44/52

Maggie: I took the girls into the garden to take some photos for our Christmas card. I was a bit worried I wouldn't be able to get any decent images on my own, but I think we did ok. Now I have to stop myself from sharing any of them until Christmas! In the mean time, this was one after the hats had fallen off. Yes those shorts are the same ones from last year, they still fit! I was pretty happy with the photo, and then Rob had a play in Lightroom and it improved!
Elisabeth: Rob took this photo of Elisabeth in a head scarf the girls like to wear.

Joining in with Jodi's 52 portrait project.

Hut Christmas 2013 - Advent calendar

Last year, given the premature birth of our girls 2 weeks before, our Christmas was a little subdued. 

Whilst I had decorated the hut before going into hospital, when I came home it felt wrong to get excited about the frivolities of the season.

Instead of joining in with the traditional family celebrations we chose to visit the NICU, have long kanga cuddles with the girls, then came home to eat a Christmas dinner of baked ham and salad.

If you've read my blog you'll know I like to celebrate Christmas, and now I am even more mindful than ever about traditions: both old family ones and creating new ones.

So in an effort to get back into blogging, I'm hoping to share a little of our Christmas each day.

Advent calendar

I have a red felt hanging calendar with pockets for treats or notes. I have written notes for Rob this year, but the calendar is still up in the loft. Oh well, he'll still get the notes!

Rob has rather extravagantly bought me a beautiful calendar filled with German truffles. The girls liked the sparkly gold stars, but luckily didn't seem interested in the chocolates. 

As a child I loved our family calendar, we shared one between five children, so we took it in turns opening the little cardboard doors. Back in my day (listen to me!) there were just little pictures behind the doors rather than chocolates. But I still got very excited to see what each door revealed. As my parents are religious the calendar usually was a nativity scene, rather than a cartoon character or Barbie. 

Hopefully next year the girls might grasp a little of the Advent calendar.

Do you have a special calendar you reuse every year?

Or do you come up with a new version every year?

Do your children share or have one each? 

Monday Menu and the hut has got it's Christmas on

Sorry the blog was a little quiet last week. No real reason just time I guess.
We had a good weekend, on Friday Rob and I headed to the State Cinema to see Skyfall. I loved it. Although as the movie was over 2 hours long I did have to dash out mid way to visit the ladies, and I was fairly desperate to leave at the end too.

Because we'd picked the early showing (6.30pm) dinner didn't really work out very well, as it was too early before hand and then too late (for Hobart) afterwards. We did stop at Mykonos for some hot chips! Felt like an undergraduate student again.

The gale force winds on Saturday meant that we stayed inside, and so Rob got our decorations out of the loft and the hut was decorated in a few hours. We still love our homemade twig tree, and I've already spent the last two evenings gazing at the lights.


We've still been enjoying our veggies from the garden (although the wind totally trashed the peas and broad beans so they've been pulled out now and I spent several hours yesterday shelling beans and freezing them).

So our menu:

Monday: Real Shepherds pie with left over roast lamb shoulder, veggies with a topping of smashed pink eyes.
Tuesday: More Shepherds pie.
Wednesday: Salad with vegetables from the garden and bacon.
Thursday: Salad with peas, broad beans, bacon, avocado and parmesan.
Friday: ahem, hot chips!
Saturday: Some peas and beans from the garden.
Sunday: Rob made the best steak sandwich, with grilled bread, fried eggs, onions, tomatoes and of course steak.

All those veggies must be doing the twins some good, we visited our Dr on Friday, and when he measured them on the scan they were both measuring a week ahead! They now weigh an estimated 700g each.

Monday's Menu {Christmas baking has started}

The Christmas baking has started, with a sudden realisation that Christmas is only 5 weeks away I thought we'd better get our skates on.

So I prepared a double batch of fruit mince (started with a Nigella recipe then tweaked it a bit). We used lovely Amarena dark coloured glace cherries, golden raisins, Rob's home brewed apple cider, and hazelnuts in place of almonds.

While that was cooking away I soaked three separate batches of dried fruit. A double of our standard fruit cake mixture to make two cakes as gifts, the pudding mixture (my grandmother's recipe) and a Gourmet Traveller pudding mix that we used for our Christmas cake.

