My mum disappered on a day trip last weekend to Creswick, a small town a bit over 100 kilometres north of Melbourne. There a friend of hers took her mushroom picking, armed with a knowledge of what was good and what was bad from a mushroom picking course she had taken. Mum returned with a basketful of pine mushrooms, some of which she kindly donated to us.
Late one evening, after an exhausting day, we decided to try out the pine mushrooms and a simple spagetti dish. We melted a huge chunk of butter, added a small packet of bacon, about 6 or 7 pine mushrooms (sliced) and, when the pasta was cooked, stirred it through with some of the leftover pasta water, parmesan cheese and fresh parsley from the garden. Delicious!
ugh. making dumplings, as yummy as they are, is often a real chore. Last time my partner and I made them we were almost cross-eyed by the end of the adventure.
I've been tossing up an idea for a little while as to whether making it a family and friends adventure might make the chore a bit more fun and this week I put it into practice, inviting family and friends over for dumpling day!
The set up was pretty basic, I sent everyone a couple of different recipes I'd sourced off the web (including my one, available here). They brought along the major ingredients, a mixing bowl and containers to store the prepared dumplings in and I provided some of the ingredients that aren't worth buying for a single use (shaoxing wine, soy sauce, etc.) and some banana cake (for energy).
It was a fantastic success! Between five of us, we made about 250 dumplings of three different types. I made my chicken mince dumplings, my soon-to-be sister-in-law made a chicken and pork mixture and my mother, always different, made prawn. The whole thing kept us busy for most of the afternoon but it was NOwhere near as tedious as previous adventures. And to show for it, I have about 100 of my own dumplings, plus some of everyone else's to sample!
We're thinking about making it a regular adventure - my soon-to-be sister-in-law has a great recipe for chicken filo parcels that I'd love to learn.
ugh. it's been a tough couple of weeks, trying to stay motivated. but today I found the best motivation when I ventured out to take a look at how the garden's going. it's thriving! The brussel sprouts are growing strongly
I have long broad bean shoots,
my cauliflowers are growing strongly in their protective containers
and the carrots have finally sprouted. They always seem to sprout a couple of days after I give up hope.
to celebrate, i planted some more seeds: some rocket, lettuce, bok choy and spinach.
however, to keep my motivation up, I've decided to make a list of all the things I want to accomplish in the next couple of weeks. here goes:
- mint icecream - just got to save the mint from the caterpillars
- dried marjoram to give away
- something with my lemon thyme
- nut brown sage butter - I had some at a restaurant and it was DELICIOUS!
- chicken stock
- plant more seedlings
- ginger beer
- some more lemonade / limeade
- something with my lemon verbena
- a family and friends day making dumplings - i've had a bit of interest and i think it would provide some inspiration as somethings making dumplings can get a little boring!
