mosaic road

Saturday Morning Training

We are an eclectic group of gym buddies and meet up to train at 7 am every Saturday. Yes, we drag ourselves out of our warm beds and get put through our paces by our personal trainer. We not only have weight lifting in common though !! We all have a love of food and of making it at home. Our trainer looks at us, roll his eyes and says our session has turned into a farmer's market. We swap our home made produce {or home grown as in my case} most weekends. I came home today loaded with ham hock soup and M's famous relish plus fig and ginger compote from J. That just about takes care of my weekend eating, just need to burn the calories now with more training !!

A Supermarket Discovery

It is called Rainbow Salad and can be either used as salad ingredients or in a stirfry. It is a 250 gram bag of fresh, finely shredded beetroot, carrot and broccoli stems. I bought 2 bags today at a reduced price of $1.49 - so I have 500 grams of freshly shredded vegeatbles for $3.00. The time it would take me to shred 500 grams of vegies is unimaginable. These little bags are full of fresh picked and packed goodness saving me so much time and trouble. I just empty the entire bag into a salad bowl then add fresh picked rocket leaves from the garden . The salad is ready to go and  those eating can add diced ham or avocado or cheese and then eat immediately, no dressing even needed.We have eaten a different variation every night this week - no complaints either.

A Cool Little Ad

Every now and then something sweet appears on the screen and even though this is a commercial it caught my eye so have a little look here.

Fabulous Film

I loved it - just saw it tonight !! I am a big fan of Judy Dench and Maggie Smith and they are so, so good in this. There are some very funny moments that made me laugh out loud. India looks marvellous and tempting.  And aside from the film being marvellous I do love heading into the cinema and being able to sit back with a glass of prosecco in hand. i just don't get to do it often enough !!

 

My Sunday Morning

I booked a stall here at this Rotary Trash & Treasure Market today. I got up in the pitch black and cold and sacrificed my Sunday lie in. I headed of with my car loaded to the gunnels hoping my trash would be someone else's treasure. This market was undercover on the ground floor of a high rise car park. It was freezing surrounded by all that cement. There were lots of stalls but not lots of customers. After 4 shivery hours we packed up, calling it quits having made a pathetic total of $50.00. Hence I bought most of my goods back home, realising that my trash really is trash and not a treasure amongst it !!

The Last of the Summer Fruits

Sadly, the stone fruit season that I so love is coming to an end. While I do have quite a large amount of peaches and nectarines frozen, there is nothing like eating these fruits fresh with their dripping juices and luxurious tender flesh. I used up some poached nectarines yesterday and followed a recipe designed for a quince upside down cake. Huge success ! As there was not a quince in sight, the nectarines worked fabulously, actually showing off the versatility of the original recipe. 

Blueberries & Cake

Blueberries and cake are both very close to my heart - and stomach, I should add. When combined as here in an Overnight Blueberry Coffee Cake, I come close to gluttony. This cake was really heaven in a cake tin to eat and also heaven for the busy cook as the batter is whipped up, left overnight in the fridge, and then cooked the next day when the time is right or the guests are hungry. Anyone with a blueberry fettish, must try this recipe out.

Moreish Meatballs

I don't cook a lot of meat but I do buy lean beef mince from time to time to keep in the freezer for bolognaise or shepherd's pie or for emergencies. I liked the look of these  Curried Meatballs as they combined beef mince with brown lentils. I baked them and served them with hot tomato chutney. I used tandoori paste as the "curry" element but any form of curry paste would work fabulously and then you can make then as hot as you choose. I used tandoori paste to make them family friendly but I would love to try them with a hot rogan josh style curry paste or even red Thai curry flavours.

Tantalizing Tropical Cake

Our summer is on the wane so I thought this delicious Tropical Cake would help eke out our summery feelings for a bit longer. In it there is whizzed up banana and peach topped with a fat layer of a lime juice infused vanilla frosting. The recipe made a big slab cake, perfect for a weekend of snacking.

Happy Birthday Sally

Here she is, happily turning 23 and also happily eating a decadent dessert. It was an icecream sandwich sitting afloat on salted caramel sauce. If you can't do this on your birthday, when can you do it !! Happy Birthday, baby girl !!