Where have I been

My parents have been over for the last few weeks and we have been having a ball. We visited a few spots that I have mentioned on the blog before. For the first weekend we all headed back to Clarendon Forest Retreat, dog and all. As my parents got slightly delayed on the way over we had to zip off a few hours after they arrived. My parents were so good and didn’t complain at all about the extra four hour drive after flying half way around the world to visit us.

As mentioned when I wrote about our last visit here, the food supplied in the cottage is wonderful. No sooner had we arrived than we were tucking into the champagne and cheese plate provided. What a luxury. I had also brought along a box of Fromager des Clarines to try out. I am on a hunt to find the cheese that I had at the restaurant Guillaume at Bennelong for my Birthday back in May. I know I could just phone the restaurant and ask them what that soft buttery cheese they serve is but I am having way too much fun tasting cheeses to do that. When I described the cheese to the very helpful lady in the GPO cheese and wine room she recommended I try Fromager des Clarines. It was wonderful and creamy but I still have not found an exact match. I think I will just have to make another visit to Bennelong.

After teasing the taste buds with this wonderful cheese I got going on dinner. This time instead of opting for a delivery from the local restaurants I went with cooking us up some good old fashioned hearty food. I knew after all that aeroplane food Mum & Dad would prefer something simple. On the first day we went Italian and had lasagne, my new favourite rocket salad (thanks Niamh) and garlic bread. Simple tasty food and a good bottle of wine – perfect. The following day J showed my parents his culinary skills with some wonderfully marinated fillet steaks on the BBQ. Eating at the cottages meant we didn’t have to leave Teddy alone to do any damage. He’s the best dog in the world as long as there is someone with him but leave him on his own and he’s bound to get up to mischief. It was a very lazy weekend of walks on the beach and lounging around reading. It was just what my parents needed after the trip over. I had all sorts of plans for going walking and getting out in the fresh air but in the end I opted for the fresh air on the veranda while relaxing.

No sooner were we back from our trip to Forester then we were off again. I flew up to Noosa with my parents and would you believe that we revisited every restaurant that Mum & I ate at the last time we were there. So let me not bore you with repeating the reviews because every one of them was still wonderful. I have been trying to eat healthy recently so during the day we kept everything light. A bowl of cereal while watching the waves crash in (the picture above was from the balcony of the apartment we were in for the week). Lunch was a light sandwich or maybe some of Mum’s melt in the mouth scrambled eggs. Keeping things light meant that we always had a good appetite for our delicious dinners.

After Noosa it was back to Sydney where we have been entertaining ourselves and our friends with all sorts of culinary delights. Most notable was a Toblerone cheese cake which Mum made for a dinner party with some of my friends. I am sorry but I don’t have some mouth watering photos of the cake as I seem to have lost my food photographing mojo. It’s killing me because I would love to be able to share it with you. Maybe I will just have to make it again – any excuse.

Speaking of loosing my mojo, I’m sorry for not updating the blog on a weekly basis like I used to. I have loved keeping this blog. Friends and family have told me they like to check what I have been up to by reading the blog and recently there has been nothing for them to read. I’m not sure why but I have gone off photographing and writing about food. While Mum & Dad have been over I’ve been very naughty with all the food and wine I’ve been having because I have a bit of a tummy problem at the moment and I have been trying to eat plain food. Let’s be honest, who wants to hear about plain food. I spoke to my sister about loosing interest in my own blog and she reckons I should stick with it. I need to loose some weight (yeah, I know, who doesn’t?) and so I really need to cut back on the calorie high foods which are usually the ones I like reading and writing about. My sister thinks I should blog about good healthy food that people can enjoy. Do people really want to read about that? Maybe that should be the challenge I set myself. Me and all the diet books out there are trying to make healthy food look appetising. I’ll see how this goes. Stick with me.