Blog Archives - Plough Creek

12 Recipes of the Festive Season……#2014

29/11/2014

Last year, when reflecting on the year that had been at Plough Creek Cooking School, I was in awe of the plethora of wonderful recipes shared by the various guest chefs and cook presenters that had visited us throughout the year. So I shared 12 recipes from the various classes, as “12 Recipes of the Festive Season”.

The idea had sprung from this quirky interest I have developed in collecting stuff that depicts the 12 days of Christmas song. I had some feedback that people quite liked receiving the recipes and remembering the classes.

This year I have come up with a bit of a twist on the theme……Aussie stuff has been of real interest to me throughout 2014. I think it has stemmed from travelling quite a bit this year and spending a lot of time with o/s people and talking a lot about life in Australia. For no particular reason, presents I gave to people seemed to take on a sense of Australiana about them as well; Sulphur crested cockatoo lamp base and black cockatoo image plates, for example!!

Obviously the festive season in Australia is during summer and lots of our entertaining is done outside, with a casual ambience. At PCH we entertain and share cheer a lot around the BBQ.

This year, in the lead up to the festive season – whatever your beliefs and celebrations are, I just want to share love and cheer.

So watch this space, as I bring the Aussie BBQ theme to you.

Happy tastings.

DC

New York, New York…#galpallove…Happy faces, places & spaces #20 - 2014

25/11/2014

In previous commentary I have made reference to the great opportunities that come my way. I never take it for granted.

Recently, on my way to Boston for a meeting and conference, the planning enabled me to spend a couple of day’s stopover in New York. I felt very fortunate to be able to treat myself a couple of days of indulgence in an awesome city! Does anyone visit New York and not love it?

One of my silly indulgences about New York is that I can escape into fantasy and imagine I am in a scene from a movie or TV show, because New York feels so familiar…because of movies and TV!!

I have two wonderful, inspiring and gorgeous friends who live in New York….what a treat to spend some time just hanging out, with Barbara and Diana. This included food (no surprise there!), shopping, jazz, and gal pal love. Just hanging out with kindred spirits, is such nurturing of the soul.

Barbara and Deb

Diana and Deb

As good luck had it, one of my BFFs from AUS also happened to be in NY for holidays. More gal pal love and hanging out.

As a treat, we decided to try one of the top listed restaurants. Eleven Madison Park.

WOW…the evening was incredible. Ambience, staff and food created such a memorable and pleasurable treat for us.

I can’t say it any better, than as stated on the website;

“Our multi-course tasting menu focuses on the extraordinary agricultural bounty of New York and on the centuries-old culinary traditions that have taken root here.”

What really blew me away was, the Sommelier, who knew my favourite chardonnay from Mt Macedon…that was impressive!

It was definitely a “4 Nonna place”.

Tell me your favourite thing about New York?

DC

What sort of a world do you want to live in….?

22/11/2014

I seem to have been thinking about a lot of things lately. Things that have me questioning so much. Life. Death. Love. Frustration. Anger. Humanity. Circle of life. Friendships. Soul mates/kindred spirits.

People who I admire and respect have been challenging me with all sorts of thoughts, comments and philosophies.

So many smart people around who have views of the world and seem to be able to articulate such wisdom.

How do I sort it all out?

Then I read this…….

I like the world described.

DC

Reactions and chain reactions……everything is connected

20/11/2014

Everyone has a reaction to everything, consciously or unconsciously. Emotional or physical. Realistic or whacky. Peoples’ reactions to events, comments or occasions intrigue me. I am sometimes really surprised at how someone reacts to something and other times, it is what I expected.

Reaction that becomes a chain reaction….is a concept going through my head right now. How does one connection to another to another evolve? What does it mean? Does it matter? I often find myself thinking about the situation I am in and how I arrived there. I call them my “monkey monkey underpants” moments. (If you loved/watched the Gilmore Girls TV series, you will get the reference. If you didn’t – it is lost on you….Sorry!)

I was introducing a guest speaker at an event I arranged recently and it struck me that the reason he was there, was one of my “monkey monkey underpants moments”. A series of chain reactions had led me to meet him and then for him to be available to be a guest speaker for me. He was talking about social media – naturally the most significant thing about social media is connection.

That ability to connect, particularly emotionally, is so important to me and that is why I love the “brave new world” we are in. Social media provides me with so many more avenues for connection.

I am so inspired by many of the people I have met through social media, people I would never have had the chance to meet in reality. Occasionally, I meet these friends in “the flesh”. Regardless, my days are brightened and enriched by ways of connection now that just weren't around before.

Are you enjoying the new connection capability of our world?

DC

For Matilda..…

19/11/2014

What a wonderful evening recently, to have one of my babies visit. She will be 21 in a few weeks. She visited for a sleep over, with her mother. Her mum is one of my BFF’s. How simply delightful it was to sit around the bench and chat. Past, future and now talk.

After their visit, I looked at the photos of the day she was born. Almost 21 years ago. That beautiful baby was the reason a family was created, by virtue of the fact that her birth created a mother and father. Snuggled up so tiny and perfectly on my bosom. I can close my eyes and I am sure I can smell the intoxicating aroma of her newness that day.

I love her. She loves me. That is what blessings are.

Matilda, I am looking forward to dancing in the park with you when you turn 21.

DC

One person can make a difference…..

18/11/2014

One person can make a difference…..

……and everyone should try, so said J F Kennedy. This is a quote I like. It resonates with me on a number of levels.

Recently I became involved in a conversation with a friend and we were stating, quite simply, that we believed if everyone who can; does a good thing for another and helps one charity, what a difference that would make.

In fact the statistics are quite freaky when you consider that so few of the wealthiest people in the world could feed and facilitate fresh water to most of the most needy in the world!! Why don’t they?

