Father's day breakfast picnic

For father's day I planned a beautiful breakfast picnic. I had my picnic basket and blankets ready to go and a lot of food prepared the night before. I woke up and it was raining. A lot. Alas and welaway! My breakfast picnic was now just breakfast.

I had planned the food in terms of portability. I made breakfast muffins

French toast casserole

And fruit salad

With tea, freshly made apple juice and Prosecco. I am devastated that my breakfast picnic didn't go ahead but it was still a delicious normal, indoor breakfast. I opened the French doors beside the table so it would feel a bit like outside.

Samphire

Today in the fishmonger I saw this. It is only available for six weeks in the whole year in Ireland. It is a type of seaweed and is very good for you.You can eat it raw or lightly sautée it with garlic and butter. This is a beautiful accompaniment to a fish dish. It would also be lovely with an aperitif along with olives and capers.

Table setting

I love to set the table very nicely once a week. I just have to maintain it all week which is easy enough. It makes dinner more special and helps to ensure that it doesn't feel like a rushed chore. I try to remember to light the candles every night too although I do forget more often than not. To protect against the toddler I just lift up his corner while we eat. I have an oil cloth underneath. When we finish eating I wipe it up and put the tablecloth back down.

I love Pimms!

Homemade multi-surface spray

I decided to make my own multi-surface cleaner. I saw a recipe on the kitchen.co. so I decided to give that a go. I put 2 cups of vinegar in a jar. I peeled the rind off two lemons with a potato peeler and put that into the jar. I picked a bunch of thyme from the garden and I put that into the jar. I sealed it up and I put it on the windowsill to infuse for two weeks. It worked out great! I diluted it with water and decanted it into a spray bottle after sieving it. It doesn't smell too vinegar it cleans very well.

Fennel fish bake

This is incredibly easy but tastes like you worked really hard. First slice the fennel bulb and an onion. Put them in an oven dish with some rapeseed oil and black pepper.

Bake at 200 degrees for half an hour. The onion should be lovely and crispy now.

Put in two handfuls of cherry tomatoes and place some fish on top. Sprinkle with black pepper and some more rapeseed oil. I used hake as it holds together well in the oven.

Put it back in the oven at 200 degrees for half an hour. Dinner is ready!

I have served this with boiled baby potatoes, quinoa or some really nice crusty bread.

Heirloom tomato salad

Heirloom tomatoes, good extra virgen olive oil, salt, basil.

Roasted rainbow carrots

Purple, yellow, orange.