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

Loving daylight savings, but I struggled this morning to wake up.

This weeks Monday's Menu collage looks a little bare.

Monday: Mushroom, asparagus and bacon risotto.
Tuesday: Broccoli and potato frittata (our own broccoli) with a side of wilted silver beet.
Wednesday: I ate so many left overs for lunch I just snacked on some nuts for dinner. Rob, having been to the gym tucked into a big plate of you guessed it, cooked greens from the garden.
Thursday: We had dinner at my parents, my mother had made lasagne.
Friday: Rib eye steak with baked potatoes and asparagus.
Saturday: Beef curry with chickpeas, lentils, silver beet and carrots, with pappadums.
Sunday: Curry take two, with added steamed pumpkin and little waxy potatoes.

The curry is a winner, and I'm pretty sure we'll have it for dinner tonight, if not tomorrow night. I may sound like I'm sick of silver beet, but we're not. Harvesting greens just prior to eating them has totally changed my appreciation of them. They taste so much better. I know everyone tells you that, but it's true. Try it.

What's been on the menu at your place?

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.