Monday's Menu

It’s granola season at the hut. I struggle with eating breakfast during the week, I get bored easily, and I was so over porridge. I’d eat a mouthful and then not so subtly put the bowl down for Claudia to finish off (she loved me!) So last weekend I baked up a batch of Nigella’s granola (from Feast). What’s not to love about roasted Almonds, seeds, honey, and raisins? I made another batch yesterday but added some flaked coconut, pumpkin seeds and golden raisins as well. During the week we served it with strawberries, mango and rhubarb. Now I can't wait for breakfast.

As mentioned on Friday we took delivery of a box of goodies from Mount Gnomon farm. So pork dominated the menu all weekend. We’re not complaining though. Rob slow roasted the shoulder for three hours in the Weber on Saturday. Then yesterday we blasted it in our oven under the maxi-grill, that thing is wicked, I could see the skin blister! That crackling, I have to say, was perfectly cooked, shattering as you bit into it. It was then warmed up again in the Weber sitting on some sliced fennel, baby carrots and bay leaves, and served it with roast potatoes, the pork was deliciously juicy. Oh dear I’d better stop otherwise I might start drooling on the keyboard.

Finally, as it rained most of Saturday we were happily stuck inside, after lunch I fell asleep on the window seat with Claudia as a foot warmer, for several hours!

I thought I’d better do something worthwhile, so I measured out and chopped the dried fruit for two Christmas cakes (sultanas, currants, raisins, dried apricots and prunes).


Maybe the menu might have to be a little healthier this week (looking at what you eat all week is a bit of an eye opener) maybe even some salads and green vegetables! 

Top row: Scrambled eggs on Pigeon Hole sourdough toast, Granola with Greek yoghurt and strawberries, Italian sausages on mash with peas (an excuse to eat relish), creamy mushroom, bacon and pea fettuccine, spring vegetable risotto.

Middle row: Mount Gnomon bacon and egg roll, Sweet Envy jam doughnut and pecan sticky bun, Mount Gnomon chorizo, tomato and lentil risotto, dried fruit soaking in brandy for Christmas cakes, the roast pork shoulder (from guess who).

Bottom row: The pork served with roasted fennel and carrots, a pear poached in red wine, cinnamon, vanilla and thyme, our granola fresh out of the oven, this morning with rhubarb, gin and tonic season has started.

Friday Flowers

Not many new flowers in the garden this week. But the Nematolepis squamea (commonly known as lancewood),  is flowering at the top of our driveway next to our front gate. It has very pretty little creamy flowers.  So I thought I'd share one of Rob's macro photos of the flowers.




I'm not quite sure where this whole week has gone. I was hoping to get a lot more done at work. I've started counting down the weeks until my annual holiday, and sadly my to do list is not decreasing.


Yesterday I received a package in the mail from the company Land's End, I was being quite brave in picking a dress from their website. Unfortunately it was huge (I was worried it would be too small) and the style wasn't all that flattering anyway. I was a bit disappointed, I'm still looking for the perfect dress to wear. But maybe I should give up and try and find a skirt and top. I seem to be a bit long in the middle which means that waistlines never sit where they should on me, and I really don't suit an empire line dress!


Anyway as Nigella would say, food shopping is much less fraught with potential disappointment, so I'm looking forward to opening the box of goodies from Mount Gnomon Farm that arrived at work today. We ordered a pork shoulder, some bacon and chorizo. Thanks Guy and Eliza, I can't wait to taste the slow-roasted pork shoulder!

Christmas is coming

I know it’s still October, but I can’t help myself when it comes to getting excited about Christmas. This is our first one at the hut too. So I’ve been thinking, just a little, about how to decorate our hut.

This slight obsession with Christmas decorating is thanks to my Dad. Normally he is quite conservative with his spending and decorating, but come December he changes overnight and no decoration is too kitsch or excessive. On a day early in December he braves their roof cavity to bring down box after box of decorations. Mum’s domain is the tree. Well apart from the lights. Dad always puts on at least 6 different sets of lights on the tree. Over the top? Oh yes. More alarming is when he puts them on the strobe mode, and the 6 sets of lights flick on and off randomly. The tree could cause some sort of fit!

Dad is in charge of decorating the house. Not the outside, the inside. Every surface is Christmasfied. I mean every surface, door handles, light fittings, door and window frames. Foil decorations dangle from every conceivable spot. Christmas ornaments adorn every flat surface. He puts out the main nativity set (yes, every room gets one of it’s own) under the tree. But only the cow gets to hang out there prior to Christmas. The other characters, Joseph, Mary, Jesus, the donkey, shepherds and their sheep, and an Angel all turn up on Christmas Eve, whilst the three wise men are late arrivals- they’re allowed in a week later.

I think the most outrageous decoration is the musical robin. Activated by loud noises (such as clapping) the robotic robin jiggles and flaps it’s wings whilst chirping a selection of Christmas carols!

When I was old enough to help my parents decorate our home, my favourite decorations were two aging honeycomb decorations, a pink ball and a green bell. I loved unfolding them and hanging them up from the window frame. Which may now explain my fondness for honeycomb decorations.

On Monday an exciting box turned up from the states. I’ve mentioned before about finding this company, and their amazing array of decorations. Well, I couldn’t help myself, the red ones looked so enticing, I put in an order a couple of weeks ago.

Aren’t they gorgeous? I don’t think Rob realised that not only do the beams hold the living room roof together they are perfect for hanging things from. We may only have a small tree this year, but I don’t think you’ll miss the Christmas season at the hut with these! I’ve promised Rob I’ll never get as bad as my father. I hope.

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?

Just had to share...

I'm lying on the window-seat (heavenly) reading one of my favourite Bill Bryson books (have I told you we met him on the Tarn Shelf?) enjoying the golden light coming through the window.
My God-daughter and her family came down for lunch today to celebrate her birthday. I've been keen to decorate a cake with mini bunting, and today we produced a totally oversized Primrose Bakery lemon cake with cream cheese frosting. I have to say that I'm having a moment of quiet pride, the birthday girl was impressed too!