They say money is power. But what sort of power is it? Something is way out of whack….I am trying to work out what?!

Recently we had a wonderful day at PCH. For the second year running, we were so pleased to support the Soroptimist International; Gippsland chapter and have a fun afternoon on Melbourne Cup day. Amazing that a small group of 30 people can have some fun, dress up a little and raise over $1000 to help women and babies.

Simple. It worked. 30 people made a simple but significant difference.

I have a number of things that I feel passionately about. I contribute in various ways. I am fortunate that I can. I so hope that when my time comes to end this life circle of mine, I have made a difference, somewhere. I know that I have tried.

What are you passionate about?

DC

Sicily.….Happy faces, places & spaces #19 - 2014

16/11/2014

Sometimes I like to exaggerate….a little! I like to make the story a little more exciting or colourful. I don’t mean to misrepresent, but I just try to make my stories entertaining….This is my confession!

What has prompted this confession, is my reflection on how I tell the story of our recent holiday. When I say we visited Sicily, it makes it sound like we saw the whole island…but how could we? – We only visited for one week. In reality we visited one town, and had two side visits to two other towns – Erice and Marsala.

However, I am now totally infatuated by Sicily. I fell in love with Sicily! That is, if what I did see, feel and taste represented all of Sicily, then, I love all of Sicily.

So many people had told us about Sicily. So many tales of good food and great people.

When we decided this would be a great opportunity to finish our holiday with a week in Sicily, Tez started the “google search” and decided on Trapani. A town on located in the upper North West corner of the island. La Gancia was the hotel we booked into and it was right on the coast….a small roadway between the front door and the sand - can’t get much closer than that!

Our hotel

The hotel organised a driver to collect us at the airport. That is when we met Michel Angelo!

Tez and Michel Angelo!

Michel was a great companion. We were able to book his wheels on numerous occasions and his wealth of local knowledge and Sicilian history was fantastic. We enjoyed his company, more than we liked the convenience of him driving us around. We particularly liked our “mafia” conversations!!

As I sit here trying to think of clever and engaging words to entice you into our Sicilian adventure, I am a bit stuck. Do I talk about the food (restaurants), the geography, the food, the weather, the food, the shopping or the food? Yep it was the food….now this is where I run the risk of getting myself into trouble by offending someone – OH. MY. GOODNESS. How good is Sicilian food??

As we had learnt from Plough Creek cooking classes with our friends Lloyd and Alfie, Capanato is a very traditional dish to eat in Sicily. So we ordered it at least once every day. And what we also learnt from Alfie and Lloyd was that no two dishes/recipes were the same – yes, they were so correct!

But the best thing in Sicily? Without a doubt it was acceptable to eat gelato and brioche for breakfast….YEAH. Start the day with ice-cream and cake, is alright by me!

One with café granita!

One with pistachio gelato!

And of course there was the cannoli…!!

Of course, there was extraordinary history and culture and geography and exploring. It really was beyond our expectations.

Can’t wait for an opportunity to pass that way again, one day…

DC

France is always a good place to visit…Happy faces, places & spaces #18 - 2014

14/11/2014

You have heard me talk about our wonderful, much loved friends Julie and Hank before. We have shared so many wonderful times over the years visiting them in Markington, North Yorkshire.

It is not unusual to meet new friends, through other friends and that has certainly happened for us during visits to Markington. That is how we met Johanna and Bruno, who spent some years living in Markington after moving from France.

A while back, they moved back to France. When we heard that Bruno would be celebrating a significant birthday during the time we were on holidays in Europe, we were so thrilled to be able to work a visit to Rennes into our itinerary.

Bruno trying on his Aussie Drizabone

Staying in a new boutique hotel in the city of Rennes and visiting Johanna and Bruno daily in their stunning rural home over four days was simply a great way to experience another region of France.

Idyllic rural setting in Brittany, France.

Now this is a serious Pizza oven out the back.

Rural France, French food, glorious weather, fabulous friends, French wine and chilling out are the ingredients that equal one fantastic time!!

Idyllic table setting.

I never tire of eating in France and am in awe when I walk into a supermarket or local store and find so many things to satisfy our happy tastings.

I loved hanging out with the girls in the kitchen…. Fabiola, Milla, Johanna, Me & Julie.

Then it was party time.

What a great time we had…food, live music, beautiful weather, dancing, kids running round and lots laughter.

Sitting here recalling our visit to Rennes, spending time with dear friends and making new friends, makes me think “wouldn’t it be nice to have sparkly red shoes, click my heels and not be in Kansas anymore?!”

DC

When did a day become less than 24 hours?

12/11/2014

There has been an obvious lack of posts on my blog over the last couple of months. A few things happened on the way to living life.

The last two stopovers during our holiday were amazing and busy and I have not shared them with you yet. But I will. Planning to write them up when I arrived home from holidays was sidelined, as life was fully occupied with work, home and living. Then I had a business trip for work to attend a board meeting and a conference. Soon after, another work trip, for another conference and suddenly it was October. In October we had some fun times with cooking classes, dinner dates and gardening. Now it is November!! WOW….how about you? Do you think August, September and October vanished in a blink?

Last year we were involved in a charity fundraising day with the Gippsland Chapter of Soroptimist International on Melbourne Cup Day. A gorgeous day of fun while supporting a worthy cause. PCH was proud to sponsor the event again this year.

Tezza was very proud being amongst the four finalists in the Fashion on the Deck fundraising. He raised five cents less than the winner, so came in second! Of course he was proudly dressed; head to toe in Paul Smith, his favourite designer.

Tez looking dapper!

Once Melbourne Cup day is over – suddenly Christmas decorations are everywhere!

Have you started your festive season planning yet?

DC