Making Pasta

The last time I made pasta was in about 1973. It took me all afternoon but I did it. Last night I watched Mark make pasta with a pasta machine and it was much easier.

The inspiration for the exercise was this -

On special at my favourite Deli

I don't have to be able to read Italian to know what this is for.
Mark was happy to go along with the exercise. So with the fire going and a gin and tonic for me he started the dough.

1 egg to each 100gr of flour

Slowly working it in

Run it through 3 times

Each time making it thinner.

Looking better

Just right

Fettuccine

Great result

I forgot to photograph the slow roasted duck

Gremolata for duck and pasta

Fennel and orange salad

Dinner

With a fire

I am definitely going to do this myself and then tackle making potato gnocchi.

Today's musings

It is raining today. What in Europe is called a soft grey day. Not the usual sub-tropical downpour that comes with a blast and goes quickly. The ocean looks a lake in Switzerland on 'a soft grey day'.

This is the slowest quietest day that we have had since arriving in mid August last year. Almost feels too decadent. I finished my latest book, made Asian chicken soup and not much else.

We are always on the go with cooking, laundry, general cleaning, gardening, and renovations to the Tina Ave house and apartment. Not to mention the shopping for building materials and food, that all has to be carried to the ferry then off and home. No wonder we get tired by early evening.

On Easter Sunday Libby and Arabella came out for lunch. I cooked roast lamb with an assortment of vegetable dishes.

Italian Easter pie

I make this every year. I love it.

Cheese, egg and flakey pastry

What is not to love with this combination.Simone at Pretty Produce gave us some lovely egg plants just before the Easter break as they would be too large for her restaurant customers after the long weekend.

Straight from the garden

I roasted these on the bar b que and made my favourite honey and harissa eggplant dish

Honey,spices,garlic and ginger

Baker's potato

That is the English translation. Such a forgiving dish when feeding a crowd. Make it bake it take it out of the oven when you need space for something else then just pop it in again. It doesn't mind at all. Left overs taste just as good, when ever there is any.

The stuffed zucchini's are another good stand by dish. So easy to prepare ahead and they don't mind waiting around. The beans are another favourite. Blanch, roll in slightly cooked bacon make the sauce and pop under the grill at the last minute.

Arabella had a good day

She says coming over the water in a ferry to an island is 'leaving Australia'.

Vegetable Tagine

This is a good dish to use up the remains of a pumpkin and sweet potato

Blossoms on our apple tree

Rosella flowers

Pretty Produce invited us to pick rosella's last week. We picked the largest once from the bushes. They only use the leaves for the sour salad leaf mix. If the flowers are cut more young leaves will grow.
I made 10 pots of jam. I have never made this before but remembered the flavour from Slack's Creek.

This will be great with scones

Mark calls him Flea bus

I love the way this cat has taken to Mark. He waits for him to come home like a dog would. From our gate he can see down 2 streets so he has the best view.

This little cat has the loveliest expression.

Vegetable soup

When you don't have easy access to a supermarket etc you learn to be creative with what you have. Vegetable soup is always a good way to use up everything in the bottom of the crisper.

Retro garage sale buy

We went to a garage sale on the island. Jonelle bought a queen sized bed for the apartment for $50 - in excellent clean condition. I bought these for Mark for $5 each plus a brand new ice-cream maker for $15.
On the way home on the ferry on Saturday I saw that most boast I have ever seen fishing and pawning. This photo really doesn't do the scene justice. It was amazing.

Saturday's fishermen

Finally a little Autumn weather

It is April Easter weekend and finally the nights are cooler. We swam twice this week and hope to continue for a little longer. The ocean is still dirty from the cyclone but getting better each day.

The evening sunsets are just lovely and the colours change on a daily basis. Our world is coloured by the ocean and the sky.

Grey day

On days like this the sea and sky remind me of holidays in Europe. Soft and grey.

Different colour

Then the next morning it looks like this. Blue everywhere and so clear.

Evening light

This sunset was just lovely. the colour was actually deeper than this.

Another version

This evening the light was soft, yellow and grey

Beef and Guinness

Cooler weather cooking has started. I made a big quantity of beef and guinness stew in the slow cooker so we have some left for the freezer. Excellent with mashed potatoes and greens.

