Summers End

Last weekend we made the most of what must be one of the last lovely summer weekends. Off we headed to our favourite beachside park. Once again we were able to enjoy our favourite spot in Queen Elizabeth Park. A private, grassy patch for ball kicking, shade for sitting under and our own sandy slide down to the beach. Just perfect. It seems every time we visit, the spot has been saved just for us.

While I gathered shells for a class rocky shore study, Lucy enjoyed playing in the surf with her dad. It was hard to leave.

I've also been trying to get organised and try just one new recipe a week.

Last week I ventured down to the local Saturday morning fruit and veg market and came back with a big bag of tomatoes - relish or sauce? Having been given Annabel Langbeins new book The Free Range Cook, I decided to try her Harvest Tomato Sauce. An easy recipe and as a result, delicious sauce. I have now some ready in the freezer and I'm off to the market to stock up on more tomatoes and make some more sauce!

Last year I came across 100+ Tasty $10 Meals by Sophie Gray from the libary. For me, it was one of those recipe books where almost all of the recipes look simple and great and you want to try them. I renewed and renewed the book and tried a number of the recipes. In the end, I came across the book in a little book shop in Petone and so had to buy it. So this week, I also tried Pork and Peanut Noodles. The recipe included something called kecap manis, I found this easily at our local asian food market. It was the secret incredient, suddenly what seemed like a simple stir fry, suddenly had that tasty, almost "great asian takeaway" flavour.

And on the craft front, sewing class saw me almost finish little Lucy's pinafore, and how to sew buttons. I also managed to figure out how to make a little lined zippered purse without a seam at the bottom! Hopefully next week I will have pics of one finished pinafore, one finished hat and one finished zippered purse ...