Trickery in the kitchen

After my 40 something years in the kitchen, I think I have learned a few things to keep myself and my family happily fed while on holiday.  We like gourmet food but not spending hours in the kitchen using piles of dishes!

My tips for a self catering holiday-

Where the budget allows eat out! You do not have to choose the most expensive places to eat.  The Gold coast area has hundreds of places. Consider choosing different times of the day.  Breakfast or lunch can be better value than dinner.

 If you are a party of adults, consider having a counter lunch at the local pub. Our Canungra Hotel offer 5 or 6 variations with bountiful salads. With children, consider sharing a huge bowl of noodle soup or something like Nachos. Go to the local fresh markets (Nerang or Mudgeeraba//Beechmont/Canungra) and sample their produce.  Bakeries are great for breads and pastries while taking advantage of Lamington Park or walks on the beach.

Benefit from the dozens of easily cooked meals at the chain grocery stores.  They cater for every budget from the simple sausage roll/pies/fish to lamb shanks done in a red wine sauce slow cooked already for 11 hours!  I take advantage of the ready made mash or even frozen mash which I microwave. I enthusiastically embrace holidays for relaxing and will be trying out the slow cooked pork belly also from our local chain grocery store this weekend.
With these pre prepared meals, buy a packet of green salad leaves or a bunch of spinach/broccolini to steam. Use fresh fruit and vegetables that are in season and remember variety is the spice of life.

Take pizza bases and any leftovers can be spread on to them with a minimum of fuss.  Most children are happy to get involved and they can leave out what they don't like. Use leftovers from your picnics and be inventive.

Risotto is great for using up bits and pieces in the refrigerator. Mushrooms, pumpkin, capsicum, (don't tell my daughter) onion, spring onion or spinach. Use any combination and at the last minute throw in some frozen vegetable to add interest.  Grated cheese on the top and you have an complete meal or a great accompaniment for barbecued meat.

Create a home made pasta sauce for your fresh pasta. Once again it can be made with virtually any fresh ingredients in your fridge. For a professional finish, pop some fresh herbs on the top.

Get creative and above all have fun. That is what holidays are for. Besides you have earned it with all those walks.  

Surrounded by twenty somethings

Back in Brisbane, we plan my younger daughter's 21st birthday party.  I make sure we don't run out of food by packing the grocery cupboards and ordering in weeks before the actual event. Family is flying in from Melbourne and I have our spare bedrooms ready with new 1000 count sheets and soft luxury towels.  New bath oils, pretty soap and bath washes line the vanity.

My thoughts regularly wander to Beechmont  and I am reminded why we are successful having people to stay at the Bavarian Hut and why we are always fully booked in our peak winter season. I am grateful for the lawn mowing which gets done every two weeks and our cleaner who comes regularly.

At last the day comes when our older daughter and partner is picked up from the airport.  A huge pot of rich Bolognese sauce simmers on the stove waiting to be eaten while we catch up with family matters.  The next day Bruce puts up the indoor and outdoor lights and we place the many candles through the house and on the decks.  We have a wonderful drinks fountain which lights up when we pour the brightly coloured cocktails.  My ingenious idea of putting frozen berries clogs up the works and we abandon that idea!

The braziers fire up and the marshmallows are piled waiting to be skewered and roasted.  The oven houses the hot snacks which come out every 15 minutes ready to be consumed. Young twenty something year olds pile in and surround the food before going out to chill on the decks.

I am reminded of the enquiry I have for a small, intimate wedding that I have quoted for at the Hut and wonder if that is an area we want to explore?  Happy dreams...

Wet days and full tanks

This is our peak season with sunny days and cold nights.  Well, the cold nights sitting by the fire are a reality but we are having our wettest winter in a long time!

We cheer in the full tanks, being fully reliant on tank water and relish the opportunities for our new plants and shrubs to be nourished. The camellias are starting to flower while they continue their steady but slow growth. 

Being fully booked mainly with families, we go off to the Lifeline Bookfest to find more games and books for those rainy days. Gigantic rows of books/games/DVD's line the Brisbane Convention Centre and before long we have collected our fill.  Back to the car we trundle with our stash, knowing there will be weeks of blissful reading.  

Fortunately with all our trees at the back of the property, I am able to collect many pine cones to stock pile.

The wood burner is used constantly while we settle in for the winter.  

The little opportunity shop which opens a couple of times a week at the old school Hall in Beechmont is great for finding treasures. I have a collection of crockery, jam jars and sundries while chatting to the lovely local person I meet.  Church services are next door and the local craft ladies meet regularly.  Tea and scones are served on embroidered cloths near the old kitchen.  Each table has a small vase of fresh flowers.  How I love this country life.

Next project!

