more bermagui

For all of us shivering away (although today has been beautifully sunny) here are some pics from Bermagui. The wetsuit is still getting a workout at Jack's swimming lessons in the slightly underheated Junee pool.

artwork

Jack's drawing has really come along in the past few months. I can totally see what he is drawing.
And like his mother, he is a fool for art supplies and loves nothing better than some new paper and a purple texta (except maybe chocolate). Here are some recent drawings.

Humpty Dumpty (looks nervous doesn't he?)

an elephant

a pig



a bear (please note the scary teeth grrr!)

Scarlett (on left) and Jack



and this is um..well...a clock apparently....

supacalacalorific!

A little while ago I read about these biscuits called Pillow Cookies on Bakerella. They look so unassuming until you realise that the choc chip biscuit is hiding a chocolate brownie. And yes, Bakerella is American. I mentioned them to a friend and she made me promise that I would make them for her birthday. In my defence I have to say I had been doing lots of baking. I made a birthday cake for a friend's daughter, then made two kinds of cupcakes and brownies for a fundraising morning tea. So when it came to making the pillow biscuits I didn't look up the recipe online. I just used a recipe for choc chip biscuits that I happened to have nearby. I moulded what seemed to be extravagant amounts of dough around each brownie and baked them. Due to their size I only manged to make about eight biscuits out of a recipe that usually makes at least twenty biscuits. I checked on their progress as they baked and was dismayed to find something resembling a cowpat instead of gently domed biscuits. They still tasted okay though and the birthday girl was very happy.

nigella's chocolate brownies

the evil (but oh so tasty) marriage of biscuit and brownie

ready to go in the oven - they may look normal
but are actually each the size of a tennis ball




ta-da cowpat biscuits

bermagui

It's absolutely freezing here at the moment and hard to imagine it was only a month or so ago that we were swimming at Bermagui. Actually S and Jack swam, they had wetsuits. I just paddled a bit.

the blue pool - too cold even with wetsuits

catch up

Sometimes it's nice to get away from it all and just dag around and relax. I certainly thought that would be the case in Bermagui but we just kept running into people. Luckily they were nice ones so it was okay and we had a good catch up.

I knew beforehand that my friend Annabel would be down there (thanks FB) and arranged to meet at the beach. I'm not sure but I think the last time I saw Annabel was at a writer's festival when an ex boss gushingly greeted me with a "Hi Kate!" much to our amusement.
So lovely to catch up however briefly with the lovely Annabel and so glad she introduced us to Cuttagee.

gelati

chai gelato (behind) and honey and ginger (front)

When we arrived in Bermagui I breathed a huge sigh of relief. There was the fisherman's co-op of course (fresh fish squeeee!) but there was also a patisserie and a gelati 'clinic'.
We soon became regular visitors and I got to agonise over which flavours I should put together.
This gelato is the real thing, no pretend flavours and every time we went there were new flavours to chose from (not that Jack noticed as he either went with chocolate or stracciatella - choc chip).
I tried nocciola (hazelnut), stracciatella, guinness chocolate, chili chocolate, chocolate, chai and my favourite honey and ginger which was amazing. This was over a week mind you, not just in one sitting. I'm disappointed that I didn't get to try the rhubarb - such a beautiful colour.
We are all looking forward to going back to try more.

Go Fish!

For some reason it came as a surprise to me that the library would be shut on the Saturday of the Easter weekend (meaning I didn't have to work). With all those days off in a row I suggested to S that maybe we should go away. He didn't seem too enthusiastic and so it was a lovely surprise when he called to say we were going away and that we were going to Bermagui (on the south Coast of NSW). S already had a wetsuit and he promptly ordered one for Jack. I know I eat lots of cake but I wasn't sure I could rely on my reserves to keep me warm.
Anyway S was also keen on getting Jack a fishing rod. I wasn't so sure - my childhood fishing adventures had been abject failures but we went to the shop and Jack selected his own rod and was jumping out of his skin as we got sinkers and bait and hooks.

We went to a spot at Cuttagee that my friend Annabel had shown us that was perfect. Within no time we'd all caught our own little fish which we promptly released (after Jack kissed them goodbye).