Only 11 more sleeps until Father’s Day I am told !! This was told to me by my husband and not our three children. I’ll have you know! I find this so lovely and really quite funny. When I met Michael, his idea of a celebration of any kind was all very casual (a lot like himself) and much to my horror, it didn’t involve a lot of fanfare. Now, after all these years living with someone who has ‘festivities’ in their very blood, he has well and truly caught what I like to call my family’s ‘celebration bug’! Counting down nights of sleep! Who would have thought?

When thinking of a delicious Father’s day recipe to post, so many ideas and choices came to mind. In the mix, I had curries, I had steaks, I had seafood on the barbecue, I had delicious rhubarb and custard-filled muffins, I had pancakes, I had some fab knock-out fish and chips. I also had visions of families sitting outside, sharing a gorgeous Spanish Paella and then……I scrapped the lot! As much as my husband loves a delicious dish as much as the next guy, he also loves simplicity. He would love to enjoy something cooked with oodles of love by me and our three gorgeous girls, without it taking away from spending some precious time together, and surely, this is what days like these are all about.

Our children, definitely have to be involved when it comes to the preparations so I went back to basics and very much an ‘old love’. An ‘old love’ that Michael would happily eat for the rest of his days and never tire of! I’m talking simplicity at it’s best – the freshest free-range eggs, a tasty free-range ham, a little parmesan here, a dot of cream there, some freshly chopped herbs and cherry tomatoes – thrown in for good measure, if that’s what you crave! This is the perfect example of how using the best ingredients make a simple recipe something quite magical!

This post is a special tribute to all of the amazing Dad’s out there! We hope your Father’s Day is wonderful! We hope it is filled with love, laughter and all the little and big people you adore and who adore you! We hope that you too, catch the ‘celebration bug’. It is only 11 more nights of sleep after all!

Little Ham & egg tarts
Makes 12

12 thin slices of free-range ham
12 organic or free-range eggs
6 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons of cream
Sea salt
Freshly cracked black pepper
2-3 tablespoons roughly chopped parsley
3 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan

Heat the oven to 180 o C. Lightly grease each mould of a muffin tray. Line the base and sides of each mould with a slice of ham. Break an egg into each hollow and top each with a halved cherry tomato. Drizzle with the cream, scatter with sea salt, pepper, parsley and parmesan. Bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes or until the egg is just set and starting to shrink away from sides of pan. Remove from oven & cool for 5 minutes. Run a blunt-edged knife or palette knife around each mould to loosen the ham and egg tarts and transfer them to a wire rack (if you can wait that long!).
Eat warm or at room temperature.

n.b – If you have stored in the fridge, reheat on a very low oven for a few minutes.