Winning

This week, we went on holiday... I'd wanted our 5yo son to see some of 'Australia' and so, we set out to take in the Great Alpine Road and some of the Lakes Coast - A 'family adventure' that I'd highly recommend.

On the road - 

Despite incessant rain, we managed to have fun, singing in the rain along the Bright railway walking track and visiting various delicious cafes and bakeries in our travels.   We all enjoyed a few local museums - the Bright Museum is situated in the old railway station, with various displays of historical clothes, toys, town history and gold rush made in a series of train carriages and trucks.  For a train crazy 5yo, it was heaven and we spent ages playing at travelling through time, visiting an old Chinese temple and the Police Cells, a turn of the century laundry, kitchen and drawing room.  The Omeo museum had a log cabin gaol which was apparently in use until 1981 - breezy in winter I'd expect.

  

We left Bright in heavy rain, and drove along the Great Alpine Road to Hotham, through Harrietville.  It was disconcerting to see how much of these little towns were for sale, most of Beechworth, a lot of Bright and  Harrietville seemed to be on the market.  As we drove up the winding roads, clouds settled over the road and wind blew mist in and out of our vision.  The mountain was snow covered, sleeting, bitter and slippery.  The desent on the other side was less severe, with the snow clearing quickly and the roads less windy.  We broke the drive in Omeo which was great.  The bakery had excellent pasties, with buttery, melt in your mouth pastry and rich hot chocolate.  The local museum was again a source of fun and we also visited the cuckoo clock shop - the 5yo had never seen one, so seeing lots chime the hour was big thrill.

To make the drive pass more easily, we listened to a talking book from the library 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire', excitingly read by Stephen Fry.  The Bright Op shop had an excellent window display of Harry Potter, complete with Harry, Ron, Hermoine dollies, a handmade Hogwarts express and a house elf Dolby, made from stocking and stuffing..  The talking book was 18 discs long, and I was very glad as we listened to this for the full trip that I had chosen this ahead of Bumageddon by Andy Griffiths.  Not sure I could have stood that.  I was not sure how much effect the book had on the 5yo until just now, when I walked into the kitchen and he jumped out holding a stick, yelling 'STUPIFY!!!'  I was suitably rendered stupid.

At one point during the drive, clouds gathered and the skies darkened, and I noticed a signpost indicating that we were passing through 'Hell's Point', quickly followed by 'Evil Stream'.  I stopped looking at signposts when we drove passed the confrontingly named 'Red Knob'.

In the kitchen this week:

Baby food central - with poached fruit, soups and veggie custards at the fore.

Prior to the holiday I went into holiday mode and I'd cooked only once and rolled out the same meal in various guises as follows:

Kangaroo Mousakka

1kg kangaroo mince

800g tinned tomatoes

Onion

Olive Oil

Garlic to taste

Stock

Balsamic Vinegar

400g tub ricotta

400g grated cheese

2 large eggplants, slice thickly.

Similar to a lasagne, the onion and garlic is cooked in oil, then the mince browned, the tomatoes and stock added to cover and then cooked for ~20 minutes, then balsamic vinegar for taste.

Then take a lasagne dish, place a layer of mince along the base, then eggplant, then dollop ricotta and other cheese, then the mince again, etc until all the ingredients are used....

We ate this as standard mousakka the first night.  

Portions were also put in the freezer for lazy nights.

The second night I blitzed up the mousakka with the hand mixer and used it as a pasta sauce, served with wholemeal pasta - with eggplant hidden in the mixture going unnoticed by the 5yos highly tuned veggie detector. This also doubled as baby food.

It is in the freezer, ready to return as a pizza topping...

In the garden - 

We returned home to find seedlings emerging, with broadbeans, spinach and shallots putting on the best showing so far.

On a happy note, in the kitchen this week also saw manic dancing after I found out that I'd won a hand crafted Easter egg from my favourite chocolatier Willie from Willie's World of Chocolate, as seen on the ABC - the Cacao Kangaroo Stroganoff being a winning entry for his savoury meal competition.  I like to think this means that my cooking is now of international standard.