The old restaurant toilet block is looking very smart newly painted on the outside.  I decide that we need to upgrade the interior and replace the old peach loo seats!  A coat of paint will magically transform the inside of the two rooms and I look forward to the upgrade.  Three toilets will be an improvement and the handyman promises to connect them to the water tank. Woo hoo!

Then I want to start painting all the outbuildings which are painted numerous different colours.  The paw paw trees I have been nurturing need planting and another Avocado tree has been grown from seed.

I am sourcing having a sign made for the Bavarian Hut.  The last one was blown down, helped by human intervention, I think. Genevieve had carefully sign written it a couple of years back before she went to Melbourne. I have not had the courage to tell her yet.

Back in Brisbane

Booking enquiries for the Bavarian Hut grow, my phone rings and the washing and chores pile up. This working from home is proving challenging and others in the family haven't the time to help with the chores because they have jobs to go to!  Oh, really?

 I am reminded constantly of the treasures we found when renovating up at the Bavarian Hut.  We have brought down a collection of vintage typewriters, desks, irons, sewing machines, mirror, commercial cookware, cuckoo clocks, ships lanterns, meat scale, bells, crockery and cutlery from the Hut to our home and it is consoling to be surrounded by some of the furniture.

 I find a spotless record player in a storeroom and we add to our collection of vinyl records. Bits of material and wool find a creative channel for me as I cover the tops of marmalade jars and create more teacozies. Feeling generous one day, Natalie and I pile some in the car and set off for one of the local charity shops and they enthusiastically accept them.

Bruce and I catch up on conversation in the short winter evenings that lie ahead. We discuss all aspects of the business and find our list of future projects growing.  There are phone calls and emails made to tradespeople and cleaners while we check the property ourselves before visitors arrive.  I automatically run through the list in my head.  Water tanks and gas cylinders full, lawn mown, house cleaned and linen and towels placed neatly, firewood ready, samples of tea/coffee/toilet paper/soap/dish clothes?  Maintenance issues attended to and the letterbox emptied.  Bills paid and queries followed up.

More happenings

I wishfully think that renovations have some form of ending! We continue to work on the houses, more starting than stopping.  There is the usual maintenance and because we have come off a low base of a neglected house and our multitude of jobs continue.

The bathroom in the front house is of the 40 year vintage with sloping floor and toilet that sits up awkwardly against the wall!  We had put a new vanity in with our first lot of renovations but the old shower with the shower curtains was quickly losing its appeal.

The bathroom is gutted and new tiles, shower and toilet installed. We are amazed at the difference and I am able to sit on the toilet without the wall cramping my style!

We have a month before we hire someone to paint the outside of the house.  I paint 5 colours on a piece of wood and take the opinions of family.  The colour coordinator assures me that a few "shades of grey" were the up coming trend.  We choose a blue grey with white trims.  First are the multitude of jobs that have to be done before painting.  Missing fascia boards and holes need to be repaired along with some roofing for the awnings.  A tyre on the corner of an awning (to stop anyone bumping their heads)

is removed as well as some old notices on outside toilets reminding the diners which were the men and woman's.

The rain pours and I am reminded how the house is vulnerable against the elements.  When sunshine returns, the painting begins.  Natalie and I paint the extras like the farmhouse letterbox, a statue and a birdbath.  We admire the colour while Bruce trims the camellias  and shrubs away from the house.

The old mixture of orange, brick red, and green paint will soon be gone.

After 3 weeks, we round the corner slowly and look up at the house, rapt with the colour.

The old outbuilding are now looking as though they need work!  When I comment on this I can feel Bruce's uncomfortable gaze. Everything can be negotiated and I have time on my side.  Just buy the pot of paint I say to myself, pretending I am the patient one.  

These are a few of my favourite things

Every time we are up at the Bavarian Hut we stop in at a neighbouring farm to buy fresh, creamy milk.  There is nothing like seeing happy cows and calves grazing in the green fields while stopping at the rustic diary!  Thick cream rises to the top in the milk bottle, not at all like the milk bought from the large grocery stores which in comparison tastes watery.

A little further along the road is Rosins Point, which overlooks the picturesque Mount Warning.  

Hang gliders gently soar riding the wind currents.  This is our favourite place for a picnic, looking at the spectacular views while we sit on the benches made for us.

Further up we drive, negotiating the steep drive up to Lamington National Park. Stopping at the information centre, we find our pathway and set on our walk past waterfalls, caves and Aboriginal drawings through luscious rainforest.  Sometimes the pathway ascends rapidly as we climb up towards Binna Burra marvelling at the views.

Back at the Bavarian Hut, we watch the sunset and take photographs, silent in the orange glow and the darkening shadows.  

Taking a sip of chilled wine, we stack our wood in the burner and watch the warm flames alight.  Knitting quietly or playing cards makes me realise what a lovely retreat this is. I wonder if anyone uses the puzzles I have left as we do have visitors who stay for a week or longer.