The tomato lady soup...!

1 large onion chopped

half a medium pumpkin chopped

6 - 8 medium ripe tomatoes

2 cups of chicken stock (4-5 cubes)

2 teaspoons crushed garlic

2 teaspoons basil

Put everything in a soup pot. Bring to the boil, 

cover and simmer

 until pumpkin is soft.

Puree and then strain

Serve with lots of black pepper and sour cream

Once you have made this soup using the recipe above

you can then improvise like I do

garlic not crushed, basil not chopped

sometimes more pumpkin than tomato

sometimes the other way round!!

and truly, somewhere in there, there is also pumpkin

Top hated pumpkin soup and really disliked tomato soup

but this is one of his absolute favourites

and every year I fill a freezer drawer full.

on Sunday night a warm bowl and some crusty bread 

WOW!!!

In the height of summer sieve twice 

so it is like velvet and serve cold

WOW! WOW!!!

at the moment my freezer is full of many different types of soup

made by incredibly wonderful women

but there is no Tomato Lady Soup!!!

I thought you might like to try this with me

and we can all share a bowl

Goodnight

You are invited......

To join Top and me

here at Arias

 tomorrow night

when we

celebrate

our 40th Wedding Anniversary!

(I was of course a child bride, barely legal!!!!)

at first we had thought to eat

at the chef's table

until I realised it was not big

enough to fit you all in!

 and also you would miss the view

of Sydney Harbour!

we will start with champagne here and enjoy

the lovely sea breeze 

then when we have all arrived we will wander in here

and let Chef Matt Moran

feed us!

 figs and asparagus are really beautiful at present

and just look at this piece of steak.

I may have to share some of this with someone else

as I need to leave room for desert

and as I could not make up my mind

which desert to offer you I chose a few!

you could be led to believe that I am a fan of figs...not true

this dish just looked so beautiful I could not leave it off!

I am, however,  a chocoholic and

 will not share a bite of this with anyone

in fact I may even have to have this one as well!!!

I have watched Matt Moran on Masterchef and his 

food always looks so beautiful...I am getting really excited

about this and of course

seeing you all there!

so

until tomorrow

Goodnight

P.S.  in reality we are going for lunch to a  very nice restaurant about 100ks from here!! 

The cooking class....

Last Sunday 

we had a real treat

Instead of cooking for others

we cooked for ourselves

under the very learned

eye and hand of Johanna

who has just come back from

a week of cooking classes at

 Casa Ombuto in Tuscany

we all arrived in the commercial kitchen....

oh dear I must have been late

the tables were set up

like this and each place had a jar of aromatic salt

as a gift from Johanna

she briefed us on what we were going to be doing

.....some of us were listening!

but the pasta lessons were not for everyone

some of us thought we might have made

 a... tiny.... wee.... error!

but mostly we worked well together

even Mother and Daughter

and the pasta turned out surprisingly well

then we all sat down

 while the meal, we had helped prepare,

was plated up and served to us like this

Millefooglie di baccala e porri su crema di rucola

or

Codfish & leeks with puff pastry on rocket cream

La Sfoglia salsa con meanzone

or 

Spaghetti with  eggplant sauce

Bistecca Fiorentina

or

rare steak with salad!

Semifreddo aile noci e ciccolato bianco

or

Walnut and white chocolate semifreddo.

. . .

our cooking class was

  a taste of Tuscany

I am not a fancier of fish and I loathe eggplant
but I can honestly say, I thoroughly enjoyed every
mouthful of this delicious meal!

and it would appear

 I have broken all my promises to myself

 and have allowed some images of an aged me to appear!!!!!

I am linking this post to 

Jenny Matlock and Alphabet Thursday

goodnight

macarons....!

It has taken forever to work out

the camera to computer problem

but finally (I think) we have fixed it

so here is a pic

of my

macarons!!!!!

that I boasted about here

right front above was my perfect one

the rest just tasted perfect!!!

goodnight

One week later....

Here we go again

Last Saturday 

our local Polo Club

celebrated it's centenary

and we fed 90 this time

same three sided tin shed

only now we wanted it to feel as though

you were in a marquee

by the river and among the gums!

we had planned lovely wicker seating outside

 with cream market umbrellas 

only to wake up to one of the wettest days

this winter

The teams arrived and after inspecting the entrance to the field

they deemed it advisable to unload the horses

on the road and walk them in

whilst this was going on we were still busy 

 dressing the shed

the wife of one of the older players

 did the paintings hanging on the drop sheets 

and donated them to the Polo club

they were absolutely wonderful

and we had all sorts of memorabilia scattered around

of course I forgot to take photos of the nibbles but this was 

our entree (first course)  alternate serves of

terrine with beetroot jam and rocket or 

Bree with red apple slices, caramelized balsamic and

Parmesan crisps

Main course was our pumpkin salad from here

medium roast beef with bordelaise sauce 

or roast pork with apple chips cooked in maple syrup

and of course once again I forgot to capture this on film!

so onto dessert of rich chocolate and raspberries

with whipped cream and marscapone

or shortbread hearts filled with marscapone, cream and brandy

and just poached strawberries

whilst we cooked, prepared and served up 

the polo teams played a round robin

 in the absolutely pouring rain

but our guests seemed to enjoy themselves despite the

weather and were still there after we had packed up 

and gone home.

Yesterday was spent washing up and packing away

and that's the finish of our catering until

the ram sale next month

but that's only morning tea and BBQ lunch

just a breeze for us girls!!

goodnight

a catering we will go...!

As a group,

 formed to raise money

 in aid of aged care,

 health and disadvantaged youth

in our town

our original charter said no catering

well....

that lasted about 5 minutes didn't it

and  now all we do is catering

we are home and family cooks

some of us with a great interest in food

some with a great sense of style

all of us willing to work our hearts out for a good cause

so...

 I thought you might like to see how we went

organising  a birthday  buffet  lunch for 70

The day was beautiful and the venue was this

hand crafted three sided shed 

setting the tables takes about

2 hours and the hostess wanted it simple

finally getting there

but twining the happy wanderer

 down the middle took longer than we thought!

but at last it was finished

      

these are our sweet savoury mince pies

 forgot to take photos of the rest!!!

      

our incredibly beautiful pumpkin salad

    

Oh dear I keep forgetting to take the photo at the beginning

  

and whilst the guest were eating we all sneaked out the back

for our own lunch of salad roll and a wee small drink!

 

goodnight