First gift of 2010

Hand sewn by my favourite Kiwi mother on the sunny farm in NZ. This lovely tea cosy was delivered by snail mail and brought a big smile to my face. It is even lined with cupcake imprinted fabric! I love it and so will my teapot!! Thank you Momma Hale xx

Brie and cranberry pizzaApparently eaten down under in Kiwiland. It tasted delicious and is such a great idea! D made this along with some other clever pizza concoctions for a friend's baby shower.

She is now enjoying the NZ summer and similar pizzas, sailing around and getting tanned while the rest of us freeze, enjoy Dee!

x

Easter eating
Hope you all had a nice Easter - we had some wacky weather with sun, rain, snow and hail all coming in the same few hours. Hopefully spring will now emerge and I can put away my boots!

Easter dinner was great with fabulous friends, food and wine. There weren't many pics of the final dinner as we were hungry and of course, served it, and ate it without thinking about photos. We did have time for pics when Trev's dessert came out. It was a panna cotta column made with fresh vanilla bean, which sat on top of a gorgeous chocolate biscuit and was surrounded by a raspberry coulis. Absolutely mouth watering and all made by Mr. J himself.
(Trev and his panna cotta creation)

AND he made home made Easter bread, which was a beautifully braided, egg bread that came all wrapped up with bows and a little daffodil. No he is not gay, and he doesn't have any single brothers ladies...unfortunately they are taken and he is married to the lovely actress, Le Jedan, so one must look elsewhere for a man who can cook and is passionate about food.

Starters were a selection of fine cheeses and olives from the Honey Monster, gorgeous wine was brought by the Coach (a great Malbec and a smooth South African red from the Western Cape called Chocolate Block - I didn't pay attention the the whites) the pasta was made with a simple tomato sauce and basil and then there was the roasted lamb.

Our leg of lamb from award winning, Sheepdrove Organic farm's butchery cooked nicely with only salt, pepper and fresh rosemary as seasoning. It was so soft and tender; served with mint gravy, mint jelly, roasted potatoes and vegetables it was delicious, even the Honey M who doesn't eat lamb, ate it and enjoyed it. Thanks to our NZ lamb expert and sous-chef too!

The bad news is we are all a few pounds heavier but the good news is we had a great evening and it is another short work week!

Pineapple Lumps
A NZ treat! It smells like pineapple, has pineapple flavour but I don't think there is any pineapple in this candy bar (from what I recall when reading the ingredients' list).

My sis and I have a new favourite show -Flight of the Conchords - about two Kiwis who move to NYC to get their folk band into the limelight. It is hilarious and is getting quite the cult following. My friends in NY love it and my friends in TO are also keenly watching each week as Jermaine and Brett go through some interesting experiences in NY. It doesn't seem to be showing in NZ which is a shame as it is truly a gem of a show.

They make a lot of funny NZ references and perhaps one day they will be eating Pineapple Lumps sent to them from their family back home. One thing they do not do on the show is call each other by a nickname as every Kiwi I know is not called their real name e.g. Bug, Bun, Bobs, Coops, Hunty, Heinzy, Madz etc... Seriously, these are some of the Kiwi people whom I have met and for months did not know their real names. Some of them I still cannot recall their real names?!

On the site Homesick-Kiwi.com Pineapple Lumps are, 'the single best-seller among homesick Kiwis. Chewy and satisfying.'

Summerlicious
The weather yesterday was sweltering I think it reached 28degrees during the day with such a warm wind and lots of humidity. In the evening we had a spectacular thunder and lightning storm which washed away some of the humidity.

With this weather everyone seems to be in summer mode; riding bikes, bbq'ing, wearing summer gear and just being outside. Walking and hanging around on the street - it is nice to see people out again.

So...there have been comments from the peanut gallery that I haven't been cooking lately and that is correct but things will change shortly and I will be back in the kitchen, for now I will just post on my restaurant experiences and other food miscellany... Alex be patient, you can do command centre cooking for now maybe even a bbq for your staff. Maybe even a fruit surprise...

These fruit kebabs are from NZ and our kiwi friend Pat Hale- who may start writing 'Pat's Patch' notes from down under on what is going on in her garden and on her dairy farm...
Fruit kebabs are easy to make and once fruit is cut everyone loves to eat it. It is always the prep that sometimes shy people away from eating fruit. We do get lazy as when we have to slice and dice a mango we may put it off, but if it is done for us we will easily eat it. I am especially guilty of that.

Remember to recycle your sticks as they can be used again and again for your fruit kebab enjoyment.