CORNED BEEF

After deciding to go with the butcher's recommendation for slow roasting the corned beef I googled recipes to check on timing for my joint and found a recipe on Australia's Best Recipes website which used wholegrain mustard, marmalade, lemon juice and garlic.  I nearly used that but decided to try the butcher's recipe first.

This morning when talking to my stepdaughter in New South Wales she mentioned that the marmalade recipe is the one she uses and wouldn't go back so I may try that next time.

In the meantime, I portioned the beef casserole that I made yesterday and sliced my gluten free loaf  freezing them both. The containers that Medjool dates come in are just enough for the two of us as we are not big meat eaters.

I roasted the corned beef for 4 hours which was perfect, plenty left over for the rest of the week.

 

The meal doesn't look very exciting with the pale green but the beef with potato, kumara and pumpkin mash, glazed cabbage and leeks in white sauce was delicious.

PRODUCTIVE DAY

As usual, our Saturday started with the Growers' Market.  We didn't get much, just persimmons and eggs.  The eggs were the main reason for going as the eggs being sold there now are delicious with lovely dark yolks.  (This reminds me of taking some of our own eggs down to our daughter-in-law about 30 or 40 years ago.  She went to use them and asked me if they were o.k. to eat as they had such dark yolks and she was used to supermarket eggs.  I must say the supermarket ones have improved since then.

After the market and supermarket we came home for breakfast and, as the forecast was not suitable for washing to dry, I got baking.  First up was a gluten free white loaf then an almond and pear cake followed by some chocolate chip biscuits.

Doug is the washer upper so I then had a short break while he washed the dishes then I got a beef casserole ready to go in the oven.  I then cooked our lunch (a bit late as usual) sausages and mash with creamed leeks.

After lunch I got a white loaf into the bread maker for Doug. That is enough for today.  Tomorrow I am going to slow roast a corned silverside in the oven as recommended by the butcher, a first for me.

UPDATE

 We had some lovely fine days last week and both of us worked in the garden getting some weeding done and moving some plants around.  

We had a heavy rain and strong wind watch for today and although neither are too extreme it is definitely wet and windy and I cancelled today's walk.  

Our newspapers were wet this morning and we opened them up to dry.  Kim who was running around like a mad thing then decided to have a go at the paper and we have just noticed that he has eaten Donald Trump - could be a message there.

GARLIC

I don't usually grow garlic as I have always bought it from the Growers' Market but the man growing it has sold up and retired.  I refuse to buy the Chinese garlic that looks as though it has been bleached so decided to grow some this year.  

I bought "ordinary" garlic I think it was Printanor as well as Elephant Garlic and planted them on June 12th.  This morning I decided to weed the bed, well they were not actually weeds but hundreds of tomato seedlings.  It was only when I started to do this that I realised the garlic has come up in just 3 weeks.   

There are a dozen that have come up and I think another one or two plus the Elephant garlic that haven't shown yet.  The plastic mesh is to stop the birds scratching.  In spite of that there was one bulb at soil level which I replanted.  I was pleased to see it had some good roots.

We have had so much rain I had wondered whether they would rot below ground so was pleased with this first step.  A long way to go yet but it is a start.

THE POWER CUT AND MONDAY'S WALK

Our thoughts have been confirmed.  The major outage that cut power to about 100,000 people was caused by a team removing the nuts from three of the pylon legs at the same time during routine maintenance.  I can just imagine their faces when the pylon started to fall.  (It was lucky no-one was injured or killed).  

We had some power restored that evening and by the following evening had full power when one of the 220 kV circuits was re-livened, it is hoped to have the second circuit  sorted by the end of the week.  The pylon landed on it so it is a more difficult job.  There will, of course, be several investigations and lots of calls for compensation.

Meanwhile, we were lucky, once again, with the weather for Monday's walk.  The weekend was very wet (although most of the rain was at night) Monday dawned fine but cloudy.  We had a very pleasant walk from the Information Centre to the Raumanga Falls.  

The waterfall is always very hard to get a photo of but, after all the rain, it was in full flow yesterday and could easily be seen through the trees.  (we walk to the top of the falls)

After the walk we met at the home of one of our walkers for a mid-winter get-together.  Everyone brought a plate of food and I fully intended to take a photo of the spread but completely forgot about it.  Anyway,  it was enjoyed by all and we sat chatting for a couple of  hours.

 

A BAD DAY

Yesterday, at 11 a.m. our power went off.  When we lived in the more isolated Far North this used to happen from time to time but since living down in Whangarei power cuts are usually for planned  maintenance.

It took a while before the extent and cause of the cut became apparent.  It seems that work was being done on the alternative power line to Northland when a pylon on the line in use fell over.  Presumably, someone was having a bad day as it looks as though the bolts holding the pylon down had been removed and the pylon fell over.  This cut power to just under 100,000 people.

We are on fibre so were without a landline and only had intermittent cellphone coverage.  Luckily, our wood burner has a removable top giving a hot surface and we were able to boil water and heat a casserole and rice for lunch.  

The power eventually came back on at about 5 pm although full power is not expected until after the weekend so everyone is asked to conserve power and water in the meantime.  

Of course all the traffic lights were out and police were on duty at major intersections.

                                           photo of fallen pylon from New Zealand Herald

Several large businesses including the milk giant, Fonterra, and Portland cement have stopped using power until the emergency is over.

WAIMAHANGA TRACK

The Parkinson's walk today was the Waimahanga track, another favourite and, once again, after some heavy rain at the weekend mostly at night we had a glorious day for our walk.  There were 15 of us and we all enjoyed a catch up at a nearby cafe after the walk.

The view of the mangroves from one of the bridges

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  from the other bridge a view of ducks on a small island with the mangroves in the background
  
  
  
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the lovely track.