Monday morning gets a kick start at Basic Training. The class is full to the brim and I manage to cause a near disaster with my low level spatial awareness; I duck out of the run lane to move to another station and almost cause a 5 man pile up. That could have been messy. No one was hurt, but my pride took a bit of a beating!
My biorythms must be well out this morning as a succession of small stuff continues to go wrong. However, by lunchtime I’m back on track and making the most of Monday. It’s Agata’s birthday and she gets a big birthday surprise, with a hearty birthday singsong and presentation of the Orange and Poppyseed Cake. The cake is a real hit in the teacher’s room and it goes down a treat. It’s surprisingly generous and there was just enough to feed a whole room of hungry teachers, and David, although, unfortunately, it didn’t stretch as far as the admin department! Everyone loved it because it’s so more-ishly moist and light as a feather. Agata loved the cake, and as she’s the birthday lady, that’s what matters most of all! There you have it, the Birthday Person’s Seal of Approval!
Adam and Leda are coming for dinner tonight so it’s another busy night in the kitchen. I’ve planned a simple supper so that I get to hang out with the guests, and not in the kitchen, because as Adam and Leda have been away on holidays, we’ve got stacks to catch up on! We start with some sourdough bread, which we dip into some quality olive oils, lightly flavoured with chilli and lemon, and then into some delicious dukkah. I hadn’t realised this yummy stuff was originally an Egyptian side dish until now, but whatevers, it’s super popular down under. We bought a whole heap of different ones from the Good Food Show last year, and decided it’s high time we tucked into them. The mind boggles with other things to do with dukkah… watch this space!
I’m trying to keep it light and healthy tonight so for mains, we have Orange Mustard-Glazed Fish. I imagined it to be a whole lot crispier than it came out. I used basa and it looked a bit pasty, next time I’ll stick to the recipe religiously and use a thicker fish. We supercharge our supper with Oven-Roasted Cauliflower topped with nutritional yeast flakes, and tuck into a fresh mix of Carrot and Sugar Snap Salad on the side. I seem to have broken my nightmare cous cous karma because tonight’s batch is light and fluffy. I jazz it up, by using vegetable stock instead of water, stir through a knob of butter and add some grated orange rind to give it a kick. We all but lick the bowl clean!
I love Donna Hay’s desserts and tonight I try her easy peasy Caramelised Apple Pies which are mind blowingly delicious. They are a must make!
It’s a really lovely evening with the perfect combination of food and friends. However, although Adam and Leda don’t go late, I get seriously sidetracked pottering and before I know it, it’s almost midnight! Where did the evening go? This is a bit of a blow to my sleep schedule but no drama, sheep farmer, I’ll have fun playing catch up tomorrow!
