Author: Yvette

Sisterhood

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  In the cookies of life, sisters are the chocolate chips. I was over the moon, when my sister finally arrived from Australia to help me with my wedding plans. I was missing something, and  when she arrived everything was easier,she made the long trip even 5 months pregnant. There’s a four year difference between us, me being the eldest, but we have always been close. Sure I remember the childhood screaming and the pigtail pulling and scratching to get the attention. But we’ve grown a lot closer, now more than ever when “parent” family decisions have to be made. She has her own loving family now, two children growing up fast, we mightn’t see each other , as we’re now living miles apart …but we speak to each other often. We’ve shared good and hard times…laughed together, cried together, felt heartache together… She helped make my wedding day beautiful with all her talented works,and I thank her for sharing this wonderful day with me… My niece was flower girl, and just a little princess… …

Mulberry Cream

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  View Full Album This was truly a colorful cooking experience. This cream is made with fresh mulberries, a little messy, but hey all in the fun of cooking. Mulberries are in season at the moment,from May until September, a dark grape nearly black colour, shiny, with a mixed taste of sweet and sour flavour, wonderful for making jams, jellies and ice –creams. Always best to eat this fruit straight away as they’re hard to conserve. There are many wild mulberry trees along the walkways around our place and our street at the moment is stained a dark violet colour. We have four large mulberry trees along the side of our house, planted nearly fifty plus years ago, they were planted to divide not only the vineyard, but used in silkworm farming. Recipe: Mulberry Cream Serves 4 300 grams fresh mulberries 2 tablespoons liqueur (optional) 3 tablespoons sugar 250 grams mascarpone 500 ml fresh liquid cream Preparation Wash and pat dry mulberries. Pass through sifter collecting the juice. To the mulberry juice add sugar, liqueur …

Open garden visitor

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I awoke this morning to the sound of a hooter. No, it wasn’t my alarm clock sounding sick from run down batteries..it was a hooter! Coming from outside I went to investigate, we’re talking early here people, around 5.30am. Obviously the early rays of sunlight encouraged the early morning walk to find something to eat. Yes, in my garden. Here he is! He was happy to prance  around the garden for about an hour, and very proud to have his photo taken. Hope you all have a Wonderful day today friends.xx

A memorable stepping stone Pt 2…

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The day of my wedding the sun was shining from early morning, it was an early start for me and the girls. My house was filled with warm wishes, flowers and bubbly. My sister did an amazing amount of needlework, silk roses and ribbons for my wedding. She’s very talented and creative. These are the cake knife ribbons… The ring cushion… A hat box, for all those special trinkets and cards… The marque was filled with fresh flowers, and fairy lights… It truly was a special day…

A memorable stepping stone…

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  One of the unfortunate things of living a long distance from home, is that my wedding day was only shared with my immediate family.Family and friends sent me warm wishes for the day, so I had everyone there in spirit. As most of my family and friends, haven’t seen these memorable moments from my wedding day… leading up to our 6th wedding anniversary I’d love to share with you this special day in my life. I had the blessing of my parents, sister , her  husband and my niece making the long trip over to spend seven weeks before the day with me.  I was so surprised when Dad said he was coming over. He’d never flown before and Australia to Europe is a long trip. But they arrived and the wedding plans went into action. My images in my mind were simple, elegant and of course no meringue dresses!   I didn’t want the confined atmosphere of a restaurant, set time limits or set menu’s. So the decision was made to have a garden wedding, not a common …

Work in the vineyard

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It’s full steam ahead with the workload of the vineyard, now until harvesting time around August. There’s the general cutting of grass, keeping everything neat and tidy. Spraying of the vineyard. The pruning of overhanging vines.  The grapes and just starting to peek through and grab some sunlight and enjoy their micro – climate, of warm sunlighted days and cool evenings. The perfect balance .

#2 Yoghurt Cake

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#2 Handwritten Recipes  Last weekend while sharing my zucchini cake with a new group of friends. I met a lovely lady who lives in my area close to home. After trying my zucchini cake she was happy to disclose a few recipes to me…hence #2 of handwritten recipes. I thought she would write for me one of those traditional Italian Torte, or biscuit recipes,  instead she gave me this recipe of a yoghurt cake, light, delicate and soft as fairy floss.    The fun part about this cake is that all the measurements are used with the tub of yoghurt. She was so enthusiastic about telling me about this revolutionary measuring method I wish you could have shared the moment with me. As she lived across the road from where we were, she dashed across the road, grabbed the recipe at hand with note-book and pen and wrote down this recipe for me. A great moment, and one to remember. It’s been difficult “fitting” into the local Italian community of traditional ways and customs, and  believe …

What’s happening in my kitchen?

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After following Celia, and her marvellous blog, Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, her link can be found in my blog roll, she asked   ” What is happening in your kitchen this month”  Well, already half the month of June has flown, and my kitchen has been a buzz. The vege patch is overflowing with fresh greens, a few bbq’s have been had with beautiful spring days, and this weekend will be the same…heading towards the end of the month is our wedding anniversary..and little old me celebrates another 40ish birthday.  In my kitchen…  On the bench top there’s always a vase of fresh flowers…my personal touch for me, that the house is complete. At the moment I have roses in full bloom and lavender. No commercial fragrant sprays, these roses leave their perfume throughout the whole house.  In my kitchen…  I always have a cookbook out for inspirations, my favourite at the moment is Seasons by Donna Hay. It’s a beautiful cookbook of recipes, the best from her magazines…complete with beautiful photographs of the changing seasons…a real “escape” …

Pucker up – Hot Lips

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Spaghetti with Garlic, Oil and Peperoncino* Aglio,Olio e Peperoncino Red Hot Peppers, Hot Lips, Hot mouth, sweating brow, flowing nose and crying eyes. Yes, I think I put  in too much peperoncino.  But I adore this  classic and way too easy pasta dish, and yes, the tri-colori * three colour banner is flying all Italian. This is one of those dishes where the temptation to eat another serving, if your flaming lips can  handle it, you just can’t resist. Each mouthful of spaghetti is like a heat bomb of  taste, a fire cracker of heated sparks of peperoncino, a tingling sensation , feeling like  you’ve just had a quick  silicon lip enhancement. Yet another four ingredient recipe, Spaghetti,garlic, oil and peperoncino. Recipe -2 servings 300 g of spaghetti ( dried pasta, good quality) 4 tablespoons olive oil 2 cloves garlic,  grated 1 tablespoon peperoncino-I use dried red chilli flakes (use less for less heat) Preparation Cook spaghetti as instructions on the box. Boil water before adding the salt, try not to over cook the pasta and save a spoonful of this starchy water for …