Monday's Menu with a side of our Spring garden and Cinnamon tea cake.

I like the ying and yang of this weeks Monday's Menu photo collage. Chocolate cherry cupcakes made with a jar of Bonne Maman cherry preserve right next to a very virtuous meal of steamed greens from the garden. The greens are starting to get going now, we ate three types of broccoli in our soup on Saturday, the ever present silver beet, as well as the tops of the Savoy cabbages.
I can not wait for the broad beans and peas to start. Yesterday we planted some more seedlings and seeds: lettuce, chives, sweetcorn, beetroot, rocket, radishes, and parsnips.

Anyway the menu:

Monday: Baked ziti with silver beet.
Tuesday: ahem, baked ziti with broccoli.
Wednesday: Steamed broccoli, silver beet and cabbage tops with soy sauce.
Thursday: Pork and fennel sausages on silver beet and fresh sourdough bread with home made tomato sauce.
Friday: Decided to live in the moment and headed down to Cygnet for dinner at the Red Velvet Lounge. Rob enjoyed a rump steak, with old-school chips and salad. I had the famous pork cotoletta. We shared a dessert of cherry ice cream and chocolate sauce, and we were back home by 8pm.
Saturday: The big grand final day with our annual consumption of footy food. We ate the footy franks in white squishy buns with mustard, tomato sauce and butter (that sentence confused a few of my international Instagram followers- they eventually worked out I was talking about a hot dog!) I'm afraid that they didn't make for a very photogenic food picture, but they were tasty. We used the remainder in a tomato and vegetable soup.
Sunday: Rob cooked us Patricia Well's Chicken breasts with sage and potatoes (parboiled, then sliced and cooked in butter).

My sister, her husband and my niece visited for afternoon tea yesterday, we had chocolate caramel and almond slice (similar to this recipe but with almonds), those cherry chocolate cupcakes and a simple cinnamon teacake. Which was probably the most popular! See the very simple recipe below.

Cinnamon Teacake {From Women's Weekly}

Ingredients:

60g butter, softened
2/3 cup castor sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup milk
15g butter, extra
3 tablespoon castor sugar, extra
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method
Preheat oven to 160deg C (fan-forced oven)
Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.
Beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until light and fluffy (about 5 mins).
Stir in sifted flour and milk with a wooden spoon, beat lightly until smooth.
Spread mixture into the tin, bake for approx. 30 minutes.
Turn onto wire rack, pour over extra melted butter, sprinkle with combined extra sugar and cinnamon. Serve warm with butter.

Finally Rob headed out when it wasn't blowing a gale or pouring with rain (not many opportunities over the weekend!) and took some photos of the flower and vegetable gardens with a real camera. I'll share them on Friday, but in the mean time I'll leave you with a photo of the dogs in the flower garden. Everything is starting to look very green and lush.

Monday's Menu {and beauty}

Last night Rob took the dogs out for what we call "a wee on a wallaby" around 10.30. Don't worry no wallabies are harmed in this procedure.
He came straight back inside to get me. The night sky is spectacular at the hut anyway, as there are no street lights around the stars are so clear and bright. But last night there was an Aurora Australis happening. Our first at the hut.
Despite the cold -- thank goodness I'd grabbed a beanie and polar fleece -- we stood in the dark at the end of the terrace and watched in awe as a shaft of silvery light shot up from the horizon and then became a series of shimmering waves, that slowly moved across the sky. The light was like a translucent curtain moving in a breeze. Beautiful. Stunning. Luminous.

I didn't even bother trying to take a photo. For once I was content to capture the memory in my mind, confident that I could record it in words here.


This morning the mist hung over the hills as the sun started to rise. I don't know why but Rob and I have become so much more aware of the beauty of where we live since moving to the hut. It was hard to tear ourselves away this morning for work.


So the menu this week:

Monday: Massaman curry, I used a paste I admit and the end result wasn't as good as I had hoped, but still tasted pretty good with rice and poppadums.
Tuesday: We fixed the curry, by adding some almond meal to thicken the sauce and some silverbeet. We ate it with poppadums again and some natural yoghurt.
Wednesday: Lemon linguine.
Thursday: Tomato, vegetable and meatball soup.
Friday: same soup with freshly baked bread (Rob stayed home to work!)
Saturday: Egg and Bacon pie with rocket salad.
Sunday: Rocket salad with soft boiled eggs, blood pudding (sorry Sarah), and sourdough croutons.


