Best ever Dad's joke

It is a big call, but I reckon I can lay claim to one of the best ever Dad's jokes. It does require a bit of a set up to provide the context, but it is worth it!

A couple of months ago, Jane and I were had Peter visiting, and we were taking him to the Royal Queensland golf course. We drove down Nudgee Road, with Doomben Racecourse on our left, and Eagle Farm  on our right. Jane, noticing the proximity of the race courses to the airport, said "doesn't having the airport so close annoy the horses?"

Serendipitously, at exactly this point in time, we crossed a pedestrian crossing that had a sign that warned "Horses cross here".

So, in response to Jane's question I came back with something along the lines of "Of course they are annoyed - look at the sign!"

Isn't it brilliant?

Jane turns thirty something...

It was lovely to be able to spoil Jane rotten last Friday, for her birthday. MacK and I gave her pearl earrings to go with last year's necklace, a fossil watch and a hint glass frog! I also spent the day cooking a feast of Jane's favourites to share with a few friends. The menu we served was as follows:

Hors d'oeuvres

• Smoked salmon and scrambled egg
• Asparagus wrapped in prosciutto
• Potato Latke with spiced apple and sour cream

Fresh bread

Grilled lamb, beetroot, rocket and persian feta salad

Twice roasted pork belly, with roasted baby carrots and salsa verde, garlic hasselback potatoes and braised lettuce and peas

Chilled watermelon with pistachio dukkah and chopped mint

Smoked cheddar and cabernet paste 'Napoleon' with honey roast walnuts

"Angel Pie'

Kumquat pigs

So- a couple of things that need mentioning from this menu. First up - braised lettuce. I know that a lot of people think that lettuce is only for salads, but you really need to try this dish. Sauté bacon, onion and garlic, and add chopped iceberg lettuce and peas. Add enough chicken stock to wet the dish and finish with a little chopped mint. This is a really fresh way to eat lettuce, and as ever, bacon makes it all better!

The kumquat pigs were a little bit of fun. A couple of months ago we found a chocolate mould for a pig's head. They really are a little too real, and quite grotesque. The filling was a kumquat marmalade flavoured ganache. They were probably one step too far on this menu, but really good though.

The Angel Pie - this came from a book called 'Lost Desserts', and is described by the creator (a Sylvia Hirsch, from Miss Grimbles inNew York circa 1960) as follows:

Desserts are my business, and i find this possibly the most irresistible in all of dessertdom. Dieters fall off their diets and strong men go weak at the sight of it. It is beautiful to behold and luscious to eat.

Now that is a pretty tall order to live up to, but the photograph initially sold me. It has a meringue crust, with a chocolate mousse filling topped with whipped cream and berries. In the making, I realised that it was something a little special. It has all the elements of a classic dessert - cream/crunch/rich/sweet/fresh,  and of course booze and chocolate (the mousse is flavoured with kahlua). What I found interesting was that both the meringue crust and mousse have a little salt added. It is just enough to prevent a cloying sweetness. I don't know if it is irresistible, but I have had it for breakfast for the last two days, and Jane wants it again as a part of our regular repertoire.

One of our guests brought a fascinating wine, made by Damien Tscharke (a 6th generation German winemaker from the Barossa Valley). The Project Naturalis Marananga Savagnin is a really different, lovely to drink wine that (through perfect happenstance) brilliantly matched the menu. We had one of the 670 bottles produced, so you probably won't be able to head off and grab one to try, but it is certainly worth looking for. It is also interesting for the wine's story on the back label, transcribed below:

Harvested 15th Feb at night - 12.2 baume

No foreign yeasts

Full solid ferment - skins, flesh, seeds and stalks

Cap management by hand and foot

Aged in an old Demi Muid French oak barrel

No acidification or fining

Bottled after five months

Unfiltered - minimal sulphur

If you do a search for Tscharke, you will see a passionate young craftsman with a range of really interesting wines. I am told they are really well made, and we will certainly be looking for them to add to our cellar!

