garden. vertical.

I know. I'm rolling my eyes right now at the LACK OF BLOG POSTS...all I can say is #sorrynotsorry (you had to see that coming). Life's been busy and with Duke trying to take over the local beach, it gets a bit chaotic.

Last year's garden was so. very. sad. I'll be making up for it this year. The plants are moving on up...in a vertical garden, that is. Oh gawd...I'm not as funny as Nate says.

Plans for this year: Trying out this new freestanding vertical garden from Garden Up! along with the usual containers. The usual "just plant it to see if it grows" still stands - it has about a 70% success rate so far.

food. caramel brownies.

I've come to the conclusion that as long as I have an interest in baking or dessert making, I'll be feeding our family of two plus some. So I guess this is...your welcome, friends and co-workers. Unless the dessert sucks. I blame it on my 'novice baking skills'.

Brownies. Pretty sure this was a staple when I was going up. Even though it was of the packet in a box variety, it was still delicious and my sister and I needed a baseline to learn how to bake. (She's turned out to be a pro...have you tried her banana bread? I can't compete. I just use old banana for diy beauty treatments.) I love that you can have one recipe to start and make it your own by adding items you probably already have in your pantry. Last night, I went for salted caramel. It worked, kinda. See my notes below.

Sorry Nate, I'm pretty sure you are going to see a lot of brownies over the next few months.

food. chicken salad wraps.

I'm always looking for easy recipes I can prep for lunch so leftovers aren't on the menu all the time. Nate doesn't mind them but I can get to a place where I'm just over a dish...for example, the Chicken Satay Burgers. Don't get me wrong, this dish is really good but when it rotates every 12 days in the menu, it doesn't work for me. Sorry, Nate...you won't see this recipe back in the rotation until next summer.

Back to the Chicken Salad Wraps. This started out as something I was going to prep for lunch but after having a bit of a chaotic week, it was something easy for dinner and this was pushed to dinner instead of lunch. Easy and delish, you can add more crunch and/or flavours to this recipe (see my notes below). Enjoy!

food. russian tea cakes.

I love to bake. I'm not very good at it but hopefully that will get better as I have time to try more recipes.
One thing I've learned - measure, measure and measure again. These cakes were actually pretty good. The issue - always too many treats for the two of us. Have with a cup of tea or coffee and don't stop at one.

cellar door. rockford wines barossa.

Welcome to Rockford!

One of the many hobbies Nate and I have picked up since we've moved here is visiting cellar doors. Hobby, research for my job, research for visiting 'peeps, thirst - I guess you can really call it what you want. Some of you who have already visited know that Nate and I are starting to build a 'must visit' priority list.

At the top of that list is Rockford Wines in Barossa.
Let's get all the basic info out of the way:

• Cellar Door Open: 7 days | 11am - 5pm
• Location: Krondorf Road | Barossa, SA
• How to order: Pick up the phone - 1800 088 818 or send them an email - info.contact@rockfordwines.com.au
• About them: The Rockford Story

food. prawn tacos.

I made these a lot last summer but forgot

about the recipe until making our menu this week. Quick, easy, delicious - the salsa is even better the next day!

Note: Original recipe is Shrimp Tacos but we don't have shrimp in Australia and this isn't a salad. Spend the money to get some local prawns from your seafood guy.

Prawn Tacos from allrecipes.com, submitted by: abewasabe | Serving Size: 4
Ingredients

1 mango - peeled, seeded and diced
1 ripe avocado - peeled, seeded and diced
2 tomatoes - diced
1/4-1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
1/4 red onion, diced
3 large cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp of salt
2 tbls of lime juice
500 g (1 pound) of prawns
4 tortillas, warmed (or not - Nate goes cold turkey)

beauty. avocado face mask.

You know when you let that avocado go just one or two days past the edible stage? It happens to me often...which I'm sure Nate hates because avocados are expensive down here.

Now I have a fix for it! Inspired by my girl friend, Megan, time for a diy beauty treatment. She almost always has an avocado concoction for something so off I went and goggled 'avocado face mask'...

Here's an easy recipe I found on LaurenConrad.com:

food. homemade butter.

This just happened: homemade butter. Okay didn't just happen, I've been planning on making it since Friday.

Easy and hopefully delish. Recipe to come soon. I was going to add the recipe but thought it would be easier to just point you to the site I found it on. Their photos and steps are a lot better than mine would be.

Homemade Butter on diynetwork.com, submitted by Mick Telcamp.

boozy dessert. pear & riesling pops.

Not sure if boozy desserts is a topic that will stick but we can try it out.

It's hot here in Adelaide. What does hot weather mean in this kitchen? Less red wine and more white wine, obviously.

I recently came across Food & Wine's Pear & Riesling Pops. I gave it a whirl tonight. Recipe and results to come soon.

duke. cougs & dawgs.

No wonder Duke gives us blank stares sometimes...we confuse the shit out of him.

#GoCougs #GoDawgs

 

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