Warming the cockles...

As bookings start rolling in for the winter June/July holidays, I remind myself to start stockpiling firewood for those chilly nights.  Visitors love our dry, sunny days and cold nights where we put extra blankets for homeliness and warmth.  Sitting in front of the fire playing board games while listening to music, with a glass or two of red.

The Cave Circuit in Lamington Park is a highlight, with waterfalls, bird life and caves lived in by the Aborigines years ago.  The rainforest stretches majestically towards the sky and as you finish your walk, head up to Lamington Teahouse for Devonshire Tea.

On Monday nights, try the Canungra Hotel for their large roasts with six vegetables.  There is nothing quite like a roast on a cold night which you don't have to cook yourself. Or try this one-pot meal.

Beef noodle soup (serves 4)
10 g dried porcini mushrooms
6 spring onions
115 g carrots
350 g rump steak
30 mls oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
2.5 cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1.2 litres/5 cups beef stock
45 mls/3 tbsp light soy sauce
60 mls/4 tbsp dry sherry
75 g thin egg noodles
75 g spinach, shredded
salt and pepper

Break the mushrooms into small pieces, place in a bowl and pour over 150 ml boiling water. Leave to soak for 15 minutes.
Shred the spring onions and carrots into 5 cm long fine strips. Trim any fat off the meat and slice into thin strips.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook the beef in batches until browned, adding a little more oil if necessary. Remove the beef and drain on kitchen paper.
Add the garlic, ginger, spring onions and carrots to the pan and stir fry for 3 minutes.
Add the beef stock, mushrooms and their soaking liquid, soy sauce, sherry and plenty of seasoning. Bring to the boil and simmer, covered for 10 minutes.
Break up the noodles slightly and add to the pan, with spinach. Simmer gently for 5 minutes or until the beef is tender.

Enjoy!

From strength to strength

I am reminded of a wonderful book by Sara Henderson called 'From strength to strength.'  An inspirational Australian woman whose husband buys a tin shack on a million acre property in Northern Territories.  Their daily struggles to run a cattle station is well documented and on his death, she finds that she has inherited many debts. Together with her daughters, she manages and improves the property as well as becoming a famous writer/speaker and winning a Business person of the year award.

When challenges arise at the Bavarian Hut, I remember her struggles and that mine are slightly smaller! With an acre and two 3 bedroom houses and a cabin as well as numerous outbuildings our hands are pretty full.  Also there is always something that needs maintained or attended to, water and gas to check, online bookings to answer and follow ups to be made.  Suddenly the phone doesn't stop ringing as I get a few enquiries for 2 vintage picnic weddings.  The grassy area at the front of one of the houses is a perfect level spot with views and the old restaurant toilet block (now painted a pretty grey) will provide the facilities.  I trawl through the internet to price our costs and to provide a well researched quote.

I am delighted to recently find and read Sara Henderson's book 'A year at Bullo."  Filled with introductions and recipes about her hectic lift on Bullo, this recipe is one of her 'lifesavers' as the muffin mixture can be made and kept in the fridge for up to 6 weeks and can be instantly put into muffin tins and have fresh muffins in fifteen minutes.  I love this recipe and find it makes around 50 muffins but I make 12 mostly early in the morning for my family to have for breakfast.

Fran's Six-week Muffin Mix

1x 425 g packet 'All bran' cereal
375 g mixed dried fruit
1/2 cup chopped pitted dates
3 cups white sugar
5 cups plain flour,sifted
5 tsps bicarbonate of soda, sifted
1 cup vegetable oil, canola or macadamia
4 large eggs, beaten
2 3/4 cups milk
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Place 'All Bran", mixed dried fruit,dates,sugar,flour and bicarbonate of soda in a large mixing bowl. Mix well. Make a hollow in the centre.
Add oil,eggs,milk and buttermilk to the centre of the bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon until evenly combined.
Spoon mixture into greased or paper cup-lined muffin tins, filling the muffin cups three-quarters full.
Bake at 180 degrees C. for around 15 minutes depending on muffin size. Be careful they don't burn on the top.

Store the remainder of the mixture, tightly covered with clear plastic wrap in the refrigerator, ready for use when a quick batch of hot muffins is needed.

Do not stir the mixture ever again

(makes approximately 50 muffins but not necessarily in one sitting, thank goodness!)

All things with feathers

As we round the corner and drive into our long driveway, we see a scarecrow carefully placed on a chair in the hen enclosure with a couple of hens perched on its head! They have yet to lay eggs but are young at only 3 months old.

With all the rain soaking the green pastures, the rain water tanks are full. Yahoo!

Grevillea shrubs in yellows, oranges, pinks and reds continue to bloom and give us privacy while attracting many lorikeets. The camellia shrubs grow too slowly for my preference and I fertilise with a seaweed mix hoping that it will make a difference.

Loriwet mix is poured into the bird feeder. At other times we replace it with wild bird seed.  The messy lorikeets cheekily throw the bird seed everywhere and I soon find our grass has a mix of interesting weeds.

We try sunflower seeds as I don't mind the resultant sunflowers sprouting!  The rosellas, lorikeets and king parrots are soon dwarfed by screeching cockatoos as the food is quickly wiped out.