A bucket list weekend!

The weekend just gone was ridiculously busy in our house. We had my work function on Friday night, tickets to see Leonard Cohen on Saturday, and a 7 course lunch on Sunday. We didn't get to bed before midnight either night, and MacK was up at 0500 each morning. I think it would be fair to say that we were ready for bed on Sunday night.

The theme for the work dinner was Masquerade, and we were lucky enough to have it at our local pub (also one of Brisbane's best entertaining and function venues). I dropped Jane off there so she could have a drink with her work colleagues and took the car home as we needed it for swimming the next morning. I rode the motorbike back to the pub, which is only worthy of note as I was wearing a kilt at the time!

The photo above is Jane and I on our way to the ball. We are truly hopeless though - there are no photographs of us in masks. It was a great night though. We had excellent food - all cooked a la minute, which is really unique for function catering (how it SHOULD be done though…). I was even more impressed with the drinks package, which had a couple of really good beers included - Matilda Bay Fat Yak, and Stone & Wood Pacific Ale.

On our way out of the Grand Ballroom, we thought we might look in at the pub to see who was still partying. Thoughts that were short lived, after we were asked for ID at the door. Can I tell you that is the first time in my life I have ever been asked for ID. So… we went home, and felt much better for it the next day!

Jane managed to get a couple of hours in bed, and I took a hour on the Saturday prior to our bucket list tick on Saturday night. Does anyone else think that you should get a babysitter for the day after a big event too?

Jane bought me tickets to see Leonard Cohen. He was simply incredible. There wasn't a support act - but I don't know who you could possibly put with him in an case. He is 79 years old, and ran onto the stage. He cam on shortly after 8:00pm, and didn't leave until after 11:30pm having performed four encores. He epitomises "cool", but manages to maintain a level of humility and humour with it. His voice is incredible, and his band were all brilliant musicians in their own rights.

I don't know what I can write about this brilliant musician, who Lou Reed called the most important songwriter of his generation, that would do his performance justice. He performed one of his classics - Hallelujah - and all I could think was that none of the covered versions comes close to the intent or emotion of the original. Quite simply the best live performance I have ever seen. Thank you Jane - that truly is a big ticket item on the bucket list. I just hope I one day have the opportunity to see him perform again.

On Sunday we had the second of our festive season events. The first was a couple of weeks ago, when we caught up with old friends (Keren and Waz) for dinner. The highlight of the dinner for me was the slow roasted grass fed New Zealand Rib Fillet. it really took me back to that beautiful beef that I was fortunate to grow up with. We served it with a Yorkshire Pudding, for which I used Marco Pierre White's recipe - one cup each of flour, eggs and milk. So simple, but light and delicious! It was really good to catch up - and testament to how busy we have been here in Brisbane that this was the first time we have really had the time to meet (and now we are about to pack up and move on).

Lunch this Sunday was to repay the hospitality shown to us by Alex and Elisabeth (see Na Zdrowie, from October 13). I played in the kitchen, and we had a couple of courses… Joining us at the table were Raf and Susan. Half the discussion was in Polish, and everyone had a great time. We were not allowed to take anything with us to Alex and Elisabeth's, but they brought a bison grass vodka, and some home made smoked sausage. Regardless of propriety, there was no way that any of Alex's sausage was going home with them, as it is simply too good.

We served the following menu:

Fresh bread, with a chicken liver and port pate. (I haven't made pate for at least ten years, and had forgotten how good it tastes. It is definitely back on high rotation!)

Roast tomato and sheeps milk cheese tart, with balsamic vinegar glaze and rocket (This is the third time we have served this tart, and the third time we have failed to photograph it. Lucky it is one of Jane's favourites, so we will just have to keep cooking!).

Slow roasted pork belly, jellied beetoot, salsa verde and carrot and mustard jam.

We served this with a side of roast Brussels sprout leaves and potatoes.

I was too lazy (?) to make a sorbet, so we used fresh watermelon as a palate cleanser, with fresh chopped mint and pistachio dukkah.