The Gourmet Traveller mix includes the following:

300gm prunes, chopped
150gm each currants, dried cranberries, raisins and chopped fresh dates (we used dried ones this time)
100gm natural almonds, chopped

These are all placed in a bowl with the rind of an orange.
Then I warmed 100gm cumquat marmalade (we always have plenty of our homemade marmalade), 60gm quince jelly (meant to be quince paste, but we always have an abundance of jelly), 125ml muscat and 60mL brandy (meant to be Grand Marnier) in a saucepan over low heat until the marmalade and jelly are combined. This is then poured over the fruit and left to soak.

On Sunday I made the pudding and our cake (I use Stephanie Alexander's recipe from the Cook Companion). It feels like Christmas now.

Our regular menu has included over the last week:

Monday: Asparagus, broccoli, peas and broad beans.
Tuesday: Silver beet, carrots, parsnips and cauliflower cooked with a little water and butter.
Wednesday: Antonio Carluccio's tuna linguine: with garlic, ginger, parsley, chilli, tomato passata and of course tuna.
Thursday: Penne pasta with bacon, with our garlic, fresh peas and broad beans, and Parmesan.
Friday: Vermey's BBQ sausages in squishy bread and our home-made tomato sauce.
Saturday: Mt Gnomon pork rack with carrots, pink eyes and broad beans.
Sunday: Pan-fried pink eye potatoes with our carrots, broad beans and peas.

It may look vegetarian, but we had been out for lunch a few times last week and eaten meat then, so only felt like vegetables in the evening.

What's been on the menu at your home this last week?

Our Christmas

All that expectation and excitement and it's all over for another year. Although it was our first Christmas living at the hut, we actually headed up on Saturday morning to Launceston to spend Christmas with Rob's family.

I find the juggling of two families Christmas traditions a little stressful. I actually avoid discussing Christmas arrangements due to people getting miffed. This year Rob's daughter joined us, which is lovely for us, her grandparents and all her cousins. But unfortunately my mother was upset that we wouldn't be seeing them on Christmas day. We do see them all year round though, and were there last year. But I'm afraid as rational as that sounds, it's never enough. I'm not a terribly confrontational person, and I tend to skirt around things that upset me or others. But I have to say that on Thursday things were said about how I live my life (triggered by something my brother said, so it wasn't even my fault), hurts were exposed, and I left in tears. I still struggle with my relationship with my mother, and feel that nothing I do will ever be enough, I will always manage to upset her in some way. I did try to patch up things before we left, but things are a little frosty!

So Friday was spent getting myself back in the mood, the final wrapping of gifts, visiting my sister and seeing my niece open her presents from us (she loved the wrapping more than the dog toy or frilly pants).

Saturday dawned, and we cleaned up the hut, packed the car (this always worries the dogs) and headed off. After waiting in line for 15 minutes, Rob picked up a 5kg piece of aged beef to take for dinner at our friends place on Sunday night. When we picked up Rob's daughter I moved into the back seat with the two dogs. Despite our best efforts we seemed to collate quite a few gifts, by the time we added an eski for the beef, gravlax and ham and our other gear, the boot of the station wagon was full. Nigella and Claudia were not impressed at sharing the back seat with me, and there were all sorts of crazy dog yoga positions before they sorted themselves out.

Rob and I ordered our first ever Christmas ham. Mount Gnomon farm pork is delicious and truly free range. We picked up our shoulder ham from the freight company depot on the way (a surreal experience really- a massive warehouse full of supermarket milk, I was bit worried that my little ham would get lost).
We always enjoy a quiet Christmas Eve dinner with Rob's parents, usually a bottle of champagne followed by a stuffed duck ballotine with new potatoes and asparagus. Dessert was simply lovely fresh raspberries and ice-cream.

