Pinwheel scones and dining alfresco

On Monday it was our 7th Wedding Anniversary. Two kids later there wasn't much chance of a romantic dinner, but I decided to surprise Nathan with an early dinner picnic in the park. I wish I had remembered to take some photos of the picnic as we all had a lot of fun, we have a park 5 minutes drive from our house that has an amazing playground and water park (for free) and the girls love going there. Nathan finishes work early a couple of times a week for me to work during term time, but no swimming lessons to teach at the moment so we headed straight for the park at 3pm!

Kids love having picnics. Mia is always asking to have a picnic, even in the dead of winter. The one downside is that the rules of sitting down until you've finished seem to vanish (in kids heads anyway) and bites of food are interspersed with running off to have a swing or just to hide behind a tree!

I tried to pack stuff that was easily transportable and could be eaten easily with our hands. Our menu included:

- Vegetable crudities, bagel chips and hummus
- Soda water and juice
- Pinwheel savoury scones (recipe below)
- Chocolate brownies (recipe from Annabel Langbein's best of cookbook)
- Strawberries

We really do need to dine alfresco a bit more and take advantage of the balmy summer evenings, it reminded me how easy it is to chuck some food and some kids in the car and take off somewhere different for a couple of hours.

Savoury pinwheel scones

I remember my Mum making these to take to the beach for childhood picnics. The filling with bacon and creamed corn is very kiwi, but I have made variations of this if you want to be a bit posher or want something sweet.

You will need:

3 c flour
6 t baking powder
100g butter
1 c milk

3 rashers bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 tin creamed corn
1 zucchini, grated
1 c grated cheese

Basic scone dough

1. Process flour and baking powder together in the food processor to mix.
2. Cut butter into squares and process into the flour until combined.
3. Slowly add milk and pulse to make a soft dough, you may need slightly more or less milk. Don't overmix it.

This is a basic scone dough. You can make heaps of variations on this to make basic scones:

- Add 2 T sugar, 1 c chopped dates, grated rind of 1 orange and replace half the milk with orange juice to make date and orange scones
- Add 1 c cheese and 2 T chopped parsley with butter, and sprinkle cheese on top for basic cheese scones
- Add 2 T sugar for basic scones to serve with cream and jam

If you want to make basic scones cook at 200 C on fan bake for about 10 mins.

Pinwheel scones

1.Gently fry the bacon and onion until the onion is soft. Add the grated zucchini and cook for a further couple of minutes, drain off any excess water.
2. Roll dough out on a floured surface into a rectangle approx. 30 x 20 cms and about a cm thick.
3. Spread creamed corn on top, leaving a space of a couple of cms around each edge, especially the end you are going to roll towards. Be careful not to put too much filling on (like I did here!) otherwise it will spill out the end. If this does happen just keep rolling and discard any filling that spills out, or use it to make a toasted sandwich!

4. Sprinkle over the bacon mix
5. Sprinkle over the cheese. You could also add a little bit of chopped parsley if you wanted.
6. Roll the dough up like a sponge roll. Use a little bit of milk or water to dampen the edges and secure them down.
7. Cut the roll into 2cm slices and lay on a greased tray. You will probably find that the middle slices look really good and the end ones look less than perfect, still cook them as they taste just as good!
8. Cook at 200 C fanbake for 10 mins.

Variations:
Posh: Spread with pesto and top with chopped sundried tomatoes and cheese
Sweet: Add 2 T sugar to scone dough and top with cooked apple, walnuts and cinnamon sugar
Vegetarian: Top with chutney, mashed pumpkin and feta or grated cheese