Tuesday 23 February 2010

A weekend of highs and lows (12th Oct 2008)

Let’s state the bleeding obvious;

It’s been a turbulent week hasn’t it! As a result I chose to spend this weekend focussing on what’s important in my life.

My family and my garden.

We had a lovely Saturday at the Perth Zoo and I was determined to make our day a wonderful frugal outing as well. Stuffed the picnic basket with homemade dips, a loaf of olive bread and my new very favourite non frugal but decadent picnic treat;

Brie ‘Wellington’ (a whole brie topped with maple syrup, blueberries and walnuts, wrapped in puff pastry and baked until golden brown. Adapted from the recipe here )

I also took along a large bag of home fried prawn crackers - one of the few things The Husband refuses to give up.

I also treated myself to one of my long desired ‘wants’, a pasta machine. This will be used to make pasta, noodles, roll the dough for homemade crackers, roll tortillas and Indian breads. It is a manual one (in keeping with my ‘let’s keep it simple’ philosophy and works brilliantly.

Sunday brought a day of bored and grizzly Tots so it was into the car for a quick drive back out to the strawberry farm (I bought kilo’s of strawberries on Thursday and have been processing the damn things ever since. Strawberry jam, strawberry sauce, strawberry tart, strawberry jelly and strawberry vodka. If I ever see another blasted strawberry again it will be too soon!)

At the Strawberry farm they also sell grape vines but I couldn’t buy any though as I had only brought enough cash for the strawberries (this severely limits how much one can buy LOL!) so I dragged the entire family out there again yesterday to buy two perlight and one flame varieties of table grapes. They are now nicely tucked into their new homes along the brand spanking new puppy fence that I built for them, which interestingly enough is a fantastic chook enclosure - you reading this Husband!!! (The Husband is still digging in his heels about chooks. He feels that a bird flu pandemic is just around the corner. TH is watching my ‘enclosure’ suspiciously, almost as if he knows what is coming

1 comment:

The Crone at Wits End said...

4 Responses to “A weekend of highs and lows”
1.Simply.Belinda Says:

October 12th, 2008 at 9:11 pm e

I would have figured that TH would have just accepted that Crone Will wears down even the best defence.

Where did you find a pasta maker that is wide enough for tortilla’s or are you going to be producing the thin long variety?

Kind Regards
Belinda

2.admin Says:

October 12th, 2008 at 9:15 pm e

They are going to have to be the long thin variety. And yes, After nearly 19 years of marriage, TH is used to coming around to my way of thinking

3.Leah Says:

October 14th, 2008 at 4:37 pm e

So how was the brie? It sounds delicious! Why don’t you start suggesting guinea fowl or geese - chooks will seem like a good option in comparison

4.Barry Says:

November 5th, 2008 at 6:16 am e

Hello Crone,

Thanks for linking to my recipe for “Brie Wellington” I’ve made several versions of this recipe and yours sounds delicious. I’ll have to try that combination too, especially considering the best blueberries in the world grow wild here in Newfoundland. I often vary the kinds of nuts and berries in this recipe and it is always a big hit.