you are hosting a Frozen party!

The sweets won't freeze so their consistency is not altered during the freezing process.

Each layer set within an hour and it turns out they are right. Kids and grown ups love it so, the happy world of Haribo!

ps. You can buy the moulds in Waitrose or online. I got mine on Amazon. Now what to make next?! 

Linking up with #recipeoftheweek and #tastytuesdays