Far too long

Wow, just checked out my last post date and its been months – but it doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about it!!!  So here is just a post of words and pictures, sorry no recipes.

This last month, we finally were connected to internet after 5 weeks of frustration, after moving house.  I have also been getting back into cooking (getting to know my new kitchen) after 2 months of travelling to Europe and home to Sydney for a visit.

I have also finished working this week as it is less than a month before number 3 baby joins our household! Hooray! Scary but very excited at the same time.  I am determined to keep this blog up, no matter how simple the recipe as I think this will be a good opportunity to establish some simple go to meals when it all gets too much, without reaching for the phone with our favourite lebanese on speed dial!  And with my mum here later next month, I know we will be very well fed indeed!!

I have lots of recipes in mind, just lacking photographic evidence… this post will just be a collection of photos of our trip to Europe and the meals that we ended up cooking mostly ourselves as we were predominantly based in self catering facilities with family.  To be honest, these were usually the better and more delicious eating experiences as food was mostly bought from markets or fresh daily at reasonable prices.  As we were travelling in absolute high season, prices of everything is inflated for the crazy tourist market and restaurants often felt like they were churning out what they thought the tourists wanted to eat.

In Italy, we stayed in rural Umbria and with the assistance of a giant van, my parents and our family of 4 visited towns every day from our base camp / villa, fueled by gelato in every flavour imaginable including a blue coloured vanilla gelato which made my son’s day.  By evening everyone was so exhausted after a day of exploring, the prospect of coming home to eat and relax with the kids asleep (kind of – the 10pm sunset threw them out by a mile!) was bliss.  The addition of a small kitchen garden was lovely also.

We had a brilliant 4 days in Paris, again walking until our feet fell off and enjoyed more simple food (this includes mountains of croissants!) and also had the pleasure of being treated to a date night with my husband to a fancy little place called Le Souffle.  Every course is a souffle, delicious and perfect service etc.. but by the 3rd course the paintings of eggs on the wall were starting to make my husband feel a little uneasy.  But we made it and thoroughly enjoyed every mouthful we could manage – an experience like no other!

In France we travelled a bit through Bordeaux region before settling into another villa in the beautiful Dordogne with my in laws this time.  Again we all squeezed into a people mover (the french seemed to prefer the more compact vehicles) and would explore more villages each day.  It was a similar scenario of collapsing back at home in the afternoon, usually with a swim as the weather was reaching the mid 30s by this time.  Dinner was on the back patio with fare picked up each day.  A favourite was the very simple rotisserie chicken and a fresh baguette, nothing complicated but delicious nonetheless.

A wonderful holiday, exhausting and memorable and after a couple of days to adjust the body clock we headed to Sydney for a peaceful month of pure down time.  We slept, ate amazingly (sorry but even Europe can’t compete with aussie freshness and variety), saw friends and family and came back to start the new school year refreshed and excited about what’s to come!!

I look forward to posting more recipes (family friendly, quick and easy, health conscious, complete diet busters), writing and photographs, so stay tuned for more.