With the Food & Drink challenge around the corner, I thought I would tell you about a couple of blogs. The lovely Adele & Rachael have both started blogging about the challenge.

Adele’s blog: http://lunaticmagnets.blogspot.com

Rachael’s blog: http://raemck.blogspot.com

Though obviously if your taking part in the challenge a blog isn’t required. To find out more about the challenge you can click here. Don’t forget to let me know if you decide to join the challenge. Anyone is welcome. not just people I know.

Here is my entry for boring blog post of the month….joking aside (sorta), my girlfriend and I have been preparing for the food & drink challenge. Using up the last of the tea bags, finishing the tomato sauce, clearing space in the freezer etc.

I am now like a child in a sweet shop, drooling at the thought of the homemade soups we are going to make etc. Which leads me onto the…*drum roll please*…shopping list. Yes the exciting topic of shopping lists. Strap yourself in, for the rest of the post will be non-stop excitement!

We didn’t want to drift haphazardly into the challenge. We want to cross the start line at full pelt so for us this means looking at what is on our shopping list already. Especially as we plan to not go beyond our existing food budget. Plus there are key items that it’s okay if we can’t pick up one week due to availability, but would be annoying if not available locally a second week etc.

Variety is itself going to play a major part in this challenge and some planning will help. So as we finish up those freezer items that we’ve delayed cooking and say goodbye to the last of the English mustard, I say thank goodness for that.

My taste buds are ready for the change.

Grab your stalking kit for my good friend Linn has started a blog. Definitely a blog to follow. I’m not going to tell you about Linn, for surely that discovery is part of the enjoyment of following a personal blog… though only if the person is interesting and fun, which take my word she is.

You can find Linn’s blog here.

So in the run up to the Food & Drink Challenge I thought I would share a Blueberry & Blackberry Pie recipe. Earlier today my wonderful girlfriend made a lovely homemade pie. Now it’s not the challenge yet and I might be giving up deserts for the challenge, but that isn’t today.

The fruit was cheap and was on a good offer at Morrisons (supermarket chain). This pie shows what you can do with twenty minutes preparation time, that tastes far better than a supermarket pie. Plus this pie didn’t have all that nonsense they chuck into shop brought ones. E numbers, silly amounts of sugar etc.

Before I write more about the pie, I would also like to mention the lovely Rachel has written her first Food & Drink Challenge blog entry. It is well worth reading and I’m looking forward to more of her posts.

Right back to the pie recipe…

What is required…
-    Eight ounces of plain flour
-    Four ounces of butter (or similar)
-    Water!
-    Small pie dish
-    Blueberries, blackberries or other fruit
-    Knife, Fork and Rolling pin

The recipe…

Step 1: The pastry

Put roughly eight ounces of plain flour in a large bowl. The add four ounces of butter or similar, in our case it was utterly butterly. Rub these together until they are like breadcrumbs. Slowly add four to six table spoons of water, whilst stirring until they form a dough ball. Then divide the dough ball into two.

On a clean surface such as a chopping board add some flour. The individually cut the two dough segments into two circular shapes. Make sure one segment is larger than the pie dish and the other slightly larger than the longest width of the dish. Thickness is entirely up to you, but not too thin.

Now place the largest segment into your pie dish.

Step 2: The Fruit

Wash your fruit and put into the pie dish. Now take your second pastry segment and layer across the top. Get a fork and press down around the edge of the pie to seal it. Using a sharp knife the excess pastry from the edge of the pie. Using a fork stab gently about six times, this creates air holes.

Step 3: The cooking

Preheat your oven on gas mark four and then place the pie in it for roughly thirty minutes or until you think it is cooked.

The Result