Monday's Menu and snail mail

What an odd weekend weather wise, windy on Saturday (but sunny) then on Sunday we had rain/hail downpours every hour, so we kept trying to do stuff outside before scurrying inside to hide (especially Nigella and Claudia!)

We visited the Woodbridge Nursery and picked up some flowering plants for my garden and some lettuce and broccoli seedlings for the veggie patch.

On Sunday we took delivery of two round bales of pea straw and lucerne hay for mulch.

Menu wise-

Monday: Salad with carrots, cheese, broccoli, cauliflower and potatoes.
Tuesday: Chicken breasts with crispy sage on a bed of rice and peas.
Wednesday: Broccoli and chorizo frittata
Thursday: four bunches of asparagus steamed, prosciutto, fresh sourdough bread and a few slices of parmesan cheese (and soft boiled eggs for Rob.
Friday: Barbecue sausages and silver beet.
Saturday: An aged piece of porterhouse beef on the bone, roasted with onions. Our first harvest of some cute little parsnips and carrots, more silver beet and some steamed new season pink eye potatoes (not ours).
Sunday: As we ate some leftover beef on fresh bread for lunch, Rob just fried up the leftover pink eyes as chips with some parsley. Oh and we had an apple and raisin crumble for dessert (I always double the crumble recipe which means we have frozen crumble topping ready to go!)



I got busy stamping some parchment writing paper, putting my Webster's dictionary stamp set  and Kikki.K to good use. I have written most of my letters as part of Sarah's Good Mail Club, and it's quite satisfying to see the pile of fat creamy coloured envelopes pile up on the table.



How was your weekend? What have you been eating recently?

Monday's Menu

The curry from last week kept on giving this week. I think Rob would have eaten it one more time, but I'd had enough!

Monday: Beef curry with rice, steamed broccoli and yoghurt.
Tuesday: Beef curry with yet more silver beet and Naan bread.
Wednesday: Bacon, asparagus and pea risotto.
Thursday: Silver beet and parmesan omelette.
Friday: Porterhouse steak on the bbq with wilted silver beet.
Saturday: The first Lamb souvlaki mini Lebanese feast. We found some turkish bread from the newish Turkish cafe down the road, Rob slow cooked a lamb shoulder with rosemary and garlic, and we made hummus, cacik, sliced some tomatoes and lettuce. It was delicious.
Sunday: We ate leftover lamb at lunch and Pigeon Hole sourdough and cheese for dinner.

What's been on the menu at your house?



I don't want to but I think I'm going to have to turn on comment verification, I am getting totally spammed via the comment section, and whilst they don't show up on the blog it's getting really annoying. I hope blogger sort out the commenting thing soon, cause I admit that the fuzzy letter/number thing isn't the best option is it? Has anybody else been experiencing issues?

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, with a side of beach walk

The menu was for warming comfort food this week, with grey skies and plenty of rain, we get home in the dark and need something to warm ourselves up. Autumn is slipping into winter. For some reason, this year I don't mind as much as normal. Although I do mind the mouse that has set up home in our heat pump!

Monday: we ate left over French onion soup (which was so rich for such a small serve), potato gratin with a salad.
Tuesday: we had a late lunch, so all I could contemplate was a rocket salad with pear, walnuts and shaved parmesan.
Wednesday: Pasta puttanesca.
Thursday: we stopped at my parents place for dinner. Mum made us her Italian beef with potatoes, and a delicious lemon cream dessert (I ate it too quickly to take a photo).
Friday: Baked potatoes topped with cheese and bacon.
Saturday: Beef curry with rice and papadams. The sauce was thick with spices, lentils, onions, garlic and chickpeas.
Sunday: Shepherds pie.
Baking wise, Rob made some rye baguettes and I made a cherry, almond and coconut slice from the Primrose Bakery cookbook. The slice hasn't lasted long, the container is nearly empty!
What have you been cooking recently?


