Oh yeah, the quilts.

I mentioned a while back that I was quilting up a storm, and here are a few photos to prove it.  The first one is for a new baby girl, and the second for a baby boy.

There was a third, but I forgot to photograph it before it was dispatched.  I am kind of over quilts for now. I've started knitting again though - I'm actually making something for myself, which I don't think I've done in a few years.

Quince quince quince

A couple of weeks back, i had a bit of time on my hands one evening, and spent it browsing Trade Me. Somehow I stumbled upon this guy selling quinces, with $1 reserve for 3kg. It was such a bargain, I couldn't not bid.


And I won! For $2.50. I only had to travel about 2km from my house to collect them, and the seller popped in an extra kg for free!

I stewed the first few kilos, but once our freezer was full, I turned to making jelly. I used the same recipe I had from when I made Japonica Jelly, about 3 years ago.




I didn't have quite as beautiful a spot to hang my muslin though - I ended up rigging up something from the kitchen drawer:


But now I have jars and containers of this beautiful pinky-orange jelly. Perfect with cheese and a glass of wine.


Any takers?

It's been worth the wait..

When Matt and I moved back to NZ in 2007, our first car was this beauty:


Ah, the Goddess. Such an amazing car. It was with great sadness that we said goodbye to her three years later when the kid came along and it went from impractical to impossible.

We sold it to an older couple from North of Auckland - they were so excited, they picked it up and enthusiastically set off on a road trip back to their home.

The woman who bought the car phoned Matt a couple of weeks ago, and shared what had happened since - it turns out her husband was very ill at the time, and passed away sometime after. Two years later she was facing the task of dealing with his estate, and had phoned Matt to ask if we would take back the car, as she knew how important it was to us....

Hell yes!

So she's back - parked outside our house right now. We took it for it's first drive over Easter and it performed excellently. Not sure how we are going to deal with the fact we are now a three car family, but hey....

Pastry chef...

Last weekend I went all pastry-chef and whipped up a couple of cracker desserts for house guests.

Late on Thursday I made the custard base and coconut biscuits for Friday's offering..


...creme brulee with coconut meringue and fresh fruit salad:


Then on Sunday night we had dark chocolate truffle with blueberries, whipped cream and a crunchy toffee tuille. No kidding.


They were both pretty excellent.

And in other domestic goddess news, I spent $20 last week on.....a thimble. No shit. $20. I have some serious quilting to do over the next fortnight.

Valentines

I made Matt a cake for Valentine's day - Von's Almond Torte from the book Sunday's Kitchen.


A cake layer, then meringue, then almonds then custard and repeat... I googled the recipe after I made it, and realised I actually but the second cake on to the first one upsidedown. Oops. But it was delicious nonetheless.

Morning Walk

I had the pleasure of taking Boo for a long walk in the Port Hills this morning. I used to walk up Rapaki track quite often, but it was closed for some time (due to rockfall risk) after the quakes. It was a bit cold and misty, but we both had fun.

Lately...

I made some jam (plum):


I've started seeing through some New Year resolutions:


I've been taking Clem to see DIGGERS. They are everywhere. He thinks they are awesome = free entertainment.


And we have started watching the demolition of the old Park Royal hotel (more recently the Crowne Plaza):