Stefano's Restaurant.

Well we did it a 5 course (well ours was 6 courses, but I will get to that) degustation menu that you have no choices on, basically you get whatever they have on the menu for the night. So the babysitter comes, the same one that we had last time we stayed here and she takes the kids for a swim, off we go to the restaurant. It's in the cellar, it's quite dark with lots of candles and a small table lamp. We were the 7.00pm diners they staggered them with the last ones being 8.00pm. Once you are seated the warm bread comes out with a platter of olives (yuk) and olive oil and goats cheese (that was all good except the olives)
The first course is "Olive Oil Poached Ocean Trout, Cannellini Beans & Chard Salad" it was lovely, we both liked it even though my husband called the fish "kitty kat".
Next came a Pumpkin & Gorgonzola tart (it was served cold and was beautiful) this was the course that only 1 other couple got we are not sure why by we think that it was to slow us down as we didn't have the wine that is served with each course and the other people that did were taking longer as they had to savour their wines. (to everyone that knows my husband he was thinking what next spinach pie, pumpkin is one of his disliked vegetables).
Then came "Fried Zucchini Flowers, with Ricotta & Goats Cheese filling, with Cherry tomatoes & Prosciutto" this was really nice, but the funny thing was that on Christmas Eve I made the same thing and believe or not the filling had the same taste as theirs.
Still going out comes the "Ravioli di Carne with sage butter & shaved Grana" the inside filling was a shreaded veal, I think that this was one of my favourites, very rich but just so good.
By this time we are thinking 1 more course to go but out comes the knife & fork and the waitress tells us you have your main to come. Oh No those pants are going to have to be unbuttoned!!!!
Out comes "Magret Duck in Two Ways, Sweet Potato Mash & Green Beans" one way was Confit- cooked in its own fat and I think the other slow cooked, it was really rich as well, nice but not my favourite and by that time I thought that I was going to explode.
Then finally the dessert came out "Vanilla Bavarois with Caramelised Orange & Vanilla Wafer" well what can I say the Bavarois was so light it was melt in your mouth, the wafer was so thin I could have eaten 1 kilo of them, they were to die for but the caramelised orange was awful, I don't think that caramel & orange go together that's only my opinion but my husband didn't like it either.
Stefano was there waiting on tables and we asked for him to sign his latest cookbook for me (as I have all his other ones signed as well) the waitress brings it over in a lovely Stefano's bag.
We leave there happy back to the babysitter that has been with the kids for nearly 4 hours, because thats how long our 6 course meal took. The babysitter says I am not supposed to say this but I have had a great night, they went to the pool, then the gym, out for a icecream then back to the room to play games on my iphone.
So a good night was had by us all, and you know what I am so looking forward to breakfast as I am starving.

The Mighty Murray at Mildura.

This is the great Murray River, it seems to have more water in it than the last time we were here (which was about 5 years ago), but after talking to some locals they said that it was always like this. It is a great sight after the flat desolate country that is between Hay and Mildura, it seems like nothing would grow there and the only wildlife that was abundant was a group of Emu's. We stopped at Hay for a coffee and had the best scones and jelly slice and the coffee was really good as well (so I was told, I don't drink it). But it's a bit of a long drive to get there. We are still in Mildura tomorrow so we will be doing all the tourist things.

Star Hotel - Naranderra

What a beautiful hotel, you can only imagine all the stories that this place
has kept in it's walls. We went through Naranderra this morning and spent 20 minutes looking for koala's, well we didn't see any so we wondered if the sign was for the silly tourists.

Camping - my style

Yes they finally got me to go camping, well no not really, this is the foyer of the hotel that we are staying in. It has a huge tent like tower that looks like we are on the Sydney to Hobart boats.
We are off to Mildura tomorrow and we will try to get away early as we have around a 6 hour drive. We are booked into Stefano's Restaurant for a 5 course dinner in the night, we have had dinner there before and it was fantastic so we are really looking forward to our surprise menu.

This is my Favorite tree.

I got one of these for Christmas, they are a West Astralian Gum Tree, they have the most beautiful flowers and when we took the kids to the park there was about 3 of them in the gardens that were in the park. The one that I got has been grafted onto some other tree that grows well in Sydney, we had a look at these ones and it didn't look like it was grafted. Maybe the weather here is more suitable for them.

Hello from Wagga Wagga

Saw this sign on a store in the main street, we all thought that it was pretty funny. (Sorry about the quality as it was on my phone)

Merry Christmas....

The big guy in the red suit has been, I am not sure how he did it with a gap of only about 2 hours that the youngest was asleep, so we are tired but happy with full bellies and lots of new things to play with.
We are off on our huge trip to Coober Pedy on Saturday , so we are all really looking forward to that.
As we sat down for our Christmas lunch the wish was that it would be the last Christmas lunch that we will have in this house, and that we would be able to have our next Christmas in our new home.
To everyone we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.