Yesterday we headed to the Cygnet market (which is held on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month, from 10am-2pm). We love Cygnet on market days. Even better they have an atm for our bank now! So we picked up free range eggs, vegetable seeds, almonds, spices, rhubarb, carrots, parsnips, swede, leeks, and silverbeet. We couldn't resist a couple of Eccles cakes from Lotus Eaters, a browse in the second hand clothes shop behind the cafe, a loaf of Steve's sourdough rye and a couple of his jam doughnuts. There was a cute new fruit and vegetable shop in town, and we found some coffee beans (we'd totally run out so we were on the hunt for some) and I spied a beautiful dark grey salad bowl, made by Emile Henry. Rob indulged me and bought it.

I'm thinking of collecting my recipe posts in a separate page as a list, what do you think?

Monday's Menu {Mother's Day megamix}

Trying saying that really fast.
We finished our week on a culinary high with a Mother's Day lunch for my parents and brother at the hut.
The weather was FOUL all weekend. Horizontal sleety rain, gale force winds, snow on the mountain, winter temperatures.
So we hibernated inside.

The menu:
Monday: our weekend curry with the addition of silver beet and served with rice, papadams and yoghurt.
Tuesday: the 2nd encore of the curry, with more silver beet, butternut pumpkin and potatoes. I think it was the best version of the three!
Wednesday: our cheat's ravioli (made with wonton wrappers). Stuffed with Elgar cottage cheese, spinach, pine nuts, and parmesan, served in a tomato sauce.
Thursday: Pan-fried potatoes, speck and onions.
Saturday: vegetable soup.


On Friday we treated ourselves to meal at our favourite Tasmanian restaurant, the Red Velvet Lounge. Quite luckily for us, it's only 15 minutes down the road to Cygnet. We ran in from the rain, and felt warmer as soon as we saw the wood fire. Our neighbour is the front of house, so we caught up on neighbourhood comings and goings, the current mouse plague our gardens. Steve came out for a quick chat too. A small group of musicians sat in the corner of the restaurants singing and playing music, adding to the ambience. I can't get enough of this place, and would go every week for dinner (or lunch, or breakfast or for a piece of Banoffee pie) if we could.

I had been thinking about a steak with chips and Bearnaise sauce all week. Rob had read an article on how to best eat out. Apparently you should order the item that sounds the least appetising. Don't order the steak (like me), but the item that at first glance you wonder why it's there. Because it will be there for a good reason. The theory goes that the chef has to cook steak all the time, so won't find that interesting, but the different item, may not be ordered very often and therefore will be more exciting for the chef to cook. He thought he'd test it out at RVL. Which isn't very risky because all of the food looked delicious. So he picked the lambs fry.

We enjoyed a glass of Blighs cider each and a Chicken liver parfait, with red wine jelly, sourdough toast and cornichons.

Then our mains arrived, my steak was cooked perfectly, smothered in a the Bearnaise sauce and the chips were nice and crunchy, just how I like them. The lambs fry was served with bacon, slow cooked onions, potato puree and sherry sauce. We decided to share so ate half and swapped. I had never tried lambs fry before. But it was tender and delicious with the sides and the herbs. But I found it very rich (especially after the liver parfait and steak, so couldn't get through my half). Happily full, we stumbled out into the cold and headed home to the hut with smiles on our faces.

Weekend baking included pancakes with stewed apple and blackberry jam (Rob), date loaf (me, found this recipe on BabyMac's blog, so easy and so good) and Coconut rough slice (me).

Sunday menu for Mother's Day

Nigella's Union Square Cafe Bar Nuts

Annabel's baked Sicilian olives

with Jansz NV sparkling

Nick Nairn's potato stacks

Roasted onions, neeps, carrots, parsnips, and leeks.

Wilted silver beet

Margaret Fulton's Roast tarragon Chicken with brandy cream sauce.

Rye dinner rolls.

Nick Nairn's chocolate souffles with brandy cream.

I think the guest of honour was suitably impressed, she liked her present too (slightly narcissistically I gave her two photos, one of Rob and I on our wedding day and one of us on the day of my PhD graduation) for her photo wall. She had been hinting that she didn't have any photos of us.

After they left (and Rob took the dogs for a walk) we lazed on the window seat. 

