Festival of Leaves

Spoilt rotten this weekend. After an all day bake-athon, the car was packed and ready for a few days away. Off to stay in Benalla with friends, with plans to visit the Autumn Festival in nearby Bright. 

A gorgeous weekend, with the loveliest hosts and filled with lots of fun.

While husband took to the Rail Trail and rode an enormous distance on his bike, we drove through as back up crew, meeting up for a leisurely lunch in Myrtleford, then on to Bright and up to a rather chilly Mount Buffalo.

Sadly I came away with very few photos. Heavy rain, umbrella carrying and kid hand holding are my excuses (that and the fact that I seemed to be permanently eating or drinking all weekend).

Beautiful vistas though.

Farmers Markets were too good to pass up, and these super-sized, super fragrant Sensation Pears are now bubbling away on the stove. Whilst I would normally choose small pears for desserts, these large ones are ideal for a Spiced Pear Paste, made using a very adapted recipe, loosely based on Stephanie Alexander's Quince Paste, but using ingredients similar to those in Maggie Beer's Pear Paste.

The combination of star anise, lemon, cinnamon and pear is just heavenly.

Our nature table is loaded with leaves and acorns, pumpkins and gourds. The fridge is filled with persimmons and chestnuts, fresh churned butter and sweet little blue eggs bought from local providors.

On another, totally unrelated note, I think my new favourite colour may well be purple.

Or perhaps pink. Again.

Paper Poppies

Wasn't going to, but then I did. 

With a spare morning in my diary, this seemed like the best way to use it. ANZAC day crafting, with a Poppy theme.

What I thought was a relatively easy craft activity turned out to be, well, not so easy.

I even went to the effort of pre-cutting, pre-hole punching.

Almost every kid had difficulties, but those that did well, did really well. Lucky for that little minority.

Sadly, they learnt more about how to stand in a line and ask for help, than actually learning how to sew. They wanted to sew...but it just all seemed a bit too tricky. Some comments made me laugh though. "I'm only finding this hard because I'm used to sewing clothes" and "If I was a girl this would be much easier". Okay, maybe the second one would have been funny if it hadn't been so true. The girls did seem to find it easier. They were faster, more accurate and less flustered. Go figure.

Anyway, flattery goes a long way, and is probably why I keep coming back for more. Being mobbed by short children professing their undying love and remarking that you are beautiful does put a smile on my face.

Busy Feet

Man these feet keep me busy. Little feet, but super active.

I seem to run from one activity to the next, they are just so dreadfully keen. One dreams of ballet, and the other obsesses about soccer.

Little time left over, but that's okay for now.

Lots of pizza on the go to keep the kids happy, and homemade bread to keep those hunger pangs at bay.

So far I've tried two different baguette recipes with great success. Perhaps not picture perfect, but they have smelt delicious and more importantly been very, very good to eat. I have another recipe I'm in the process of making - a Campagne which takes FOUR days from beginning to end. I'm only at day two, and have only made the chef, so fingers crossed. Having never made a sourdough starter before, I'm curious as to how it will turn out. Theoretically, once the levain is made, one keeps it going indefinitely.

Anyway, off for a bowl of steaming soup (cauliflower with porcini oil) and today's baguette.

Orange

Orange seems to be my colour at the moment. Drawn to it, perhaps because Autumn in here. Subtly influencing my choices.

Market day today had me gorging myself silly on mandarins, my first of the season. They smell amazing here in the kitchen, and on me. I'm being following by the most delicious citrus tang.

More pumpkins were bought, and bunches of heirloom beets in lovely shades of red, orange and yellow.

And just to escape from all that orange? Purple carrots!

The chicken stock is simmering away and I'm about to start planning tonight's dinner.

I'm cooking from this book at the moment, and boy it's good. One great recipe after another.

Even the handcut chips with homemade aioli sound good. Comfort food.

Tomorrow's a hectic one, but I'm hoping to squeeze in a quick city trip to see this.

Not the building as such, but a new exhibition by Simone Slee.

And maybe while I'm there, see the Ron Mueck exhibition before it closes.

Biscuits in a Jar

Because we will be away from home over the ANZAC weekend, and the big kid will be with Granny, I've arranged a little activity to keep him busy. 

We always make ANZAC biscuits together, and although we won't actually be together, I figured this was the next best thing.

