Friday; food glorious food;

Fresh strawberries from Lilli;s garden;

Sometimes on a Saturday or Sunday we cook together lunch or dinner.

Last Saturday we cooked dinner from this book...

We cooked the Barley Risotto...it was absolutely delicious;

For 4  serves; We used;  200 g pearl barley, 30 g unsalted butter; 90 ml olive oil, 1 small onion; 2 big garlic cloves;  a few thyme sprigs and 1 bay leaf; 1/4 teasp. chilly flakes, 400 g tin tomatoes organic if possible;  3 tablespoons  tomato paste, organic as well; 700 ml water, half a tblespoon caraway seeds slightly roasted.

Feta, we used around 150g , a bit less than in the recipe,  broken into pieces; some oregano leaves.

chilly flakes are home made, bay leaf and oregano grow in the herb garden. The barley risotto is cooked like a risotto but it does not need as much attention and it takes longer. Ours took a bit more then 3/4 of an hour, 

cooked in a tagine with lid on,  regulo 3 on a Miele cooktop. Served with Oregano leaves and feta on top. 

This is actually a vegetarian dish, we used less feta as we served it with a small leg of lamb.

For dessert; Strawberries fruit salad served with a little natural yogurt and and a little whipped cream; delicious and decadent!

We all enjoyed this escapade to Jerusalem;

Biblical times Crocodile; sweet!

Photos and adapted recipe courtesy from Cookbook Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi;
©Photo/text Ts

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Lavender and Vanilla;

Thursday; must haves?

Keyboard Coffee Cups by Shanghai designer E Square, inspired by the Apple computer keyboard. 

Umbrella

Glows with fiber optic light dots covering the canopy

Three modes: off, blinking lights, solid lights

Light in handle illuminates the ground in front of you

Wednesday; Jacaranda time;

Jacaranda tree flowering in my garden;

One of the glories of spring,  Tall trees topped with purple blue trusses of bells. The spend flowers will spread a purple carpet on lawns, roads and pathways. Followed by light ferny foliage, a most beautiful tree.

©Photo/Text Ts

Jacaranda blossoms, Grafton NSW  Photo Daily Examiner;

Monday; Bookshelf;

Memories; 

...finished reading  "the RUINS  of  LACE" by Iris Anthony. A mesmerizing story, explores the intricate tangle of fleeting beauty, mad obsession and always hope.

From a note to the reader;  ...there were those who made lace and those who wore it. Some paid  with gold for it and some made it under the most cruel and miserable circumstances.

Girls were chosen and taken into convents at the age of six  to learn the making of lace. They worked long hours, no fire no light, as ashes and soot might have soiled the lace. Mostly those girls went blind before the age of thirty and were hunched from their work. When they could not work anymore because of blindness, and did not have a family to take them in, they were thrown outside of the convent where they were abused as prostitutes for a crust of bread.

 In 1636 King Louis XIII of France prohibited lace. Lace was smuggled through Europe for more than two centuries from Flanders to France....

Sepia Saturday 150; 1956 Olympic meeting;

I am somehow at a loss when it comes to team sports. Luckily one member of our family was  an enthusiastic race driver. 

Here are some of the events that took place.

Enjoy;  www.sepiasaturday.blogspot.com

Thursday; substitute;

LV Paper bag; that will have to do, if you can not afford the real McCoy!

Smile, a bag is a bag; enjoy your day.

©Photo, my garden, Ts

Wednesday; travel to...

Flying over the Flinders Ranges;

Places  in Australia with odd names; I leave you the pleasure of looking them up on the Australian map,
enjoy a nice trip. The names are pronounced in English!

 Oodnadatta,

Pepegoona,

Ararat
 Arkaroola

 Tantanoola

 Wipipee

Above the Flinders Ranges;

 Farina

 Ballarat

 Thackaringa

Taltabooka 

 Murrindindie;

Kalioota
 Winininnie

 Beltana
The Bight,

 Mallee's 

Flinders Ranges a fantastic landscape.

 Darling Downs,

 Yudnapinna,

 Tidnacoordininna,

 Mallacoota

 Baroota

 Yankalilla;

Wallaroo
Wirrawilla

Booboorowie 

Oodla
Wirra, 
Orroroo

Wycheproof
 Wollongong

 Never Never,

Sounding in each mountain rill,

Echoing from hill to hill…

In the lonely, silent places

Men lift up their glad, wet faces,

And their thanks ask no explaining -

It is raining - raining - raining!

Names of  towns used in CJ Den's famous poem  "And it's raining, raining, raining."

C J Dennis, Poet; Journalist, was born in Auburn, South Australia, on 7 September 1876,  he preferred to be known as Den.

©Photos Ts.

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