Last weekend, I resolved to do nothing more than sit at the dining room table and sip Moroccan mint tea from my gorgeous little Russian glasses (they’re just 100ml each). The dishwasher is broken (again), one of the fan elements on the oven has blown (again), and I was determined not to make any plans that involved messing up the kitchen…
. . . . .
Sigh. Turns out I’m quite rubbish at those sorts of resolutions – I get bored too easily. So I marinated some Bulgarian fetta (our recipe is here)…
. . . . .
I checked out Sami Tamimi’s Instagram feed and found this recipe irresistible…
. . . . .
I picked up some new season Australian garlic and a packet of Joe’s fabulous handmade gnocchi…
…and created this very simple Sami-inspired dinner, combining the gnocchi and garlic with our homegrown parsley, chilli and eggs. It was finished off with freshly grated black pepper and Parmesan cheese. Dead easy and very scrumptious…
. . . . .
I traipsed over to The Larder in Dulwich Hill in the hopes of finding some Bruny Island raw milk cheese. Sadly, they no longer stock it, but I picked up a small piece of raw ewe’s milk Roquefort instead…
. . . . .
Even without a fully functioning oven, the urge to bake is sometimes too strong to resist, so I made a batch of overnight no-knead rosette rolls, sourdough of course…
. . . . .
Finally, as it was Nick’s birthday, I baked him a chocolate slab cake. It was a big hit!
. . . . .
How was your weekend?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
The roquefort looks fab. I’ve not tried ewe but certainly dairy finds a place in our fridge.
Misky, the Roquefort was very nice, but potent. It always surprises me how different blue cheese are from one another! :)
Sounds like you got lots done this weekend! Your glasses look so nice.
I was busy baking bread and cleaning the house. Have a great week!
Manuela, I probably should have cleaned the house too. Ah well.. :)
Sorry I can’t fix your dishwasher this time. Maybe a house call is in order. ;-)
Mo
Lovely Mo, you bought us an extra year, thank you! We’ve already had one repair, but we’re now booked in for a second one on Tuesday. Hopefully it will be something simple!
Your Russian glasses are drop dead gorgeous Celia. I am lusting after them. I am a secret glass hoarder. I amassed a HUGE collection of glass things (as is fitting for an avid narfish magpie) and had to give a lot of them away when we moved to Serendipity Farm and I have traded my glass fetish for a bowl fetish these days because at least I can pretend that they are necessarily functional and thus leave them piled up in big stacks all over the kitchen…Good to see that those Russian glasses translate to Moroccan tea and aren’t solely for quaffing vodka shots. I dare say NOTHING would get done if you sat at your kitchen table drinking that!
Its a pity that I can’t send you over some Bruny Island cheese. It must be the 1 thing that we get here that you can’t! ;)
Yeah, for avoiding the kitchen you did a great job Celia ;).
Ha! I did have good intentions of sitting there like Buddha all weekend, reading my Kindle. Fail. :) The Russian glasses are very thick and chunky, which means they’re not too hot to hold when filled with tea, and they were dirt cheap – 6 for $3.99. Naturally I bought a dozen. Shots are a very, very good idea. Might need to get some more.. ;-)
Where did you get those gorgeous glasses Celia? That is a most awesome price! Cheaper than you could reasonably expect to get them in the thrift shop! I am guessing that it wasn’t from your local Russian tea shop or Russian grocery store or Russian off-shore import-export business. You have very keen eyes Ms Celia. Must remember to pick you up and take you shopping with me should I ever decide to go hunting in your neck of the woods ;)
Once the fridge is fixed, i will be marinating some fetta!
Mick, a broken dishwasher is much easier to work around than a broken fridge! Hope it’s fixed soon for you!
Our oven is also on the brink, baking bread takes twice as long, but I just keep on baking. Our weekend was full of building and not much kitchening.
Clare, I’m the same. All the house building is very exciting!!
Sounds like a productive “lazy” weekend! We managed to kick back and relax. I managed to bake two loaves of bread yesterday and then we had our family pictures taken in the afternoon. Then the kids enjoyed a carpet picnic, apparently their first since hubby and I usually wait until they go to bed for our own private carpet picnic. What isn’t to like, baguette, crackers, meats, cheeses, grapes, carrots, gherkins?! Then they devoured French toast this morning made with the leftover baguette, weekends are nice indeed.
Gretchen, it sounds like a perfectly perfect weekend! So…vacuum cleaner out today on the carpet? :)
Definitely! The boys make more crumbs than Josh and I do!
Ceia, this is a quiet weekend? I also marinate fetta- I like the way you have re-used the bulgarian fetta box for neat storage.
We had a malfunctioning dishwasher for about a month. I was determined not to ring the service mand ( thinking that a $90.00 walk in the door fee, plus parts and labour could end up being around $300) Mr T persisted with it- fiddling with hoses and bits and bobs. It is OK for the moment!
Francesca, ours has been playing up for a couple of years now, but I never begrudge my kitchen appliances, they all get seriously heavy usage. Lovely Mo left a comment which helped us fix a problem we had last year, but now it’s time to call in the repair guys. There’s only so much we can do on our own, although we DO always try to fix it ourselves first!
Quiet weekends are for making food! I just wish I didn’t have to wash up. We went to Small Batch last night, artisan food producers showcasing their wares with food trucks providing dinner. Bliss. Best find was iced lemon myrtle tea with Warma mulled wine syrup. Absolutely awesome.
That sounds absolutely divine – food trucks and artisan produce!