Irish soda bread

This was my first attempt at soda bread. Not a raging success but I plan to try again with some suggested improvements.

Our first bananas

These bananas were so sweet and full of flavour. We are hoping for more.

sheltering

In the aftermath of the cyclone in North Queensland we had over a week of rainy windy weather. During this time all of the verandah furniture has to be pulled away from the edges and some covered. Quite a few of the birds that we feed on a daily basis came and nestled on the verandah to get out of the bad weather. We desperately needed the rain - so good for the garden. Now our herbs are coming along beautifully.

Wild flowers

Even this old boat looked picturesque after the rain. It is actually very ugly and we would like to see it gone. But for a week it made a lovely vignette.

Maxi Baby

I stayed for a weekend in Carramar Street to baby sit Maxi. G went to Sydney for a well deserved break. I used the opportunity to catch up with friend C and have some Indian take away.

Early March update

It is autumn but still hot in the middle of the day. The promised rain has not arrived - so we are watering constantly to keep the garden looking good.

Friend C and I and her dog Val did our usual trek to Dicky Beach on the Sunshine Coast for a week. Now that I have a lovely view to look at every day looking at the horizon is not such a treat as usual. It was very hot and so we were restricted to early morning and late afternoon on the beach.

It was lovely to see the boy with Goat is still alive and well.

Very grown up now

We have been cooking a lot as usual.

Thai beef salad

Carrot, ginger and coriander soup

Son M's cat comes to visit when he is lonely or just seeing what we are up to.

Looking for geko's

There is a new strain of Mango that a few farmers are trailing. Called Princess Mango's, we have a tree at the Tina Ave house. We are not convinced that they are that fabulous.

Small trees so easy to pick

This is my favourite evening view

Hope it never moves

5 Months on Lamb Island

Almost 5 months ago we move to Lamb Island in Moreton Bay. Christmas has come and gone and now we are in the grip of a hot (as usual) Queensland summer.

The late evenings and early mornings are still delightful. If we want to work in the garden it really has to be done before 6.30am. Luckily we do have lovely ocean breezes and on the really hot days the living area of the house is air-conditioned.

We have been cooking our favourite food as well as experimenting with new recipes.

I made my first ever jelly from scratch.

Prosecco jelly

Also made a refrigerator cake a favourite from the 70's when friends came for lunch. I decorated it with edible flowers from the local flower farm called Pretty Produce. Previously I always decorated it with frangipani flowers.

70's refrigerator cake

This cake was a new one for me and will be made again

Pear and Ginger cake 

For afternoon tea I also made an Orange Ricotta cake

Also had pine nuts

The birds come to be fed twice a day. Well I tell them twice a day but somethings they call me earlier than they should. We love this family of Kookaburra's.

Not sure which one is the baby

We love this cheeky one also

Bit close for comfort

On a really hot day a couple of weeks ago Sister J and I made passata - what were we thing in the heat.

The flavour was well worth it

We have a couple of good options for swimming here. There is a pool on Russell Island a free 5 minute ferry ride away. A lovely sandy beach at Karragarra Island a 10 minute free ferry ride in the other direction or our local swimming enclosure. Of course the beach and enclosure are regulated by tides but we can work around that.

Picnic on Karragarra

Enclosure Lamb Island

The treat here is lovely clean water 3 minutes down the road looking over Stradbroke Island and watching the sail boats go by as you swim.

The sun sets have been amazing. There is nothing quite as magical as sun setting over water.

Every few weeks I make a batch of my favourite chicken and leek pies. They go in the freezer and bingo we have a snack or a meal with vegetables on the nights we don't feel like cooking.

Family favourite

When our neighbour had a glut of cucumbers I made pickled cucumber salad.

I ate it with everything

My gold Budda guards our front door. She is usually adorned with what ever flowers are around in the garden each day.

So serene

The November lilies bloomed profusely at the Tina Ave house so we cut them every second day.

Love these

We were very excited when this tree flowered outside the bathroom window. So glorious we planted another one in the garden in front of where we eat breakfast and lunch most days.