Melbourne's Pop Up Restaurant

At the beginning of March a pop up restaurant - 'Greenhouse' appeared on the banks of the River Yarra (in the space of 3 weeks!) in the city of Melbourne as part of this year's Food and Wine festival here. Yesterday I went along as I had heard all about the Greenhouse restaurant in Sydney as it was featured in our Masterchef television programme here in Australia last year. It's a pop up restaurant with a difference though - it has been built using only recycled or sustainable materials. The structure has been formed from mostly old shipping containers stacked four-high, the floor from old conveyor belts, the chairs from disused irrigation pipes and recycled bottles and jars are used as drinking glasses! Amazing...

All the herbs are grown on site in large recycled oil drums.

The roof top bar. More herbs in containers.

Terracotta pots line the facade of the restaurant - all potted up with wild strawberry plants.

Close up of the pots above and below...

And look who my breakfasting companion was!!!

Yup, my daughter is in town - she arrived on Sunday which of course makes me so very, very happy. She's here for 3 weeks on Easter vacation from University in UK.

Our own personal pot of basil on our table, above.

The chairs !

Our food - totally and absolutely delicious - my daughter chose the herb mushrooms on flatbread with curd cheese ....

And I went for the scrambled eggs with mustard cress.

A great start to the day.

So pleased we were able to go along - the pop-up restaurant disappears tomorrow! Really hope that there might be a more permanent one in the city one day.

Trying to shed a few pounds

Mr SE and I are on a health kick....
Which roughly translates as moderating our intake of things like wine, cheese, crackers etc. (or rather cutting out completely in the case of the cheese and crackers) keeping an eye on portion sizes etc. and adding more vegetables, salads and fruit to our diet. And for me, I have added a daily brisk power walk - of around 3 to 4 kms. Also going for healthy choices such as the breakfast below: This is not a hardship as this bircher muesli is quite DELICIOUS.

I loved the glass jar but when it is finished I will make up a batch myself. The ingredients are as follows : Rolled oats, sultanas, almonds, sunflower kernels and dried apples. You could make up a batch and add dates, or apricots to I would imagine......

You have to be organised and make up the bircher muesli the night before. So, to one measure (1/3 cup) of the dry mixture you add the same measure of milk (I use low fat) and then 2 to 3 tbsps of yoghurt. Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight. In the morning you can add fruit of your choice - grated apple is wonderful.....

See below my breakfast this morning....

And here is the view for my walking route... Gorgeous Autumn colours and even better when the sun shines.

Initially we (decided by Mr SE) are doing this for a period of 5 weeks and Mr SE has printed out a chart to map our progress - apparently there is a prize for the winner he said! We are nearly 3 weeks into our "regime" and so far I have lost 4 pounds and Mr SE 1 pound . (and for those of you who deal in Kgs that is around 2Kgs for me and 1/2 Kg for Mr SE).

Shall I start planning my prize yet I wonder or will it be a case of the hare and the tortoise?

"Avalanche Pavlova" and Festive Matters

Well, I don't think I would get citizenship if one of the tests were to make an Australian Pavlova. I am afraid it got re-named "Avalanche Pavlova" instead of what it was meant to be - "Three Tier Brown Sugar Pavlova" View from the top above and side view below - well at least it had 3 tiers! And as it was covered in copious amounts of cream and berries it all seemed to go down well.

BN (Beautiful Niece) helped by advising on applying cream and fruit....

that was before she got stuck back into the wine below! (hasten to add that she is only joking here and does drink it by the glass, promise).

Now, those of you who were following the blog at the beginning of the year know that I did a little matchmaking as far as she was concerned and as her godmother I think that this was ENTIRELY in order.

I present below.... BN and LAM.... her Lovely Aussie Man.

I think they make a gorgeous couple but then again I am a little biased on these matters as A. she is my goddaughter as well as my niece and B. I introduced them.

We spent Christmas Day with them and with our friend S who kindly invited us for Christmas lunch with her family. And it was a day of mixed Nations - friend S and her mother who was also there are Canadian, there was us; the British contingent and also the Australians, the LAM and friend S's husband and son and other members of his family too...
All in all a wonderful and happy day with a huge amount of tasty food and lovely wines to drink. Perfect.

Then on to Boxing Day when we went to the :

Remember I told you that Mr SE is very keen on cricket? He bought tickets for the Ashes series on Boxing Day way, way back in JULY! Well, I could not be churlish and say 'No thanks Mr SE I would rather go to the Sales", could I? Well, could I? Actually I would not have missed it for the world - England are in TOP FORM I have to say and we had a day of great entertainment too. BN and LAM also came with us.

At one point though, disaster. Rain stopped play....

The man sitting in front of us, fashioned himself a hat from a cardboard container used to carry beer... He made us smile, all day! He informed us he was sitting in 'Milliner's Row' and asked BN and I if we would like hats too. We politely declined, we did not think they would go with our outfits!

The sun came back out and the game continued.... We were very happy with the final outcome. That was all of us except for the LAM who said it was a long, long time since he had seen Australia all bowled out for less than 100.

A great Christmas break.

Saturday night's alright

Yes, there are compensations for working on a Saturday.... even if you come home to this :

And this below... Mr SE has been glued to the cricket over the last few weeks or so. Very Important Matches are being played. The Ashes series between Australia and England. To start with England looked as if it would be an easy victory and Mr SE really enjoyed being the 'Pommie' at his work - now he is not so sure as Australia are fighting back.

