I've had a lovely social weekend and it has been great catching up with friends round at my place - which is a change as I'm usually round at their's. For 'elevenses' this morning I made some very nice brioche and we ate it straight from the oven. It was a quick recipe that you can make and cook after raising the dough but I put it in the fridge overnight then at 3.30 this morning during a sleepless window I had a midnight feed and at the same time took the dough out of the fridge and let it come to room temp until I got up properly. They were really delicious and all buttery and flakey and oh so light. I poked a few soaked cranberries into them before cooking to add to the colour. I managed to find some perfectly sized brioche tins in the cupboard of my rented house too. Also whipped up a batch of our Anzac biscuits which were lovely and crunchy. I was well satisfied !
Yesterday I visited our wonderful Saturday market here in Nelson and chose some more plants for my small but soon to be productive garden. Thinking of the winter vegetables today so added celery, cabbage, cauliflower, more parsley, jalapeno mildly hot chilli and a young coriander plant. Will have to see if I can put photos on here for the record.
My niece passed through town this afternoon from Christchurch, on her way with 2 friends. They had been over to Golden Bay where they went for a night and a 3 hr tramp from Pohara. A few hours here then back on the road to their home in Chch. The stamina of the young is great !
Talking about family we had an addition to it last night. My second cousin from the UK, but living here in NZ, and his wife produced a lovely baby girl weighing in at 7 lbs. She is to be called Anna Lynda which has a charming ring to it I think. Well done Tanya !
The next thing I want to mention is that in a few weeks I am off to Macau for a 5-day conference being held at the fabulous Venetian Macau hotel (www.venetianmacau.com) and whilst we are there the new Cirque de Soleil show 'Zaia' is going to be on. I haven't seen any of those yet so it will be a fantastic opportunity to see this one. Here is the programme for anyone interested. http://ping.fm/cSsbN .
Looking at the social calendar for next weekend, there's a birthday lunch for friend's birthday and am sworn to secrecy on the number.
