Cooking - Four course meal for 65th birthday

Last Saturday night Aaron and I gave Margo her 65th birthday present. We created a restaurant in their lounge just for her and Warwick. Aaron was the waiter and I was the Chef. We called it Table for Two.
I am a bit annoyed as I forgot to take photos until we got to the main course.
We got Warwick to tell Margo he was taking her out to dinner. I then arranged to do nibbles before their dinner at Stephens house. I did a few lovely things that we always used to do in Italy. We all stood around and had nibbles and then Aaron and I left to go and have "pizza" together without the kids. Stephen kindly looked after the kids. Then Warwick "forgot" his wallet and presto - Margo was delivered to her restaurant.

This is the Menu that they had:

Le Menu

Table a Deux

Chef de la Maison – Karen Schulz

Sommelier & Host – Aaron Schulz

Aperitif

Lemoncello et Melon – Lemoncello spritser accompanied by rock melon

Entre

Spaghetti a la Corgette – A sumptuous contrast of smooth and crunch

Refresher

Mango et lime sorbet – Sharp and sweet to cleanse the palate

Main

Poached chicken – A delicate chicken breast poached and finished with broccoli and beans

Finale

Chocolat Roulade – a sumptuous dessert made from the finest 70% cocoa curvature finished

with fresh farm cream and plum conserve

To be served with coffee or tea of your chosing

Even if I say so myself the sorbet and the entre were fabulous. Though no photos.

Here are some photos.

The main course, the dessert and the birthday girl with the chef and waiter!!!

 

Recession busters

I have just come home from our recession busters monthly meeting. A group of ladies from Kaiapoi who swap skills, recipes, household tips, gardening planting ideas and hopefully money saving tips. Today Penny taught us all how to make pictures for kids walls. Very cheap and easy. A $2.50 canvas, cheap paint from the warehouse and use a kids puzzle picture as the template. So along with wine and a gorgeous raspberry frozen cheesecake (made by Kylie) we all madly drew and painted. We are all very pleased with the results.
Here is my attempt at something cool for kids.

This is our recession busting gang.

Cooking Dinner from the garden

Last week I picked a gorgeous bounty from the garden.
Basil Pesto was made with the basil and put onto tortilla and then quickly grilled in the oven, cut into triangles and served hot for a nibble.

Salad and beans for the veges and then blueberries, strawberries, grapes and icecream for dessert. Delicious.

Spencer first school morning with us

Well Spencer started school on Thursday and on Friday he had his first morning with us. It seemed like he had always been coming, he was so chilled out about what he was doing. Spencer was very excited and so were the boys. We heard all about his first day at school. To celebrate he and Jorja helped make pancakes while Jakob and Eli got dressed.

Now there are four kids for morning cooking classes. I will have to look at what recipe to do next week!! Jorja was such a good big sister. Showing him where to put his bag in the morning and what to do. Spencer really enjoyed the eating part too. He was finished well before anyone else

Mad Hat day at Kindy

Eli had a mad hat day and kindy. He wanted to put balloons all over his hat but when we went looking we only had two balloons. This hat was his second idea. The trusty "Big Ben Hat" (courtesy of my workplace last year) got all the little soft toys pinned to it. I thought it was a fantastic and original idea.

Gorgeous flowers from the garden

The picture says it all.

Re- create, a Quilt from flannette pj's

Finally I have finished the quilt for the camper. This was made with men's pj's obtained from second hand shops, though I did buy the green material for $7 a metre from Fabric Vision. The back of the quilt was a flannette white and blue check single sheet that I purchased from the Op shops for $3. So including batting etc it has cost me approx $30. This was a long time in the making. I sewed most of the quilt top at my quilting weekend 18 months ago. Then I bordered it once home and have finally backed and "stitch in the ditch" quilted it. I was going to hand quilt a lovely pattern on it, but I am fed up with seeing this and am not going to do anymore. It is going into the camper.