At times I am working furiously with online bookings and queries and while we are quiet, we order a Western Cedar sign to put near the letterbox. It will arrive in a week and hopefully we will get it up soon.

 At the local restaurant, I drop off more of our pamphlets and eat a hearty 'big breakfast.'  All this rural air makes us hungry and we find ourselves returning to have a delicious home made pepper steak pie early in the afternoon on our way back to Brisbane.

There is much to do as we bring back more laundry.  Eucalyptus oil is added to the final wash while the sheets and towels are carefully folded. I am soon hitting the shops for replacement items.  A new iron, mop and brooms needed.

Peck..peck..peck

For weeks now we have watched the progress of building the hen house.  The existing old shed now has a new roof and floor.  Next an enclosure is built with chicken wire before fifteen young hens huddle together as they view their new home.

Gently I move towards the fence giving them time to 'suss' me out and before long they come closer and occasionally stare at me. Flapping their wings, they make a hollow in the ground and I hope that this is a good sign that they are happy with their new home and will start laying some eggs.

At night, they are fed in the shed and the door shut to protect them from foxes, wild dogs and snakes.  During the day they are truly 'free range' and wonder around their fenced area being let out into the bottom garden to explore.

When (and if) they start laying we wonder what we are going to do with all the eggs? I have an idea that we will put some in the refrigerator for our guests and bring some back to Brisbane.

A rest from renovating

Amongst the busyness of life and celebrating family togetherness, there is nothing more comforting and tasty than a beautifully glazed ham.

As is customary, many Australians have Christmas at home and then spend early January away going to the beach and staying somewhere like The Bavarian Hut. After Boxing Day, we cut up the ham and pack it between paper in plastic containers ready for an assortment of meals to take away on holiday or to freeze and add to last minute meals.

For breakfasts, we love thick slices of ham on toast/English muffins with a poached egg balanced on the top. Creamy scrambled eggs with roughly cut pieces of ham liberally added or try your favourite leafy salad with chunks of ham added. Potato salad reaches new levels with chunks of ham and piccalilli gently stirred through.  Tiny sandwiches with mustard, watercress and thin slices of ham make an interesting light meal.

There are many glazes we have enjoyed over the years. This is one of my favourites;

Cranberry-Currant Glaze
340 g redcurrant jelly
290 g jar cranberry sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup brandy

Combine jelly and sauce in a medium pan; stir over low heat; Stir in juice and brandy, strain. Brush the ham well with the glaze after removing rind/ scoring the ham according to the directions on the package of the ham. We like a diamond scoring pattern with whole cloves and cherries for decoration/colour. Bake according to ham's instructions!  We usually bake the ham in a moderate oven for 1 hour.  Check that the glaze doesn't burn to keep happiness to the optimum in the kitchen! Enjoy.

Foraging where I really shouldn't

If anyone has been to the property, there are so many sheds and quaint outbuildings, it is confusing to say the least.  It is no wonder husband Bruce and myself frequently forget where we put things. Also I am known to be fairly clumsy and my last attempts to retrieve something, meant that I bruised my arm for weeks.

For ages I had been asking Bruce to get down a rustic, old handmade ladder that was mounted high in one of the garages. Being a pragmatic sort of person, I had immediately located what I could do with it.  In reading glossy country magazines for my new life, I came across a delightful idea for a bathroom or guest bedroom.

Mounted against a wall, I could imagine thick soft towels on each rung, welcoming guests as they arrived.

While in France, we bought cotton quilts and posted them back to Australia such was my penchant for linen. I could also imagine my printed quilts softly folded on the rungs of the ladder in a guest bedroom.

Once the ladder was taken down from the shed, 4 coats of timber polish were applied and because Christmas was coming I joked that I would buy a blow up Santa and prop him on the side of the house on the ladder.  Adult children did not find this amusing so I went back to plan A!

It is good to shake things up a bit, don't you think!

Hail stones, birds and cream tea

Last weekend saw our first hail storm. Large hail stones spread like confetti all over the green lawns as they struck the roof noisily. Celebrating our full rain water tanks and nourishment for our garden, we planted shrubs and watched them begin to shoot in the rich, volcanic soil and warm weather that is Queensland.

Lorikeets, King parrots and cockatoos cheekily looked on us as they wiped out the sunflower seeds, prompting a second breakfast!  Our daughter, Natalie managed to coach a king parrot to eat seeds from close to where she was standing. 

 The previous day I had woken up at 5 in the morning with sunlight streaming through the curtains and had startled two wallabies munching.  They stared at me for a while before hopping away.

Later that morning, we took photographs of a country tea with chocolate cake, lemon tart, banana and carrot cake to load on my Facebook page.  Wild flowers picked from the garden, made a colourful display. I was reminded of the heritage of the building which was originally a diary and then a tearoom.  The diary farmer used his cream for tea and cream scones which they served up to the public.  I was reminded of all the empty plastic containers of strawberry jam that I originally found in my clean up when I first arrived at the Hut.  There is a lot you can tell from people's rubbish and what they don't discard!

The story of the Bavarian Hut has quickly unfolded and it will take time before its history is revealed...