nest

New Look

The new look blog design!

What do you think?

2010 will be an exciting year and I'm looking forward to sharing it with all of you.

I have a new camera too. Now I have to learn how to use it and hopefully, over time, get some of those amazing food photos like the ones here (my new favorite blog).

I would also like to explain the quote I use on my banner, '... in all the world this nest is best.'

It's from a favorite childhood book, My Nest is Best by P.D. Eastman. I've added a link to this book on amazon in my side bar. The book we had when we were little has lost it's cover...

...and the first couple of pages. I hadn't looked at this book for... well... for probably 25 years! (what?!) And when I saw the pictures again they were SO FAMILIAR to me. Like this one...

And my child thoughts came back, 'Lucky that piece of wood is broken and they can get in. Lucky.'

'That man would HAVE to know his sock was being pulled. Surely. I would, I think.'

'They still haven't fixed that broken bit. Lucky.'

'Poor Mr Bird.'

'Oh, hooray! It's all ok!'

How cute is that.

I love this book and have ordered a new one for my children to enjoy, it's still in print and I'm not surprised.

'I love my house.

I love my nest.

In all the world

This nest is best.'

Same here, Mrs Bird, same here.

The Best Gift

The best gift anyone can give me is a well planned meal.

The best gift I like to give is a well planned meal.

And when I ask you to eat with us, don't say, 'Don't go to any trouble.' Because it's actually no trouble, but if you're worth it, I'll go to extra trouble. That's my gift to you.

We were given a memorable gift today by relatively new, but quick to become, good friends. We arrived for lunch (photos to follow) and eight hours later were still there being offered dinner. Which we couldn't stay for, but wished we could.

Lunch was divine.

Leg of lamb slow roasted in the BBQ with the lid down until cooked through but pink on the inside- PERFECT AND DELICIOUS. Fantastic old fashioned mint sauce (sugar, water, vinegar and mint), couscous with baked pumpkin and a yoghurt sauce to blow your mind, a beetroot and rocket salad that I forgot to, but must, get the recipe for.

And if that wasn't gift enough, then came dessert. A never tried before profiterole recipe with whipped cream and a chocolate sauce. Very impressive. And I was very honoured to think that we were worth the 'trouble' of experimenting with something new and , really, more than a little daunting. I mean, French pastries, home made, not many people are going to do that for you.

Masterchef would have been won with these little babies.

And the chocolate sauce was amazing.

Eaten with beautiful antique silverware.

Then halfway through, 'WAIT! The almonds!'

And when I thought I'd found heaven, the almonds were sprinkled and heaven just got better.

Yep, I enjoyed that.

Thanks for a great day and memorable meal, F and B, I look forward to putting as much thought and effort into a meal for you. No trouble. 

Garden

My garden is nothing short of embarrassing. When we first moved here a few years ago we were in the middle of a drought so nothing grew. Nothing died either as they were all drought hardy plants. The garden just didn't change. Oh joy! A garden that needs NO TENDING! Perfect.

Then the drought breaking rains. Dormant seeds lying in wait under the surface woke up and grew like crazy. These new plants that suddenly appeared in the garden are known as WEEDS. Full on Cobblers Pegs and Scotch Thistles.

 And grass... in the garden bed.

Oh and it's TOO HOT to garden. I ignored it for a while and then I looked around with the eyes of a visitor and thought, 'The people who live here are grubs.'

There have been some valid attempts at weeding and new plantings. But the maintenance! Oh the maintenance! I do despise maintenance. I do a thing once, I like it to remain the way I left it. For ever.

Mum's garden is a different story.

Looking out from the veranda to lush green. A bit of an overcast day- but there have been many of late.

It's still a work in progress. A garden that's always changing. AND CONSTANTLY MAINTAINED, unlike other gardens I've mentioned... recently.

I always pictured myself as the gardening type, but I'm so NOT. It's unfortunate because apparently my garden has 'good bones'. Whatever that means. Planted over an ancient burial ground perhaps. Who knows. I certainly don't.

My mum is a mulcher. She was mulching before it became 'the thing'. Her mulcher guru (some old hippie in a straw hat and gum boots) put a wallaby in her mulch and swears by it. APPARENTLY, there was no rotting flesh smell at all and in a matter of moments (or was it days? weeks?) the steaming heap of mulch did it's work and the wallaby was gone. Bones and all. Or so the legend goes.

 The closest I've ever come to composting was when I mopped up spilled milk with a towel and didn't get to wash it for a day or so and in the Brisbane humidity it had started to steam... steam was visibly coming off the towel, it was radiating heat and smelt like a rotting wallaby.

