Anyway, back to Melbourne - our home!!!
The weekend started from Funky Friday, a pic I stole from a recent birthday card, well not that recent!!!!!!
I just liked the mood of the person on the bike - fun loving and a feeling of freedom and that's how I feel on my weekend rides - sometimes after a good Saturday night I might find it difficult to rise from a deep sleep but on returning home I always feel pleased I made the effort.
Yes, this Sunday was one of those as we had our very good friends Barry and Gloria join us for dinner on Saturday night.
I've known them both since our teenage years and much water has passed under the bridge. It's always delightful and relaxed to sit around the dinner table together with good food and good wine.
For the wine I ambled down to "Uncle Dan's" my favorite wine cellar and purchased a bottle of Burgundy from the Vienne region. It brings back memories of our stay there last year and the intimate restaurant where we enjoyed a bottle of 2005 E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone vin rouge, so I bought another. Our friends, Baz and Gloria have enjoyed travelling and we always have heaps to waffle on about.
OK, Sue is hanging over my shoulder and wants some keyboard time, bye.....for a moment.
Our entree was a simple salad of fresh mozzarella cheese, slices of nectarine, proscuitto on mixed leaves with lots of watercress and mint.
Next was paella. Still in the experimental stage as I got my paella pan at Christmas time. Pretty nice, but will get better as I experiment more. I find it hard to get the rice to cook as evenly as I would like. Any tips?
Dessert was strawberries that I had macerated in a home made cumquat liqueur that is several years old now and very tasty, with vanilla icecream. It was partnered with a very nice flourless orange and almond cake that Gloria made.
Coffee and chocs on the deck. A still night and it had cooled down, thank goodness. I think I need to take up bike riding too.....ha ha not.
Sunday morning started off with a high teens temp rising into the thirties by midday - I decided that a short early morning ride was in order before we we popped off to Bay Street Port Melbourne for brunch.
I'm glad I did have a morning ride coz my brunch was high in calories - field mushrooms cooked in white wine, rosemary and garlic, with poached eggs, spinach and bacon on sour dough toasted bread.
I needed the energy though. I had a "Sue list" of jobs to complete around the garden before my first cold beer for the afternoon.
You have to feel sorry for the lad...please put the Christmas tree and the tree prunings on the nature strip for the council to pick up. Close to slave labour really. No wonder he's exhausted now.
And that was our weekend - how was yours?
Sunshine and paella - how wonderful. A joy to read about and remind us in the northern hemisphere that the snow won't last forever.
ReplyDeleteThe flourless orange and almond cake sounds interesting. I presume it has ground almonds in it. I have made a flourless chocolate cake a few times and that was yummy - must find a recipe for the orange one - unless you could oblige ?? !! ....
(My weekend has been spent "high" on painkillers. I'm at the "wish I hadn't bothered" stage of my recovery from foot surgery. It will get better, I know, but my patience is running out.)
Lovely meal! The week-end is not over in the US but yesterday I went for my usual walk on the Strand (along the ocean) then my friend and I went to see "Up in the air". The same today but seeing "It's complicated". The weather is still in the high 70's.
ReplyDeleteNothing to complain about.
PS : "that's complicated" was not great. "Up in the air" was much better.
ReplyDeleteJean,
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear of your pain. Its frustrating not able to do the things that you come to take for granted. Hopefully after your recovery, the pain will become a distant memory.
Sue said she will pass on some details of the orange and almond cake tomorrow but said it was Gloria's recipe so she will follow up for you.
I'm not sure who is experiencing the most extremes in weather at the moment. Today was 43 degrees.
Nadege,
The Strand - yes I remember the Strand in the late 70s. Skaters, cyclists,joggers and in my case gorgeous young things too improve the scenery - No stop now, its not good for my blood pressure, after all, I'm almost 60!!!!
Sue wanted to see "It's Complicated", maybe we'll wait until the DVD is out.
Sounds as though your weekend was relaxing with a perfectly mild winter's day.
By the way, as I mentioned to Jean, we had 43C today - in your language, I think that's 112F.
That starter looks fantastic. I'm definetely going to try it as soon the temperature goes up. It's perfect on a hot summer's day.
ReplyDelete