Celia, I love those little glasses too…. and what a weekend you’ve had… your chocolate slab cake looks really luscious. I would HATE having the dishwasher out of action… and there’s only two of us! When we empty it, Peter often asks if I had a dinner party in the middle of the night! You did good to bake bread without an oven… how did you do that? Or is it still sort of working? I didn’t know Tamimi was on Instagram, must check that out… Our weekend was busy, busy, busy too.
Lizzy, Bobby the oven has back-up. I usually bake with the fan elements, but they were out of commission, so I reverted to using the top and bottom elements. The bread browned a bit differently, but otherwise they and the cake were fine. Sami’s IG posts are absolutely wonderful!
Phew, lucky about the oven having back up! I am just reminded that I need to pop in to Instagram right now, this second, to follow Sami!
I’ve just had a delightfully quiet weekend – the first for absolutely ages. I capped it off by last night resurrecting the packet of Priscilla that you sent me. I now have a couple of loaves quietly proving on the bench. Thanks so much, Celia!
Goodness, she’s come back quickly! Usually it takes a day or two for her to bubble back up. Great stuff Amanda! As the starter matures, it will develop more flavour – picking up your local microorganisms etc.. :)
For years I never had a dishwasher as I never minded doing the washing up. But now that I have one, I would put my whole family in the dishwasher if I could. Hope you get your oven sorted soon. As usual lots of delicious goodies in your kitchen :)
Dishwasher and oven are now fixed, Moya, thankfully! :)
What a busy lazy-bones you are Celia! I bet you didn’t stop for a minutes rest all weekend. I spent the weekend Christmas tree wrangling, there’s only so much hubby is prepared to do and we hav three trees this year. I’m pleased to report the house now looks very festive indeed and carols are on the ipod as I write :) xox
Becca, I love that your tree is up already, you certainly do get into the festive season with gusto! :)
Oh dear, like me you just can’t stay out of the kitchen. It’s a full time job just resisting those urges. Have a cup of tea Celia you deserve one
You know how it is, T. It’s impossible to resist! :)
My resolutions sound very similar to yours!
Hahaha…at least we try! :)
“I was determined not to make any plans that involved messing up the kitchen…” ha ha ha! So what would a weekend of wrecking the kitchen look like? You are a force of nature and bakers gotta bake. hugs sending good thoughts for your dishwasher, Maz
Oh hon, when I decide to actually SPEND a weekend in the kitchen, the dishwasher can go three times a day! That’s what the boys give me for my birthday – a day of endless dishwasher empties and restacks! :)
Mom is visiting so I have been spoilt with her cooking – can’t beat a moms meals. Makes me all warm and fuzzy to think I still have my mom cook for me.
You always have the most tasty posts to share Celia.
Have a wonderful week ahead.
:-) MAndy xo
Mandy, how wonderful for you, I know how much you love having your folks around! Enjoy! xx
My weekend was spent filling our Vegie patch with 5 types of tomatoes, 3 types of basil, strawberries, cucumbers, eggplants and zucchini. Sunday I spent hanging out with my little Buddy, visiting Santa and eating donuts while hubby went off to Campbelltown to pick up our new 2nd hand pop top camper. Not food related but very productive, nonetheless.
Love your buns, Celia 😄
Honestly Fran, between you and Becca, you’re all over this early Christmas thing! Hahaha
It certainly doesn’t look like you suffered in the food department this past weekend. Love those rolls!
Thanks Mimi! They were fun to make, I love breaking out the bread stamp!
Dishwasher … Broken, oven … Needs repair… Are you sure that’s tea in your glass Celia and not something a wee bit stronger, maybe with a little kick to it? I don’t think anyone could ever accuse you of being lazy, that’s for sure. But those gnocchi? Oh you are killing me!
They’re all working again now, Diane! I put my appliances through such hard yards that it’s difficult to be cranky at them when they break down! :)
Yeah! I can only imagine – maybe the manufacturers should use yours as a test kitchen and give you free appliances to test for durability. Oh, I’ll drop them a letter to tell them I’ve got a great candidate.
I love that gnocchi idea but the slab cake at the end did me in. You poor thing with no oven and dishwasher. If that happened to me I’d be unfit to live with.
I decided I’d be cheerful about the washing up and see it as a nice change – that lasted all of two days.. :)
When I read of your plans for a lazy weekend, i thought to myself, “This isn’t going to work.” I was right. So right, in fact that you did more during your lazy weekend than I did during my busy week. And you managed it all with a broken dishwasher and malfunctioning oven. Perhaps we need to discuss the meaning of the word “lazy”. You might be surprised, Celia. :D
You know me too well, John. :) If my hands are idle for too long, I get into mischief.. :)
Hi Celia, i have a reader who has trouble finding chestnut flour. Any ideas where she might find it? Thanks
Sandra, Italian delis often stock it. There’s also a new Australian brand – I read something about it in Lorraine’s latest IMK post.
Wow, that gnocchi was so good! I would never have made it so thanks for the idea :)
I’m so happy to hear that! Isn’t it a brilliant recipe? I think Sami is a genius.. :)
Hi Celia – The chocolate slab cake looks delicious. I’ve printed and will try it this weekend. Just visited my boyfriend’s grandkids in VA and brought back a lot of korean food and persimmons from the global market. I’m still working on the tromboncino my neighbor dropped early this fall.
Maria, those trombies can go a loong way! :) I hope you like the slab cake, it’s a family favourite here!
Thanks for this – I’m now following Sami :)