Rob's daughter, although 16, still loves presents, and traditionally asks to open one on Christmas Eve. She opened a present from Rob's mother, a lovely pair of pajamas. Rob and I slept out in the living room with the little tree swamped with gifts, and two snuggle dogs.
I woke up really early, but had to wait til after breakfast and people to wake up to open the presents.
Rob is always terribly smug about guessing what I've bought, and although he did know about the scythe and the Birkenstock clogs, he only guessed that he would get a t-shirt. His favourite are created by Hiiragi, with funny robot cartoons on them. But I also found a soft grey shirt on etsy with a fox walking through a forest. My favourite for him was a gift box of 6 teas from T2, including Chocolate and Pu-erh. But he didn't mind the chocolate almonds, Cook and the Chef DVD box sets and the Martha Stewart cookie book either!
Rob's daughter loved all hers but especially the gift voucher for drivers lessons (perhaps more of a present for Rob and her mother!)
Santa was kind to me, although did have a bit of a laugh. Rob went shopping on Friday morning without me, and came back with a large box that he hid. He seemed excited by it, although also nervous.
I opened a few that I knew first, a chocolate nougat, my Birki clogs, and some cherry vinegar. I actually had two "wear" presents; a pair of white linen pants that I had picked out, but the other was a pair of my favourite track pants, a singlet and a long dress all from Bonds. My book was the complete notes by Bill Bryson, and my "watch" was the last series of Inspector Rex (a favourite in our household as you can imagine!)
Finally it came down to my two "want" presents. Rob could barely contain himself, "open the big one". The mystery one. I opened it up and it was a deluxe window cleaning kit! I had been grumbling about how hard it is to clean the windows at the hut BUT I didn't expect that for Christmas! Don't worry I have a sense of humour, and besides he redeemed himself with a gorgeous Moroccan lantern.
Rob's parents spoilt us also with thoughtful gifts, and delicious ones too!

With the gift giving over we got ready to head down the Tamar for Christmas lunch at Rob's sisters house. It overlooks the Batman bridge. Now you think we eat well, combine Rob's family and we eat like kings and queens. Firstly we had drinks and seafood out on the deck, this included crayfish, our trout gravlax with freshly baked rye bread and blini, garlic mussels, and a cheese tart. That probably would have been enough really. But main course included rare roast beef, a cold duck ballotine, our baked ham (Rob glazed it with quince jelly, orange zest, brown sugar and mustard), salad nicoise with poached salmon, fresh asparagus, mango salad, green salad, baked zucchini (with cheese, breadcrumbs and prosciutto) and new potatoes.
All of the food was beautiful, and extremely delicious, but Rob and I were quite proud of our shoulder ham, it was so silky, not too salty, and everybody commented on it.
After a much needed break, wandering around their new garden and a mini nap in the hammock by the water (with the dogs of course), dessert was served.
A traditional steamed pudding with cream, ice-cream and custard, a Buche de Noel with the cutest little meringue mushrooms, and mango sorbet with raspberries. Rob's father brought out a special bottle of dessert wine, a 1972 Chateau Coutet.
I would have loved to have found a couch and fallen asleep, but we got back in the car and drove to Bridport for Christmas dinner with our friend and his sons. We had a slight hiccup when we discovered his oven wasn't working, which would have been a sad waste of the beef. Not that Rob and I were really starving! So Rob sliced the roast into thick rib eye steaks and grilled them on a mini-weber instead.
With a simple salad it was more than adequate!
Yesterday we drove home, keen to get back to our hut. Maybe next year we'll be able to stay home, or host Christmas there. As much as I love the big family thing, it would be lovely not to be dashing from one place to the next and just be able to relax a bit.
Right now we're enjoying the second half of our holiday, and the second Christmas cake!

Friday Flowers & Merry Christmas

My friend bought me the most gorgeous bunch of proteas & calla lilies on Tuesday.
I know I grow them, but it's always nice to receive a bunch, Rob would rather buy me a pot plant, and I always like them, but sometimes a girl just wants flowers, right?

All our shopping is done, even Rob's scythe from the USA turned up today, just in time. That's going to be fun to wrap!!
Most of our presents have been delivered, so today for us can be a bit relaxed. Our contribution for Xmas lunch is an ocean trout gravlax (we started that on Tuesday) and a baked free range shoulder ham. We're picking it up on the way to Rob's parents tomorrow. Rob has decided to base the glaze on quince jelly.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends with lots of food, laughter, sparkling bubbles to drink, and Santa is generous!

Thank you for all your lovely comments this year on my blog, it's been lovely to get to know you.

