Summertime

 

Living the good life We’re back! With all new recipes! And we’ve discovered a gorgeous cheese that we can’t stop eating, and new beers to enjoy. It must be summer! Well, that’s probably enough exclamation marks … but we have been enjoying fabulous weather teamed with lots of fresh produce. Everything seems to be growing, saved from extinction by the rain the other week (rain is not always bad!). Ilaria has been back over on Waiheke and we spent a day eating and drinking … and while that’s not entirely unusual, we tried beers and cheese that we haven’t had before. We are performing at the The Great Kiwi Beer Festival in Hagley Park, Christchurch, 27th January, so we had an excuse for tinkering around with sips of this and sups of that. It’s work, and someone has to do it! Oops, another exclamation mark jumped in. We’ve got some great dishes and ideas for the beer festival, so if you are coming along make sure you don’t miss our gig. We are on at midday and again at 3.00pm. The Great Kiwi Beer Festival The pic of Ilaria with a paddle of beers was taken at Tantalus restaurant on Waiheke and the beers are from their brewing company Alibi. Yes, that was work again. Tantalus Restaurant And we discovered our favourite goat cheese ever. The Drunken Nanny’s Black Tie goat cheese. It is simply sensational The Drunken Nanny Black Tie Sun, sea, barbecue smoke … hamburgers. Yep, there’s nothing like a homemade burger to munch on around the barbecue. BUT preparing the ground (or minced) meat yourself will produce a superior pattie. Give it a go. And get hold of some decent pickles. I’m in love with Chicago based company McClure’s. Fresh and clean with just the right bite and texture. Beef & Pickle Burgers I like quick ideas that you can throw together on these hot nights. It’s usually 7.00pm or later before I’ve thought about dinner and sometimes I don’t want to faff around too much, though I want something decent to eat. That’s where traybakes come in. I love them because you can look in the fridge, grab a bunch of stuff, and it will always taste good lightly baked with a few seasonings. And, they make a good home for leftovers. I’ll be continuing my love affair with them throughout 2018. Summer Traybake If you want to go a bit fancier, get some long red peppers, cut them in half, add a few slices of feta and seasonings and get them chugging along in the oven. Delicious. Baked Peppers with Feta If you are still in slow-down summer mode, hopefully, there is something here to motivate you to get cooking again. I know how easy it is to order in food (not on Waiheke!) or to buy ready-made stuff, or to not make much of an effort because you are enjoying being outside, but HEY, many of my dishes are fast to make and are stuffed to the gunnels with goodness. That is plenty of reason to make them. Have a good one. Julie