We didn't get around to much mouse proofing, however, we did catch three in the humane trap (ie we let them go in the bush). They are so cheeky. On Saturday night we heard much squeaking coming from the heat pump. We opened it up and out hopped a mouse, it must have been fighting with another mouse cause we could hear scuffling. He brazenly looked us in the eyes and ran back in before we could do anything!

Hope you had a lovely weekend, particularly those of you who are mothers to children young or old.

Supermoon gardening

The moon was amazing last weekend, wasn't it? So bright. You could see everything. The gardens are even beautiful by moonlight. Rob took these photos on Saturday night and had a bit of a play in Lightroom afterwards. It does look like the hut is on fire though!



Apart from our bulb planting session last weekend (which isn't very interesting photographically until they pop up in a few months time) not much else to report in the garden. I found some cheap red Ranunculus bulbs last night, as unfortunately Tesselaar had run out and they weren't in my order.

What's been happening this week at the hut?

• We made a curry last three dinners and one lunch. It kept getting better, with added silver beet, pumpkin and potatoes! I made papadams in the microwave (hardly taxing).
• Probably good we saved money on food, cause we took Nigella to the vet yesterday. Nigella is plagued by a common German Shepherd problem: sensitive skin. She gets these terrible hotspots that she will lick and lick. Yuk. Usually we can just spray them with a topical treatment and they clear up. But I noticed one on her front leg had become a bump. I'm my mother's daughter, which means my first assumption is, oh no she's got cancer! So we visited our local vet yesterday, more for my peace of mind. Verdict was an infected hotspot. Two weeks of antibiotics combined with the drugs should clear it up. Poor Nigella she really hates the vet. But she was quite good (by that I mean she actually walked in the building, she has been known to lie down in the car, passive resistance like and refuse to get out, 40kg dogs are hard to move). She shook while the vet shaved her leg to take a sample. 
• We have mice in the hut. Eww. Cheeky buggers are getting up under the vertical boards we think. One has made a nice home in our heat pump. Although I haven't heard squeaking the last few days from there. They have moved onto our kitchen cupboards. Rob is a man possessed. Filling up gaps with steel wool. I was in the breezeway the other night and I heard some gnawing noises coming from behind the wardrobe (yes it's still there). We pulled out the robe to find very obvious signs of mice and they have been stealing the dogs biscuits and lining them up along the skirting board. There are a lot of knot holes in the interior cladding and they must be in the wall. Last night one ran the gauntlet along the bifold door and dove into our library basket. They are so damn fast our dogs don't even see them. Rob took the basket outside to release the mouse (and I hate to say it we both thought it was so cute) and the cheeky bugger leapt out and headed straight for the hut (outside the kitchen) so we suspect there is a hole there for them to enter the hut. Rob has some flyscreen wire that the hardware store recommended. I think there will be some mouse proofing this weekend (oh a tube of selleys to plug up knot holes!)

So looking forward to the weekend, we're off to Red Velvet Lounge for dinner tonight.

Tomorrow mouse proofing and some baking, and on Sunday my Mum and Dad are coming down for a Mother's Day lunch of roast chicken.

Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Monday's Menu

We had a quiet weekend. Slept in both days, I spent some quality time on the window seat whilst Rob constructed my garden beds.
It was hard to take him away, but I had ordered some free range pork, bacon and a shoulder of lamb from Mount Gnomon farm, and had arranged to pick it up from Guy at MoMa, the new food and produce market at MONA on Saturday afternoon. When we got to the gate people were still streaming in, there were cars everywhere. I have to admit we haven't been before. The place was buzzing and there was a long line to get into the museum. We visited Michelle for a chat and bought a jar of her peach jam, but it's presented so beautifully I don't want to open it. Guy was braving the stiff breeze that was coming up the Derwent.
Rob cooked the pork belly on a bed of red cabbage in the Weber, we ate late, the tender pork served alongside some steamed zucchini and beans.
Sunday was a perfect blue sky day and we stayed home all day. The garden beds are nearly done. I baked a batch of banana, walnut and choc chip biscuits. A cross between a biscuit and banana bread. They were pretty good, but Rob thought they needed a touch more sugar.
This last week we headed out for lunch nearly every day, oops. In the evenings we had grilled vegetables and beans on Monday, and just snacked on cheese and crackers on Tuesday. Rob spoiled me with birthday pancakes in bed before work on my birthday. I'd requested pesto for dinner, so he made deconstructed pesto, just frying the pine nuts and warming a garlic clove in olive oil. Then they're tossed through the pasta with basil and Parmesan.
Thursday we were adventurous and chose some lamb souvlaki sausages from our butcher. I made a mint, parsley, tomato and cucumber salad. It was just warm enough to eat it outside.
Friday night was a treat: dinner out at Red Velvet Lounge. We ordered some smoked eel croquettes for entree, then had a pork cutlet (each) on mash with rocket and red pepper pesto. We somehow squeezed in a honey and hazelnut parfait, and rolled home before 8pm!
Today I head off to Canberra for a night, not sure what culinary delights await me there.
Hope you had a great weekend.

