Monday, November 17, 2014

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. 

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

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.




Tuesday, November 4, 2014

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.