36/52

Yesterday we had a pretty much perfect Father's Day. I woke up first and went and got the coffee machine going and collected the gifts for Rob from the fridge and the garden. He woke up on the mattress on the floor with Elisabeth, Maggie slumbered on a little longer on the bed.
The girls proudly gave him the card they made at family day care and a little red takeaway box of fudge, and then preceded to help him eat it! Our gift were three pepper trees and some strawberry plants. After breakfast of toast and coffee we headed outside together to plant them. Rob declared them the perfect present.

We headed over the hill to Cygnet, the car packed with lunch provisions, picking up some fresh rye sourdough at Red Velvet Lounge we continued onto Garden Island Creek to celebrate a birthday (albeit belatedly) with friends who own the most perfect beachside shack. The day was gorgeous, we were all in shorts, t-shirts and Birkenstocks. Lunch with our friends always comes together with the least amount of fuss or organisation, a cheese platter, foie gras and our quickly-cured ocean trout (with lime juice, olive oil and decorated with dill, gherkins and capers) served with the fresh rye started proceedings with a bottle of bubbles. Main course was osso bucco and bbq sausages cooked over the sea-side open fire. We all have gardens so the sides are always impressive, salads, home grown potatoes, fennel, broccoli. The table outside looked over the water, and it felt almost summery with the warmth of the sun and the consumption of red wine. The girls sat in our laps quietly taking it all in, sharing our plates. Wet dogs ran in amongst our legs looking for tidbits.
Dessert was an array of cakes, our Chocolate Guinness cake joined a perfect duck egg sponge filled with cream and strawberries, a Kentish cherry almond cake and a Persian Love Cake! We had to drag ourselves away around 4pm, when the girls were looking a little tired.

Maggie: During dessert she relaxed and was happy to sit on our friend's lap to share her plate of cake. Smiling with her face covered in cream.
Elisabeth: Is more reserved in company, and stayed close to her Papa, preferring to hold onto his knee and just take in the conversation.

Joining in with Jodi's 52 portrait project at her blog Practising Simplicity.

Monday's Menu {Kinfolk inspired lunch}

We spent nearly the entire weekend at the hut, which in our opinion is just about the perfect weekend. We did slip out early Sunday morning to a local beach for a quick dog walk and to pick up some last minute items for our lunch.

Instead of Easter chocolate this year (because we get enough of that anyway) Rob got a nice bottle of Lemon Olive Oil and I got my first copy of the magazine Kinfolk. It is beautiful. Really it is a book, not a magazine, with lovely thick paper, gorgeous photos and essays. No advertisements, not even recipes, just well thought out words.
I can't describe it any more eloquently than their manifesto:

Kinfolk is a growing community of artists with a shared interest in small gatherings. We recognize that there is something about a table shared by friends, not just a wedding or once-a-year holiday extravaganza, that anchors our relationships and energizes us. We have come together to create Kinfolk as our collaborative way of advocating the natural approach to entertaining that we love. Every element of Kinfolk—the features, photography, and general aesthetics—are consistent with the way we feel entertaining should be: simple, uncomplicated, and less contrived. Kinfolk is the marriage of our appreciation for art and design and our love for spending time with family and friends.


Inspired by this lovely magazine, and by reading Stephanie Alexander's biography recently as well, we invited six of our friends over for Sunday lunch. Rob and I discussed the menu over the following three days, and changed it a few times but ended up with:

Oysters with Champagne

French onion soup with parmesan croutons

Roast rib of beef with potato gratin, stuffed tomatoes and a green salad.

Quince and pear Tarte Tatin

I admit that Rob did the cooking this time, whilst I cleaned the hut (no mean feat with two wet puppies coming in and out all morning), and set the table.
We got it all together just in time for our friends arrival. After a garden inspection we retreated indoors to enjoy our Autumnal menu and each others company until dark!


Pink Chrysanthemums for some colour, the table setting, discussing gardens I think, I smiled at the collection of Blundstones and Birkenstocks discarded in the breezeway.
Our menu for the rest of the week was a little less indulgent, but just as tasty. Pasta carbonara, vegetable soup, steak with broccoli and mushrooms, I made a large Spanakopita, and Rob made a nostalgic mince dish from his childhood. With the Anzac day holiday, we did some biscuit baking and on Saturday I was treated to marmalade and pecan muffins in bed.

Garden at sunrise

With ANZAC day in the middle of our week, we feel like we've had two Friday nights and two Sundays. Delicious indeed.

