Entertaining!

Yesterday I was a bit disorganised for dinner, I grabbed some prawns and fish stock from the freezer before heading to Waihi beach with Murphy, it was a splendid evening. When I got home I decided on Thai curry. I have a book……… called Curry, uninspiring for sure, it has been ignored on the shelf for an un-remember-able number of years until recently when I gave it a crack and made the best curry EVER……   But that recipe is sacred, as I am going to slay them all in the next round of our Waikanae Masterchef competition with it. So I consulted this now exciting book, but was sadly lacking a few key ingredients, notably coconut cream and coriander for a Thai curry, the pandemic shopping was obviously not that well considered.   I had a big crop of coriander in the summer most of which went to seed as it always does, so I have a jar full of seeds I had saved….tick. I then went out to the garden to investigate the remaining plants with the misguided idea that those dried up ...

A day off yesterday people, I took the self indulgent trivia feedback badly but I have had plenty of request’s to carry on so here are a couple of days efforts.   I lit a brazier on my deck last night and spent two hours on the phone, some how not noticing how much of that yummy rose went down. I am not sure if David is open for business but give it a go here http://www.hamdenestate.co.nz/ I have heard reports of other people ordering wine online. Warm and sunny in Hawera today with little wind, I did 4 hours work and have been outside bottling   my own plum wine, thirteen litres of Foleys Folly 2019, it is nice and dry, a perfect afternoon tipple.   Feijoas are in season now so if you want to have a crack at your own wine here is a tried and tested recipe thanks to the queen of wine, art   and ukulele, Ange MacAlpine. Feijoa Wine 10 Kg feijoa 4kg Sugar 6 litres water Wash and freeze the feijoas, defrost, cut in half a...

A bleak old day in Hawera, I lit the fire so I could keep the new doors open and embarked on my first cleaning project, the shelves under the sink. I think it took an hour, disturbing. I can feel Wayno shuddering at the thought of me “heating the world” with my fire. I found a mysterious spray bottle of cleaner that clearly I had not purchased, so that augmented my preferred cleaning substance which is neat Janola, which turns any object, item or surface white-ish fast, irrespective of its original colour. Today’s Learning: 20 ml of glass cleaner found at the back of the shelf can clean eight windows in order that the bottle be thrown out. My tolerance for cleaning windows is three. It seems like the only constant in life is the official updates on Radio NZ. At 1pm each day our mate Norm who many of you will know as Sarah Stuart-Black and her sidekick Dr Ashley Bloomfield give us the lowdown. Today someone let slip and called her Norm, clearly they are exhausted. You also ge...