We served Jane's favourite cheese course next - the cheese and cabernet paste napoleon, with honey roasted walnuts.

Dessert was Tiramisu, and we had "Rugelach" with tea and coffee.

Susan brought a bottle of a Barossa shiraz called 'Dracula's Blood', with tasted a whole lot better than it might have, and we pulled a bottle of Belvedere vodka from the freezer with dessert for a few well deserved toasts!

It was really nice to not be eating well into the night, and I think we will be doing more long lunches into the future. We finished this one at about 6:00pm… The company was superb, and we didn't need to think too hard about dinner!

A Random photo essay

There are always other things going on that are worthy of note, or photos of MacK that are particularly endearing!

A couple of weeks ago, I "coached" our work rugby team. By coaching, I mean that there is every chance that I might have played. But never more than three games per day in the tournament we played! We ordered our playing strip from England, and had it presented to the team at a work function.  We were lucky enough to have Ben Roberts-Smith attend to present our playing shirts. He is an incredibly humble bloke, who also happens to be a man mountain. I know whose side I would like him to be on in a fight...

The team with RS

And MacK meeting a true Aussie legend!

I had the opportunity to carve out a pumpkin for Harry this year. It is the first time we had ever thought about Halloween, and it was lucky we had chocolate in the house, as we were door knocked several times!

MacK has built a special relationship with Special Bear.

This one was taken when David and Jess stopped through on their way back from South America earlier this year. I don't think MacK has bounced quite that high since...

Australia Zoo

A couple of weekends ago we took MacK to Australia Zoo to show him some of the incredible animals that exist on this amazing planet. Good friends Raf and Susan, with Lachie and Zara met us there, and we had an amazing day.

It is a brilliantly designed facility. Even though the carparkswere full, for most of the day we felt as though we were the only ones in the park. As well as the reptiles and kangaroos we expected, there are also tigers, giraffes (so cute!) and a family of rhinoceros. I don't know that I can describe it any better than our pictures will, so here goes:

It took a little bit of convincing to get MacK to touch the little guy...

But he climbed straight into the mouth of the big one. Go figure!

Is there a cuter animal than the wombat? They had one being led around the zoo on a harness later in the afternoon. We sat and watched them for ages - they were fascinating!

These kangaroos must get sick of being fed and pampered. Wouldn't you?

Mack and I got to ride a camel. They are funny to ride. Every step feels like the legs are going to give out from underneath you. 

The rhinos were just incredible. I don't know if I can describe a purpose for their being, or a reason for how they are put together. Not that it matters, but they almost seem to not belong in our age. They look prehistoric - a paleontological hangover. Again we just gawped at these guys…

Naturally the kids found a rock to play on…

And convinced Jane to play "Ring-a-ring-a rosie".

Frosty fruits were a very necessary addition to the day!

I reckon it took MacK all of about 3 minutes to fall asleep in the car on the way home! The zoo is one that we would visit time and time again. It is just an excellent day out.

Fruits and flowers

Jane and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary in June this year (I have already apologised for the tardiness of posting…) and we wanted to do as we usually do, which is to exchange gifts according to the traditional schedule. The fourth is fruits and flowers, which presented challenges. Short of giving each other fruit trees for the farm, I had no idea where we might go.

Now, every Saturday after MacK's swimming lesson we have coffee at our local cafe. The barista is also a fine artist, and has several pieces featuring flowers on display. I decided to commission an artwork for Jane, even though we had decided that we wouldn't invest in any more art until we had built the house. Our plan was to see what we needed, and then buy it as we found it.

I commissioned a single poppy, as below…

I love the work she has done, and can't wait to see it framed. What was truly astounding that Jane, completely independently, also decided to break the no art edict and commission an original artwork by a friend of ours, the brilliant Selena Smith. As you can see, it is also poppies… Nice to know we are in synch!

What is special about this one is that the backing for the poppies is taken from old Army Catering texts. Yet again, my beautiful wife has gazumped me!

