Down the river

A few weekends back we were invited (along with about 20 others!) to join some friends on a river cruise to help celebrate a year of milestones in their family.. a 60th and a 40th birthday.

It was a lovely cruise, with a stop along the way for a bbq in the beautiful bush surrounds. The children were entertained on board with face painting using old aboriginal methods... including making there own paint brushes with some of the foliage from the bush and playing a didgeridoo.

Mell's big day out..

I took the day off work today.. a migraine hit me yesterday afternoon and I battled with it most of the night, finally after pulling out the "serious" meds I was able to sleep but woke up this morning feel hungover and just plain tired. Its lunch time now and I am feeling alot better. So of course I decided to go through some pics and back up some files and realized that I haven't yet blogged my trip to Sydney! This was back in September, I am even further behind than I thought.. so here it is my girly weekend in Sydney with Kris and Leonie..

I left the artic chill of Tassie (ok exaggerating slightly there.. but not by much!) and arrived to a beautiful warm Sydney day.. boy did we pick the right weekend! Leonie picked me up from airport and we headed to Kris's.. but not before picking up some Krispy Kremes (we ate some in the car on the way but don't tell Kris ;) was a good thing we took the LONG way so we had time to dispose of the evidence hehe )

It was such a delight to meet Kris's gorgeous kids..

The very friendly J... ;)


The gorgeous Miss S.. fresh from dance class.


and sweet little Miss E


That night we went out to dinner with Jamie, Yvette, Lynny, Lyn and Ang from the June 04 Baby group.

Only took a few pics.. the food was too nice to miss out on ;)





The next day we headed into the city and checked into our hotel room and then hit the shops!











There was no way we were going to miss visiting the Lindt Cafe.. so much choice.. I need to go back again..lol









Then it was on the monorail and off to Darling Harbour where Kris and I terrorised poor Leonie with our cameras, where the seagulls terrorised us while we tried to eat our dinner and fend them off, a cruise on the harbour to the see the sites at sunset.









Then it was back to the hotel where we giggled (and choked) our way through cocktails.



had a GREAT time girls and can't wait to do the big 40's next year ;)~

A thief in the night..

My garden is blooming at the moment.. My roses are a mass of blooms and I am enjoying being able to go out and cut a bouquet of fresh flowers for inside. The lavender is smelling divine. We have been harvesting silverbeet and broccoli from the garden for a few weeks now, there are a mass of rasberry flowers on the vines, just waiting for them to ripen up.




I picked my first delicious ripe strawberry yesterday. There were a few more, almost ripe, so I decided to leave them overnight. It appears something else has found before me! I went out just then to find them half eaten!!




Not impressed!! Looks like I am going to have to put some netting over them as I presume the birds have been eyeing them off as well as me!

Ahhh spring..

I love this time of year..

Bad bad baaaaaaaaaad blogger

Yep thats me.. I apologise to all those that take the time to visit, I have fallen very behind and need a kick in the .. you know.

So for all who have asked I will start catching up with the gnocchi recipe. As far as the gnocchi itself goes.. just googled homemade gnocchi and pick a recipe. The one I used I had to add more flour to etc until the consistency seemed right.. its trial and error.

As for the sauce... here it is, this is a big fave in our house and its so simple to make.

500g fresh potato gnocchi
1 cup light thickened cream
1/4 cup sundried tomato pesto*
150g chargrilled capsicum, finely chopped*
150g baby spinach
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Cook gnocchi as per packet instructions.
Heat a large saucepan over medium heat and add cream and pesto. Simmer stirring occasionally for 3-4 minutes or until slightly thickened. Ad capsicum and spinach. Cook four around a 1-2minutes until spinach has wilted. Stir cooked gnocchi into cream mixture and combine. Put mixture into a baking dish and top with cheese. Cook under grill or in oven until cheese has melted and is golden.
Enjoy!

*For the aussie readers I get these at the supermarket (Woolies). Pesto is where the pasta sauces are and the chargrilled capsicum is jarred and in the sauces and condiments section.
P