What a great weekend. Ds 11 yrs and I had entered the Berwick Show and we had some success and lots of fun. :-) Ds entered a chocolate cake and came 3rd in his class and he also entered a model he assembled and painted and this also won third.

I entered a marble cake and the loaf of bread catagory with a spiral herb loaf. My loaf of bread won first prize. Admittedly, I don't think there was a lot of competition but I'm going to enjoy the win regardless. Pictured below is one of the practice loaves I made and the family ended up enjoying.  My marble cake was a bit of a disaster so no expectations there. Mind you the practice one I made and the family ate was pretty good. I'll have another go next year.

Well back to books. I've started at University and I need to read my text book and the articles I've retrieved so I can start to write up my first assignment. I've also got a fair bit left of my book club book to read and we are meeting on Wednesday night. We are reading "Birds Without Wings" by Louis de Bernieres. I was struggling with it at first but I've started to get drawn in by the story so ......back to the books.

Today I went to a cooking class at The Mixing Bowl. What a beaut little place. I loved the demo and recipes so ended up buying quite a few ingredients and becoming a member. The membership includes free admission to most classes and a recipe folder. I've come home all enthused and started cooking. I'm making an apricot tart this afternoon and hopefully a loaf of cob bread tonight. I'm using apricots because I bought a ton of them and the darn kids arn't eating them so they need to be used.

Back to the oven :-)

Phew, what a hot day. There are storms on their way over, it will be a welcome relief. A colleague celebrated her retirement with a lunch today and we all had a great time. I had a lovely tandoori chicken salad. It was perfect. Great company and great food. (We lunched at Cafe Cinque Lire.)

We discussed blogging and it was quite amusing. The considered opinion was that blogging was self indulgent and some people needed to "get a life". I'm inclined to agree somewhat but professionally and for curiousity with my interest in cooking, I get some very useful information from some blogs ie. Librarian by day .

Still deciding on my favorite cooking blogs. I'll list a few when I get organised.

Have a beaut day

Michelle

Our local Agricultural and Horticultural Show is coming up at the end of February. I've decided to enter a marble cake and a loaf of bread. Ds 11 yrs is entering a chocolate cake and a painted science fiction model.

Last year we both won first prize, me for my Anzac Biscuits and ds for a lego model.

Regardless how we do we'll have great fun trying.

Just completed a large vegetarian lasange. I haven't made one in years. It's a fiddly dish to make with all the vegetables to cut up and cook before tossing them together. I'm cooking it in a slow oven for a couple of hours. Should be a winner even with the kids.

My two great passions in life are cooking and libraries. I'm currently on six months long service leave and I'm having a wonderful time browsing through my cookbook collection. I've been making some old family favourites and trying some new recipes. I'll post some of my successful and not so successful recipes and the overall opinions of my esteemed team of food critics (my children).

I've also returned to University to complete/upgrade my library qualifications. I expect this will be a fun busy year!

Michelle