P.S. I have been looking for a couple of sets of angel wings for these two, but failed, so just went for Santa hats. But couldn't keep them on both of them long enough for a group shot!

Happy St Nicholas Day

I've written before about my family celebrating St Nicholas day on the 6th of December.
Now we're passing on this tradition to the next generation. This morning Rob and I left some fruit, nuts and treats on the doorstep where his daughter lives. My sister sent me a cute text photo of my niece's tiny shoes (she's only 6 months old) with a packet of rice cereal sitting on top!

I've been in a symposium for the past two days, so have been trying to listen attentively to people talking, (perhaps not so successfully) and my heads done in. What I really would like to be doing is sitting on the window seat, in the late afternoon sun, with a cool drink. Not long now.

Monday's Menu

A very fast Monday's Menu
Favourite meal of the week- our first pesto (made from basil grown at the hut) pasta meal of the summer.
Laziest meal of the week- real peanut butter on Pigeon Hole sourdough toast.
Sentimental meal of the week - perfectly cooked (a little runny) boiled free range eggs with sourdough from Red Velvet Lounge.
Baking highlights include Speculaas biscuits for my friend, and the divine smell of the mix of currants, raisins, cranberries, prunes, fresh dates, almonds, muscat, brandy, quince jelly and Seville marmalade that soaked overnight for one of our puddings.


P.S. 20 sleeps to go!

Slowing down

Yesterday afternoon I felt utterly exhausted. The combination of a very busy work week (writing and compiling a 12 page newsletter and managing some media with a federal government department) and the tree making and gazing until late at night finally hit me. After working through lunch then running off at 3 for a roll from Jackman & McRoss, we grabbed a family pie and rushed back to work. I'd had enough by 5.30, so after dropping Rob at his real tennis game headed to Bottega Rotolo for chocolate. Cute squares of Belgian and French chocolate for the advent calendar. I also stocked up on baking supplies from the supermarket, buying an obscene amount of butter! What finally did me in was the post match beer, we headed home and realized we couldn't be bothered even to heat up the pie! So we had a few slices of toast with peanut butter. True to my promise of giving Rob my undivided attention, we snuggled up on the window seat to gaze at the tree. Both of us fell asleep, and woke up a little disorientated about an hour and half later!
Today's grey and showery weather had kept indoors. This morning after our gym class we did some shopping at Norman & Dan, they had the most gorgeous array of chocolates! We picked up a few for gifts, including cigars and pocket knifes. Neither of us could resist these Christmas pudding mugs.
I have finished Rob's notes, wrapped some more gifts, and baked another Christmas cake.
I'm writing this whilst laying on the window seat, watching the clouds behind the hill, as the light slowly fades. I know I've probably told you this but I love living at the hut.

Friday Flowers

Another week has gone in a flash. This Friday I have some hut flowers to share. The lilies have started!
I love lilies, so easy to grow, and so spectacular. The Asiatic lilies usually start first, but this year my Zantedeschia lilies have decided to go early. This black one is my favourite, the colour is so rich. They are great cut flowers as they last forever in a vase. The orange and red lilies are just starting, but I can see the cream flower buds swelling up so they must be close too.

Thanks for all your comments about our tree. Even though I was so tired last night, I still had to sit and look at it for awhile. Just a little sneak peak of the living room at the hut, our honeycomb decorations went up last night and those cute little red stocking garlands are on each window. I've written little notes for Rob and tucked them into each day of our Advent calendar. We accidentally ate the chocolate I had put aside for each day so I need to get some more, cause you can never have enough chocolate right? I won't share all the notes with you, (for fear you'll realise just how silly and romantic we are), but Rob's 2nd advent calendar note was that I will put the iphone away this evening (apart from the obligatory photo of dinner) and I will just concentrate on him. He looked quite happy about that, opps, maybe I'm a little more addicted to instagram and blogging than I thought!
Have a lovely weekend.