What was old is new again

A couple of months ago I wrote about the oven we had bought, intending to recycle/repair/recover for eventual use in the house we build on the farm. The project is finally almost at an end (thankfully!). We ended up having to replace almost all of the working parts, but now have an almost brand new oven range that looks a bit battered on the outside. We weren't able to replace the bakelite handles, but that just adds to the oven's rugged charm!

See below for a mid restoration photo, and what it looks like now! And before you say that I haven't finished the job, I have no intention of polishing the outside just yet, as it is going into storage until we build the house. It will be cleaned prior to going into the kitchen!

At this point, the only think that looked salvageable was the frame! I really did think I had taken on more than I should have...

 It all works. A little battered through time and neglect, but we are able to give an old girl a new lease of life, and save ourselves around $10,000 in the process. Wins all round, I say!

Gingerbread Men

I found a really good recipe for gingerbread recently, and MacK is always looking for opportunities to help in the kitchen. Gingerbread biscuits will form a central part of many of our Christmas presents this year, so we gave it a bash last weekend. As you can see from the photos below, MacK loved it, and is steadily chewing his way through a batch of biscuits so we have to make another!

MacK was fascinated by everything else on the bench at first 

He got a bit more excited when he realised that he was going to be able to play with the dough and a rolling pin!

Look Mum, all on my own!

For the record, the biscuits are delicious. Just the right amount of spice to warm your mouth, without being over the top. Excellent 'dunkers', I would suggest!

Stuff kids say...

Before I get into the subject of today's post, I need to apologise. We had dinner with a friend last weekend, who told us that she really enjoyed our blog, but that we must be busy this year as the blog isn't as regular as it has been in the past. 

The year has been busy - stupidly so at times, and at this stage shows no sign of slowing down. We are hoping that a large part of that is the 'Brisbane effect'. It takes so long to get anywhere that weekends just seem to disappear. I seem to be spending a couple of hours extra away from home each day also due to the extra commuting requirements (Maybe Townsville wasn't that bad after all…!).

In any case, we are about to move to Wodonga, and we hope that we are able to find a few more hours in our collective weeks. The house we are hoping to rent is only 7-8 km from work, yet friends tell us it is out in the sticks! I remind them we are currently in Brisbane!

Back to the stuff kids say….

MacK still has occasional trouble with enunciating the letter 'l'. New words tend to be fine, but words that he started saying without the 'l' still don't come out quite right. His favourite cartoon character is Buzz Lightyear (of infinity and beyond fame), and he would wear the one shirt he has every day if he could. In MacK's vernacular, Buzz Lightyear becomes Buzz Ikea. Jane and I laugh every time we hear him, as we imagine a flat pack hero, saving the universe one allen key at a time!

MacK still crawls into bed between us at some stage each night, and generally settles for the balance of the night. A week or so ago he started asking for milk at about 2:30am. We tried to avoid getting out of bed, but he kept pushing the point. Jane told him there was no milk, to which he replied "Yes there is Mummy - it's in the fridge!" No dummy our boy…

He has a habit of correcting us regularly. In his swimming class we sing a song with lyrics that include "I'm a little pancake nice and flat". When he hears that now, he says "I'm not a pancake, I'm MacK". He is inclined to do this too if we ask him if he is hot, or cold, or anything else. No… I'm MacK!

When MacK was very small (he genuinely was small, once), Jane made up a rhyme to sing to him on the bed. If you get the chance to bounce with MacK on the trampoline, you should probably remember this one, as he now likes to bounce to it. It goes a little like this:

Boing - a - boing - a - boing - a - boo

MacK's a bouncing kangaroo

Bouncing here

Bouncing there

Bouncing around 

everywhere!

Will and the Horses

Several weeks ago, we decided that we couldn’t stomach any more Bob the builder, Shrek, Madagascar, or even Shaun the Sheep (although Shaun is pretty cool). My suggestion was that we had a quiet night with a DVD. We would plonk MacK on the couch between us, and give him a bottle. Naturally he would go to sleep… We chose “Ladder 49” (stars John Travolta and Joaquin Phoenix in a movie about Boston fire fighters), as there is little by way of bad language or violence.

