We will be spending quality time with friends visiting from Auckland. I hope everyone has as much fun over Easter as I plan on having.
Remember I said Maryam had been doing a little shopping in Morocco for me. It arrived this week. My beautiful vintage Moroccan Wedding Blanket.
It is covered in rows of sequins which sparkle in the light and jingle sweetly when I touch it. I think it will look beautiful by candlelight.
And hiding inside a little gift from Maryam - these beautiful soft sparkling slippers. Thank you Maryam.
UPDATE: Visit Yoli over at Musings to discover the background to these Moroccan Wedding Blankets.
The ultimate prop room.
His name is Kevin.
He is 70 years old.
He's been married for 27 years.
Two days ago his wife left him...she wanted a life of her own.
We thought he was playing in the waves.
He looked like he was having a good time.
We were just sitting watching the waves as the sun rose in the sky.
We hadn't walked on the beach for a week.
The tide was high so we walked in the dry sand.
It took us longer.
I wore an extra long sleeved top over my t shirt.
He'd taken Cerepax
I could smell alcohol on his breath.
He wanted to die.
I covered his shoulders with my top.
I held his hand and told him my name.
Bryan called an ambulance.
He said he loved the ocean.
He asked why did we help him.
Because we care.
I don't think he really wanted to die.
Sorry no food photos of our barbecue in the park. All gone before I remembered to take a photo. Drinking in the middle of the day will do that to you. Dish of the day goes to the cheesecake on a base of lamingtons. Senbloodysational.
Australia Day after lunch photo of our Gold Coast extended family. Five Aussies, one brand new Aussie, one Kiwi, one Kiwi/Aussie, one South African.
Then back home to watch a little cricket and in the evening back to the beach to watch the fireworks.
My blog anniversary slipped by and I didn't notice. Well I can be forgiven as I have been so preoccupied with our move to Australia. Back in January 2005 I wrote my first post .
Three years later and 425 posts, 3,770 comments, 4 surgeries, two lots of chemo and heaps of new friends.
Almost all blog about food and everything connected with food and more , a couple blog about wine , a few blog about family and life. All enrich my life with their words and stories .
I would be here all night if I linked to all my blogging friends. For those of you I haven't mentioned, you are all important in my life. I thank every one of you for the friendship, pleasure and support you have given me the past three years. Every day is precious as I continue my fight with cancer. Here's to another three years and more.
The wine above was a gift from the lovely French couple who now live in our house in Auckland and cook in my perfect kitchen. Thankyou Olivier, we enjoyed both :)
We joked how when I returned to live in Australia I would change the weather on both sides of the Tasman. More rain in Queensland, more sunshine in Auckland. Well it happened. Since arriving on the Gold Coast a week ago we have seen about 40 minutes of sunshine. The beautiful white sand beach is a dull grey with more sand on the road than on the beach. Meanwhile Auckland is enjoying wonderful sunny days.
I last saw blue sky on Lindeman Island the day we left when I took some tropical flower photos.
My mood has not been helped by not having Internet connection. The Australian phone line we arranged before we left NZ had a line fault and has finally been fixed today. The Internet line we were assured would be connected within 5 days will take another 10 days. Until 15th January I have a dial up connection. Oh my, it is soooooo slow.
Thank you to everyone who has visited and left comments and personal emails. I apologise for not replying earlier. I'm looking forward to being back blogging soon and catching up on your adventures.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE
I like how Janet has approached the debate. You can read about it here at The Old Foodie .
I was tempted with the pink . It was so pretty on the outside. The gold was pretty on the outside too........and beautiful on the inside.
I broke a vase and saw a perfect heart.
A reader sent me this article from todays Guardian Newspaper. Despite the article I still love George my Nespresso machine.
I just want to know "where's my free magazine Nespresso?"
Tomorrow I leave for two months in Australia. Even though I'm on holiday I'll be keeping on eye on all my favourite blogs, with the help of my Google Reader. I can't believe it took me so long to organise myself into having my computer tell me when some one has posted. Think of all those hours I spent checking blogs each day. I plan on posting a couple of times a week from Australia so have placed my blog feed on the top right hand side if anyone wants to add it to their feed.
We will be spending the first month on the Gold Coast where we are to house sit for our friends. Then down to Melbourne for a week before picking up a motor home and heading back up to the Gold Coast via the inland highway to attend a wedding in November.
Our plan is to spend time driving through the Murray Darling Basin which is where 176,000 hectares of land are devoted to growing 1.6 million tonnes of rice. You can see I'm one of those people who plans holidays around food. The region also has plenty of vineyards and we will spend time in Rutherglen, Echuca and The Riverina .
To keep spam under control I've added word verification for comments. I know it's a pain but it avoids all the nasty spammers on my comments when I am not checking my blog daily.
"In my mouth the chocolate broke at first like gravel into many separate, disagreeable bits. I began to wonder if I could swallow them. Then they grew soft, and melted voluptuously into a warm stream down my throat. The little doctor came bustling up, his proudly displayed alpenstock tucked under his one short arm. " Here! Wait, wait!" he cried "Never eat chocolate without bread, young lady!" Very bad for the interior, very bad. My General you are remiss."