O Christmas Tree

80 metres of white electrical tape.
That's a lot of tape, to wind around branches. At various stages through that process (over 3 hours last night) I did wonder, if our tree would just look crap. But Rob and I, high on the smell of plastic tape, pushed on, despite the dogs trying to distract us by throwing their tennis balls around and wanting to go outside or snuggle on the window seat. The verdict at the end, was, I have to say, that we were very happy with our little tree and pretty darn pleased with ourselves. So happy I did a silly dance. I took photos with the iPhone that don't really do it justice. Then I sat for another half an hour with the lights on in the dark just gazing at it, in a moment, as Nigella would say, of quiet pride.

This morning I felt bleary eyed, but still got up early to decorate the tree with some simple red balls, my Christmas reindeer, and red Lindt balls, before work.
I love it. We love it. It suits the hut, with our Scandinavian, modernist, country, thing we have going on. Can't wait to get home tonight and decorate the rest of the house.

P.S. There's only 24 sleeps til Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday: just a little tree

So we didn't get around to making our Christmas tree until last night, and it's still a work in progress.


Tree ingredients include: fencing wire, white electrical tape, galvanised bucket, a garden stake, set of LED lights and a bag of quick set concrete (not shown!) All comes to a grand total of $67

Stage 1: attach the wire branches to the stake and set in concrete overnight. Stage 2 will be tonight, the fun bit of attaching all 20m of LED lights and covering any green bits of the stake or the wire with white tape. I'll keep you posted.
P.S. If you're not big on Christmas, perhaps come back to my blog in January, you may have noticed by now, I'm a trifle obsessed!

Our life...

The end of the working week found us shopping, first at Bottega Rotolo for cheese, and Christmas treats such as glacé clementines and chocolate with nougat in it. If you're a local and haven't visited them you have to check out their Christmas goodies.
Next was the Mother's market in Battery Point for jam, melting moments and brownies from C & C cupcake factory. I have to admit the melting moments didn't make the end of the street! I also bought a cute brooch for a friend for Christmas and an elk for the window from Dick & Dora.
It was a lovely evening, Rob spent some time outside raking the grass, I couldn't help myself and wrapped a few gifts, with all my new accessories. Last year we left all the wrapping to the last minute. It started off neatly, but soon disintegrated into hastily wrapped and scribbled tags. So with good intentions I plan to do them as we buy them this year.
We've decided to have categories for our presents for each other and Rob's daughter. The categories are: need, want, wear, eat, drink, read, play, write and watch. (We don't get the last few!) I'm feeling pretty smug as I have 4 of Rob's 6, and know what one other is (he does too- I wouldn't dare buy his scythe for him!) Do you have any present traditions?
Today has been grey and a bit damp. After the gym and a little shopping, we met a guy at Margate to check out the pavers we hope to buy in the next few weeks. Having the terrace paved will make the hut feel really complete. We're planning on having different sized sandstone pavers. That's what we're planning for our holiday, what fun we have!?
Then in Margate we stopped to pick up some (18) fence posts, although we had the trailer, I think Rob meant to go and get them tomorrow, so we didn't actually have a rope. My worst fears were realised when, as we drove onto the main road, one of the posts rolled off the top! Luckily it just ended up in the gutter. After sheepishly retrieving it, a nice guy gave us a piece of rope, so we safely got them home.
So Rob has been out in the rain all afternoon (he couldn't help himself) digging post holes whilst I stayed nice and dry stamping gift tags and baking a chocolate prune cake.

Friday Flowers, my phone manner, Christmas and an anniversary

Just a paper daisy today for my Friday Flower pic. Things are still a bit dull at the hut garden.



So somehow my week has disappeared again. Yikes, I've only got two weeks of work left until my month off, so I'd better get my skates on, I still have to write a 12 page newsletter for distribution and organise a media event, as well as hand in my annual work plan (6 months late!)

Last night we had dinner at my parents house. Truthfully, my mother doesn't really like to cook, she finds it stressful, but last night it was nice to just have dinner with them and my brother who still lives at home, rather than the whole clan. She made an "Italian Beef" casserole, and was quite adventurous with the dessert, a orange and lemon flavoured custard with risoni pasta, topped with a meringue with currants and almonds in it. I've never had anything like it before. I quite like the currants and almonds in the meringue, and the custard was tasty.

