A few of our favourite things

Becs: Last week Mum and I made a trip down to Dunsandel to visit the talented Honey Anderson...cook and gardener extraordinaire.  Honey has a woodfired pizza oven in her garden, handbuilt by a visiting WOOFer, so we had the treat of cooking our own pizzas for lunch.  They took barely a minute or two to cook, and were beautifully crisp.  I went home with cuttings of raspberries, blackcurrants and rhubarb for my new garden, as well as some of Honey's elderberry preserves. Of course, a pizza oven is now on my wish list...however the size of my patch plus the price tag of the ovens available commercially may put a dampener on this!

a few of our favourite things

Becs: I planted a $4 punnet of poppy seedlings into a pot during winter and then did absolutely nothing; over the last month they have rewarded me with a constant supply of cheerful blooms. Everyday a few more poppies open up their buds, ready to be picked. Such a good return on investment!

Miriam: On Sunday, Mike and I went to The Auckland Retro Fair. The quantity of both goods and people was slightly overwhelming. However it was a great treasure-trove of blast-from-the-past bric-a-brac. We came away with this retro coffee table, which matches Mike's 70's lounge suite perfectly.

Libby: Food-wise (and otherwise) it was a very good weekend for me. I'll just give you the highlights. On Friday I scored a free whole blue cod at work. On Saturday I had a lovely lunch at Nikau - terakihi with beetroot and skordalia - which just got better when I managed to snaffle the last rhubarb and rosewater doughnut for afterwards. Yes, it was every bit as delicious as it sounds. SO delicious it disappeared before having its picture taken. And on Sunday I had a lovely morning learning all about eggs from someone who knows a lot about cooking them. You can read more about that here. The picture above is my attempt at recreating the beetroot from Saturday's lunch. I gently simmered the beetroot whole until tender, peeled and sliced it, poured over a little olive oil and red wine vinegar and sprinkled with chopped capers and Italian parsley.

Daisy just loves her Dorothy the Dinosour costume, which arrived in a parcel from Wiggles Corporation in Australia, courtesy of Aunty Sarah. Dorothy/Daisy can be seen above enjoying suitably green coloured food on an (unintentionally) Dorothy coordinated plate.

a few of our favourite things...

Becs: Judging by the number of flowers in my strawberry patch it should be a bumper crop of berries this Christmas. I spent Labour Day happily pottering in the garden. The strawberries were tidied up and tomatoes, beans, potatoes, snow and sweetpeas were planted. Not such good news is that this summer Christchurch has a water ban due to EQ damage -here's hoping for a Spring shower or two...

 

Miriam: I love summer salads. I made this one with baby spinach, chicken, red pepper and fresh mango. And then, the extra treat was cashew nuts that I dry fried in a pan and added some sugar to till it went all gooey and caramelised. Yum!

a few of our favourite things

Miriam: I love this dinner for a slightly more healthy version of unhealthy corn chip based nachos. These ones have homemade tortillas chips, a spicy bean and mince mixture, avocado, sour cream and lots of cheese. Lewi, Jane and I sat round the coffee table and ate this for dinner straight from the pizza stone. For a more precise recipe for this, see Sarah's vegetarian version here.

Becs: I am a big fan of Kings Seeds in Katikati. They sell an impressive array of fruit and vege seeds, lots of them being heirloom or organic, as well as flora and fauna. You order your selection via their website (they also send out thick catalogues that are great to browse through, the variety of weird and wonderful vegetables will amaze you) and a courier drops them off a couple of days later. I can never get through a full pack of seeds before they reach their expiry date, so if you want to share some of mine just leave a comment on this post and I will send out one reader a seed selection!

Libby: Cookbooks are about the only books I buy these days. I think of them as "reference books" and to me, they hold so much more value than novels that I'd read once and pass on. My Abuela's Table by Daniella Germain is the latest addition to my cookbook collection and it's easily the most beautifully illustrated cookbook on my shelf. It's a collection of recipes from the author's Mexican grandmother all accompanied by the cutest hand drawn illustrations. This book makes me want to have my own little Mexican fiesta, complete with home made corn tortillas and tamales (if I can figure out where to get banana leaves in Wellington!)

A few of our favourite things...

Miriam: It's the annual inorganic collection in my neighbourhood; where you put your inorganic waste out on the street for it to be magically taken away. The collection is organised by Auckland Council, but I'm not sure how much waste they end up collecting, as often the scavengers get in first. We put a broken clothes horse out only for it to be snapped up minutes later. And we're certainly not too proud to scavenge off our neighbours either; we have now expanded our outdoor furniture, acquiring a deck chair, two dining chairs and this park bench - we're all set for summer entertaining!

Becs: As the days have become colder my vege garden has been sadly neglected. In the weekend I finally summoned the motivation to tear out the last of the withered-up tomato plants, and had a big tidy-up. On a trip to the garden centre I procured a bale of pea straw, some seed garlic and winter green seedlings, as well as a few packets of spring flower bulbs to provide some pretty end-of-winter cheer.