Mostly Food (and a bit of garden)

The Sunday Lunchers gathered at Macedon yesterday. We were celebrating Irene's 70th birthday and making the most of a glorious, early autumn day.

We ate magnificent food, much of it from Chris and John's very productive garden:

John, Gillie and my hat admiring the vegetable garden.
Thanks to Irene for the photo

We had prawn cocktails, followed by Greek style lamb backstrap, enough roast potatoes to keep the navy afloat and a fabulous salad. We finished with a nectarine and sour cream cake and raspberries on the side.

It was a great lunch and a very convivial afternoon.

Next time we're meeting at my place. Not sure what to offer which will match that.

I had cheese and biscuits and a peach for supper!

I came home with a big bag of lemons from Gillie's garden

Jigsaw dogs

I mentioned a some time ago that there is a Hairy Bikers' chicken stew recipe that I made many, many times when we lived in Tupton and which I hadn't made at all (that I can remember) in Australia. I made a batch a few weeks ago, following the recipe closely, since it was a long while since I had made it. And I really didn't like it all that much. I ate all the servings so as not to be wasteful but I was puzzled by the fact that I had to make myself eat it. What was different from the delicious stew I used to make in the UK? Then I realised. The difference is the cider, which is the main flavoured liquid. I do not much like Australian cider and in the UK I used Somerset or Norfolk ciders, both of which I do like.

I made the chicken stew again this week, using white wine instead of cider. And it's lovely. I will do that again. I might try it using apple juice but I would have to buy apple juice specially and I usually have some sort of white wine in the house.

I am beginning to get the garden ready for autumn and winter. I have pulled the pumpkin, zucchini and cucumber plants, all of which had stopped producing. I have left the beans and tomatoes - they are still producing. And my silverbeet plants are extremely happy. I am now going to prepare the beds for autumn sowings, which I hope to get to around Easter. Oh - and to my surprise, my fairly new, miniature peach tree produced two peaches this year, both of which ripened and both of which were delicious.