Cooking Class-Stuffed Grape Leaves.

What a fabulous day!! Today I joined Rita from "My Fathers Table" and a few others for an afternoon of cooking. We cooked Warak Enab or Lebanese Stuffed Grape Leaves. Her hands on classes are amazing and truly "hand on".

First stop was Moore Wollombi Garlic to talk with Natalie Moore about all things garlic. They have just harvested their second crop of garlic. The smell was soft & delicate. Not the overpowering acidic smell you normally associate with garlic.

Next stop Noyce Brothers Vineyard to pick Verdello grape leaves. Rita gave us a quick lesson in identifying the perfect leaves for our rolls.

Then we headed straight into the kitchen to learn the time honoured technique of stuffing &  rolling the leaves.

The rolls take around an hour to cook and then left to cool in the cooking liquid. Once we had prepared our rolls and layered them in our pot's they were ready for us to take home and cook.

Luckily for us Rita had prepared a large pot of the rolls earlier, so we were able to sit down and enjoy a traditional Lebanese feast. 

Remembrance Day

One of the most stunning memorials to this day is the Tower of London Remembers which commemorates the the First World War. Artist and ceramist Paul Cummings and stage designer Tom Piper have filled in the moat of the Tower of London with 888,246 ceramic poppies.  Each poppy represents a British military fatality during the war.

A Little Bit of Everything

Talk about a mixed bag. Friday night we frocked up for the Boots & Ball Gown dinner. Who new line dancing was such fun!

Saturday we braved the extreme heat and headed into the annual Wollombi Valley Small Farm Fair. Unfortunately the heat got the better of us ( and some of the stall holders) so we only stayed a short time. Sometimes the weather can be your best friend or worst enemy.
The forecast was for a late storm to come through on Saturday afternoon and a cooler day Sunday.-but as the old saying goes "be careful what you wish for". The first front that came through was lovely. We had a drop in temperature, a slight shower of rain, and a rainbow! The second front was more severe. The wind picked up and was swirling in every direction. Tree's came down. Thunder and lightning exploded across the sky. One huge flash of lightening and the power was gone.

So Saturday night looked a bit like this...

Power was not restored until lunchtime Sunday. The joys of country life.

Sunday however was perfection. Clear sky's and a cool breeze.

Just me and my girl. It doesn't get better than this.

Sculpture In The Vineyards

This event is one of my favourite in the Valley. A day spent wandering around different vineyards while looking at amazing art it my idea of a perfect day.
It's well worth spending  $5 on the guide book. It covers all of the sculptures exhibited in each of the 4 vineyards and really helps to understand both the sculpture and the message the artist is trying to convey.

www.sculptureinthevineyards.com.au

Almond & Pear Tart

I've rolled this dessert out a number of times over the last few months, and it's always gone down a treat. A few people have asked for the recipe so here it is. Enjoy!

Ingredients

  Frozen Sweet Shortcrust Pastry
 50g Soft unsalted butter
 100g castor sugar
  100g Ground Almonds (or Almond Meal)
  2 Eggs
  1 Tablespoon Brandy (or Rum)
  1 Teaspoon Almond extract
  1 Tin of Pear Halves –drained


Method

Defrost pastry and line a 25cm tart tin with a removable base.

Use a fork to prick the base of the pastry.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes (or as long as it take you to make the batter)

Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and mix until the butter is light and fluffy. I’ve done this in the large mixer and with a little hand electric beaters. The result is the same.

Stir in the ground almonds. Add the eggs, rum and almond extract and mix to combine.

Pat the drained pear halves dry. You can slice then or cut them into quarters depending on how you want to decorate the tart.

Remove the pastry from the fridge. Pour the batter into the pastry case. Spread the batter evenly over the pastry case. Arrange pears in a circle on top of the batter.

Bake in a moderate oven (160 C) for 30-40 minutes.

The tart is ready when it has a nice golden colour.
Serve warm from the oven or at room temperature.



Tips & Traps for young players

The first few times I made this I sliced the pears thinly and fanned them out in a circle. It looked great but was very fiddly and not really worth the extra effort.

Don’t be tempted to overcook the tart. Once it has a nice golden colour it’s done, even if the batter still looks a bit shiny or soft.

Decorate with toasted almond slivers if you want to be fancy

Serve with ice cream or cream.

The things we do....

One of the first things you learn when you own a farm is that everything is large scale. Even small farms require large scale everything. I don't know why this still surprises me but it does. 

So when Trent mentioned that winter was a good time to "improve" the paddocks and he was going to get some fertiliser delivered I didn't bat an eyelid. Sure whatever I said......after all these years I should pay more attention.

Really?

An entire truck load of chook poo?

Delivered on the same weekend we had friends visiting from Sydney! 

Really Trent?

Oh shit. Literally. 

The cow's weren't bothered but the truck in the paddock or the unloading of the poo, but they soon headed for the hills. Let me tell you when the cows are offended by the smell...it's bad.

Is Trent waving to me or is he signalling to me that he's about to pass from the smell?

I shouldn't have worried about our friends. Natural order was reached when the boys went and played with the Tonka trucks and the ladies opened a bottle wine. Inside with the windows closed.

Great times with old friends...

This is what happens when great friends get together for a weekend! A few bottles wine, a few laughs and LOADS of amazing food. Given the amount of laughter coming from the kitchen I think the boys were getting worried that dinner might not actually happen....

Entree

Home made hummus, cheese & dips.

Main

Marinated lamb shoulder, slow cooked in the wood fired oven for 4 hours

Garlic Mash "al la Thermomix"

Assorted greens fresh from my garden

Bread baked in the wood fired oven.

Dessert

Almond & Pear Tart

Assorted Amazing Wine-lot's of it!!

Sunday Morning was crisp & clear....alas

 the guest were not!

Bonfire Night

We've come a long way since our first bonfire night! To celebrate the completion of our shed we invited a few friends up for a BBQ & bonfire. After months of camping out in the shipping container the idea of a warm dry shed to sleep in seemed like a 5 star hotel.

8 years, 2 villa's and a house later the same group of friends still come & celebrate with us.

The year the weather was simply perfect.

Ummmm Trent, mate is your fire fighting equipment handy?