The start of spring...the start of a new blog

After a few months of thinking of so many things that I would put on a personal blog, I've finally finished the design and come to posting something...mmmm what to write!!

I'll start with the weather (always a good conversation starter!). I live in the Riverland region of South Australia which has been experiencing hard times for those that make their living off the land. With the drought and poor management of the River Murray system many people have had to walk away from their fruit blocks and farms. We can only hope that things will turn around and over the past couple of months it has been promising with good rains. The last 2 days most of South Australia has been absolutely drenched with rains that haven't been seen in many years.It has been lovely to see all the blossoms coming out to remind us that Spring his here.

To help you get to know me a bit here are a few pics of some of my favourite things.
I love nothing more, than sipping a coffee while flicking through and being inspired by home and lifestyle magazines. I have way too many, but when friends call over there is always plenty to choose from!

I enjoy patchwork and quilting and used to make quite a few things, but most of my creative energies these days go into my work so I tend to buy or have someone make things for me! With the banning of plastic shopping bags, I decided to make one of my own. This was one of the last things I made.

I also enjoy cooking and baking and am always on the lookout for new recipies to try.
Every Monday night our boys and their girlfriends come for tea, so I usually try and do something different otherwise it's the good old roast. Last week I made a Warm Chicken Salad with Fried Rice and Crusty Bread.
I remembered to take a photo of the first part but then forgot to take on of the large platter with the delicious meal on it. I did however re-arrange the left-overs and take a photo so you got a bit of an idea of how it looked!! The recipe is under the photos.

Preparation
Slice chicken fillets into small pieces.
Coat the pieces with Southern Fried Chicken seasoning and fry slightly to colour and place in a hot oven covered with alfoil for about 15 minutes to cook through.
Dice 4 potatoes (skin on) and cook until just tender, not too soft.
Boil 4 eggs, cool and slice.

On a LARGE serving platter layer

1 bag of lettuce blend
1 cucumber diced
1 red onion sliced
Punnet of cherry tomatoes cut in half
Snowpeas  - diced
Capsicum - diced
Avocado x 2 diced
(you can basically used any salad ingredient you have in your fridge).
Then place chicken on followed by potato and egg.
You can grate cheese over top and sprinke with toasted slithered almonds or pinenuts.

Accompany the platter with some mayonnaise in a jug and crusty bread.

I make my own mayonnaise as follows:

1 tin condensed milk
1 egg
½ teaspoon mustard (I use Mustard Sauce)
4 tbspns vinegar
Pepper and Salt
Beat together. Keeps well in fridge.

On this cold, very windy night we are about to go out to a 21st so bye for now and I look forward to meeting some new people via this blog.