Pre-prepared mostly, just awaiting the addition of butter, golden syrup and bicarb soda. A quick mix together and popped in the oven.

Along with the jar, I'm sending a small twist of seeds.

Flanders poppies to be scattered somewhere in the garden.

And hopefully by Remembrance Day, this is what will have sprouted.

ANZAC Day Crafting

Just thought I'd share a few pictures from an activity I did with my daughter's Prep/Grade 1 class last year to commemorate ANZAC Day.

Very simple card doves, which they were able to colour or glitter (or cover with feathers).

A nice, easy craft for the littlies, which looked lovely hanging in the classroom.

One or two needed a bit of assistance with the cutting, but for the most part it was very straightforward.

With only a week to go, I've been a bit slack. I think this year, any ANZAC crafting will be done on a much smaller scale.

I'm thinking along the lines of biscuits....

Autumn Days

While this is what some of us did....

the rest of us braved the wind and rain, and headed out to our local farmers market.

Beautiful pumpkins and squash for our autumn mantle

and some for homemade pumpkin gnocchi for dinner tonight.

Just the kind of weather for a day inside, snuggled up with a hot chocolate, quilts, fluffy woollen socks and a good book.

Down on the Farm

Collingwood Children's Farm to be precise.

Sadly as city folk, the kids don't have much of an opportunity to experience farm life.

Sure we have a couple of pets, but it is just not the same as getting up close to big livestock.

Horses

Sheep

and crazy eat anything goats.

We all love the Children's farm. It's a little oasis right in the middle of the city. The gorgeous Merri creek runs though the middle and green paddocks support all manner of animals.

All of the animals are accessible, and some even huggable.

Guinea Pigs are especially loved, and always the first stop.

While us girls leisurely made our way across to the farm, the boys hopped on their bikes and met us at the cafe for a late lunch.

A perfect sunny autumn day and a great school holiday excursion.

Our next visit will probably coincide with the Winter Solstice festival in June and I'm already planning what we will bring. We've started on making paper mache luminaries, hopefully I will have some completed soon to show you.

Little Sewing

Pop has been desperate to start sewing. In fact, almost twelve months have passed since we first started down this path.

The learn to sew cards I made back then have been dragged out quite a bit lately, but it was time to attempt something a bit more rewarding. Given that this child has the world's shortest attention span and gets frustrated fairly easily, finding something that offered just the right amount of a challenge was always going to be tricky.

Progressing to a real needle and thread has been easier than I imagined. Poppy drew a simple loveheart design on a piece of calico which we then placed inside a small embroidery hoop. A colour was chosen and the needle was threaded. A short lesson on threading needles wasn't needed, but practice in knotting was.

To get things going I did the first half dozen stitches, then pulled them out, leaving behind the pinprick holes as a guide. A nice, thick chenille needle is perfect for a beginner.

After about ten minutes of fierce concentration though, she had had enough. Half a heart has been completed and now indoor cubby houses are under construction.

Hearts are all well and good, but she really wants to make something a bit more ambitious. Something a bit like this.

Her brother made this lovely for me last year.
A child sized sewing machine may well be on birthday lists this year, but I think we have a few more lessons to go until we get there. 

Food for every occasion

As a keen home cook, I love cooking for special days. 

Certain foods are made year in, year out, marking events and changing seasons.

Easter is no different, and it's just fortunate that we have four days to enjoy them all. Hot Cross Buns (using my homemade peel), Colombe Pasquale and Chocolate Brioche. Mmmm. The kitchen smells delicious, full of spicy scents and loads of chocolate in all it's wonderful forms.

Here is the Southern Hemisphere we are enjoying a cooling of the weather, and bring it on I say. I'm more than ready for hearty casseroles and warming soups. Slow bakes and puddings.

For me, Autumn means fennel, chestnuts and celeriac. We've already had our first pine mushrooms and I'm already planning a mushrooming day.

These were found last year and although I'm pretty certain they are Chanterelles, we didn't eat them.

Fish on Friday here tomorrow. A Jamie Oliver recipe which I fell in love with recently. Try it.

No religious basis for our Fish on Friday, just an Easter tradition here. 

New books have been started and with lazy mornings on the horizon, I'm hoping to zoom through them. So far, so good. Christmas break was all about the Vampires, Easter is all about Stieg Larsson. 

Happy Easter everyone. May you all have lazy mornings, an abundance of chocolate and sweet little kisses.