We spent a happy afternoon on Saturday planting out my spring bulbs, carefully lining the paths with the tulips, and the ranunculus and anemones are spread randomly around the triangular beds. Now I just have to wait to see them pop up.
Yesterday after cleaning the hut, we realised that we were free to do anything, as the garden didn't need any further attention. It was an unusual feeling. We decided to go find some plants for Rob's botany practical, he wanted something new. So we grabbed the dogs and headed south. We didn't go far. stopping at Trial Bay. The dogs were super keen, after being cooped up all week because of the weather. Once off their leads they ran around on the rocky beach, sniffing seaweed, and cheekily looking over their shoulder to see if we approved as they waded into the water. I made a pathetic attempt at only letting them go in up to their legs, but as you can see that didn't work.
Rob walked at the back, taking photos of the plants, while I went ahead, determined to get to a jetty that I could see at the point. The rocks were beautiful colours, one even a bright aqua colour. Others were covered in bright yellow and orange lichen. I got to the jetty with two dogs hot on my heels, it was a bit rickety, but I encouraged them to walk along it, so I could take some photos. Those brave dogs, they ran up and down the jetty and looked back to where Rob was wandering along.
Once he got there I think they both wanted to show off a bit, Nigella spied a submerged branch and she swam out to get it, Claudia (who isn't as keen on swimming) even followed her out there. The water was so clear (and must have been freezing) but Nigella loved swimming around us out on the jetty even swimming under it. From our highpoint on the jetty, we were able to see her cute legs purposefully swimming under the surface. Nigella has hip dysplasia, so can't actually run very well anymore, but you could tell she was so happy to be swimming so freely in the water.
We could see a misty grey cloud coming so high tailed it back to the car. But it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

Photo collage from my iPhone. Some tweaked in Instagram.



These last three taken by Rob with the real camera.

One Year and Monday's Menu {Flatbread Pizza}

So first up, today is a special day at the hut.
A year ago today we invited our closest friends and family down to the hut for Rob's birthday party.
It was meant to be a house-warming too, but the build of the hut hadn't quite gone as fast as we'd thought.
But that didn't matter, we ate all our favourite foods, drank sparkling wine and enjoyed the sun.
In between main course and dessert, we had organised a little surprise.
Just a little ceremony.
I can still hear the gasp.
Happy 1st Anniversary Rob, it was a perfect day and our first year has been a memorable one.
(If you'd like to read the full story of our surprise wedding last year click here).

Back to our menu.
Monday: Beef and red wine stew.
Tuesday: Gres de Champenois with fresh figs and salad.
Wednesday: A tomato based pasta sauce with eggplant, zucchini, olives and fetta.
Thursday: Pork sausages and mash with home-made tomato sauce
Friday: Pesto and potato pizza (see the recipe below).
Saturday: Margaret Fulton's tarragon roast chicken with roast vegetables.
Sunday: Yum cha and Me Wah. Steamed dumplings and roast duck and many other delicious morsels.


Rob used this bread dough below for the pizza base.

Annabel Langbein's Crusty Flat Bread

This is a wonderfully supple focaccia dough that makes enough for two large loaves. You can freeze half the dough to cook later. We used leftover mashed potato, but if you don't have any in the fridge, boil potatoes until tender, mash them and allow them to cool before adding to the recipe. The wetter the dough is, the lighter the finished result will be, so don't be tempted to keep adding flour.

Prep time: 20 minutes + 3 hours rising, or 12 hours in the fridge.
Cooking time: 25 minutes.
Makes two large loaves.
Crusty flat bread dough
1 ½ cups warm (not hot) water
1 ½ tsp dry yeast granules
1 packed cup cooked and mashed potato
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 ½ cups high-grade or baker's flour, plus extra for kneading
2 tsp salt

Topping
1-2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp fresh rosemary leaves
½ tsp sea salt

Place warm water in a large mixing bowl (a breadmaker or electric mixer with a dough blade is ideal, if you have one). Sprinkle yeast over the water and allow to stand for 2 minutes. Mix in the mashed potato and the cup olive oil. Stir in the flour and salt and mix until the dough just starts to come away from the sides of the bowl.
Turn the dough on to a lightly floured board and, using lightly oiled hands, knead about 30 times (or for 3-4 minutes on the dough cycle of a breadmaker). Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with muslin or a teatowel and leave to rise in a warm place for 3-4 hours, or until it has doubled in bulk. You can also leave it in the fridge, covered, to rise slowly overnight.
When you're ready to cook your bread, place a baking stone on the centre shelf of the oven and preheat oven to 220degC. Turn the risen dough on to a lightly floured board, divide in half and shape each half into a ball. Roughly flatten one ball on to a tray lined with baking paper, pressing the dough out to an oval shape about 25 x 20cm. Use your fingertips to press dimples into the top of the loaf, then drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary and sea salt. Slide the baking paper with the dough on it off the tray and on to the preheated baking stone. Bake for about 25 minutes until golden.
When cooked, the bread will sound hollow when you tap it. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking stone for a few minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool. Repeat with the other ball of dough. If you want to save the second ball of dough to use later, place it in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean cloth and place in the fridge for up to 48 hours. It also freezes well. Thaw before pressing out and baking.
This recipe is from Annabel Langbein Free Range Cook.

