Here comes the SUN....

To celebrate being part of this fabulous blog tour Little Sniffer and I decided to make a picnic tea inspired by some of the things we spotted in Sun the latest seasonal delight from illustrator and author Sam Usher. 

The first little chap to catch our eye was the charming little green parrot on the front cover. With his delightful green plumage and perky yellow beak he leant himself perfectly to a fabulously fruity Crudités creation!

We collected together as many different coloured fruits and vegetables as we could find and made this technicolour treat! complete with mango beak, pepper plumage, a nectarine tummy, apple face and a tiny black bean for an eye, as you can see he's perched quite magnificently on a strange branch of basil. Mini Sniffers verdict, a BIG thumbs up. 

And now for something a bit more substantial!

Next to catch our eye this groovy looking chimp. Immediately we had a "Monkey Bun" in mind. So we set to work chopping snipping and shaping all of our favourite  ingredients and fashioning them in to what I think you will agree is a rather marvellous looking sandwich! 

We forgot to make a bow tie! 

Olives for nostrils, eggs for eyes (with obligatory black bean pupils) BIG green cucumber ears, a pepper mouth with a goofy ham tongue.... all in all quite unexpectedly delicious. 

Now for Little Monkey's favourite part of any meal, picnic or otherwise. 

Time of pudding! We were quite taken by the magnificent glittering sandcastle on the cover and Little Sniffer is unusually partial to jelly so we made a passionfruit jelly pot complete with sand made from crunched up biscuits. 

I hardly had time to photograph this particular component of our picnic as it was gobble up in a flash.  

REVIEW 

We have always been huge fans of this beautifully illustrated series of picture books, first the wintery delight which was Snow, then the atmospheric triumph which was Rain and now a scorching celebration of sunshine Sun. 

            

                                     

Sun is nothing short of a triumph, beaming with illustrative charm and unashamedly revelling in traditional storytelling with nothing but joy and adventure at it's core. I always delight in the beautiful intuitive depiction of the relationship between a boy and his grandfather in these books and this one in particular radiates love and friendship at it's most pure. The gentle evolution of the story is told so cleverly by at first the most subtle of detail, gently unfolding as heat parched landscapes dominate the pages. You'll never guess who boy and his grandfather unexpectedly chance upon. 

Hold on to your sun hats the almost unbelievable adventure which is about to unfold...

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FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK. 

I'm Hungry by Jorge Martin - Let's get COOKING!

REVIEW: I'm Hungry by Jorge Martin 

On an island far far away there’s a distant rumble…. Not just the rumble of a baby dragon hatching but the rumble of her very very hungry tummy! Visiting (and devouring) the other residents of the island certainly satisfies Baby Dragons hunger but makes for a very lonely friend-less existence. Mother Dragon is not pleased with her daughter’s decadent dietary decision and teaches Baby Dragon a ticklish lesson and the virtues of a vegetarian lifestyle.

Jorge's wicked sense of humour and distinguished illustration style make for a seriously delicious picture book and one I will no doubt digest over and over again.

BUY A COPY HERE 

All this reading has given us a serious hunger, so little Book Sniffer and I set about making some healthy but scrumptious vegetarian snacks inspired by "I'm Hungry" in hopes that we can tempt Baby Dragon into a visit to Book Sniffer Towers in the very near future. 

A tattooed BANANA! 

Here are our easy peasy step-by-step recipes, maybe you can try making them with your little sniffers, we'd love to see photos (@maybeswabey) 

STARTER  

Fruity Cockatoo Crudités

YOU WILL NEED: 

• 2 x Apples – One large red apple and one small green
• 2 Small peppers – red / green / orange OR yellow depending on your preferred plumage 
• 1 x small satsuma 
• Olive x 1 
• Cucumber 
• 2 dabs of cream cheese
• A small handful of "Herby Foliage" I've used Basil because its delicious
• Sharp knife / serving plate

INSTRUCTION: 
(red for grown-ups / 
orange for little helpers) 

1. Cut the two apples in half / place the large half on the plate as a body and the small half on the plate as a head.
2. Cut out some feather shapes from the colourful peppers and a small pity triangle for a beak / place them on the plate as feathery wings and secure the beak to the small head apple with some cream cheese. 
3. Cut out a ziggy zaggy shape from a piece of cucumber / place it on top of the head for parrot hair. 
4. Peel a satsuma place at the bottom of the large body apple for cockatoo claw feet. 
5. Cut a black olive into thin slices / dab two small spots of cream cheese above the beak and pop the olive slices on top for eye balls. 
6. FINISHING TOUCHES - Add some herby foliage for the cockatoo to perch in (can be herbs or washed salad leaves.)
7. CHOMP AWAY  

TA-DA! 

MAIN COURSE: 

Magnificent  

Bread-Beast-Pizza-Dragon with 
Speckled Dough-Ball Dragon Eggs 

Served with roaring hot lava hot dipping sauce!

YOU WILL NEED:

PIZZA DOUGH

·      500g Strong White Flour
     2TSP Salt
     7 gm sachet of yeast
    3 tablespoons Olive Oil
      300 ml warm water

   Nigella seeds for decorating the eggs

   Mozzarella pearls for stuffing the eggs

LAVA SAUCE

4 large juicy tomatoes

1 yellow pepper

1 clove garlic

1 table spoon sweet chilli sauce

1 pinch of dried thyme

1 pinch salt

1 pinch sugar

To make the dough...

1. Measure out all your ingredients. 
2. Mix the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. 
3. Make a well in the centre, then add the oil and water, and mix well. 
4. Tip onto a lightly floured work surface and knead. 
5. Once the dough is satin-smooth, Place it in a lightly oiled bowl to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

While the dough is proving make the hot lava sauce. 

1. Chop up all the ingredients roughly put in a saucepan with a dash of olive oil simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on. 
2. Mix is a food processor until smooth or slightly chunky if you prefer 
3. pour into a small dipping dish and set aside - if you are not a fan of spicy food leave the chilli sauce out OR add a small spoon of cream cheese to the mix. 

• Time for some freestyle dough moulding fun - make a sleeping dragon using 1/2 of your bread dough. set on a greased flat baking tray 
• Roll the remaining dough into small balls insert mozzarella pearl and roll in seeds to give the effect of being charred and place on an oiled tray. 
• Bake the dragon in at 180 for approx 25-30 minutes - keep checking him! (I dusted mine with smoked Paprika for an extra smokey flavour) 
• bake the dough balls for approx 12-15 minutes - keep checking them. 
• Plate up on a large board, pile the eggs in a nest of salad leaves and lay the dragon next to his lava dip - now dip and enjoy! 

We also made HUNGRY ELECAKES 

But in all honesty I am a dreadful baker so we cheated and brought a packed mix then free styled the decoration!

HUGE Thanks to the kind folk at Puffin for assisting us with this blog post! 

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Jorge Martin @jorgemartin 

Puffin Books @PuffinBooks