A lovely weekend

I had a lovely weekend.

Friday night was dinner with work colleagues at The Sussex Hotel where I was very pleased with my dinner choice from a typical pub fare menu – Salt & Pepper Calamari with fries, salad and aioli.

Saturday was a drizzly day but thrilled that we got our game of netball in. Pity we got absolutely slaughtered! Training is booked in for Tuesday night! Japanese for dinner from Sushi Joy at Northbridge (always outstanding chicken teriyaki). The day was finished off with meeting a few friends for some drinks.

Today was lunch at Crinitis at Parramatta with my family – a celebration for my sister’s birthday tomorrow combined with Mothers Day for next weekend. At $100/couple we were served meals that were so large but delicious. Bruschetta crust to start, then we shared a Parpadelle Al Granchio (blue swimmer crab with asparagus and papardelle pasta) and a De Vito Calzone (meatballs, oregano and mozzarella folded over pizza) along with a few soft drinks. Service was efficient and friendly and overall I was very impressed. Better still, I’ve got a doggy bag with half of my pasta for lunch tomorrow 🙂

Sunday night in our household usually means there will be a dessert in the oven. Normally this is a Sara Lee apple or apricot crumble or a danish. I, of course, love the smell of a fresh cake being baked in the oven so instead of purchasing a frozen dessert to reheat, we opted for the 2 for $8 White Wings cake mix deal at Woolworths. A chocolate heaven cake has now been baked and ready to serve!

Friendly competition

On the weekend in my house we have a competition of who can score the highest in the Stuff Daily Trivia Quiz and today, I won! I won not only in the daily quiz, but also the ANZAC quiz. 10/15 in the daily and 6/10 in the ANZAC quiz. I’m rather chuffed! They were decent wins too in comparison to the other results today where everyone else completely blew out.

A pity the weather is so dreary today as I was looking forward to another nice park day and lunch outside. I’m really enjoying this extra long weekend for Easter and ANZAC Day. I took Thursday and I’ve taken Wednesday off work as well to give me seven days off. Leisurely. The weather was gorgeous on Thursday but I spent half of it shopping in Oxford at Chatswood Westfield. I love that shop! I bought a skirt suit and matching pants, a dress and a blouse.

Friday we enjoyed the beautiful sunshine at the park and that night we had a birthday BBQ. I made a potato bake and my legendary rhubarb, apple and berry crumble – both of which worked an absolute treat!

Saturday was a lazy rainy day with two DVDs (only $2.99 each from our local Oovie) – Machete and The Social Network – and home made chicken burgers for dinner. Sunday we had brekkie, coffee, run at the park and lunch at Pattisson’s Patisserie at St Ives then home made pizzas last night, yum.

So what to do today? On this drizzly day? Perhaps some more DVDs and baking later in the afternoon.

A love affair with summer

Another glorious day! Perfect for paddling at Sirius Cove and fresh bread rolls jammed with salad and chicken for lunch coupled with a Counting Sheep coffee (my new favourite!).

I couldn’t resist though … days like today remind me of the summers of childhood when the day wasn’t complete without a Zooper Dooper, Sunny Boy or frozen popper. So off I traipsed to the supermarket to load up our freezer with these childish delights.

Chilled water , crunchy green grapes and ripe yellow nectarines to satisfy me in the meantime while I ponder whether to make my signature crumble for dessert. Thought I might share the recipe with you:

APPLE, BERRY AND RHUBARB CRUMBLE

FILLING
Large tin of sliced apples – 800g
Punnet of fresh strawberries
450g frozen mixed berries (McCain)
1kg Rhubarb
2Tb white wine
2/3 cup castor sugar
CRUMBLE
1 1/2 cups castor sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
200g unsalted butter
DIRECTIONS
* Trim the leaves off the top of the rhubarb and cut the stalks into 1cm pieces
* Stew the rhubarb with 1/3 cup of castor sugar and white wine then allow to cool slightly
* Line the baking dish with apples, then strawberries and cooled rhubarb and sprinkle over remaining 1/3 cup castor sugar
* Combine with your fingertips the mixture for crumble – butter at room temperature, castor sugar and flour (double the recipe for more crumble)
* Bake at 180 degrees celcius for about 1 hour

ENJOY xx

                                

p.s. More info on Counting Sheep Corner here: http://sydneyonsunday.com/2010/12/19/counting-sheep-corner-mosman-rating-1925/