So once it had been kneaded, Rob rolled it out very thinly. He made a pesto and smeared that across the pizza (you could use a bought pesto, but we still have basil so are enjoying it while we still can).
He carefully sliced raw potato very thinly and spread them across the pizza, then sprinkled rosemary sprigs on top. He cooked it until the base was golden and crisp (how we like our pizzas).

Next morning he added some currants to the remaining dough and made cute little currant buns which were light on the inside but nice and crispy on the outside.

Monday's Menu

We had a great cooking week this week. With the warm weather (even in the evenings) we have been using the Weber BBQ to cook as much as possible.

I think this regular post is helping us raise the bar, we’re thinking about trying new recipes and making the food we eat more presentable. I’m very thankful to have a husband who loves to cook for me, and that it’s a passion we can both share. I have to say that he introduced me to good food, although I was interested in cooking before I met Rob, he made me think about making the most of every meal we eat.  Sorry just a little sentimental moment there; back to the food.

After our lunch party last weekend, we enjoyed the left over cheeses, with a salad for dinner on Monday night.

One of our friends had given us a selection of her chutneys and relishes on Sunday, and I desperately wanted to eat them with some good sausages, sadly by the time we got to the butcher, Rob decided to skip the sausages and buy rib-eye steak. So he cooked it on the Weber, and we ate it with some cubed potatoes and wilted spinach.

Wednesday night we were home quite late (Rob had been up to the Tarn Shelf at Mt Field setting up a transect to measure with his students), so I quickly cooked us puttanesca.

Thursday was our show day holiday, it was a perfectly sunny day, Rob decided to brush cut the orchard, so I stayed inside to keep the dogs away, and with the sea breeze I could feel my hay fever symptoms flare up. So I thought I’d make us a quick Lebanese feast for lunch. I’d made some lavosh for a work lunch the day before, and we already had some labneh balls in oil in the fridge, so I rolled them in za’atar. I made a batch of hummous and our favourite red pepper and walnut dip. Then I put together a green salad with lots of mint and a sprinkling of sumac. That night it was Rob’s turn, our new favourite recipe for the BBQ is chicken wings marinated in lemon (juice and rind), olive oil, garlic, thyme and chilli flakes. We served them with some grilled Asparagus.

We bought a pizza stone a couple of weeks ago (our oven has a pizza setting we were yet to try) so we thought we’d give it a whirl. Rob made up a batch of dough and we used up all the bits and pieces in the fridge, tomato passata, olives, anchovies, grilled red pepper, labneh cheese, and parsley as a topping.  The first one we tried to move from a tray onto the hot stone, which was quite unsuccessful, it just stretched the already thin base out so we rolled up the edges and left it on the tray.

The second one Rob quickly put together on the stone. They were different, I quite liked the one with the bready edge, but the one baked on the stone was super crunchy. Maybe we have a new Friday tradition?

We were slightly indulgent on Saturday morning picking out a selection of cupcakes from Jo and Michelle’s Salamanca stall.  Rob had a lemon curd and berry ricotta crumble cake, whilst I couldn’t go past the vanilla and rhubarb and the chocolate and honey. They are so good, that neither of us really want to share! We have to wait and hope that they’re there next week.

We ate a dinner of couscous, Lebanese green beans (cooked in tomato and onion with allspice), and grilled eggplant, zucchini, fennel, peppers.

Finally Sunday, the trial run of the chicken wings had gone so well we ate them with some roasted kipfler potatoes, watercress, a garlic and rosemary ciabatta. Our friend's children loved the wings (even with the chilli).  Then the cake.

What was on your menu this week?

Monday's Menu

Well after looking at last weeks pictures I did tell Rob we should try not to eat cheese for a week. We almost got there, but on Friday we needed a quick last minute birthday gift, so we headed straight for Bottega Rotolo, and I knew we'd be walking out of there with some cheese.
Sure enough we did, a small washed rind and a hard cheese called Chebris Brebis that was made from a mixture of ewe and goat milk. Both excellent.

Top row: Spaghetti alla puttanesca, Rolled loin of pork stuffed with prunes, sage, breadcrumbs, garlic and onions, Friday's cheese platter with salad and bread.
Middle row: Strawberry Lemon Curd Puff, Left over pork on Tuesday :), Mini-roast lamb (shanks) with baked potatoes and carrots.
Bottom row: Stir fry with rice noodles and the last bit of pork, lamb soup, and roast potatoes.

Monday's Menu

Ok a quick post this week, with the return of some cooler weather, I craved warming food-

Monday- some cheese! We enjoyed the leftover lamb souvlaki for lunch, and then our window seat had been delivered, and neither of us wanted to get up and leave it to cook dinner, so we just nibbled on some parmesan!

