This Weekend...

• My tomatoes are slowly growing, one of them is now even developing a little blush! If we could only get some sunshine over the next few weeks….
• Went for a bit of a ride to visit Richmond for lunch, I forgot how touristy it was but it was nice to wander around, and I spied some cornishware blue and white tea towels in a giftware shop that I was sorely tempted by. I did resist however.
• I had no intention of cooking this weekend but at the last minute threw together some berry frozen yoghurt which tasted so great. Very easy too: I used a 500g tub of Tamar Valley natural yoghurt, a few handfuls of frozen blueberries and raspberries, some fresh strawberries (because I had them) a spring of fresh mint, 4-5 tablespoons of honey (I used the Tasmanian meadow honey) whizzed them all up with the bamix and left it to set in the freezer. Brilliant…try it!

Summer Apricots

Thank you all so much for your kind comments, I always feel a bit unsure and shy about sharing my house so your wonderfully positive response really means a lot to me.

I am having serious brain confusions as to what day it is today, a mid week day off is good but strange as well. I hope everyone had a great Australia day, I decided to have a quiet one and went and picked apricots with my grandmother. Apricots to me are one of the best things about summer, stewed with a handful of squashed up special k sprinkled on top is probably my most favourite dish ever! I made slice with the picks of the bunch and jam with the rest. The smell of apricot jam cooking is heaven!

Super Exciting!

Just a quick post to say that I am super excited that my house is featured on The Design Files today! Wow! Thank you so much to Jenny for asking me and to Lucy for the post, you can check it out here.

Also a big thank you to Sam who took a number of pictures for me to include, like the one of my hall above!

Crumpets

I made my crumpets on the weekend, followed the recipe to a tee and after all that process I'm not sure. They were good, particularly when toasted with jam or honey, but even though the mixture looked light and fluffy they were still a bit stodgy. I've not ever eaten home made ones before so I can't tell if they were as they should be. As always it was an interesting process, I'm just not sure I would make them again.

ps why does packaging from other countries always look so much nicer than ours? : )

Music and Mona

Hmm not doing too well with blogging this month I’m afraid. This week has flown past!

I went to see Grinderman on Wednesday night as part of the Mona Foma festival and they didn’t disappoint. It was only my second time seeing Nick Cave and although completely different to the Bad Seed material it was so great. My only issue is that I picked the wrong side of the stage to stand on and couldn’t see Warren Ellis in all his craziness (he's so good, Warren's Lament is one of those songs that gives me tingles!)!

Last night I ditched friends at the pub to go back and see Olof Arnalds, she was very lovely, so great having someone like that come here. I wish I’d taken the opportunity to see more things as part of the festival because it is so good. The MONA gallery opens this weekend and I can’t wait to go visit (although I might wait a few weeks), apparently there is a Basquiat (exciting for me!).

Have a great weekend!

This Weekend

Sorry for the radio silence here, last week was just one of those weeks that was draining on quite a number of levels. the weekend was exactly what I needed: a good mix of brilliant warm sunshine, knocking off a few things on my to do list, reading, and time with friends. I made a nice big batch of raspberry jam too, now I’m thinking of making home-made crumpets for the first taste test. Has anyone made them before? They look a little time consuming..

(all pictures from my mum's where I've been house-sitting for the last week)

little things lately

Plates on a Wall

I've been on the look out recently for an old wardrobe/cupboard/meatsafe for some extra storage in my flat and today went to a second hand shop where the owner had attached all these old plates to the wall. It looks so fantastic. I love how the tureen has it's lid on still. No luck with what I was looking for unfortunately.

Beetroot Pasta Recipe

I went back to work yesterday and I have to say I’ve been on struggle street, one more week at home would have been ideal!! Anyway I wanted to thank you for all your lovely comments about the pasta! It really is so simple, I definitely encourage you to try. The pasta recipe is from the very first Jamie Oliver book the Naked Chef but also available here.

For the beetroot:

The book suggests using tinned beetroot that you can simply puree, but as I had fresh beetroot I wanted to try with that. I put two whole medium sized beets in some cold water and brought to the boil until they were soft the whole way. Once soft I put on some rubbed gloves and cut the ends off and peeled them (the skin came away easily). Then I cut them into chunks and pureed until smooth.

To make the pasta:

Follow the recipe but omit two eggs and instead use the same amount of pureed beetroot. You could weigh two eggs and use that as a guide for the amount of beetroot but I went by eye. You can add more puree if the dough seems dry.

Don’t be afraid if your hands are bright pink after kneading! Mine were but it washed off very easily and didn’t stain, likewise the bench was fine too. Although I did use a plastic chopping board for cutting the beets.

Have fun! It's beautifully pink!

Beetroot pasta

For so long I have been wanting to make some beetroot pasta. I visited some friends the other day who very generously gave me a heap of veggies straight from the garden, including some beetroot. So I tried out the pasta and it was so simple and straight forward, the colour didn't stain anything and came out beautifully pink. I should definitely make home made pasta more often I think.

Happy New Year

Happy 2011! I hope everyone had a lovely night. I went camping in the middle of Tasmania with friends and rather fantastically the people camping on the other side of the lagoon set of some amazing fireworks. I love things like that that even in the middle of nowhere you can still see fireworks on new years! Oh and a lot of beautiful stars.