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Posted with Blogsy by Joolz

Happy Mother's Day!

 

(Mum and me, 1964)

Wishing all the Mum's out there a Happy Mother's Day!

 

Joolz xx

Posted with Blogsy by Joolz

An important opening ...

 We proudly officially opened our new showroom on Thursday night...

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 It took from August last year until mid March to complete.  We invited our clients and had LR management come from Sydney. Our local motel catered for the event and served delicious finger food.

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After the opening, we took the LR people out to The Mayura Tasting Room for dinner...

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 Entree was Wagyu eye fillet, perfectly cooked medium rare...

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 Doesn't it look pretty.  It was so delicious!

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 Main course took us by surprise - have you ever seen such a large chop? 

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 It was huge!  Mark, the chef, slow braised it so it was so tender, nearly falling off the bone...

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 Here he is explaining where the cut comes from - can you see the marbelling in the meat?  That is what Wagyu beef is famous for.  It creates such taste and tenderness.

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 This is half way through plating up - a smoosh of sweet potato puree, a slow roasted field mushroom, poached cherry tomatoes...

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... some roasted onions and figs, snow peas and the meat off that huge big chop...

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To top off the meal, Mark produced Chocolate Fondant with strawberry sauce... (I actually didn't eat more than 2 spoonfuls of this - too rich for me and I'm not partial to choc desserts - I know - I'm weird!).

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All in all, a very successful night - our guests were very impressed with the showroom and dinner.

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Another thing we can tick off as done!

Cheers - Joolz xx

Another busy week gone ...

Monday night we had a 'clean the fridge out' stirfry - I had one carrot, one zucchini, half an onion, 3 spring onions, half a capsicum and some bean sprouts and tired coriander.  I did buy the snow peas...

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 Voila - honey/soy/lime stir fried pork ...

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One of our salesman was gifted a whole big box of Pink Lady apples from a local apple orchard - considering they are $4.99/kg at the supermarket, it must have been worth about $100!  We all got to have some so I decided I'd juice some and have pure apple juice for breakfast.

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 Delicious!

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Annette Sym's new Book 7 came out on May 2nd so I snapped up a copy straight away.  Lots of new recipes to try!

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One of those recipes was for Pork with Orange & Hazelnut sauce...

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A really easy sauce and it was so delicious with our pan fried pork chops.  I baked potato wedges in the oven, steamed green beans and corn on the cob.

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Friday night I did her Ham & Corn slice - this was really good too!  It has grated sweet potato, creamed corn, zucchini in it.  A variation on the good old zucchini slice.  I served it with a tossed salad.

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 It was even better the next day...

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Yesterday was a glorious autumn day.  Gus's 50th is looming fast so we took a drive to the restaurant where the party will be and we sampled lunch...

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 My entree - twice cooked wilgha zucchini and goat cheese soufflé;

slow roasted wilgha tomato sauce; rocket; balsamic

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Gus - red gum smoked duck breast; wilgha greens, fennel, kester’s apple,

blue cheese and pecan salad; chardonnay mustard dressing

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My main - crisp skinned local pork belly; white polenta; red currant jus;

cabbage, apple, raisin, hazelnut and sunflower seed salad

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Gus - Atlantic salmon, potato puree, green beans and a butter sauce

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key lime tart; wilgha citrus sorbet; marmalade;

candied zest; pinenut praline - possibly the most delicious dessert I had tasted in an awful long time.  I am not a big chocolate fan and this hit the spot perfectly.  We did share this.

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Unfortunately we were told the menu is changing after Mother's Day - I am sure it will be just as good but now we may have to go back for another tasting....  Bugger!

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 I nearly fell asleep on the drive home...

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 I purchased this apple slicer in one of the shops - it does a ripper job of slicing and coring all in one.  Also will be handy for potato wedges...

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Today has been a lazy day although I have made 2 cakes - a Banana Bread (recipe from Honey & Jam here) and a Date Loaf (from Tammy at Girls wear blue too here).  Both turned out really well.  I gifted half of each cake to my Mum when I went to visit.  I just love the date loaf buttered with a cup of tea!

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I had a bit of mending to do - a jumper of Gus' that had 2 holes needed darning and a button sewed back onto his trousers.  I also cleaned out the cupboards in Bri's room - she's coming home tomorrow for the week then I go back next weekend for Mother's Day with them - a girls weekend!

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It's been a busy week so I hope this week is a bit quieter.  What have you all been up to?

Cheers - Joolz  xx

Backyard barbecue ...

On Saturday, the weather here was very blustery with wind whipping leaves all around - a day to stay inside.

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 Yesterday, however, was beautiful and calm with just a bit of sunshine.  Perfect weather for a paddock fire.

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 Gus has been itching to try his new Auspit rotisserie so he prepared some lamb souvlaki and made an easy  fattoush salad to go with it.

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 Once he had the fire burned down to coals he set the Auspit spinning...

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 I reckon it took about half an hour to get the meat nice and browned (still a bit pink in the middle).

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 Our fattoush salad wasn't quite as elaborate as the one in the link but tasted just as good.  We used some ground sumac and paprika in the dressing too. The recipe is here.

 The lamb was cooked perfectly and we mused over what other things we could spit roast - I have visions of a rolled pork belly stuffed with macadamias, apricot and cranberries, slow roasted to get the crackling really crispy to that is shatters when you cut the meat into chunks..... Yum!

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 The sheep seemed uninterested in our presence in their yard and soon lay down for a snooze.

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 Gus thought he might try rotisseried cat but Bonnie had other ideas and soon scarpered from my lap.  Poor puss - Gus is always trying to entice her into his barbecue!

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Later, we had roasted marshmallows over the coals - delicious!

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 Gus' Mum came out for a glass of wine and enjoyed the afternoon...

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 We had a sprinkle of rain, then the corellas came in, squarking and flapping about.  Can you see that cheeky one, looking down at us?

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 It's a pity it gets dark so quickly now as we could have stayed much longer...

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The fire was just a perfect way to spend the afternoon...

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Added: It appears we contravened the local council bylaws by lighting the fire on a Sunday and while still in fire season.  Two or three weeks ago, farmers were burning off stubble on a 30C day which totally baffled me (apparently they can get permits).  Rest assured, this fire would not have got out of control as it was built on a green grass base and we had shovel and water close handy if it did.  I am going to ring the council to clarify the Sunday burning to see if it only applies to residents in town.  We are just outside the town limits on 2.5 acres.
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Cheers - Joolz xx

Cinnamon Coffee Cake ...

 I bookmarked this recipe at Our Old Homestead way back in October and have only now got around to making this cake...  I don't know why I waited so long!

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The recipe is here ...

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 Once in the bundt tin (this is actually a silicone one from Chef's Toolbox) - I realised I should have made 2 cakes in smaller tins.  It was huge and nearly came up to the top...

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 It also took ages to cook - the recipe says 55-65 minutees but it took 90 minutes before the skewer came out clean.  I baked for one hour then 3 lots of 10 minutes until it was done.

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 I dusted it with a little left over sugar cinnamon mix then waited impatiently for it to cool...

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 It is really moist and delicious.  I will try it spread with a little butter tomorrow...

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 Last night, we had pizzas for dinner.  First up was a potato, rosemary, garlic and parmesan one...

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These flavours just work really well.  Loved it.

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 Next up was your generic salami, bacon, onion, olive, tomato, mushroom, anchovy and cheese variety.  Yummo too!

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Friday night bliss... (jarmys on, recliner reclining, watching The Voice re-runs with glass of red in hand and homemade pizza) ...

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Cheers - Joolz xx