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| The lovely Ian and Irene in our garden just before they left - after the haircuts that morning and our time away in Taranaki over the previous week. |
We missed them after they left, so we had to organise a bit of entertainment. Hold that thought ...
When I was out for a walk on Monday morning (actual walking but with a virtual companion: Ann Persico who lives in Nelson goes walking at the same time as me and we text and exchange photos as we walk) I noted that Mads and Bevan's motorhome and their cars were outside their place.
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| Selfie with cabbage trees as I was leaving the house - big mistake wearing the dark cap, by the way. My head got so hot that I had to go capless! White cap from now on ... |
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| Kohekohe Road at about 8am |
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| Bourganvillea - looking very beautiful. Wish mine was that dramatic! |
Bevan and I had previously agreed to have a muffin competition but David and I were out of town without notice at the time, so Bevan won by default. I couldn't let a default win stand unchallenged, so seeing they were home, I texted and suggested a rematch that morning. That would do as entertainment at least for the morning!
When I got home from my walk, I quickly got into baking mode, and prepared banana and blueberry muffins. As I got them in to the muffin tins, there was a bang below the kitchen bay window and a loud yell of pain - David had whacked his head rather hard while turning the hose on - when I rushed out, he was on his hands and knees on the lawn and he was bleeding from his forehead.
So in doing first aid, I was a bit distracted from completing the muffins properly - I forgot to shake the cinnamon/sugar on the top before putting them in the oven, dammit!
So the muffins didn't look as attractive as they usually do. Given how attractive Bevan's baking is (his cheese scones looked much nicer than mine) I declared him the winner as we walked into their house.
But Bevan noted he'd had problems with his baking that day too. He didn't have a 12 hole muffin tray, only a 6 large hole one and a mini muffin tray, so he had a mix of sizes - at least mine were uniformly sized!!
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| The rejected banana and blueberry muffins - left these ones at home ... |
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| These ones looked a bit better |
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| Bevan's muffins and Mads' china |
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| I do like that tablecloth |
David declared that Bevan's muffins were the best, and I had to agree - even though my husband's disloyalty cut me to the quick ... He may have been suffering from concussion of course, so I forgave him - and Ayrton's ointment protected David from infection but not from concussion or bruising.
Bevan had made date and orange muffins. I now have the recipe and I am going to make them.
Interestingly both of our recipes are from Alison Holst.
Readers outside NZ probably won't be aware that she was a real stalwart who encouraged kiwi women (yes, mainly women) to expand their cooking and baking repertoires without breaking the bank - Mum used to say that Alison Holst was NOT the kind of cook who started recipes with "Take 1 dozen eggs and a pound of butter, ..."
Alison wrote recipe books, had TV cooking shows and did demonstrations. I went to one of her demonstrations with my friend Mary when we lived in Wanganui in the late 70s and bought my first of a number of her cookbooks: Simply Delicious. That book has the recipe that I have used ever since then when I roast lamb - it is yummy: garlic in the lamb, then a gravy made with onions, mushrooms and lemon juice and zest. It is simple and it is delicious. I also still make the potato soup recipe from that book.
And I have copied lots of her other recipes on to the laptop, for use on the boat and in the motorhome. Her son Simon is now a well known cook and writer who has followed in his mother's footsteps. His recipes are very cool too and we use them often, in particular Thai Chicken Noodle Salad - of course it was originally salmon but we do chicken. And a couple of nights ago David made Simon's vegetarian shepherd's pie using a book I gave him - very yummy!
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