country show

Some scenes from our weekend at a nearby country show. It's nice to know some things stay the same over the years. This little show attracts around 2000 patrons and it's always a fabulous picnic occassion for us each year. Stella dog won four blue ribbons waggiest tail, hungriest dog, longest legs and most unusual coloured pet- funny catregories that we love for the quirkiness.Her ribbon total at 14 over her 4 1/2 years.

Colourful and sunny best describes our past four years visiting the show.

 Our picnic was a combined effort- I made  small egg and bacon pies with orange pound cake and as a belated nod to world nutella day earlier in the week some choc cupcakes with nutella butter cream for sweeties. Rowena made freekah salad and amber flavoured roast free range chicken (happy chicken) served warm in great tiffin like carriers obtained in Bahrain, and fiona added crusty baguettes and couscous with roasted veg and  haloumi.

All utterly delightful eaten with friends in the sunshine on the green green grass just the way we like it veryjoe.

sugar and eggwhites

Look what you get when you whip egg whites and sugar then add raspberries ,lemon curd and vanilla ice cream a dreamy concoction to delight the taste buds.

Meringue recipe;

Whip 5 egg whites in stand mixer until slightly frothy
heat 300g castor sugar spread out on baking sheet for approx 8 minutes in 200 C oven

Add warm sugar  to mixer- whipping eggs and sugar approx 10 minutes, it becomes white and stiff.
Drop large spoonfuls onto baking sheet
it makes about 8 really good size meringues (double mixture for party meringues you'll get loads if you make them smaller)
bake at 110C for up to 2hrs
 note;
I only did an hour in the oven ( had to walk on the beach with dogs) and they came out soft and mallowy with a crisp outer just delicious. Topped with thawed frozen berries lemon curd and vanilla ice cream and dusted with icing sugar just for looks. Enjoy

fish and chips

 Summer seems to have flown by here this time round. I have been busy at work and it seems I only have had moments to call summer. already the kids are back at school and we travel headlong towards Autumn. One special moment was last Sunday at East beach Port Fairy shared with good friends and family , fish and chips with aioli and salad on retro fish plates. Good picnic planning goes to Fiona, great photos by Rowena Naylor and fabulous crispy fish and chips to the east beach fish and chip shop.

It's these moments that I love where I live amongst the everyday hustle and bustle of family life it's nice to take time out and just be a part of my town.