Anyway, on to more important things. As I said, sometimes being at work when Mr SE is at home is a Good Thing. He was very busy (in between bouts of watching sport on TV).

He prepared this lovely salad with fetta cheese.

Barbequed some red peppers and aubergine (aka capsicums and eggplant depending on your point of view or country!)

and slow roasted some lamb.

Above, the fruits of his labours. And very lovely it was too...

And YES, that IS our new table. It is beautiful and does deserve a post of its own which I promise to do soon.

Happy weekend to one and all.

Friends Of Mine

is the name of a new cafe opened up near us in Melbourne. I think it is a pretty good name and the place was busy, busy, busy when Mr SE and I stopped by there a few weekends ago for breakfast. The photograph below was taken after we had finished and were walking away - just look at the crowds milling around outside queuing up to get a table....! (Glad we got there early) This is the menu. Well, the menu is written on the other side. This is what you look down and see at your place when you sit at the table... quite a nice thing to read anytime, even if you don't feel it!

Above shows a photograph of the general feel of the place - quite dark, sort of industrial chic meets French salon. And it works...

Above - our table with a little lamp on it too. Cute.

My tea (on a board - what would my MIL say ? She does not like food or drink served on boards!)

Quirky touch above.

My delicious breakfast - Bircher muesli layered with vanilla scented rhubarb and yoghurt. Perfection in a glass.

Mr SE had poached eggs and bacon. He was impatient to get stuck in!

Love this arrangement for the glasses.

For more information on this great place look here : http://www.friendsofmine.com.au/

And that brings me very neatly to another 'Friend of Mine' - but not the restaurant. Friend C sent me this photograph below. Update on the dining table!! The boards have been fixed together and lightly sanded so far. The wine bottle in the middle of the table is to give the scale!! And it is sitting on two wood working trestles. Coming along nicely! And it is going to be a little bigger than originally planned.

Will keep you updated as it takes shape.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.

Yes, she's back!

Hooray! I have had this date earmarked in my diary for months....

Nigella Lawson is back on television with a new series 'Nigella's Kitchen' here in Australia. You can catch her tonight on the LIFESTYLE Channel at 7.30pm. It's her first full length series since 2007 when she recorded Nigella Express and I cannot wait. So looking forward to it.

Mr SE is out at some boring dinner or something in the City (he'll be sad to miss her, I know and not just for her cooking skills (!) but I will be kind and record the programme ). I am cooking myself roasted veggies with pesto and some pasta thrown in at the last minute. Large glass of red wine to drink too. What could be better?

How are you spending your Tuesday evening?

Turned out well - see previous post!

Sunday evening - supper a deux. Faux Fuschia's Parmiagana.

Staving off the Sundayitis too!!

Beautiful basil - a quick dinner

Last night I made a basil pesto sauce.....

Nice and satisfying and quick too after what seemed like a very LONG first day back at work for me. (I am blaming it all on jet lag). Photograph below shows the finished dish complete with small basil leaf by way of "presentation" for a Monday night.

The photographs are a little out of sequence but anyway I am sure you will get the drift! Place two or three large handfuls of fresh basil into your whizzing machine... Also add a handful of grated parmesan cheese, a clove of fresh garlic and a handful of TOASTED (that is the secret, I feel) pine nuts.

Photo below shows the lovely fresh bunches of basil Mr SE and I bought from the market at the weekend - 2 huge ones for $3 - that's about $3 USA dollars now too, equivalent of, and around UK pounds 1.85 so quite a bargain I would say.

Whizz all the ingredients up in your mixer/chopper/whizzing machine and drip in olive oil (probably around 1/4 of a cup or so) from the top until you get a nice 'pesto-y' consistency... As illustrated in the photograph below... Add a little seasoning and a squeeze of lemon juice too if you feel so inclined.

I threw together rather a simple and rustic looking salad for us each with lettuce, fresh parsley and avocado.

It all went down rather well until Mr SE piped up that he really normally wasn't all that keen on pesto, however this he thought was "alright"!!

This photo goes with the post below

This is what I was served for dinner... how sweet - 'M' for Ma on my chicken and veggie pie - all homemade - read the post below to see who made it !! And, I have to say, it was absolutely delicious - even more so that I did not have to think about what was for dinner tonight.

Saturday Outing

Today Mr SE and I went on a mini road trip.

We went south of Melbourne to the lovely Mornington Peninsula area (about 50kms out of the City) and on the way back up stopped at this lovely cafe called Lilo in Mornington, near the coast.

Such a great place. I believe it has only been opened since late last year. Lots of accents of green in the cafe. It really worked.

We had a pot of tea each (REAL tea leaves btw! - as Faux Fuchsia would say - 11/10) and shared a sandwich. Great friendly service and lovely little touches - for example the the teaspoons - look - all little vintage ones... so cute..

Photograph below shows our afternoon tea - I love the little milk bottles too (although they may have cribbed this idea from me - see this POST - ha ha!)

The sandwich was DELISH too - very fresh (Mr SE had already started his half before I whipped out the camera!) and I would thoroughly recommend this cafe - gorgeous little vintage touches in a modern setting. We will definitely be back. www.lilocafe.com.au.

(Photos - all mine except Nos. 2 and 3 - these are from the cafe's facebook page)