Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Weekend of gluttony

A few weeks ago I turned 31.  Not an exciting age but also not too distressing.  Marty built me a tackroom in the garage for my birthday which is super awesome.  Now all my stuff is tidy and away from the birds and dust.  The dog thought it was all quite exciting and that he was the project supervisor.... 

 
He does like a project.  I am yet to take the absolute 'after' photo but I now have 4 saddle racks, 2 bridle holders, a couple of hooks for halters, helmet hooks and a cover rack.  I am so happy!  Here's the first of the saddle racks...


On my actual birthday it was a stunning day and Nora and I had been talking about a few different rides that we wanted to do.  So that day we decided that the 20km round trip to the Norsewood Pub was in order.  We set of in the early afternoon...

                                      

And arrived as the sun was starting to create a few long shadows....

                                       

It was such a ice ride though.  We're very lucky that a lot of the back roads around here have wide verges on either side so it's great for a trot or canter and also lessens the likelihood of being run over by a truck!  Zen was very interested in my beer and chips once we arrived at the pub though and also could smell the bananas in my bag so tried stealing that as well!  Perito, as usual, was perfectly behaved.

That weekend we had a few visitors up and an extreme Hors and Baking session had been discussed.  Oh my did we bake!!  Emma, Andy, Jen and Greg all arrived on Friday evening and we had a mountain of homemade pasta with a choice of sauces.  I meant to document all the meals but completely forgot that night.  You really can't beat homemade pasta though!

On Saturday morning we were up bright and early to begin the real cookathon.  I had my heart set on making doughnuts again.  I made them a while ago an they were SO good.  Filled with creme patisserie and coated in sugar and cinnamon. I should also mention that Marty had made a chocolate cake for our friend Gasper who had turned 30 a few days before me, I had made a cheesecake the day before my birthday and Nora had dropped off a buttercream cake as well.  So that was 3 cakes already that we were in the process of eating that week.  Once everyone was up Emma started on an apple/chocolate cake, Jen was on bagel duty and I set about making the doughnut dough...

                                      


Happily risen doughnuts...

                                                   
Marty and Greg started on a hare stew that was going to cook on the fireplace for several hours...

                                                   

Lucky because there was no room in the kitchen!  Breakfast was bagels with salmon and cream cheese as well as hashbrowns for those opposed to bagels.  Immediately after that we were ordered to eat the apple and chocolate cake.  It was amazing but I had to have a sit down afterwards and I was so full I was starting to feel sick.  But there was no stopping.  Nora, Murray, Emma and Warwick were due over later so as soon as we were physically able to move again we continued on with the doughnuts, arancini balls and we decided to hold off on the pakoras until the next day because we were all going to die.

Arancini balls pre deep fry.... (they were coated in bagel crumbs - so amazing!)

                                       

A couple of kereru were obviously aware of the furious cooking going on in the kitchen so came and supervised from the wisteria....

                                     

I deep fried the doughnuts (with a lot of criticism from Jen and Emma about the optimum shade of brown they should be) and then filled them with the creme patisserie.  God they are good...

                                                   

And, in the background of that photo is the pav that Emma G as well which took our cake count to 5 for that week.  I think that is ample cake.  Amazingly we got through it all though!  

The next day Jen, Nora and I went riding and Greg had a little ride on Zen.  A while ago Nora, Emma and I had our inaugural Hors and Baking Pony Club Rally at Emma's place which was great!  Kim instructed us in flatwork and jumping and gave us some tips for saddle fitting and jump grids.  Zen was SO lazy though.  Must work on momentum...

                                      

I've been riding quite a lot although the weather has turned to shit now and is meant to stay this way for the rest of the week.  Probably a good thing as Zen over-reached the other day and cut his front foot.  Not badly but might be wise to give it some time to heal.  

This recent weekend gone I was down in Wellington for the SLIANZ Conference.  It was great to see my fellow interpreters and listen to some really interesting presentations (and getting a free massage) as well as doing a brief presentation myself about working in rural areas.  I met some great contacts and became a member of the SLIANZ committee.  So it was pretty eventful!  Last Thursday Marty and I picked all the kiwifruit off the one vine that we have and ended up with over 100kgs of fruit!  Madness...

                                       

And as I arrived in Wellington on Friday night I made some octopus cookies for Sea's birthday party which I couldn't go to.  So cute...


 I'm now back home and have had a day of rest.  Tomorrow will probably be the same seeing as the weather is so crap.  The poor horses are soaked and looking miserable.  The pigs slept ALL day.  When I went to feed them at 4.30 this afternoon they hadn't moved from their bed.  Probably wise.  What a life!

Almost bed time for me.  Ciao!