Well… MacK didn’t go to sleep. Instead he was absolutely intrigued by the movie, and couldn’t take his eyes off it. He has since watched it so often, that he can narrate the movie. He calls it “Jack and the fire engine”, and regularly spends time putting out fires.

After a couple of weeks, we inevitably got sick of Ladder 49, so switched out for “A Knight’s Tale”. This has now been rechristened “Will and the horses”, and MacK looks for sticks that he can use for jousting.

It has been a really nice couple of weeks. We haven’t had any commitments on weekends, so have been able to spend quiet weekends at home, which is quite novel for us. Mack was sick overnight – we think he picked up a bug of sorts, and vomited a couple of times. He had a very quiet day, and didn’t really pick up until later this afternoon. It was really lovely – He and I lay on the trampoline, and just looked at the clouds scudding across the sky. He told me the most wonderful stories, and really cracked me up at one point. He was talking about superheroes, and I asked him if he was going to save the world. His response:

“No, I’m not going to save the world. I’m going to have dinner and go to bed”. Nothing like knowing when your day has been too tough!

We haven’t posted about the house and farm for a while. We have put the project on hold for a bit while we ruminate over the house plan. It is still developing, and we want to get it right before we commence the build. We have built a scale model to allow us to get a better perspective on how our floor plan goes together. It is interesting, as it has allowed us to challenge a few of our thoughts and preconceptions, and to make what we think will be positive changes.

We are still looking at doing big things on the farm next year, and will definitely keep posting through that process.

Na zdrowie!

Yesterday we had the singular pleasure of an invitation to celebrate a friend's birthday. Alex is Polish (hence the title - pronounced Nah zdroh-vee-eh, and meaning cheers, or good health), and Elisabeth planned a traditional long lunch to celebrate.

Another great friend, Leigh, would have been in heaven at the sight of the table, and I am sure that one day I may have to attempt to recreate the feast for my own enjoyment as well as his! The hero of the feast was that magical beast, the pig. We sat down to lunch a little after two, and eight o'clock had well and truly chimed before we finally got up from the table.

Everything we ate was glorious, and I fear I may not need (as opposed to want...) to eat for at least a week! The hero dishes (read magical, piggy goodness) were as follows:

1. Pork fillet wrapped in prosciutto, with grilled cherry tomato and olive
2. Crumbed pork fillet
3. Roasted loin
4. Slow roasted leg
5. Pork and cabbage rolls
6. Sausage, braised with sauerkraut
7. Beans wrapped in bacon
8. Pierogi, (kind of like a ravioli, and filled with pork, and topped with ham)
9. Beetroot, slow cooked with apple, vinegar and pork lard

After dessert, we had a few snacks... More roast pork, a selection of russian style smallgoods, and the crackled skin.

Don't fear, we did eat more than the oink! The table had its share of 'girly greens' (to paraphrase Leigh) in the form of pickled vegetables, gherkins and traditional polish salad (Lettuce, shallot, radish, sour cream and dill). Naturally potatoes featured (and not just in the vodka), and what was interesting was that the Ocker style salad was hardly touched.

The whole afternoon was a masterclass in the art of the 'Long Lunch', and the food and company was glorious. To share in Alex's celebrations, it was only right to share a vodka with Alex, Raf and Martin. And then another, until the bottle was gone. They were right though - there is a right way to drink good vodka. It comes from the freezer, and the vodka glass is accompanied by food and another glass. The accompanying glass yesterday changed from water to lemonade to coffee. Sounds odd, but it worked! At one point I did let sensibility enter into the equation, and opted out of a vodka toast. Alex and Elisabeth very kindly gave me a glass of "Spirt" instead. (Unsure of spelling, but that is how it sounded). This was a raw spirit (read moonshine), infused with black lilac flowers made by Elisabeth's mother (now in her nineties) and guaranteed to prevent stomach illnesses. It really was good, but in terms of relative potency it leaves the vodka deep in its shade!

