Sand + Sunburn = Summer

We took a day trip up to Moore River with a neighbour family, setting out early and arriving home a little over 12 hours later, and spent the day in the boat. And despite several applications of sunscreen, the wearing of hats and rashies and the shade tent being up we still managed to end the day with sand through everything and varying degrees sunburn.

Here are the kids, totally over-excited and ready to party at six thirty this morning. 

Well, to say in the boat would be exaggerating - we spent some time cruising up and down the river and a whole heap more time playing in the river, climbing huge sandhills, enjoying a picnic lunch and having lots of fun.

Me and my boy

The girl and her Dad.

Moore River, or Guilderton as the town is really called, is about an hour and a half away - perfect for a weekend getaway but also doable for a day trip. It's a quiet little town on the coast and the river is separated from the ocean by a sizeable sand bar.

The river is lovely - clean, calm and with a nice low speed restriction for river traffic so it's perfect for a quiet day in the boat. I took heaps of photos but Blogger isn't letting me load them all so I've just put a few up. I'm a bit sad about that as I managed to get a whole bunch of really lovely pics of Offspring #1. Normally it's #2 hogging the camera and being pretty so I was really pleased to get some of my boy. I'll try to post them later in the week.

Back To Baking

I know I haven't been posting many recipes lately and I'm determined to get back to not only cooking new things, but also sharing them with you all. I've had a throw-out of some magazines that were lying around and also had a good dig through all the torn out recipe pages that have been shoved into the ugly binders. Both ugly binders are full to bursting with lovely recipes and ideas, some I need to plan for when we have dinner guests, others are terrific for weeknight family meals, and I can't wait to try some of them out.

I made this yummy savoury tart for dinner last night and served it with a garden salad. I didn't have the proper tart tin but used a regular slice tin and, while it didn't look quite as pretty as the picture in the magazine, it was just fine. It also had the added bonus of using 4 eggs - and with the chooks now laying five or six every day I'm very happy with recipes that use up lots of them.

A quick question. Well two really. Does the idea of making pastry from scratch intimidate or scare you? I learnt how to make pastry a couple of years ago (after always buying the frozen stuff) and now can't believe I was ever worried about how hard it was. The pastry for this tart is the easiest yet so don't let the idea that you're making it from scratch scare you off. Question number two- do you know what 'blind baking is'? I was chatting with a friend a while ago and she had no idea what I meant when I said that something needed to be blind baked.

Broccollini Tart

from Australian Good Taste, February 2011

265 (1 3/4 cups) plain flour

125g butter, chilled, chopped

2-3 tbsp chilled water

4 short-cut bacon rashers, thinly sliced

65g (3/4 cup) coarsely grated cheddar

1 bunch broccollini, trimmed

4 eggs

125ml (1/2 cup) pouring cream

1. Process flour and butter in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Gradually add water until mixture just comes together . Roll out onto a lightly floured surface until 5mm thick. Line an 11.5 x 34cm fluted tart tin, with removable base, with pastry. Trim the excess. Place in fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

2. Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat, stirring often, for 3-4 minutes or until light golden. Transfer to a place lined with pater towel.

3. Preheat oven to 200C. Line the pastry case with non-stick baking paper and fill with pastry weights or rice. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and pastry weights or rice. Bake for a further 5 minutes or until light golden. Reduce the oven temperature to 160C.

4.  Place the tin on a baking tray. Sprinkle half the bacon and half the cheddar over the pastry case. Arrange the broccollini on top, trimming to fit as necessary. Whisk the eggs and cream in a bowl until well combined. Pour over the broccollini. Sprinkle with remaining bacon and cheddar. Bake for 35 minutes or until just set.

Holiday Slide Night!

I took sooooo many photos. But I know Felicity took about three hundred more than me! Here are some of the hundreds from my camera...

Here's the gorgeous Pacific Ocean (not the Indian that I'm used to seeing!), a street name that I couldn't go past without snapping a pic, a cane toad and the sign at the boat ramp that would make me think twice about putting the boat in the water!



My new favourite houses. Ever. I want one.

And the block of land that Felicity wanted me to tell Hubby I'd bought so we could move closer to her...

The restaurant we visited for dinner one night (it was fantastic), and a few of the local sights

And a shot of Felicity and I, taken on our last day by her seven year old daughter. It's off-centre and blurry as all get out and I absolutely love it because it reminds me of a wonderful few days.

I'm Home!

I got home after midnight and made it to bed at around one this morning. Sadly the alarm went off at 6am and I was up and off to work.

I had the most wonderful time visiting Felicity and her gorgeous family. We talked and talked and talked, did some site-seeing, ate out, drank about a thousand cups of tea and talked some more. Her husband very kindly reminded us to stop talking and take a breath on more than one occasion!

Right now I'm going to have a cuppa with my very fabulous husband who made the whole trip possible. But I'll be back tomorrow with some more photos.

One More Sleep!

I've worked, shopped and washed today and bright and early tomorrow morning I'm outta here. I am so excited about seeing Felicity - I can't believe it's been three years! Can't wait to sit down with a cup of tea and just chat away without having to worry how long I've been on the phone and what it's doing to the phone bill.

Pretty much every conversation I've had today has started with, "By the way, did you know I'm going to Queensland tomorrow?" Half the people at work are totally excited for me and the other half wish I'd just shut up!  Work was busy, busy, busy but I managed to skip my lunch break and get away a little bit early. A quick run into the shops to grab a couple of last minute things then home to get some washing on - some stuff I wanted to take away with me and getting my work clothes washed because I'll get home after midnight on Monday night (Tuesday morning really!) and need to be at work to collect last minute info at 8.30 Tuesday morning to take it into a 9am meeting. Might need some matchsticks to hold my eye-lids up that day. But I'll deal with all that then.

I'm packed, I have a book and a magazine for the plane and Hubby has the kid stuff under control for the next few days (and I'll be speaking to them pretty much every day anyway). Right now I'm enjoying a cuppa and the last fruit mince pie, then onto very important holiday prep - leg shaving and toe nail painting - and then bed. I'm thinking a couple of panadol might be in order to make sure I actually go to sleep. I think 4.30am is gonna arrive really soon!

Not sure I'll have a chance to post while I'm away (too many cups of tea to drink and too much talking to do) but I promise I'll share photos when I get back.