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Planning For Travel and Eating Mussels

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PLANNING TO TRAVEL

Planning an interstate holiday, so we’ve begun preparations. The first thing is some books. We buy second hand paperbacks which we can both share and then hand on to other travelers. When we’re going to non-English speaking countries we take lots of books but this time we’re traveling within Australia, so magazines and books will be available everywhere. Lighter packing!

We will fly to Melbourne then apart from visiting art galleries, museums and some friends in the city, we’ll take train trips each day. Then we will take the train to Sydney and also go to galleries, see friends and take daily train trips, before taking the train to Brisbane. Here we will enjoy a few days with friends who live in Queensland and be driven both north and south of Brisbane. So packing for cold, wet, windy with sunny days down south and warm, humid days in Queensland.

The author of one of these books we’ve bought is Lisa Jewell and we’re both looking forward to reading that one! We have just finished reading three of her thrillers; The Girls In The Garden, I Found You and Watching You. Great reading!

We’ve booked lunch at a few restaurants, mostly for the reputation of the food or recommendations, but also in the Blue Mountains for the view. We are looking forward to train, tram and ferry trips, each moving slowly enough for us to enjoy the views.

Also needed a trip to the hairdresser, a fairly regular event now days. I consider going grey but haven’t made the decision. My hair seems to grow very fast, too.

I made two loaves of sourdough, one to eat until we go and one to freeze for when we get back. I like to leave something for dinner as we return late in the day and airline food doesn’t always appeal.

And finally, down the coast to have lunch with my Mother. A beautiful day and lovely to just sit and chat for a while.

So, write a calendar for our son who will be responsible for walking and feeding the dog and putting out the bins and making sure the plants are watered and we’re ready to go!

MUSSEL SEASON

Mussels are fresh and readily available, so off to the fish shop at The Boatshed for 1 kilo for lunch.

Mussels can be cooked in a tomato based sauce, in a creamy sauce, with chilli and many other ways, but at lunchtime I like them in a clear, clean broth.

MUSSELS IN WHITE WINE

Serves four as part of a lunch spread, or two served with bread or toast.

INGREDIENTS

1 kilo mussels
75 gm butter
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 sliced leek
good shake dried thyme
500 ml dry, white wine

Scrub the mussels under running water, shake to dry.

2. Melt the butter in a heavy based pot over low heat, add leeks, garlic and thyme. Cook until leeks are translucent, about 7 minutes.

3. Add the mussels and wine ( I used Penfold’s Koonunga Hill Semillon Sauvignon Blanc) and cook until the mussels open ( about 5 minutes) Stir a few times during cooking.

4. Discard any unopened mussels, ladle into a serving bowl with the juice and sprinkle with parsley. Serve with fresh buttered bread. I prefer toasted sourdough fingers for dipping. Delicious and light for the middle of the day.

Father’s Day treats. I made Pumpkin Scones, one of my husband’s favourites. I use a recipe from the cooking book I had in Year 8 at school!

Today is FORTUNE COOKIE DAY. Sounds like a good excuse to eat Chinese for dinner, then crack open a fortune cookie to be assured of good luck, good health or good fortune!

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Officially Winter: Reading, Making Sourdough and Winter Food

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READING

Finished Latika Bourke’s “From India With Love”, her account of being adopted from India and growing up in Australia. One of many children in a devout Catholic family, her story is joyful and her account of visiting India, which was deeply personal, sometimes harrowing and always interesting. Now a political reporter in Canberra, Bourke has written a lovely tribute to her family, to Australia and to India, as well. A good read.

Also read the very popular “Where The Crawdads Sing”, by Delia Owens. Beautiful descriptions of the north Carolina coast, but I found it unbelievable and the story almost predictable. I finished it, but didn’t find it remarkable at all, but lots of people did, so you must make up your own mind!

My new favourite book was a Mother’s Day gift. It is Alan Marshall’s “The Illustrated Garden”, the perfect gift for someone who paints botanicals and loves gardens and gardening. This book is a collection of garden themed paintings and prints. A celebration of natural beauty but also a showcase for the work of many modern artists in the UK. I find something fabulous on every page.

Paul Torday’s The Girl On The Landing is my bookclub book this month. Utterly reliable, decent and dull, Michael is attractive to Elizabeth for these characteristics, so different from her father. After ten years of boring, predicitable marriage, Michael stops taking his medication and life begins to change for this couple. A rather unremarkable story slowly becomes very gripping! I read this thriller in two sittings and really enjoyed it. Thought provoking, informative ( about schizophrenia) and totally engaging.

