Sing A Song Of Sixpence…

…a pocketful of rye

four and twenty blackbirds

baked in a pie

when the pie was opened

the birds began to sing

wasn’t that a dainty dish

to set before a King?

I loved this nursery rhyme when I was very tiny – especially the part where the blackbird pecked off her nose.

I often said to my Grandfather “Please sing Toffa-nose” because he would do that thing with his thumb, pretending to remove my nose!

Liz recently gave me her spare china blackbird pie funnel. I had a pack of pastry in the freezer which I wanted to use up, and also a solitary chicken portion, so I made a chicken and veg pie for Sunday lunch at the weekend, with the funnel in the middle. I also cooked a large batch of mashed potato, as I realised that the spuds were not keeping well in the heat and needed to be dealt with promptly. Having boiled and mashed them, I portioned them out with the ice cream scoop, and put them on a dish. I wanted to cover them with cling film and freeze them – so I used an inverted  eggcup as a ‘funnel’ type support, keeping the clingfilm above the mash.

The leftover bits of puff pastry were wrapped round some nectarine slices to make mini Danish pastries. They cooked a little unevenly – but still tasted good! Using up leftovers is so satisfying.