And in two minutes my mouth was full of fresh bread, and melting chocolate, and as we sat gingerly, the three of us, on the frozen hill, looking down into the valley where Vercingetorix had fought so splendidly, we peered shyly and silently at each other and chewed at one of the most satisfying things I have ever eaten." I thought vaguely of the metamorphisis of wine and bread.
From Long Ago In France by MFK Fisher
Rachael over at Rkhooks is supporting Stop The Traffik Chocolate , an incentive to stop the use of child labour in chocolate production. You have until 5th October to create and post a chocolate recipe to participate...and there's a prize...which includes chocolate.
With all I need to do before flying off to Australia tomorrow I didn't have time to make a chocolate recipe. I wanted to support Rachel and Stop The Traffik Chocolate when I remembered the passage from Mary Frances' book Long Ago In France. I would take some on our trek to the summit of Rangitoto Island . I had a bar of Green & Blacks Maya Gold Chocolate in the cupboard. Green & Blacks Maya Gold was the first UK product to receive the FairTrade mark in 1994.
Before I left home I broke off a couple of squares and popped them into some fresh bread. It wasn't a particularly hot day so to help with the melting process Bryan carried them in his pocket. It didn't melt as much as I'd have liked, but it did go well with the champagne. Chocolate also goes well with bananas.
My friend Ryoko , who has been so busy with her new career she hasn't had time to blog, spent a few days on holiday in China. Instead of a postcard I received something much more exciting in my letterbox. The beautiful flower above starts out as an ugly little duckling.
Add some hot water and it starts to look a little less ugly.
Leave it for a little while and you will see its beauty emerging.
Finally you will have a cup of tea that is as pretty as it is refreshing.
For some really good information about tea visit Joey at 80 Breakfasts and read her tea post.
UPDATE: Many of you have asked about the taste and smell of the tea. It has a very delicate aroma, slightly, and only slightly, smokey. The taste has far less tannin than black or green tea. It has a very light smoked, fruit taste, but only very light. There is no hint of the floral taste you experience in an Earl Gray tea. It is not a big in your face tea but more an elegant refined tea.
Our friend David from the Italian Trade office invited us along to yesterday's Italian Day organised by Societa Dante Alighieri in Auckland. Here are few pictures taken of the food and wine on the day. I particularly enjoyed the eggplant salad. Leave a comment if you have surefire eggplant salad recipe. Or that should be aubergine in Italian.
click on any photo to enlarge
Here are a few photos taken at the Culinary Fare which was part of the New Zealand Hospitality Show. The Culinary Fare is like the olympics of the cooking world. I love to see what the students are producing. My favourite part of the show though is the Toque D'or , where teams compete by producing a three course meal with the sponsors products. I love the butter carvings. Click on any picture to enlarge them.
A few weeks ago I received the 
from the delightful Helene at Tartelette. My choice for the schmooze award goes to Kelly the Culinarian who always leaves a nice message when she visits Winos and Foodies.
Blog Day was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day
dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and
areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to
their blog visitors.
Here are my five recommended blogs.
My Marrakesh I discovered Maryam's blog after another favourite blogger Jennifer gave her a mention. Maryam leads a busy life with writing assignments, while also building a guest house in Morocco.
Patricia Gray - Patricia is an award winning interior designer based in Vancouver. I discovered her blog on Mayam's site.
Le Petit Cabinet De Curiosites - I discovered Melanie after she left a comment on my blog. Melanie has a shop in the south of France selling a mix of antiques, curiosites and decorations.
Mayogi @ Home - Mayogi visited my blog after Maryam mentioned Winos and Foodies on My Marrakesh. She also lives in Morocco and I'm enjoying following her house renovations.
I'm going to mention two other non food blogs I've been reading for a while. Some of you will already know them as Sam's Mum ChrisB , and sister Beccy.
I first heard about the Nespresso when Melissa once mentioned how much she loved her Nespresso machine. I've wanted one ever since. A couple of weeks ago I started thinking seriously about purchasing one. I started to do a little research on the web, then I saw an advert with George and decided that was the machine I wanted.
Two weeks ago, there they were - at the Auckland Food Show . I sampled a coffee, chatted with the salesman, rang Bryan for his opinion, took Marina over to get her opinion and finally came home with one. It probably wouldn't suit the super serious coffee drinker who likes to grind there own beans, but I'm more than happy. I just turn it on, pop the capsule in and press start. No measuring or grinding beans....and it looks so cool sitting on my bench without taking up too much space. They have smaller ones for really tiny kitchens. It comes with a little jug that plugs in and heats the milk for either a flat white or cappuccino . The jug only heats enough milk for one so when there is more than just me for coffee I heat the milk in a saucepan on the stove.
This is a great example of the power of blogging - I read about the Nespresso on a blog written by an American living in Paris and yet the Nespresso has been available in New Zealand for 12 months. I didn't know about the What Else add until I saw it on Youtube . And here I am giving them even more free publicity. Seriously though, I love my Nespresso.
What would an Aussie living in New Zealand give to a New Zealand blogger on her birthday?
Dan was far too busy training for the World Cup. .........and anyway Bron is happily married to a lovely man.
So Bron, here's a pav made by an Aussie with love. Have a great day.
