We have not long returned from a wonderful family holiday. Gary and I, together with a friend from France, flew to Brisbane for a couple of nights to visit with some very dear friends. While we were there we travelled to the Gold Coast and dropped into a wild life sanctuary to catch up with some of the locals.
The trip home was crazy… What should have taken a little under an hour, took more than three hours! And they say Melbourne traffic is recidulous!!! We all had a bit of a laugh about it and needless to say some of us weren’t too keen to sit down for a while after we arrived home. Thanks to Krys for a wonderful roast leg of lamb with loads of veg on the first night, it was absolutely delicious.
Back at Brisbane Airport we met up with our son, his fiancée and our grandson, who had been up since the wee small hours of the morning in order to be there. We then all travelled to Townsville together. From Townsville we took a ferry to beautiful Maggie (Magnetic) Island. Maggie Island is a special place for all of us, and we soon settled into our accommodation, stocked the fridge and picked up some local seafood. During our stay on the Island we got to walk the beaches, watch some stunning sunrises, enjoy a little reading, and for some there was a little swimming.
Of course there was a little cooking happening. Fresh fruit platters, salads, and some pretty good breakfasts as well.
Tropical Prawn Salad
A few days later we all packed up and headed back to the mainland where we picked up a couple of hire cars and headed of on a 5 ½ hour drive to Port Douglas. We had rented a house for four nights, and during our stay here we made a trip to the Daintree (getting ourselves terribly lost along the way to the Ferry),
we had breakfast with the birds at a local wildlife sanctuary,
the younger generation went Bungy Jumping!!!
5-4-3-2-1 BUNGYYYYYYY……
and we all went shopping. Those that wanted to, spent time in the pool and there was fund cooking (and eating), using some wonderful fresh seafood. I loved having the opportunity to cook with our son, Chris, and friend, Fabien.
A collaboration – Surf and Turf cooked by Chris, Fabien and me
Now we are back home, there has been some serious work happening in the garden. We have planted 31 fruit trees. Now we have to trim and train them espellier style, then be patient and allow them to settle, grow and hopefully provide a little fruit in the years to com.
There has also been time for cooking – Chris introduced Fabien to Chicken Parmigiana during their time together, and Fabien wanted to know how to make it. He now plans to introduce his friends, back in Paris, to my version of Chicken Parmigiana!
Chicken Parmigiana
While we have been working hard in the corner patch, we have also taken a little time to explore our bigger back yard, this time we discovered Lake Tyers Beach, it was a lovely afternoon, the men enjoyed some local fish and chips while I had a gluten free burger with the lot – that is without the bun. Then we went for a nice walk to the beach.
Until next time…
Bon appétit!
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As we unpacked and set up, Sonnie, Cath and Aussie prepared the pizza toppings, and when I got our Esky out I sent down the food that I had bought to add to the evening. Everyone got to make their own pizzas selecting from the toppings available, and Dave was in charge of cooking them in the pizza oven – What a treat… What an eye opener for Fabien, a friend and chef from Paris who was visiting with us for six weeks. With the sausages cooked at the camp fire, we all sat around enjoying some laughs and catching up on recent happenings. The night was freezing, everyone was tired, so we all decided to head off to bed for the night.
night had been a very cold one, and the campfire was inviting, as was a nice hot cup of tea. Brekky for our family was bacon and egg sandwiches. The fun was beginning. There were quad bikes and motor bikes to ride, a drone to fly, the camp fire to keep burning, the pizza oven to get fired up, wood to cut, more people arriving etc. etc. While the men, or should I say, boys, hooned around on the bikes, and cut wood, Cin learned how to ride the quad bike and she and Chris took our grandson Cooper to see the bah bahs (AKA sheep). For the rest of the day that is all he wanted to do – go see the bah bahs…
and discovered that I didn’t have enough time to cold smoke the salmon for the next day, but still salted it, so that I could get the process underway. But I did have time to cure salmon for Gravlax. So entrée would comprise of blanched asparagus topped with thin slices of gin cured salmon, a small quenelle of fish cream (poached off-cuts from the salmon and duckfish, a little double cream and horseradish pureed to a smooth consistency and put into the fridge to set a little) There would also be a little drizzle of truffle oil and 
and eventually got my salmon smoked. Let me tell you it is delicious. Quite delicate and soft too. I also have another goats cheese done, and ready to share, and I used up the left over prawns to make Thai style prawn and corn fritters.
So made homemade takeaway and once we had finished our shopping, we took the food to share with our son and his family, and had a lovely visit before heading to the airport and then driving back to Maffra.
Fennel, Apple and Orange Slaw.
The next morning I was up early studying again, before everyone else was out of bed. I had set the table for breakfast the previous night after everyone had gone to bed, so all I had to do in the morning was set the brioche in the oven to warm, slice the bread, put out a plate of sliced cheese, as well as the yoghurt and stewed fruit. People slowly started to appear and when we were all ready, we sat down to another great meal time of food and great conversation. I had to quickly excuse myself (and leave them to clean up) as I had my French Lesson at 10:30. You know, I think I am starting to get it a little!
the previous night, sliced ham, homemade bread, and one of the smoked sweet potatoes roughly mashed, topped with some homemade cheese, diced red capsicum, finely diced green chilli and a sprinkling of piment d’espelette (French chilli powder) and baked in the oven. The general consensus was that the salad had developed in flavour and improved even more since the night before.
than I should, trying to work out a plan for the fruit trees – I think I was delaying the inevitable, but had to move the pots so I could access this “Grand Old Dame” of the garden. Anyway the jury is still out on that plan for the fruit trees. They are to be espaliered in The Corner Patch with a view to maximizing the amount of garden left to grow vegetables.
