Holidays

Yay, we're on holidays.  For four whole weeks.  Which means I will have something to write about other than gardening.  Lucky huh.

This year we decided we'd start our holidays with a brief holiday in the Perth hills.  We hired a delightful little fibro and weatherboard cottage called Edenside, in the Bickley Valley.  Not too far from our old home (which we didn't go anywhere near for fear it would make us sad!!).  I suspect it was a group home originally. It was made up of four rooms and the bathroom and third bedroom were in the closed in verandah.  Edenside was comfortably fitted out and had everything we needed. Including a good supply of wood for the fire.  It sure was cold up there in the hills.  

 

I'm pretty sure at least one of my sisters will love the colour scheme in Edenside.  Apart from making the inside of the cottage so lovely, welcoming and comfortable, the owners have created lots of lovely places to sit an enjoy the sunshine.  We had a couple of gloriously sunny days and were able to spend time loafing on the front verandah with the paper and a cuppa.  From the back there were lovely views across the valley.

A perfect spot to enjoy a couple of glasses of wine, which we did, or a cuppa and pastries. In our case, it was hazelnut scrolls which we bought at The Little Home Bakery.

Don't they look just amazing!  The Little Home Bakery, for those of you who are lucky enough to live in Perth, can be found in (of all places) a factory unit in Morley.  It's a very unassuming place and it's fair to say that R was a tad suspicious about their claims to make sourdough when we first went in.  But, when he asked how old their starter was, they were happy to tell him that it's 15 years old.  They also talked about the different proofing and fermentation times they use for each of their styles of bread.  So, we walked away with scrolls and some pretty darned amazing bread!

One of the reasons we stayed at Edenside is that we planned to catch up with all our friends over lunch at La Fattoria, a ten-minute drive from the cottage.  La Fattoria offer a lunch they call Nonna's table.  The family hails from Sicily originally (three generations ago) and they're happy to invite you into their home (which is actually a lovely, decked area next door to their home) to share lunch.  There is a set menu (five courses) and they just bring you a range of dishes that are made from whatever is locally available and in season.  We've been wanting to try Nonna's table for years, so we were very excited to be able to do this and share the experience with our friends. 

On the menu was, for starters, a buckwheat, cheese stuffed pancake which was served with a really simply dressed rocket salad. Oh, I should just point out that I kept hoeing into the food before photographing it.  So, you'll see that lots of the dishes have already been attacked.  I'm not sure how interesting food photos are in any case. But here they are.  If you're not interested just skip past. 

  

Next came antipasto. On the platter were olives (Sicilian of course), roast capsicum, salt (for dipping), a range of cured meats (I suspect these were made inhouse), a seriously delicious cheese and....I can't remember that the "and" was, other than it was yum!

Next up was Pasta e Ceci. It was orecchiette with chickpeas, crumbled sausage, parsley oil and chillies and anchovy panagretto on the side (so you could add as much or as little as you liked).  And of course, extra parmesan.

I don't know about everyone else, but I was actually getting quite full by this stage of the proceedings.  But I managed to find a little more room for the main, which was amazing.  Main was Agrodolce Braised Chicken with cranberries and pinenuts.  This was served with lemon risotto cakes and winter pumpkin, fennel and cabbage salad dressed with toasted seeds and sage butter.  Oh, my goodness, that was one seriously good main.  They suggested placing the chicken, and a couple of spoons of the juices, on top of the rice cake.  The rice soaked up the juices and all of the flavours complemented each other perfectly.  This is the kind of food I love. Simple but packed full of flavour and texture. 

Dessert - Warm Sicilian Apple Budino with butterscotch sauce and pecan praline and whipped cream - was mercifully small.  I was just about done in by the time we got there.  It was also delightfully light and not at all rich. A perfect end to a perfect meal.

All up we got to spend a very pleasant few hours with our friends eating good food, drinking okay wine and chatting.  Just the way I like to spend an afternoon.

I've just remembered the "and".  They were anchovy and cauliflower patties. Light, fluffy and full of flavour! Yum.  Nonna's spring table includes lamb.  I wouldn't mind going back to try that!!