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!