The weekend of almosts and nearlys......

A little while back both Mel an I took a day off on Friday to head out to the country for a looong weekend (yes I am getting slack in posting).

We have a friend, "The Cattle Baroness", who owns a property just outside of Gulgong and is more than happy to accommodate us in return for some help around the farm.

This was also a special weekend as my lovely bride was turning thirty something on the Saturday and a lavish feast had been planned - Country Fare, and lots of it.

We left home at about 9:30 and at this point we hit the first "almost" scenaio of the trip.

I had decided to use my GPS and see which way it took us. This would have been fine except that it decided that The Bells Line of Road was faster than the M4 and thus meant that morning tea in Leura didn't happen (or it "almost" happened). Mel = Not So Happy.

We changed our plans and decided to stop in Gulgong for lunch where we would also pick up yummy BBQ treats - Vegemite and Cheese Sausages!  Yes that's right your read correctly Vegemite and Cheese Sausages.

We have had these yummy treats on previous trips to the farm and were looking forward to again chowing down and were planning on bringing some home. However here we hit another "almost".

As I parked the car Mel headed in to the Gulgong Butcher to place our order. As I stepped out of the car I can hear a strange wailing sound coming from the butcher shop.... As I walk in I find out that the sound was actually Mel. THERE ARE NO VEGEMITE AND CHEESE SAUSAGES!!!! Mel tried the "We drove from Sydney to get them" followed by "Its my birthday. Are you sure you don't have any?" but still no luck.

So now we need to decide what type of sausages to get for the BBQ.  A decision best made over lunch.

A short walk across the street is the appropriately names Butcher Shop Cafe - no relation to the actual butcher shop. It's a lovely little place that we have eaten at before. We take our seats at the big communal table and place our order having chosen from the wall size chalk board.

I opted for the Butcher Burger ($10.00) and a Caramel Milkshake ($3.50). The burger was great, big and tasty with lots of cheese and bacon served between two thick slices to toasted bread.  The milkshake was fantastic. You just can't beat a country milkshake.

Once we had consoled ourselves with such yummy treats we headed back to the butcher shop to pick from the lesser flavours of sausage, Lamb with Garlic and Oregano... Meh!

And so its off to the farm we go.

For the full farm story check out http://theadventuresofmisspiggy.blogspot.com/

Adventures in Paradise - Breakfasts

So here is my first post from our Hawaii holiday/Honeymoon.  Sorry for the delay but I've hardly had a spare moment between work and water polo recently...

I have decided to talk about the breakfasts. We had the advantage of having a kitchenette in our room which allowed us to do our own thing in the mornings. On our first day in paradise (after the 6 hour power nap) we headed out for supplies.

We headed into the nearest ABC store and picked up the essentials - milk, bread, peanut butter, honey and we also grabbed a tub of Pineapple.

On the way to the checkout I decided to get some breakfast cereal. As I was on holiday I decided to go all out and picked up a Fun Pack of mini cereals.

I do this occasionally at home when I feel the need to have Fruit Loops or Coco Pops (growing up is optional after all). The American packs are slightly larger than those back home proving that everything in the states is bigger. I was most eager to try the two flavours that we don't have at home. Both the Corn Pops and the Apple Jack impressed and were not overly sweet.

This however was never going to be the full extent of "Breakfast in America" (yes I am humming the Supertramp song). I had also planned to visit Denny's and once Mel found out that McDonald's had Biscuits on the menu we also added that to the plan as the first stop.

We had discovered a McDonald's on the corner just across the road from us (don't know how they beat the ABC stores to that one...). It was a little strange as we walked under those golden arches, everything was sort of the same but somehow alien. The menu board looked the same but a lot of the items were unknown. Mel knew exactly what she was after and ordered the McBiscuits with Sausage. It took me a little while longer to come up with a decision and I opted for the "Local Boy Special". When in Rome.... as they say.

Mel's choice proved a little disappointing by failing to live up to the remembrances of here 2006 trip to Las Vegas. My choice on the other hand proved to be surprisingly good. The "Local Boy Special" was Scrambled Eggs with Portuguese Sausage, Spam (is there anything it can't do??) and Rice (yes rice..).  This combination proved to be surprisingly yummy and I even opted to use the soy sauce that came with it in true Island style.

Later on in the week we visited Denny's for our breakfast pilgrimage, we also went for dinner but you'll need to read about that one over at "The Adventures of Miss Piggy".

Mel opted for the Breakfast Burrito for this one which she said was really nice.  It was filled with steak and came with a pile of hash brown on the side, which is just like a potato rosti really.

I renewed my acquaintance with the Lumberjack Slam. You have to love a breakfast that comes with dessert.  Mel was pretty partial to the Biscuit that came with my breakfast, plus the whipped butter that Denny's uses.

Everything you see in the three pictures above is part of my Lumberjack Breakfast!

Myola Village, Jervis Bay

What a wonderful place to relax after the wedding.

The caravan park that we are staying in is in the sleepy village of Myola, just south of Nowra and just north of Huskisson on Jervis Bay. It is a sleepy little place, although we just can't seem to escape the gentle hum of leaf blowers....

The weather has been a little uncooperative as has the water temperature so we have only been swimming at the beach twice. We have also done a little bit of last minute Christmas shopping at Huskisson and there have also been some long walks along the beach so our shell collection is growing rapidly.

Of an evening we have been making friends with the local wildlife. The caravan park backs on to a forest so there is plenty to meet. We have been eating outside of an evening and on one occasion we were swarmed with Rainbow Lorakeets who all decided to join us for dinner.

Tonight I had a close encounter of the Kangaroo kind. I was sitting outside waiting to feed the birds when up hops a Roo who had decided to eat the bread that I had thrown on to the pathway for the birds. I was all in favour of this and proceeded to toss the rest of the bread to Mr Roo. Here I am 2 feet from a Roo without my camera....bugger. This photo was taken a little earlier...before my close encounter.

We went for a walk after dinner and there were about 12 Roos hopping around the park, including one curious little guy who thought I had something good to eat and hopped right up to me to see.

To keep up my status as a food blogger here is a picture of yesterdays breakfast.

 

It is the joy of a home cooked breakfast. Bacon, eggs, mushrooms and toast. I used the KR Castlemaine thin and crispy bacon which is awesome. Mel's food envy was uncontrollable and some of the bacon went missing in action.