Food ... River Cottage Veg Everyday

While on the topic of food I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of this cook book ...

photo from Mardi Winen's blog!!

Visit Mardi's blog to check out some of the yummy recipes that she has been cooking from this book!!

Now what to make for tea tonight ...... ???????

reading ... "Love and Hunger"

http://loveandhunger.com/index.html

(I love the graphic design of the cover too!!)

I had seen a few write ups on this book in newspaper and magazines and ordered it on line recently.

It came in the mail on Tuesday and I finished it by Wednesday!!

It was a fantastic read if you love food, enjoy cooking and even a bit of facts about food and cooking too.

Each chapter focuses on a different area ... such as food at funerals, comfort food such as soups, dinner parties or having friends for dinner and more. Each chapter has recipes at the end that are written about in the chapter. There are also suggestions for pantry basics.

So many things in this book I could relate to ... like how she grew up with eating chicken only on birthdays and special occasions. We grew up with chooks but only for eggs, not for chopping their heads off to eat them!! Living on the farm now most people around had chooks for eggs and chopping heads off so they ate chicken a lot more often when they were growing up!

I grew up with watching dad kill the sheep ... I can still visualise the "guts spilling out" as he cut and the smell of the meat in the meat house where he cut up the meat after it had hung in the coolroom for a while!

The chapter on having people for dinner was a great reminder of cooking things that are yummy but also simple or easy so that you can enjoy your friends' company too.

The chapter on giving food to people or accepting food gifts was a good reminder too ... sometimes we might not feel we need to accept the food but that could make the giver feel un-appreciated

On Thursday I made the soup called "Pharmacy in a Bowl" ... I don't know why I've never made vegetable soup before but it was very liberating grabbing all those veggies out of the crisper that were not 100% and chopping them up to make soup ... waste not want not!! Then I thew in a cup of red lentils that were grown here on the farm a few years ago!

So if you love food and enjoy cooking I can recommend this book.

Her blog can be found here ... http://howtoshuckanoyster.com/

Vac Swim ...

spoiler ...

sometimes ...

For Amanda's Pintrest quote challenge over at Escape2Create.

penny-ing ...

cheeky two ...

A quick snap ...

A funny for Sunday ...

Food blog to check out ...

http://www.thefooddept.blogspot.com.au/

Read a write up about this food blog today in the latest Delicious magazine (June 2012, p.34)

... great photography and yummy looking recipes :-)

Check out these amazing chocolate recipes in their first post ... oh my goodness!!

http://thefooddept.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/hi-everyoneintroducing-food-dept-we-are.html?utm_source=BP_recent

This or this ...

 Photos from the food dept :-)

Fantastic hey?!!

Accommodation in Port Lincoln ...

French Villas

check out this site for beautiful family accommodation in Port Lincoln

Love it ...

For the teeny tiny challenge over at Escape2Create!

You in 2012 ...

The West Coast Wave ...

this is great ...

I have only lived on the West Coast for 17 years but I do the wave!!

I have noticed it only happens south of Whyalla!

I recently had a student nurse with me when I was working as a Community Nurse and I was travelling from Cummins to another local area and she commented on the fact that I did the one finger wave, something that I do "subconsciously" ... I said it was a local thing and then realised that she was from Adelaide ;-)

E2C retreat class by Mardi Winen ...

So at the Escape2Create retreat on the weekend we had Mardi Winen teach a 2 layout class and here are mine :-)

I love doing this class :-)

I missed out on doing Nat May's beautiful layout class because I over subscribed on the kits LOL!!

And I did do Kate Mason's gorgeous canvas but haven't quite finished the edges yet - Hannah doesn't seem to mind ... she has souvenired it!!

hugs & kisses ...

Our 4...

Staller ...

Ride ...

& they are great friends ...

Easter feast ...

Escape2Create 2012 retreat ...

was basically SO MUCH FUN!!

Here are a few photos ...

packing the goodie bags on Thursday night after dinner

one of our beautiful Pom Poms!!

goodie bags full!!

the gorgeous banners Amanda created for each table

the lolly bar with photos from past retreat committees and teachers

mugs and lanyards for everyone

the clothes line with all the logos hanging in the entry

the shed nearly ready for everyone

apples was the theme and they were abundant in cute baskets from Ikea!!

Thank you to 2 very special girls Amanda and Sue for a great weekend

and a big thank you to the 3 beautiful teachers Nat May, Mardi Winen and Kate Mason ... our home grown mojo certainly rocked!!

We had delicious food provided by Val, Mel, Leanne and Kym and excellent assistance from Andrew, superman!! 

Michelle, Bev and Mel also helped us a lot :-)

A HUGE thank you to Amanda's husband, Greg and my husband, John for all their help with setting up and packing up too ... we really need and appreciate your help :-) Thank you present coming ;-)

And finally our 4 shops ... Sheoak Craft Cottage, Shabby Chic Shack, Scrapworkz and Sirrah Signs ... thank you so much for coming along and providing an abundance of goodies for us to select from!!

Lachlan ...