Birthday week

My favourite breakfast at the moment, Companion Bakery sourdough with Reed avocados and little cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes look like rubies.

Claudia helping us make our bed! She is definitely a snuggle pup.

I was quite spoilt on my birthday, we went out for lunch and dinner. This is the beautiful Sushi platter and grilled eel sushi we enjoyed at Orizuru in Hobart for dinner. My family and friends spoilt me with lovely gifts, and we had a bit of a shopping trip yesterday to buy new gym gear- surely it makes me more believable in the weights class?!

The builders are back at the hut after their Christmas break. Framing windows and setting up all the electrical wires. It looks very confusing, but it means we're one step closer to a finished hut.

Finally the dogs have been enjoying the return of summer weather with our daily beach trips. They run and splash, chase sticks and each other. Very funny indeed. When it came time to leave the other day and I pulled out the lead, Claudia deliberately walked just out of reach into the water and sat. She wasn't quite done yet thank you very much!

I'm going to make the most of our last few days of holidays, with maybe a few more birthday celebrations thrown in. My birthday treat to myself is to take Rob down to Cygnet to have dinner at Red Velvet Lounge tomorrow. I've been looking forward to that all month!

Our Sunday:

I’d been planning this adventure for awhile. It was funny to go on a Sunday drive though; surely we’re not at that stage of our lives yet? Anyway, first stop was the Huon Grower and Makers market at Franklin, after their 3 month break. We picked up some free range eggs, it looked like it was a bit early for garden produce. Then we took a meandering drive via the Cygnet Coast road to the Coads Daffodil Farm. I’ve wanted to go since I saw it on Michelle’s blog last year. It was a bit blustery, so a bit tiresome for photos. Like children in a lolly shop we were a little overwhelmed at first but we narrowed it down to our top 8 favourites and ordered 10 of each for next March.

By this stage Nigella was getting a little grumpy in the back, so the next stop was just for her. I’d read about Drip Beach somewhere, and thought if we were ever in the area we should pay it a visit. Nigella loves beaches so was out of the car in a flash running along the sand, jumping over logs and splashing around in the shallow bay, her first swim for the season. It was a beautiful spot, and quaint to be on a beach and still look across to a paddock of cows!By now we were starting to feel a little peckish, so needed to collect some supplies before heading to the block. Almost as if I’d planned it we were in the vicinity of Red Velvet Lounge so dropped in for some jam doughnuts (we just had to try one of each sort, apricot and raspberry) and a loaf of Steve’s sourdough (worth the trip on its own).

I did have to smile at ourselves though, we waltzed in and the place was buzzing (which was great to see) but I realised that some of the customers were looking at us a little funnily. I looked at our attire a little more critically, in our defence we were at least clean, but I guess I was wearing blunnies and trackpants, and Rob, well, he had his block clothes on, T-shirt, his favourite old shorts (thanks goodness he’s not into stubbies!), well used blunnies and boot protectors. Sorry Steve, hope we didn’t lower the dress standards too much for RVL- but we were never intending to eat in yesterday!

So feeling quite smug that our hunting and gathering had been successful we headed to the block. There was one last final item I was hoping for, as we rushed by the Nicholls Rivulet Organic Farm I saw it- fresh Rhubarb. I am afraid that I literally squealed with excitement, “turn around!” A quick u-turn and we had 3 bunches of the reddest Rhubarb you can imagine.

Finally the block, to find the first step towards the hut; during the week the builder had set out the markings for the excavator to do the footings. A small step I know but exciting none the less. We set out our picnic of leftover egg and bacon pie (Rob made the day before), boiled the kettle (we have to use the power board in some way!) and followed the pie with a cup of tea and an apricot jam doughnut. Heaven.

At the end of the day we both felt quite content as we sat in front of the TV eating Rhubarb and Orange (our first harvest of oranges) crumble, sorry no picture, we couldn’t wait to eat it.