But I wish I was a composter.

Gardening would be so satisfying.

I don't know how you do it, Mum. How you've always done it, even when we were small and time consuming.

Your garden has always been beautiful.

NYE

New Years Eve was always a bit over rated, I'm afraid to say. I'd get so excited about all the fun that was promised, the dancing, the laughter, the good times... the best night of the year! But in the end it was all about trying to get to the bar and then the impossible task of finding a taxi to get home. But, like child birth, you forget the pain and the next year, out again, it's 1am and no taxi.

Since children have come along we're lucky to see midnight. The NYE's since kids have been the best yet. I've found myself with all I was wishing for while waiting for that 1am taxi, someone to kiss at midnight, two littlies to be thankful for and a year I was looking forward to.

I am very lucky.

So, it's been quiet get togethers at friends' houses, or here, the last few new years and home, in bed by 10ish. We had planned to spend the afternoon and evening with good friends a few suburbs away when a few days before we realised we'd double booked! Friends returning to London new years day were staying the night with us... how did we mix that up!?

I wrote about my menu planning here and the cocktails we enjoyed here. While the kids jumped on the trampoline, we sat on the deck, our friends soaking up the warmth before being hit by the London cold, and ate a quickly thrown together starter. A play on an oldie but a goodie...

 
  
... spicy tomato salsa, then sour cream over that, then avocado sliced and placed (well, 'fanned', thankyou, Rod) over, then grated cheese, sprinkled with paprika. A bit of a specialty of the house at the moment is turkish bread sliced, brushed with olive oil and strewn with rosemary, then baked in a hot oven until brown. I normally serve this bread with our home made hummus but it went FANTASTICALLY with the salsa dish. Rave reviews, if I do say.

For the main meal I had decided on the parmesan, pancetta, rocket and olive salad I saw in the Gourmet Traveller mag, a take on Rick Stein's 'Sauteed Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic' and creamy mashed spud. I baked the chicken with 'some' (not 40) cloves of garlic, lemon wedges and chicken stock then added cream to the juices to make a sauce.

I prepared most of the meal in the afternoon, during the prep, this...

... my Global Knife decided to break in half. WHAT!?

I had a back up. I powered on.

Here's a photo of the finished meal....

For such good friends we ate off the Wedgewood china dinner set, which always makes food tastes better.

Dessert was Pavlova made from our backyard eggs. I tend not to use whipped cream but rather yoghurt, creamy and maybe flavoured with honey.

By the time we'd bathed kids and put them to bed, eaten dinner and dessert... it was 11.30pm, so decided to stay up and see in the new year. Neighbours were with their friends in other backyards, the sounds of music, laughter and good times floated over the fences in the humidity, mosquitoes buzzed, whoops and yahoos, a kiss, fireworks popped far off and it's 2010.

2010...!

Happy New Year.

Summer Cocktail

I thought I would never find it. A summer/ Christmas cocktail that was refreshing and festive and not so alcoholic that the fumes knock you over. A cool drinkable holiday cocktail. I don't ask for much.

You may remember previous summer cocktails like my Mint Julep and Lychee Fizz (Nigella's still in consultation with her lawyers about that one.. obviously, or I would have heard from her).

Let me start by saying NEVER waste your money on Cherry Brandy. My idea was to do a champagne cocktail along the lines of the Lychee Fizz but with a cherry. Christmasy, right? However, far too late, I found out that Cherry Brandy tastes EXACTLY like cough medicine. Exactly. Not just a little bit, or kind of like, but absolutely exactly. Christmasy it was not. A waste of $24, it was.

This is going in the bin....

... I don't even want to pollute the oceans by tipping it down the sink, or contaminate the soil by pouring it on the garden. I can't tell you how disgusting it was... is.

I live and I learn.

Rod and I were fortunate enough to be able to meet for lunch before Christmas (sans kids) and the cocktail I had at the restaurant BECAME MY SUMMER COCKTAIL! Slightly modified. It was called 'Pre-pear to shine' which I thought was more than a little lame. I've called mine 'Pear on ice', which is also lame, but not... as.... lame... maybe.

PEAR ON ICE

A tall glass full of ice. Pour in 20ml (look, I only had a Tablespoon from the kitchen. ok?) of ABSOLUT PEARS (a glorious flavoured vodka), 20ml of LEMONCILLO, then fill about 3/4 up the glass with PEAR JUICE and top up with CHAMPAGNE (you know, a sparkling white). Stir and enjoy.

We enjoyed these with friends New Years Eve.

Do try it.