~ grateful for ...a special day ~

A few months ago I was invited to a picnic.

What's the big deal?... you might think....

...but this invitation came from an on-line photographer friend who was coming to Tassie to do a shoot for Kinfolk  magazine and she asked if I'd like to tag along

Not even a heart-beat passed before I said "yes" (and then "please").

Hosted by the lovely people from A Common Ground this was a celebration of Tasmanian harvest time...fresh local produce, families sharing food, learning about keeping it local and real and good.
It felt like being on a movie set..surreal....beautiful...unforgettable.

Golden light dappled through the apple trees as we sat around on picnic blankets and hay bales.  We feasted on freshly picked apples, small goods from Fat Pig Farm and other local delicacies. 

Children climbed trees, picked apples and fed them to hungry pigs as we learnt from Mathew Evans (the gourmet farmer) about pig farming and his new farm.  I chatted to lovely families and shared stories.

It was a dream day.

I'm just so grateful I got to be part of it.

(and I can't wait to see Luisa's photos in the magazine when it comes out)

I'm linking with Maxabella... what are you grateful for this week?

♥

~ grateful for.... food filled memories ~

{my grandmother's recipe book}

What triggers your memories of places you've travelled or special events?

Seeing the snapshots?  Maybe certain scents or music that you associate with that place/event that brings it all flooding back?

For me and the Doc it's always been about the food.

I remember what we ate on our first date rather than what I wore or what he said.

We reminisce about our travels through Europe with stories about our meals rather than the museums or churches.

Our highlights reel is full of fabulous pastas, amazing hidden restaurants that we stumbled on, great gelatis, the search for the best coffee in Italy.

We even have "bread rules" and "dessert rules" (he gets the larger serve of bread, I choose dessert).

Even when we are not travelling, food is the way we index our life, our memories.

My recipe books are full of recipes listed thus;

•    Kerrie's rice salad (that we ate at the AFL grand final lunch)
•    Susan's mud-cake (which we had for Lily's first birthday)
•    Nan's brandy sauce (made religiously every Christmas)

 - this is a family trait; my mum and my grandmother had hordes of hand-written recipes always annotated with the event, the person responsible or the response to the food.

I've caught the kids at it too: "oh you know, that place where I tried broccoli soup for the first time", 

" can we go to the cafe where they have "those amazing biscuits".

I'm grateful we life a life full of such abundance.  

That our relationship with food is so healthy.  

That our memories are so sweet.

 

 ♥

What are you grateful for this week?

I'm joining in with themed gratefuls at kidspot Thanks Maxabella.

~ indulge ~

 

Have been wanting to go to this new(ish) Hobart restaurant since it opened late last year.

And on Saturday night we finally got the chance - babysitter arranged (who was prepared to stay late should we run into queue problems - they don't take reservations so sometimes the wait is quite long), a great reason to celebrate (a pre-50 birthday) and some good friends.

And the rave reviews are all on the money.

It was fabulous.  Delicious and sexy.  Innovative and fun.  

Still dreaming about some of the yummy food.

We did have to wait - we slipped round to the New Sydney and had a couple of G+Ts (girls) and pints (boys) and in no time at all the phone rang to tell us our table was available.  Well...almost...the group leaving did take a while finishing off their wines and desserts and I don't blame them at all.  The space itself is fantastic - dark wooded long refectory-style tables, fab lights, tables, open kitchen...all very enticing.  We argued a bit over whether it was more Sydney or Melbourne....I like to think its perfectly (new) Hobart.

We sat down, chose one of nearly everything to share and got stuck into some French wine (it was nearly all French, organic and unknown to us).  What followed was a total treat - absolutely beautifully presented food that tasted amazing served by discreetly professional wait staff.  We loved the steamed oysters with apple vinegar, garlic and spring onion (they made us go all master-cheffy about complex flavours).  The glazed octopus with persimmon puree and mustard seasoning was divine (we did fight a little about who finished that off), the sashimi fresh and perfectly matched with green almond vinegar.  My favourite was a toss up between the lamb ribs (pepper, lemon and coriander seed dressing and finger-licking good!) and the carrots (I know - a dish of carrots) - heirloom carrots that were malt-glazed with almond cream, grains and seeds - I'd go back just for them.  We did have desserts and a totally fabulous sticky but the details are a little blurred...

 

My food photos do no justice to the deliciousness of it all - too dark and the iphone and my gin-shaky hands weren't up to it.  Will just have to go back for lunch and take the good camera. 

Indulgent - yes.  Worth it - yes.  

We'll be back.  Soon.


♥