The veggie patch is coming along, with cabbage, rocket and carrot seedlings popping up in the beds. Fingers crossed they get going before it gets too cold. Rob planted all the golden shallots we kept from last year, if we do as well as we did last year (each bulb became a set of 6) he may let me eat some of them!

We spent a happy afternoon planting bulbs that we have been dragging around in pots from house to house. The Zantedeschia bulbs are quite freaky looking, big potato sized things with fat roots coming out around the crown of it. I hope they'll be happier in the ground finally. The final pots of pink and white lilies also went in to their beds too.

We're looking forward to a quiet weekend at the hut, we're having a few friends over for lunch on Sunday, so Rob and I are busy discussing menu options. I think we've settled on gougères to nibble on whilst the tea smoked ocean trout cooks followed by a Tarte Tatin, Rob's favourite dessert.

Happy weekend to you.

Mid-century collecting

I mentioned a few weeks ago we bought another myrtle sideboard. It was delivered on Monday while I was away.
We now have 7 pieces in this series designed by Fred Ward for the Myer Heritage collection manufactured in Melbourne in the 1950's.
We swapped the two sideboards and I moved all our glasses into the new one. It looks so nice and sparkly. Apart from a bed for the spare room, we now have all our furniture. I do love the age in these pieces we've collected, the patina of the timber is beautiful. I'm so glad we persevered and got the windows and skirting done in myrtle to match. It's a very beautiful timber.
We had friends over for lunch, slow roasted lamb, couscous, potato bread, beans, beetroot salad, and cucumber yoghurt salad. We then nibbled on cheese before having dessert. Rob made a beautiful fruit mince tart, and our friend brought a platter of berries.
We all headed down with coffees to watch Rob give a scything demonstration.
I'm currently lying on the windowseat, listening to the tennis, considering a little snooze. Hope you enjoyed your holiday if you're in Australia.

Monday's Menu

A varied selection this week-
Monday- was a silver beet duck egg omelette
Tuesday- Left over rump steak, was transformed into an open steak sandwich with kipfler potato chips.
Wednesday- we went out on a "date" lunch at  Tricycle. Rob had the most delicious pork, lemon and fennel meatballs on white bean mash, and I had a red lentil soup with mint and sumac. We couldn't resist a lemon curd cupcake with coffee either! Wednesday night we had lemon pasta. A quick no cook sauce (lemon juice, parmesan, yoghurt, egg yolks and parsley).
Thursday- the last of the steak on top of a vegetable soup.
Friday- after tackling a few house maintenance jobs it was quite late so we settled for crackers and cheese!
Saturday - We visited Sweet Envy, next time I'm going to get one of each of these biscuits, I always look at them and end up picking something else. Rob cooked a chicken on the Weber (flattened out) with just lemon, thyme and chilli, with some bbq'd Asparagus.
Sunday - I mentioned that we invited friends down for lunch, the weather was horrendous, but it didn't matter, we snacked on soy baked almonds, baked olives, and wagyu sausages with chutney. Then Rob quickly cooked the rump steak again, we served it on salad leaves and with some roasted kipflers.
We had a selection of incredibly ripe French cheeses and then finished off with a lemon meringue pie. We had a lovely afternoon (and evening!) chatting, eating and drinking.

So glad this week is a short week (Hobart Show day on Thursday). Am looking forward to a quiet day at the hut. How was your weekend?

Pork Paninis and Pear tarts at Pigeon Hole Café with the Parking God

Now try saying that 10 times! Well call us slow, but Rob and I finally got to Pigeon Hole for lunch for the first time today. We have been meaning to get there for a while but the parking situation always beats us. Rob believes he’s the parking God, and if we are not within 2 metres of the desired destination it’s obviously not meant to be! (This attitude seriously hampers his botanical field surveys too).

But today we took our Canadians (how we think of our visiting friends) to lunch there. The little café is cute and simply decorated with a retro edge. We were lucky to get one of the larger tables at the back. Our friends have been in search of a Huon pine and they finally found it in the form of our table. I think they’d prefer to see a living tree though.

I liked the little blackboard menu. Not too many dishes to pick from when you just want a quick lunch. We all decided on the same thing - the Wessex saddleback pork and quince aioli paninis. The waitresses were smiley (always something to be commended) and it wasn’t long before we were served our paninis on little wooden chopping boards. Although a simple flavour combination, the sweetness of the quince went well with the pork, which was moist and they were quickly devoured by us all. The panini had just the right proportion of filling to bread, we didn’t feel like we were just eating bread. We each ordered a coffee or tea with just a little sweet treat, three open pear tarts and a chocolate friand. A perfect finish to our lunch.

I think the parking God was suitably impressed and will smile upon Pigeon Hole again soon.