We also had an education in another old Eastern European health remedy - vodka infused with black pepper. It sounds deadly, but again is actually really good. I can't remember what it is good for, but am happy to take it as a preventative medicine regime!

The dessert was really interesting. Elisabeth made a pavlova, and tried a new recipe that has salt in the mix. The resulting flavour was like a salted caramel. It was really pleasant, and certainly something I want to try next time I have a surplus of egg whites!

The bounty on the table was countered by the conversation. We were fortunate to have Alex and Elisabeth share their recollections of life behind the Iron Curtain. It was another reminder of just how lucky I have been in life. Whilst we have seen some hard times, they really have been 'first world problems', and nothing to what others have experienced, and still do across the world. 

Upcycling is a virtue

Most will know that I am a fan of the freecycle/upcycle mantra (even if I have sometimes been know to confuse freecycling with 'liberation'...

Anyway, several months ago we had the opportunity to acquire a commercial oven range in need of some love and attention. Jane was a little dubious, but I managed to assure her that we weren't buying into a white elephant. I wish I had photographed the before, as it was truly awful. The bloke we got the oven from had originally had every intention of putting it into his cafe kitchen but it wouldn't fit. It also wouldn't fit into his garage, so it sat out in the Brisbane weather for a couple of years. 

So far, we have hit it with a rust converter to see if there was anything that survived the weather (fortunately the important parts all have), and pulled it apart to clean. The gasfitter who is working on the technical side of the refurbishment reckons we have pulled about 12-15 kg of grease out of the frame. Needless to say, it wasn't ever cleaned very well in previous incarnations, and is now a lot lighter. 

I had to replace fixed legs with castors. In this case it meant about seven hours of cutting, grinding old welds, and trying to bolt the castors through inches of decades old grease.

We have struggled to date the range, but it is old enough for the manufacturers plate to have long since worn away, and we only know the brand because I saw one like it on a restaurant equipment auction site.

If you are interested, we are now the proud owners of a (nearly put back together) 10 burner Waldorf gas kitchen range (6 burner rings, and a 4 burner hot plate) with two ovens. Needless to say, this is a little forward planning for the house build on the farm.

We are told that we will have a better oven than most built today, as it has nothing electric in it (unlike today's ovens) to break down. It is really simple, and although a little battered and beaten about has another 30 years of effective life in it. 

I took a weeks leave last week, and spent most of it upcycling the oven - but it is definitely worth it.  

Do as I say, not as I do!

Rules, guidelines and safety precautions are generally there for a reason. We try and flaunt rules where and when we can, and generally grudgingly accept that they are there to protect us.

As for me, I am a big advocate of the "closed shoes in the kitchen" rule, and am always on at Jane when she is in the kitchen in jandals (or thongs for the Australian audience!).

Imagine then how much of a twat I felt the other night when I padded into the kitchen in bare feet, and promptly knocked something off the bench. The scraper hit my toe, and I promptly let out a blood curdling yelp. Jane refused to show anything like an appropriate level of sympathy until the next day, when the toe appeared, twice the regulation size and a decided shade of puce (the photo below shows most of the colour having gone back out of the toe).

By the way - if you are wondering what an appropriate level of sympathy is for Jane, it tends to involve  near hysterical convulsions of laughter, and helpful suggestions in the order of "should have been wearing shoes, dumbass!!!". 

A photographic essay...

So... This is a collection of some of my favourite photographs of the last few months. They are not in date order, so if you are looking for some kind of chronological look at MacK over the last couple of months you might be disappointed! I will try to put a date context where I can...

This is how the farm looked when we were down in August. We had ploughed in the weeds, and planted oats and vetch to start a program of soil conditioning. It really was as good as this looks!

You can't quite see MacK, but he was very excited to be able to steer Sam and Simone's tractor. 

All of that farmwork is very tiring!

