It’s now my second week back in work after lockdown.  My working days have changed and it has made me have to be really organised.  Before lockdown I worked on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday but for now I am in work on a Monday, Tuesday and Friday.

On a working day I finish at 6pm on two days and don’t get in from home until 6.45pm. The last thing I want to do is to think about cooking dinner.  On a work night it’s usually something I’ve prepared earlier or something easy to put together which Mr S or my daughter can make. The other day before the pandemic started was my college night where I used to go straight from work to  my patisserie course. On that night I would eat a sandwich for my tea in the car before going into college.

I love  The Batch Lady  (aka Suzanne Mulholland) I bought her book back in March and  used it loads of times.  My family have really enjoyed everything I’ve made out of her book and always ask me to  make her Farmer’s Wife Plait (basically a giant sausage roll) on a regular basis. I think The Batch Lady book has revolutionised my meal planning, especially as I love to cook but do not like to be spending ages doing it when I’m tired.

On Sunday afternoon just after I had popped our roast beef into the oven for our dinner that night, I started to prep Monday night’s dinner as well.  I had some ready rolled puff pastry in the fridge so I looked in The Batch Lady  book to see which recipes she had which used puff pastry.  Apart from the aforementioned Farmer’s Wife Plait, there was a recipe for Chicken, Cheese and Ham Lattices.  I only had chicken in the freezer and I hadn’t got a lattice cutter.  But I thought I’d adapt the recipe to suit what I had in the fridge.

I found some mature cheddar, some ham, tomatoes and half a jar of pesto sauce in the fridge which needed using up.  I thought they would make a delicious combination for a savoury lattice parcel. I could prep them up and put them on the baking tray ready in the fridge. All  Mr S or my daughter needed to do was to pop them in the oven and to stick some veg on to go with it on the Monday night.

I unrolled the puff pastry sheet and cut it into four quarters.  Then, I spread some pesto sauce on the bottom of the pastry but not quite to the edges. I then put a piece of ham, a piece of cheddar and two slices of tomato on one side of the parcel. Although the cheddar was a delicious one I’d bought off the deli counter in my local Morrisons, it was dead crumbly and made a right mess!

Once the filling had been put in, I then folded the parcel over and crimped the edges with a fork. I also made three diagonal slits in the top of the pastry.  Finally, I brushed it all over with some beaten egg. They looked very rustic but I was going for taste, not looks here!

On Monday I had had a really busy day and was exhausted.  I was so glad I had prepared the parcels the night before. As I literally crawled in through the door on my knees, Mr S had made some mashed potato and cooked some peas and sweetcorn to go with the parcels.  I was so grateful for this.

Both Mr S and my daughter said they really enjoyed the parcels.  There were four of them and we ate the fourth one between us. I had wanted to take it for my lunch on Tuesday but there it was lying all alone on the plate looking at us after we had finished our dinner. I have been told I have to make this again, which I’m definitely up for doing.

If you’re wondering why I haven’t got a photo, well that’s down to me forgetting to take one before we finished eating it! Oops!

Stay Safe!

Love Sam xx