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?

Our Sunday

We woke this morning to rain, which made us quite happy our tank was running a little low.
After breakfast we headed down the road to the farmer's market at Cygnet. First priority was some Red Velvet Lounge sourdough and a fruit loaf. Greedy I know! Then we picked up some rhubarb and vegetables. There was an art exhibition in the hall. My favourite was this barbed wire horse. He was gorgeous with his coppery wire mane and tail. We looked in a few of the gift shops, and I found a raspberry red skirt in an op shop. We couldn't resist an Eccles cake each from Lotus eaters. We took our spoils home. The sun came out so Rob did some digging in his veggie patch. I made granola and a vegetable soup for dinner.
A pretty perfect day.
P.S. like many others I'm totally addicted to instagram: my name there is hazelnigella. But I've decided to join in Fatmumslim's March photo a day game. Today's theme was bedside. Let me know if you're equally as addicted and I'll follow along.

A hut day

Sorry for such a rushed post yesterday. We actually got up to a lot the last couple of days, I just didn't have time to relax and write.
On Friday I went on a mystery tour to the venue for our office Christmas lunch. We hopped on a water taxi and headed out on an extended cruise, eventually pulling into Bellerive. It was actually a novelty to see all the houses from the water, some of us enjoyed picking out houses we'd love to live in, or the ones that were eyesores. We even saw a dolphin. Anyway once on land we were led around the bay to the Rosny Bowls Club! After exchanging presents (random pick from a table) I got some gingerbread and two cookie cutters to add to my collection- a fish and an octopus (we work in marine science). After lunch, some lovely ladies came over to show us how to bowl, and we spent a fairly relaxing hour bowling and drinking beer in the heat. It did feel like I'd stepped onto the set of the movie Crackerjack, a very Australian feeling. Especially with the occasional roar from the crowd at the test match across the bay. Our fun ended with the beginning of the thunderstorm. It stopped long enough for us to wander back to the jetty, then it bucketed down as we headed back across the river. A pleasant way to finish up the work year for me, being my last day.
Over the weekend Rob and I started to unwind, I visited the market (art, craft & design) at the Masonic lodge on both days, managing to cross off a few last gifts, and pick up a few more little red decorations for our tree (birds and crochet hearts). Rob and I spent the afternoon weeding in the garden listening to the cricket.
Sunday we picked up Rob's daughter and headed to Me Wah for yum cha. I admit we're quite greedy, trying no less than 6 types of steamed dumplings, as well as two beef dishes, a fried radish dish AND eggplant stuffed with seafood. All washed down with the endless pu'er tea (a red tea, described as the burgundy of tea!) We hadn't been in ages and I think we'll have to head there whenever there's a market on. We did a quick tour of the market and picked up a few more gifts.
On Monday I visited my sister and niece, Maisy has grown so much, and is so interactive now, smiles and laughs. After lying on the carpet and playing and then munching on some white choc and raspberry muffins I'd brought along I headed home via the cat centre op shop, picking up those bargains I showed you yesterday. I'm still excited about the Donvier ice-cream maker!
The last two days have been spent doing a little baking and playing around with the fence, interspersed with tea and biscuits, or lunch. It's so nice just to 'be' at the hut together. I think Nigella & Claudia enjoy it too!
Well that was a bit longer than I thought, dinner is nearly ready, roast lamb and vegetables, with vanilla ice-cream and freshly picked alpine strawberries for dessert.

Village spirit

We headed to the Cygnet market today. We love these country village produce markets, and have tried a few around the Huon & Channel. But this was the first time we'd gone to this one.
It was buzzing from when it opened at 10am, even though it was a cool day. We bought quite a lot, actually. Rhubarb, lettuce, spring onions, broad beans, carrots, strawberries, a Korean gardening tool, a celery top spatula. Then we wandered along the main road, a new shop front beckoned us, with it's welcoming timber door and pot belly stove. Part second hand book shop, part homeopathic pharmacy and part toy shop. We couldn't resist a tiny bunny and a fox. We were quite taken with the billy goats gruff though!
We had a coffee and some lovely crisp pastries at the Lotus Eaters, before picking up some bread and jam doughnuts (for later, I promise) from Red Velvet Lounge.
Finally some new pink eye potatoes and free range eggs from the shop.
It was the best market we've been to, the stall holders were friendly and it was so busy (in a good way).
Back at the hut we made two different Christmas puddings and I made a batch of speculaas for a Dutch friend.
I'm counting down the days to go to our holiday now, roll on Friday.

Spring

Snowflake Photo: R. Wiltshire


Lemon Meringue Pie

Savoy cabbage with our bargain find at Salamanca- a Le Creuset frypan

Flowering quince Photo: R. Wiltshire

Last weekend felt like Spring, the Snowflakes and Flowering quince are out.

We cooked a Lemon meringue pie for a family lunch, piping the meringue made it look like a sea anemone. Sadly there were no left overs!

We found a bargain frypan at a second hand stall at Salamanca which made us pretty happy. I bought some cute little bottles of pear juice, and although the juice was nice all I wanted was to use the bottles as mini vases.

Can't wait for spring to start for real. Particularly looking forward to the longer days.

Our weekend was:

Checking out the Italian Pantry’s new expanded premises- a lolly shop scenario for us. Cheese, pasta, wine, vegetable seeds, nuts, prosciutto, the list goes on.

Cooking dinner for our friends- roast pork, cooked on a bed of leeks and carrots with white wine and sherry vinegar. The first apple tarte tatin for the season, apples of choice were coxes orange pippins, Rob’s favourite. It was all delicious and the crackling was superb!

Breakfast on our friend’s deck in the sun- orange muffins with quince jelly with Mimosa cocktails and coffee! So hot for Tasmania at this time of year, a relaxing start to our Sunday.

Visiting the Market- I love this market, it’s so much nicer to shop for presents here than most other places! Found perfect presents for 3 upcoming birthdays (of the 7 in March/April). Tried Jo and Michelle’s truffles too- delicious and guilt free!

Swimming and walking at the beach- Nigella was very lucky - 4 beach walks in as many days. I even went swimming to escape the unusual stickiness; Hobart is not normally this humid.

Visiting the block- a quick visit to walk around and check on the trees in the orchard. We should get a few apples this year from the trees we planted in 2007. Nigella and Rob enjoyed some golf, tee off from the hut site to the green just near the water hazard. Nigella loves this activity and helpfully (not) picks up the balls and drops them into the water hazard (the dam!)

Cooking a favourite recipe -Chicken under bricks from Patricia Wells’ book Trattoria. In our case the electric grill folds over and is heavy enough to keep the chicken flat. Cooked in less than half an hour. Served with steamed and buttered pink eyes and runner beans (cooked with onions, tomatoes, garlic and allspice). A Sunday night feast.

Making the most of a rainy day- a late breakfast of soft boiled eggs and Steve’s rye bread toast. Baking Anzac biscuits and a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Reading a favourite book on the couch whilst watching the rain pour down.

How was your weekend?