We bought a trampoline for MacK. It is one of the fancy ones without springs, and a safety net. As you can see, I was very conscientious about following the instructions... 

And the safe, finished product. MacK loves it!

This one is from a little earlier in the year (I am thinking June?), where MacK is helping me make passata  for the winter. Great fun, and we got super sticky and gooey! Not quite our own tomato festival, but something close. 

Mack loves to garden (which to him at this stage involves watering plants only). Here he is, watering Jane's pride and joy - a Euphorbia that one of the residents in the village gave her 

Doesn't every two year old cook a barbecue??

A winter catch up

Again, a catch up! I spent five weeks away for work, during which time I missed my little family like crazy. We were technically in the tropics, although Rockhampton in winter feels anything but! Sleeping on concrete slabs under canvas doesn’t always make for comfortable nights either.  This trip wasn’t too bad, as we did have (work) internet and phone access. I was able to get mobile coverage every couple of days, which meant I was able to keep up with developments on the home front too.

Jane uploaded a photograph a day to facebook so I could see how our wee man changed over the time I was away. It wasn’t only appreciated at my end, as several friends also commented on their enjoyment of the photographs. I am sure that some of them wanted me to stay away so they could continue to receive the pictures!

MacK developed a bit of a glove fetish while I was away. We think it is because he started carrying one of my motorbike gloves around after I left, and there were brilliant pictures of him eating a bowl of strawberries wearing my gloves. His “gloverobe” grew over the time I was away to include my ski gloves, a pair of pink fingerless womens exercise gloves, gardening gloves and latex washing up gloves. 

On my return, (a couple of weeks ago now) we had a busy week at work before heading to Canberra for a much needed winter break. Call us crazy, but we actually like to head to the cold! Makes the red wine much easier to drink! We also had to meet with our accountant and peg our concept house plans out on the house block. It was fantastic to see the house on the block, and to be able to walk through the floor plan.  We have decided to do a reassessment of what we might need, after the architect scared us with his initial cost estimates!!! Without scaring you also, short of winning lotto, there was no way we were ever going to build!

While down in Canberra we also had an opportunity to provide Leigh with another pheasant pheast. He again went shooting with friends in the Grampians, and came back with several brace of pheasants. This year my intention was to cook the breasts and legs separately, with a confit base for the legs. As I was putting it together the dish morphed into a much more Spanish influenced dish, with olives, preserved lemons and raisins. We slow braised the legs before serving them, and the meat just fell off the bone. The sauce was not thickened, and was wonderful to mop up off the plate. I wrapped the breast in prosciutto before searing and roasting. It was tender and moist – the kind of bird you could eat forever. I made a stock from all the carcasses (there were six), and reduced that to make a sticky, unctuous sauce. We served the birds with roast vegetables, and Brussels sprouts sautéed with bacon. Peter pulled a range of excellent wines from the cellar, and we had both cheese and soft centred chocolate pudding to finish the meal.

Since returning to Brisbane, we seem to have been extraordinarily busy with both work and play. We had an excellent evening at my cousins for a late Christmas in July, where I was very happy to pick up a bottle of Bombay Gin in the secret Santa!

We took Dad out to lunch for a lovely Father’s Day lunch  - if you are ever in Palmwoods on the Sunshine Coast, Rick’s Café serves brilliant burgers, and the beer is good too. We got wholeheartedly sick of seeing MacK jump on everything in sight, so caved and bought a trampoline for the back yard. The only problem we have now is to get him off it when it gets dark!

At work we had an athletics carnival (very schoolboy-ish, I know), and I got to compete in one of my favourite events - Tug of War. Apparently I might get a little competitive when it comes to sports I enjoy!

In the immediate future we are looking at starting to pack up the house already (there aren’t that many weeks before we have to drive again to a new location), and I promise to write more blogs! I am excited though. Jane and I have tickets to Leonard Cohen on November 30. He is an amazing poet/vocalist, and quite simply my favourite artist. It will be a fantastic night, and one where Jane and I can have a far too infrequent night out as grown ups!