Entries from August 2010 ↓

It’s not online yet but we tried one of the Quick Smart ideas from the latest Cuisine magazine last night – given that they’re just ideas and there are no measurements, correct order or times on anything, you do kind of have to make it up with the ingredients you’ve got. We had most of the things for an idea we’d seen in the magazine in a cafe at the weekend so gave it ago – it was our kind of food and pretty good!

Ours differs a bit from the magazine where we used our own ingredients or didn’t have stuff – here’s what we did…

In a frypan in extra virgin olive oil, cook finely chopped red onion, leeks, bacon, garlic, zucchini strips, lemon zest and parsley – the end result and fragrant and soft concoction. Stir through some baby spinach leaves until wilted, then stir trough cooked pasta and ricotta (I’m sure you’re supposed to use fresh ricotta but we just spooned in blobs of stuff from a tub!) and plenty of seasoning. Sprinkle with finely grated parmesan. YUM.

After my little ranty last week about not being able to find buttons in Wellington, Lucy told me about a shop full of buttons in Sydney. And today I think she’s been to visit it in order to send me this fantastic photo – I actually squealed in delight and have asked for it to be put on the official itinerary when we visit them in November … never mind the Syndey Harbour Bridge, I want to go see the buttons!

Some people might think going to the same restaurant all the time is pretty boring and not really making the most of city living or getting out of your comfort zone. We don’t care and this is not our experience – we love going to Capitol and this is why:

• the food is excellent. Always.
• they know our names
• we often get our favourite table at the front in the window
• the Head Chef stops by our table for a quick chat (surely that’s a sign you’ve ‘made it’ if the chef comes out to see you when you dine in their restaurant?!)
• we always get wine in the special big glasses
• if I order whatever it is that has whitebait on it, without the whitebait, the whitebait comes out in a little side dish from the chef for The Mister
• I am happy to go there on my own, the staff take turns at chatting with me to keep me company
• we’re never made to feel bad if there’s a huge line of people waiting and we’re almost done
• on special occasions we’re allowed to ring up with advance warning of a visit as strictly not allowed to make a reservation but we’re welcome to give a head’s up
• sometimes, if I’m really lucky and if the menu doesn’t have anything on it that I like (actually has only happened once) they’ll do a special sauce to go with the pasta, just for me
• did I mention the food. Consistently delicious and is just as it says on the menu.

Last night I took a rare break from the risotto currently on the menu (pumpkin and mascarpone) and had leek ravioli, without the whitebait, and it was divine. They do the best beurre blanc I’ve ever had, just a tad on the lemony side which doesn’t make if feel so naughty. Because let’s face it, that’s a lot of melted butter to eat in one sitting.

Capitol, 10 Kent Terrace, Wellington

Meet Vernon everyone – the newest member of our Blenheim urban family!

Got a text yesterday while we were out having coffee with this photo and the message “Meet Vernon, perhaps you could come and visit him?” – was very excited! Obviously I knew who the text was from but I didn’t tell The Mister, just showed him the photo and asked him to guess (the floor is a giveaway for us) but his first horrified comment was “oh no, Tess hasn’t died has she?” The plan was for cats after the dogs had gone to doggie heaven but as we’ve since discovered, Vernon is such a lovely, placid family cat abandoned at the SPCA that they’re not worried about having a dog and cat at the same time. So far all is well. And Vernon slept on Aidan’s bed last night so he’s right at home already – he knows who the boss of that house is!

Now off to find the next cheap flights to get down there and meet him!

So we have to fit band practice into our weekly schedules for a while! The Mister has been cajoled into joining a band of other hopeful wanna-be-rockstars, to play at an event called ‘Rocktober’ in October – an evening of 80’s rock from this band and a rock DJ to raise money for The Cancer Society.

Lucky for me it’s a borrowed kit. For now …

I delivered the cardigan to work for Sophie yesterday and was chuffed to see a photo from her father in my email this morning as they’d had Sophie try it on already – isn’t she cute?!

After a passing comment of mine that I enjoyed knitting but had only been lucky enough to see a baby wearing a Xero outfit once in real life, what do you know, her mum brought her into the office wearing her cardie. I was stoked!

My 8th Xero-coloured knitting for a baby born to a Xero is just finished! Another cardigan for a smiley Sophie who I’ve seen in the office once and hope to again when wearing her new cardie!

Why is it so hard to find buttons in this town? Buttons to close an opening in a garment. I went down to Goldings in the Harbour City Centre yesterday at lunchtime to find some, but they only had a very small range and I wanted some white and orange buttons of the same (or a similar) design. I left work early to go to Knit World in Cuba Street, but didn’t get there by 5pm when they closed. Sigh.

Today I went to Arthur Toye in their new location in The Grand Arcade. The woman at the counter did not make eye contact and barely lifted her head from a magazine when I asked where the buttons were “I’m sorry we don’t carry buttons.” In a fabric store. Huh? She didn’t apologise or offer an alternate location. So I left work even earlier today and made it to Knit World before they closed. They have a reasonable selection but while they had white and every other colour in a similar design, there was nothing similar in orange. And lots of the tubes of white buttons I picked up only had 1 or 2 buttons left in them. I needed 5.

However, I got some in the end, not the most ideal buttons for a knitted baby’s cardigan and very fiddly to sew on but they look good. Next time I buy wool I’m going to get the buttons at the same time.

It was great to see Aidan again after 6 months – my first comment when I saw him was “he’s huge!” He’s becoming a real boy now. When we left he wasn’t saying anything very understandable, maybe “mummummum” and “Tessssssssss” (the dog). Now, 6 months later at 2 and a half, the stories we’ve heard from his parents and the mumblings we’d heard in the background over Skype are in fact true – he speaks in pretty full and quite understandable sentences. The most used sentence at the weekend: “Where’s Craig?” (guess who was Mister Popular?!) I was called “Taffy” most of the weekend but slightly better pronunciation by the time we left had me as “Coffey”. He also did an excellent rendition of “GO YANKEEEEES!” that he’d been coaxed to practice in the weeks leading up to our arrival which was pretty tear jerking (for The Mister!)

He has quite a determined mind of his own now and does everything a little boy should – rides around the garden on his bike bashing into neatly trimmed lavender, outdoor furniture and fathers; is mad on cars (toy ones and real ones) especially emergency vehicles; can do everything for himself including pushing the buggy, ‘making the coffee’ (any old excuse to climb on the bench and get water everywhere!), keeping you informed about what the neighbours are up to and other general boyish activities like farting proudly, leaving clothes all over the doorstep, being an idiot in front of the camera and getting furious when something doesn’t go to his liking!

This is one of my favorite photos from this trip – apart from the fact he’s wearing the vest I knitted him, he’s just taking a break in a suitcase snacking on a piece of frozen bread!

Starting to come out the other side of my man flu thankfully – have had to lay pretty low in Blenheim this weekend. However this afternoon I got out for a bit of a slow walk

then sat on the sunny steps at Dean & Steph’s for afternoon tea (got Steph to sit still enough for the once-every-5-years photo!)

while Aidan played with the hose