MAKING SOURDOUGH

Within hours of arriving back in Perth from Bali I had taken the mother/starter for sourdough out of the fridge to “wake up”. I started the bread making process the next day and finally baked this loaf a day later. I used to make lovely, rustic looking round loaves in a dutch oven but find the rectangular shape easier to fit in the toaster and easier to predict how much I’m eating and when I need when to start the process again. Making sourdough does not happen quickly!

I have reduced the use of single use plastics and was trying instead beeswax covers but they never sealed properly for me and often fell off in the fridge which rather defeated the purpose of covering things anyway. I have ordered a set of silicone stretchy lids but for now I use clear, hotel shower caps to cover the rising bread and a lot of other things in the fridge, too. I can fit them over a number of bowls and plates, wipe them clean and re-use them and I can still see what they’re covering!

WINTER FOODS

This afternoon we have had rain. Apart from the relief that farmers and the garden have had rain, my thoughts turn towards soups, casseroles and, of course, citrus fruit. It is cool enough to roast vegetables and slow cook thick, hearty meals, to throw a rug over our knees in the evening and to put an extra blanket on the bed.

Vegetables for roasting, citrus fruit for jam making and tomatoes and avocados to make salsas to drizzle on roasted vegetables. The rain, which is so welcome, turns our focus on indoor activities.

What do you do differently in winter?

World Environment Day 05/06/2019

This day is about worldwide awareness and protection of the environment. The theme this year is Air Polution and what needs to be done to reduce it in industry, transport, agriculture, wastes disposal and households. Search online for detailed information.

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Hello Autumn!

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Autumn is here! A few days have been cool enough for long pants and even a scarf this morning which is a lovely change. By the end of summer I am tired of my summer clothes. Also planted snow peas as a winter crop.

A crisp, yellow autumn morning, so breakfast at the beach followed by a walk. Great view, great food and a great walk!

I seem to abandon herbal teas when it gets cooler and drink way too many espressos. Lots of socializing means lots of espressos but I love catching up with friends. And I love good coffee.

In gardening news, I am pleased with these cream clivia seedlings. I collected seeds from a mature plant. I planted fourteen and they all germinated and most are thriving.

Started the new year doing a small painting every day, but life got in the way. Lately I’ve been doing quick watercolour pencil paintings using anything around me on or near the table as subject matter. As I’ve become more familiar with the pencils I’ve realized how versatile they are and will keep working with them on small pieces.

This Sunday is Mother’s Day. We are really looking forward to spending the day with my mother, chatting, eating, just spending time together. Mother’s Day is special!

This eye catching display of huge paper flowers is hanging from the very high ceiling of our local shopping centre (mall) to celebrate Mother’s Day.

We have a holiday soon and part of the planning is collecting books as we both find it really relaxing to lie around reading. Some we will both read, some we wont, but we leave them at the resort as we finish them for anyone who wants them.

Did you know May is Get Caught Reading month? So much to enjoy, fiction, non-fiction, perhaps some poetry, but don’t just restrict yourself to reading in May, read every day!

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Making Pesto, Cooking Pizza and Reading ” Common Table”

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MAKING Made pesto using just harvested basil and other simple ingredients. I picked and rinsed the leaves then blitzed them with extra virgin olive oil, lightly roasted pine nuts, pecorino (a strong sheep) cheese and garlic. Smells wonderful, tastes delicious. This pesto doesn’t keep for very long, but we’ll use it on pizzas tonight and on pasta tomorrow. It never lasts for long because it tastes so good.

I was a bit surprised to read that bought pesto has vegetable oil, pine nuts, garlic and pecorino cheese plus milk, salt, potato flakes, sugar and acidity regulator(575). Try making your own. So easy, so tasty, so fresh.

COOKING This yeasty pizza dough rose nicely as it was a warm day. Later, we rolled out the dough and made a variety of pizzas with several different toppings, including some of the pesto I made earlier. Delicious, quick to cook and a treat for us plus some leftovers for tomorrow.

Common Table

READING “Common Table” written by Janice Marriott and Virginia Pawsey, two New Zealanders who were at school together and met again later in life and began corresponding by letter, which make up this book. The co-authors write about their shared interest in food and their diverse lives and different challenges, as one lives on an isolated farm and the other in the city. Warm, often very funny, scattered with recipes and astute observations about the people around them, this is a book about two old friends adjusting to their changing lives and expectations.

I enjoyed this book so much I have hunted down and ordered their previous book, Common Ground, based on their shared passion for gardening.

Today is Meditate in a Garden Day, which sounds like a lovely thing to do, so make time to settle, relax and meditate in a garden.

Common Table

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What Are You Watching On TV?

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What are you watching on television? We have nearly 20 free-to-air channels and still struggle to find programs we want to watch each evening.