In our after dinner conversation we started talking about people who dominate conversations, or just simply talk too much or too long on the phone. Rob said, well you can always use Hazel's classic line, - 'well I'd better let you go now, bye.' I was stunned for a second, and asked him do I really say that? Apparently I do, all the time. Driving home, I ran recent phone conversations over in my head, then I asked Rob, do I use it on you? There was a little pause. Yes. I started apologising, I felt a bit sheepish really, perhaps everyone realises this is my captain subtext (to borrow a Coupling term) for I think you're talking too much, I'd like to go now! He laughed at me, and said it was ok, he didn't take it personally, but rather admired that I managed to make the other person feel like they had so many more important things to do! My only excuse is, that I'm not really big on talking on the phone, I don't really enjoy it, so I guess I'm trying to minimise my phone calls.

So with that uncomfortable realisation shared, I'm looking forward to the weekend. We're going to make a Christmas tree. That's right, we're going to get some wire and tape, and a pot with some rapid set concrete and we're going to attach the little led lights to the branches. Fingers crossed it works.
I've been finding little decorations for my red theme. Some little red stocking garlands to hang up around windows, and some cute reindeer for the tree. Also some of my recent online purchases have started to arrive, some stationery love from Kikki.K (had to be very disciplined there) and some wrapping paper and accessories from the Wrapping Paper Co. Oh yes, I've got it bad and there's still 30 sleeps until Christmas.



Indulge me with one more photo. This day last year we drove down to the Huon valley, a little nervous, but very excited, and picked up this ragamuffin. She was a bit naughty in the back of the car, barking and trying to play with a shell-shocked Nigella. We got home and she took over the backyard, claiming all the toys and running around like a crazy thing. She has grown up in many ways, but Claudia certainly lived up to her kennel name "Mistress Very Sassy"! Despite her attitude and chewing habit, she does make us laugh, she is a very good snuggle dog, a companion for Nigella and us, and we wouldn't feel a complete pack without her now. Wonder what the next year will bring?

Monday's Menu, and our weekend

Our life returned to it's normal pace on the weekend. Like anybody living on a bit of property the grass on our block had taken off over the last couple of weeks, after the combination of frequent rain and the warmer temperatures. Sadly after one day of brush cutting our not-so-trusty brush cutter spluttered to a halt a couple of weekends ago. I was cleaning the windows at the time and could hear Rob fiddling with it, pulling the trigger, cleaning a filter, pulling the trigger, I was waiting for him to kick it into the dam, but he was apparently resigned to the fact it would need to be serviced. (It was serviced last year at great expense so we were more than a little disappointed with it dying already). I know like Michelle he has a scythe on his wish-list for Christmas, but we really needed to cut our grass now! Apart from looking so untidy, I was getting increasingly worried about the dogs and snakes.
So we took ours to the doctor (a new doctor mind you) and next door is a place where you can hire them. So the drone of a 2-stroke was our weekend companion, it took Rob 10 hours over 2 days to cut the grass around the hut, down the drive, in the orchard and garden and around the nut orchard. It looks so much tidier. I know we'll need to do it again before the whole thing gets cut for hay but it made me feel a lot better.


So whilst Rob was busy outside I baked a carrot cake on Saturday and our first Christmas cake on Sunday. We took a moment to marvel at the colours of the sunset on Saturday night, and over the weekend I kept finding the dogs snuggling each other. It was pretty darn cute, although I'm not sure Nigella entirely approves of the adoration from Claudia! She tolerates it.



The menu at the hut this week: salmon on soba noodles, a salad with Asparagus and new season pink eye potatoes, I made red pepper pesto (with almonds) then stirred it through pasta, we had a chorizo, potato, zucchini and ricotta frittata and finished off the working week with a quick lemon linguine.
We always start our Saturday morning off quite virtuously at the gym for a weights class, but then it quickly deteriorates from there, with a visit to Jackman & McRoss for small white chocolate and peach tarts and cream buns. We picked up some lamb shanks and were tempted by a tasting to buy some wagyu beef sausages.
So Saturday's dinner was a simple one of sausages, Pigeon Hole bread and home made chutneys. Rob roasted the shanks in quince jelly so we ate them last night with roast potatoes and some beans. With enough left over lamb for souvlaki tonight and lamb soup tomorrow!