A trifling matter...

As with most people, I see Christmas as a time of opulence, of giving gifts beyond our means and buying more food than we could ever feasibly manage. With this in mind, I've been thinking of neat ways to recycle food that's been forgotten, allowing it to go past its best and indeed, rejuvenating it by turning it into something completely new. Something we can all bare in mind I'm sure, when we're left perplexed by a mountain of Christmas Turkey....
I know this is a completely unoriginal idea, but I'm simply sick of being wasteful. Some people see a stale cake as something to be thrown away with the rubbish, but I see it as an ample opportunity to flex my creativity, and turn a cake-tastrophe into a masterpiece.
A prime example of this- my fiance and I live together, and although we both enjoy eating the cakes and desserts I make, we often find ourselves throwing the last scraps away.
I made a carrot cake the week before last, and it had been sitting, un-iced and looking un-interesting for about a week. (Can I just point out now- the cake was actually very nice, we just kinda forgot about it).
Then I had an idea, stale cake=trifle! I've never tried it with carrot cake before, but it actually worked! The recipe I followed called for nuts, citrus rind, carrots, butter, sugar, flour and eggs (I'll dig out the recipe if anyone's interested). I purchased 2 tins of peach slices (in juice) and cut up the cake and place it in a large dish.
Then I soaked the cake with some of the peach juice drained from the can. Next, I made up a batch of custard (according to the instructions), you can, of course use tinned or fresh custard- or even make your own if you're feeling inspired. I set the custard aside to cool and poured the peaches on top of the sponge.
When the custard cooled, on it went. Then came the cream- I whipped a small pot of double cream with some icing sugar and spread it thickly on top of the custard and finished with lashings of hundreds and thousands..... simple!
I know this is a bit of an essay, but I'm trying to drive home a point- it doesn't take a lot to be resourceful, I mean, most people would've slung the cake out and that would've be that... but for the last few days, I've had a lovely trifle for my pudding, and I don't feel guilty, as I've wasted nothing, so there!
Think twice before you throw things away! Visit Love Food Hate Waste for ideas on how to utulise your freezer, extend the life of fresh fruit and veg, and recipe ideas for leftovers.

And to finish....

Now I don't know about you, but I'm one of those people who can't resist a good bargain- in principle. If I'm in the supermarket and I see something on the reduced counter that I can see some vague use for, then generally, I'll buy it (and deal with the consequences later).

As we all know, these are difficult times, and all over the world people struggle to survive on what little food they have. Yet according to www.lovefoodhatewaste.com we throw away over 6.7 million tonnes of food, every year- most of which, could have been eaten!

I'm a firm believer in taking responsibility for my own actions. For example, I bought a punnet of peaches at a reduced price last week. I had to throw two away because they went mouldy, but I chose to economise, rather than waste by salvaging what I could and turning them into something tasty; my Peach and Apple-Berry Crumble.

Peach and Apple-Berry Crumble
For the Filling:
5x Ripe Peaches (peeled, stoned and cut into 1/4s)
2x Apples (peeled, cored and cut into chunks. I used Granny Smiths as they were in the fruit bowl)
A splash of Lemon juice
100g Mixed, frozen berries
50g Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon of Plain Flour
A good pinch of Ground Cinnamon

For the Topping:
300g Plain Flour
200g Brown sugar
200g Butter (plus extra for greasing)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C or Gas mark 4.
2. Place the Flour and Sugar in a large bowl and combine. Gradually rub in the Butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Place the fruit in a large bowl and with the Sugar, Flour, Lemon juice and Cinnamon. Stir well until the fruit is coated.
3. Butter a large ovenproof dish. Place the fruit mixture into the bottom, and sprinkle on the crumble topping.
4. Bake in the oven for roughly 40 minutes until the crumble is lightly browned and the fruit mixture is bubbling.
5. Serve with custard/ice cream or a good dollop of Clotted cream!

Serves 6