Xmas is the time for the Best Things in Life

 

Christmas Morning at my house with close family

 

Today was Christmas and as usual, is the best time of the year to get together with family, eat the good stuff and be merry! (This may involve drinking some of the good stuff too!)

To me, there is nothing that could possibly be better to shove down my gullet, than The Honourable Smoked Salmon. Cold or hot-smoked - it doesn't matter! For some reason, it is the epitomy of great cuisine for me and ask anyone close to me, they will tell you I might be just a little bit obsessed!

This year for Christmas, I decided we should celebrate our new house and host Christmas morning there. Of course, what else to have on the breakast menu for that special first meal, than some beautiful smoked salmon with fresh bread. After looking at various recipes for cream cheese dips to complement this combination, I came up with the following recipe and thought it only fair that I share...

First of all, here are most of the ingredients - we had fresh bread from Farro which we grilled lightly. This was more appropriate for a meal, however I have pictured some rather large crackers here, as this dip will be almost more useful for canapes/nibbles.

Cream Cheese & Dill Dip with Capers & Chives

1 tub cream cheese at room temperature

4-5 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh chives

1 tbsp chopped capers

Juice of half a lemon

1 tsp Dijon or English mustard

½ tsp White Wine Vinegar

Pepper to garnish

Optional: 1 tbsp chopped Coriander

 

Method

·         Mash cream cheese in a bowl using a fork

·         Stir in lemon juice, mustard and vinegar and mix

·         Add in the dill, chives, capers and coriander and stir until combined

·         Garnish with pepper and a few strands of dill

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serve on lightly grilled, fresh bread or crackers and top with wood smoked salmon and finely sliced red onion. Sprinkle with capers and enjoy.

End of year dinner

Last night was our end-of-year dinner for work... My partner and I both work for my parents and we are a part of a very small immigration firm for Australia & NZ. Because we are such a small company and naturally at this time of year everyone is ridiculously busy, I took upon myself to organise a dinner for us all at my parents home.

I was preparing the food for 3 days - Even though there was only 14 of us to feed we had many challenges involved like different peoples different diets and preferences.

Many of the dishes I created I have already shown before on this blog or were influenced greatly by Petite Kitchen.

The menu consisted of:

Starters - Flaxseed&sesame crackers, baked camembert with rhubarb sauce, baked ricotta and Feta&Lemon stuffed deep-fried olives.

Mains - Dukkah steak salad, smoked kawai&avocado salad, beetroot&lentil salad, grilled chicken drumsticks and soy&ginger lamb kebabs with a spicy peanut sauce.

Desert - Cocoa butter slice, balsamic strawberries with mint&chocolate and vanilla icrecream

Needless to say today I am absolutely exhausted and slowly preparing myself before we head up north tomorrow morning to my grandparents costal farm.

Here are some photos of the food below:

Blogged by: Megan

Knitting - Baby Bootees

It seems since being back from Spain I am constantly surrounded by babies or pregnant women - Which by the way I am not complaining about! I love it :) It gives me the opportunity to steal my sisters knitting needles and give this knitting thing a go for myself!

I was first taught knitting by my Dad when I was about 10 years old - Back then I had very little patience so knitting got boring VERY quickly. It is something that runs a bit in my family, my Grandmother at 85 years old still knits every night for her red cross group and my sister also knits the odd baby bootee when someone gets a bun in the oven..

When I was 13 years old this white skinny girl with tattoos and a FOB accent came and lived with us, and since then Ona has been my 'adopted' sister - I love her to bits! I was living in Spain when she had her first child (Matias) but I am so happy that I will be around for her little girl to arrive in March. SO dusting off the knitting needles I have been getting to work and want to share a couple of pairs of bootees I have made for my niece-to-be :)

I have made 2 pairs - Newborn size (light pink with pink ribbon) & 3 months old size (dark pink with blue ribbon).

The smallest ones are a bit of a tricky pattern and took a few un-doing/re-doing moments so I will share with you the easier pattern. ANY stitch you don't know I recommend jumping on Youtube and you can find millions of videos to show you how to do the stitch (that is how I made the bootee!).

Size of needles: 2&3/4 with 3 PLY merino wool

BOOTEE (beg at sole)
1st row  - K1, inc in next st, K20, inc in next st, K1, inc in next st, K20, inc in next st, K1 ... 51 sts.
2nd & alt rows - Knit.
3rd row - K1, inc in next st, K22, inc in next st, K1, inc in next st, K22, inc in next st, L1 ... 55 sts.
5th row - K1, inc in next st, K24, inc in next st, K1, inc in next st, K24, inc in next st, L1 ... 59 sts.
7th row - K1, inc in next st, K26, inc in next st, K1, inc in next st, K26, inc in next st, L1 ... 63 sts.
Knit 9 rows garter st.

BEG INSTEP SHAPING -
1st row - K36, K2tog tbl, turn.
2nd row - Sl 1, P9, P2tog, turn.
3rd row - Sl 1, K9, K2tog tbl, turn.
4th row - Sl 1, P9, P2tog, turn.
Rep last 2 rows until 43 sts rem (16 sts either side of instep shaping).
Next row - Sl 1, knit to end.
Work 3 rows stocking st, beg with purl row.
Ribbonhole row - K1, *yfwd, K2tog, rep from * to end.
Next row - Purl.
Work 14 rows stocking st, beg with knit row.
Work a further 8 rows garter st.
Cast off loosely.

MAKE UP -
Using a flat seam, join sole and back seam. Thread ribbon through ribbonhole and tie a cute bow voila!

P.S The last photo is actually a little matching headband I am making so her tiny ears won't get cold :)

Blogged by: Megan