Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Easter Sunday...

I was up nice and early to make hot cross buns...

Sunrise over Pearl, tucked neatly in the back yard.

First job, chop copious quantity of Fruchocs!

The dough ready for first rise...

Rolled into balls for the second rise...

Out of the oven and glazed...

Very pleased with them. Yummy with butter!

We headed back up into the Adelaide Hills to Maxamilians for a family lunch. Both girls have lovely boyfriends so we had great company. These are our delicious entrees...

Our mains...

Dessert and our beautiful girls!

When we got back, we chilled out the back for a while...

I made toasties for a light dinner. Big day, great fun!

Cheers - Joolz xx

Monday, April 17, 2017

Easter Saturday...

We had a lazy Morning then we headed up into the Adelaide Hills to Meadows where they hold a big Easter Fair...

Dinner was slow roasted pork belly...

My bread rolls were less than pefect as we had trouble juggling oven space!

Roasted carrots...

Kipfler potatoes in verjuice...I didn't get a pic of the meal dished up but we also made yummy, creamy parsnip puree to sit the pork on. It was all delicious!

Another big day, spent with family.

Cheers - Joolz xx

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Easter is family time...

...and we like to spend it together. Since the girls have been living away, it's become tradition to get together, cook up a storm and enjoy the long weekend.

It was a cracking blue sky day for Good Friday and I made my way to Adelaide, arriving at 1pm. Gus was to follow later in the day as he had work to finish up. It took me ages to get the focus right in this pic, haha!

Kirby had prepared pizza dough earlier and had the first of three pizzas in the oven. when I arrived. This is a favourite - potato, garlic, bocconcini, parmesan and rosemary.

Next up, prawn and sundried tomato...

...and finally, a Margherita which was so tasty!

We sat outside enjoying that blue, blue sky...

...playing Five Alive and Exploding Kittens. Lots of laughs, I tell you!

For dinner, Bri's boyfriend, Michael produced two schnapper that he had lurking in his freezer from a previous charter fishing trip. Kirby prepared a Thai coconut, chilli and lemongrass marinade which was slathered on and in the fish. There was also a crayfish!

Entree was some scallops in a lemon butter...

...and two dozen oysters Kilpatrick which were demolished quickly.

The schnapper was cooked to perfection, under the watchful eyes of Gus and Nate. Kirby prepared coconut rice and steamed bok choy with sesame and soy to go with it. Altogether, a great dinner!

It's another beautiful day here so we're going up into the hills to suss out some markets then chill out until dinner which will be slow roasted pork. Stay tuned!

I hope you are having an peaceful Easter.

Cheers - Joolz xx

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Preparing for Easter...

Baking for my friend...

Sunday was crazy weatherwise. Wind, an and hail and it's only April!

I stopped and took this pic as I was headed into town for a quick shop...

My roses don't seem to mind this wild weather...

I made some Rocky Road to take to Adelaide to my girls. It's actually bumpy road as I didn't include nuts as Bri doesn't like them. In this lot there's marshmallows, lolly raspberry jubes and crispy M&M eggs...

Then I had a go at Easter chocolate bark. I coloured 4 bowls of white chocolate....

...blobbed it onto a tray...

...swirled the colours together...

...dotted it with crispy easter eggs and marshmallows...

Let it set then chop it into chunks! Easy!

Another batch of Rocky Road, this time with Crunchie and Turkish Delight eggs, raspberries and marshmallows mixed through melted chocolate.

Oh, yeah!

And finally and most tediously, Tia Maria chocolate truffles. I am done!

My girls have an Easter feast prepared for the weekend and I plan to make hot cross buns for Sunday. After the weekkend, we are heading up the river for the week! Can not wait!

Cheers - Joolz xx

Hug your loved ones...

A sad start to this blog post. A friend of ours who we were close to in the years that our kids were growing up, was tragically killed in a motor cycle accident on March 28. We had grown apart since our kids grew up but we were still friends, nonetheless. He and his wife, who are our age, had just celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary in March. Here one minute, gone the next. His bike slid out and he hit a huge tree. He leaves his lovely wife and 3 beautiful, grown up girls. All four spoke at his funeral, last Thursday. I do not know how they did it, giving a beautiful insight into the kind, gentle, dependable and funny man that Steve was. We are heartbroken for them.
I did some baking and took it around to them a few days prior to the funeral and I'm so glad I did. I witnessed a house full of women, holding each other together.

On Saturday, April 1st, we headed over to Melbourne to see our friends and we took in an AFL game on Sunday. As always, this was my view! I always get the tall dude with big hair in front of me! Doh!

Tradition says you must have a Four and Twenty meat pie and a beer at the footy. I had red wine instead! The pie was just hot enough for me to burn the roof of my mouth five times! I'll never learn!

We may have had bubbles also! I was barracking for Carlton Blues and our friends are Melbourne Demons fans! Demons won...pooh!

We walked back from the MCG to the train station then trained home to Spotswood. Such a great way to get around!
We got up Monday morning and went around the auction houses so Gus could look at a few cars he was interested in. He can buy them online later in the week. Then it was onto the plane for the trip home.

Cheers - Joolz xx