I grew up on a farm and we didn’t have mains electricity until I was 12 years old. We had a 32 volt generator which my father would start each evening for lighting, but apart from the radio, I don’t remember other electrical appliances. We had a slow combustion stove ( commonly called a wood stove, wood being the fuel it used) which meant there was always a hot kettle and hot water, but no television.

When we got mains electricity we also got a TV but only during the school holidays. On school days we went to catch the school bus at 7AM and got home about 5.15PM, we’d have afternoon tea, do our jobs, bathe, have dinner and go to bed, ready to do it all again the next day. So maybe there was only time to watch TV during school holidays.

By the time we got electricity connected my grandparents had left the farm to live in town and they had a large, remote control TV in a wooden frame. It was very grand! They liked to watch news and post news commentaries which I didn’t find very engaging so I continued to read and read as staying in town meant access to the library every day if I wanted.

Watching television has changed over time. It is no longer something you just watch but can involve interacting using hand held devices and split screens. It’s still not very exciting.

So, we rely on recordings, Netflix or on demand services, but actually we don’t watch much TV anyway. We are not alone; recently in a group of friends this was the topic of conversation and almost everyone said they watch much less TV than they used to watch. Fake news, reality programs about cooking and renovating and repeats all got a mention as turn offs.

Image result for Escape to the Country

Nearly everybody I spoke to watches Escape to the Country, an English program started in 2002, where city dwellers are shown three homes in their chosen area matched to their preferences. As viewers we also see small rural villages and sometimes iconic houses as well as local craftsmen and women and learn things about each region. All interesting as Australian viewers. There’s something addictive about seeing inside other peoples’ homes, too, and listening to the things they like and the changes they’d make.

Statistically, a huge number of people watching TV are also reading, on their various devices, doing crosswords, shopping, chatting, eating or partially engaged in some other activity. Very few people are focused solely on the television screen. Me too.

Interestingly, I was just reading an English blog and it was about the same issue. The blogger had asked for suggestions about what she could watch on TV because it was all so banal and she had so many comments from readers about how awful free-to-air TV is and lots of pay TV suggestions. Why has this happened? Is it a worldwide problem?

What are you watching? Do you rely on free-to-air or other sources? Do you watch less TV than you used to? Are you a gamer?

Today is Walk Your Dog Day, so that’s very easy to do, isn’t it? It’s something you can do almost anywhere, so long you have a dog. Great exercise for you and your dog and very sociable. Actually, dogs would like every day to be walk your dog day, I think.

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Reading, Cooking, Scrabble and Decluttering

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This is the third book I’ve read by Jane Harper and it was riveting. Her books feature rural settings and are uniquely Australian in flavour. The Lost Man is set in the harsh, unforgiving environment of outback Queensland. The mysterious story line and gripping, dark themes, slowly revealed as the story unravels, had me guessing until the end. The conclusion really took me by surprise despite the hints throughout the story. This was a complex and evocative novel. I hope Jane Harper is busy writing her fourth novel right now!

I make sourdough bread about every five days. I used to make a traditional round loaf in a Dutch oven but now make an ( almost) rectangular loaf in a Pyrex dish. Sliced, a rectangular piece is a better fit in the toaster and means about the same amount of bread each day. Each time I bake I cut the loaf in half and freeze it so I always have fairly fresh bread.

When the temperature exceeds 40 degrees C (104 F) I lose interest in doing anything outside, so out comes the Scrabble, on goes the air conditioner, add a bowl of cashews and a jug of iced water and there’s a fun afternoon ahead. We bought a box of Scrabble when we lived in China which was light and inexpensive but that resulted from hollow tiles and plastic racks so now trying to unearth our old set with thick, heavy, ivory like tiles and wooden racks. They feel better to handle but don’t improve my score.

Watched three episodes of Konmari on Netflix and felt motivated to sort some drawers in my walk-in-robe. Skipped thanking each piece for being in my life but did pause a few times to wonder why I’d bought them in the first place. A huge bag of things for the Church box and everything remaining is nicely folded and easy to retrieve. The shoes on top of the pile look new as I’ve only worn them once but abandoned them when I towered over the children and most of my colleagues. I was suddenly too tall. I have lots more drawers to sort in the future.

My abundance of clothes is a bit confusing as I realise I wear the same pieces over and over again and rarely touch the other two thirds of my hanging space. The same seems to apply to my shoes. Since retiring my clothing needs have changed dramatically from formal, dressed for work to lots of leggings and knit tops. Not ideal, but even when I leave the house I am less formally dressed than I used to be and also wear lower heeled shoes. Not what I imagined, but the whole look has become pretty relaxed!

Tomorrow is Toothache Day. Can’t find any information about its origins or focus but I’m sure you all know how to treat it and what to do to prevent dental decay, so celebrate in your own way!

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