So, the first official day of school holidays and it's raining. Pouring actually. Luckily my gal and I had plans to stay indoors and bake. Once again I'll be relying on a Frills In The Hills recipe. Liss posted a baguette recipe a few weeks ago that I'm keen to get my dough hook into.
But first, a few things I learned from my meal last night. If you slice a chunk of Coles unsalted butter, put it in a pretty dish and sprinkle it with Maldon Smoked Salt Flakes it will taste utterly divine spread on a crusty baguette - as yummy as $8 French butter! Spring Hill Black Angus is the nicest beef you'll ever taste. I went to the markets yesterday hoping to find some of the Angus Osso Bucco I'd bought the week before, without luck. Then, around the corner I stumbled upon the
Spring Hill Beef stand. Now, all around me must have thought I was a lunatic {as did the blokes behind the stall} as I was so excited. See, Spring Hill is the beautiful farmhouse we stayed at with our friends last year, and we're all going again this September - and our friends were coming to dinner last night. Perfect. So I bought a kilo and a half of gravy beef, diced it into huge chunks and cooked it for four hours in a rich sauce of red wine, beef stock, thyme, garlic and bay. It was the most delicious stew ever.
Finally, one of our friends is lactose intolerant so I always offer up a meal as low or free from lactose as possible - with a lactose-free version for him if necessary. Last night I decided to experiment and make a potato dauphinoise - without the cream or cheese. Really. Firstly I caramelised finely diced shallots and garlic with brown sugar, thyme leaves and olive oil. Then I poured over some chicken stock and reduced the sauce by half. I played a layer of thinly sliced, overlapping potatoes in the dish, poured over enough chicken stock to barely cover, then sprinkled with the shallot mix. Another layer was repeated before I topped it off with a sprinkling of panko breadcrumbs. I baked it covered with foil for 30 mins then removed the foil to brown the top.
Oh my. It was delish. We all loved it and agreed it offered all the yumminess of a regular dauphinoise, without the rich creaminess that can be too heavy. Bliss.
This was all followed by
Liss's lemon delicious, served with vanilla icecream, and lactose-free french vanilla for T. Washed down with champagne, white wine and a smidge of water.
PS: When we were at Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday I gazed awestruck at the Chanel store. I saw these rainboots in red and oh-my-word, how I wished I could justify them. Although, with a cost-per-wear considering how much it rains in this neck of the woods, they'd be down to $1 per wear in a few short years...
PPS: I swear that I'm not doing all these thousands of links to Frills in the Hills in a blatant attempt to win Rachel Allen's bake. It's entirely coincidental. However, if Liss would like to reward my fawning in such a matter...
Rosepetal and violette cupcakes are about to go into the oven - which means afternoon tea time in about 20 minutes! The girls were beside themselves when I told them they could pick a rose each and decorate the cupcakes with petals {our roses are organic, hence, edible}.
Hope your Monday's serving you up something special. There are some times when you realise that life's a gift and you should just sweep it up in loving arms and give it a great big hug. 
Wow, that went quickly! After a mammoth drive we're home again. Our weekend away was just lovely. Cute little doll's house cottage on the hill was the perfect accommodation and Sutton Forest seemed miles from everywhere, yet was only a three minute drive to Moss Vale. Last night we had a magnificent dinner at the Sutton Forest pub. If you're ever in the Southern Highlands I strongly suggest a meal stop-over. Fabulous pub food in a lovely pub - complete with tartan carpet in the bistro. I had a beautiful steak that was so tender and tasty I cut it with a normal dinner knife - no need for a steak knife. Served with horseradish cream and thick chips and salad it was hearty pub fare served with a deft hand - that chef knows what he's doing.
Today we're packing up the car and heading south. We're off to the Southern Highlands, our favourite place in Australia {aside from home!} We'll have a weekend of pottering, of pub meals, of coffee and shopping. Bliss.
How enchanting is this image? I'm taking a wee break from work and needed something pretty to rest my eyes on so Martha Stewart came up with the goods. Can you imagine anything prettier than flowergirls with floral wands? Love.
Sigh. Will it ever stop raining? I know that I shouldn't care as I'm just sitting at my desk working, but, well, it's noisy. Rain on a tin roof sounds romantic when the drought first breaks, but after a few days it's just another distraction.
Thanks to a lovely friend having my gal for two whole days and a sleepover I've managed to get through so much of my work I feel positively exultant. 
Did I tell you that I have a big hole in my bath? Well I do, which renders it completely useless. My husband's planning on patching it till we can redo our bathroom and install this beautiful slipper bath here. Pretty non?
Phew, it's frosty. And we're off for a weekend in the Southern Highlands where the temperature will drop even further. But this lovely Chanel coat straight from the runway would warm the cockles of any heart would it not?
I can work no more, slumber's calling me. But, before bed, and because I probably won't have a chance to post at a more sensible hour tomorrow - eek - today... Here's a wee spot of floral fabulousness from Dior. John Galliano - I heart you.
As a freelancer you can work the strangest of hours. I started at 9am this morning and I'm still kicking on at 10.51pm. I did take a break and had a lovely walk down to the beach at sunset. The crazy 'non-storm' we had {weird, ferocious thunder for 20 minutes, then a few spits of rain followed by sunshine} seemed to have created a sunset that turned out quite the show over the ocean - yes, on the East Coast!
If you really managed to follow your bliss I'm pretty sure you'd end up here. Oh my, talk about 70 shades of lovely...
There's nothing that I like more than being busy - so today, I'm positively blissful. Lots on, plenty to keep my mind occupied and a few challenges thrown in there as well. 
So, the first official day of school holidays and it's raining. Pouring actually. Luckily my gal and I had plans to stay indoors and bake. Once again I'll be relying on a Frills In The Hills recipe. Liss posted a baguette recipe a few weeks ago that I'm keen to get my dough hook into.
After a very successful shopping day yesterday {nothing bought really, just lots noted for future reference - and one store that looked amazing on-line crossed off the list after being viewed IRL} we had a lazy night. Leftover shepherds pie {changed my menu plan after Liss wrote about golden syrup dumplings and I had to cook them Friday night} was consumed and then we all watched Relocation Relocation before the girls headed off to bed and the boy stayed up to watch World Cup and Tour de France. 
Hands up if your week absolutely sped by? Yep, mine too. Today's the last day of school so we're about to have two weeks of holidays to contend with. Wish me luck...
Now, as LifeInAPinkFibro has rightly pointed out, the words panties is considered irksome by some. Personally I think it's cute-as-a-box-of-buttons but only when uttered without a hint of sleeze. My alternate word of choice would be knickers - as evidenced by these Stella McCartney Day of the Week Knickers. Cuteness incorporated? I think so.
I cannot possibly have my only post for the day be a rant about my injury. So instead, allow me to present a bunch of fleurs that really need to be residing in my home, preferably in every single room. Also, the cutest panties I've ever seen in my life. That is all.
I'm limping around the house today with one of those annoying, straight-leg limps. It's all because I didn't act my age. Yesterday at netball training we had odd numbers, so I paired up with the smallest 10-year-old player for a bit of attack and defence. All went well until she decided to go straight under me. I had one of those slow motion falls where you have plenty of time to think. You know you're going down, and first you try to stop it, but then you just try to fall in whatever way can minimise the damage. I did a bit of a commando roll on falling, but only after I landed hard on my left knee, taking off a lot of skin, drawing a lot of blood and causing loads of swelling. 