Tuesday- after enjoying a beef burger with the lot from the Devil's Kitchen on Sandy Bay Rd, we ate a rustic Caesar salad for dinner.

Wednesday- Spaghetti and meatballs! Enough said.

Thursday- stir fry vegetables and rice noodles with a heap of mint.

Friday - My comfort food meal (it was cool and rainy on Friday evening), Bratwurst sausages with mash and peas and my favourite Dijon mustard. Oh and my lovely husband bought us some sweet little macarons for dessert.

Saturday - I thought I'd share our little lunch of a washed rind sheep's cheese and a very, very ripe goats cheese and sourdough bread.

Dinner was lamb shanks roasted in the Weber, basted in the left over red wine sauce from last weekend's pears, with baked potatoes and spinach. We love this mini roast lamb dish.

Sunday- A lamb shank and vegetable soup with home baked potato bread.

Oh and I can't resist sharing our trial run of the Profiterole tower for Maisy's baptism. Still working on the consistency of the creme patisserie. I asked my brother how they were, his reply "explosive"! What's been on the menu at your home this past week?

Shhh, a little secret...

My secret will only be of interest to those of you who are lucky enough to live in Southern Tasmania, within driving distance of the patisserie Sweet Envy.
Last weekend we discovered Alistair Wise's potato bread.
This weekend we headed straight to Sweet Envy on Saturday morning.

Of course we meant only to buy the Potato bread.
But the guy serving us asked the question "have you tried the other breads?"
When we said no, he proceeded to describe all of the loaves.

Rob listened attentively, I watched for his reaction.
"we'll have one of each then!"

So we ended up with a lovely chewy ciabatta, a dense potato and bush honey sourdough and the potato bread. Oh and a lemon macaron and a pecan sticky bun.

Our pile of white paper bags on the countertop caught the attention of Alistair himself as he wandered in, he exclaimed "now that's the way to go!"
I recognised him from magazine photos, and I have to admit, I may have gushed just a little, when I told him how "amazing" the potato bread is. (Afterwards I thought I could have thought of something a bit better than amazing, obviously I have been watching too much of a certain reality cooking show at the moment!)

It's chewy, salty, buttery, crisp, like a giant chip with olives and rosemary.
Apparently it's better warm (according to the guy serving us), although we had to admit it didn't have a chance on getting anywhere near an oven before we were going to devour it.



Claudia approved too.

I had to share it with you- but please don't tell too many people!

Our weekend was:

A quick beach walk with Nigella, where taken up in the moment I decided to leap over the creek. Convinced of my athletic prowess I ran and jumped. Sadly I didn’t quite make it, landed in the water and somehow ended up rolling over and landing on my back? Apparently graceless, according to Rob. It was funny though. I then dared him to do better, his leap was just as unsuccessful and he ended up with water and sand splattered up his legs. Nigella disowned us, how embarrassing!

A drive north, punctuated by a stop at Oatlands for bread (Apple, walnut and fruit loaf and rye) and coffee, a little wander along to look at the antique shops. The Fruit bread torn into chunks and devoured as we drove along in the car.

A belated birthday dinner for Rob’s mother of perfect winter oysters with sparkling, sticky maple pork ribs with rice and sautéed cavolo nero from our garden. Dessert was a date and dark chocolate meringue cake with cream. Sticky and delicious, but light at the same time.

I picked a bucket of slightly frozen cumquats from the tree in the early morning sun to take back home to make cumquat marmalade.

The drive back home through Evandale and Nile is much prettier than the highway. We pretended to ourselves that we would not stop again for Companion bakery bread on the way home. I did smirk slightly and was secretly relieved as Rob slowed down and ducked into Oatlands again. Oatlands is looking pretty smart at the moment, new shops, renovations, new mill. For once a Tasmanian township that hasn’t been bastardised with modern buildings (well at least on their main road anyway!) In the warmth of the bakery we decided to eat steak pies and drink more coffee. We got a country batard loaf and I was quite firm with Rob that it could stay in the back where it wouldn’t disappear!

On the way back we decided to bypass the whole Brighton bypass debacle and went through Colebrook and Campania. It was nice to have the time to chat about our garden. Rob and I talked about our most favourite fruits, the ones that are hard to buy, or are prohibitively expensive. Now the orchard at the block already has 33 trees that include apples, pears, plums, apricots, almonds, mulberries, pomegranates (optimistic I know), cherries, a peach, a nectarine and a fig. Plants are our thing really, so we’d like to be a bit more serious about producing four of our favourites. We decided upon in no particular order: cumquats, quinces, raspberries and rhubarb (not technically a fruit but close enough!) Maybe we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves, but it’s nice to dream.