Too sweet or not too sweet!

I am not usually a dessert person, but for some unknown reason (maybe it's the change of season) I have been craving sweets and lots of chocolate. So to mix things up I have been making lots of little things for dessert.

This first one is strawberries dipped in melted dark chocolate then rolled in crushed pistachio nuts. Fresh, salty and sweet, what more could you want.

An experiment with mint slice biscuits, short crust pastry and crushed straberries mixed through ricotta. An interesting combination, but it was amazing.
I crushed mint slice biscuits in my pestal and mortar and put that on the pastry first, then I topped it with the ricotta mixture, then sprinkled some more of the mint mixture and a few pieces of fresh strawberries to finish it off.
Simple and yummy, the mini ones were great!

Who said being a vegetarian is boring...

Vegetable pie with pesto, parmesan and rocket.

A few of my friends happen to be vegetarian and I have claimed (over the years) that I am (if that involves me still being able to eat yummy bacon, mince and my favourite... lamb!!) ok so that's not exactly being vegetarian, but i enjoy vegetarian food and last night decided to make something I have never really attempted. A Pie. A Vegetable Pie to be exact.

It was made with short crust pastry (I didn't make this myself)

Bake the pastry for roughly 15 mins with pie weights or rice (and don't do what I did and put the rice straight onto the pastry, needless to say there was a 'take 2' and I have learnt my lesson to use baking paper in between, rookie mistake!!) then remove rice or weights and bake for a further 10 or so mins until golden brown and the base is cooked.

The filling:

- The base was smeared with pesto (I had a gourmet capsicum and tomato one but any is fine!)

- Then roughly 500g mashed sweet potato, combined with 2 tbsp cream, 200g ricotta and 2 tbs grated/ shaved parmesan

- Top with cut pieces of zucchini, eggplant and red/ green capsicums, then place halved cherry tomatoes on top (I roasted all the vegetables slightly so they weren't too crunchy)

- Bake it in a moderate oven for roughly 10 mins until the vegetables are cooked

- Top with fresh rocket and shaved parmesan.

Then enjoy.

I know I did and I had left overs for lunch the next day. Yum.

And as I usually do, I made some miniture pies. They are great cold as well as hot.