Valentines Day

Well today was a lovely day! My parents put on the most amazing seafood lunch for my birthday - which is on Thursday. It was wonderful to indulge in oysters - so big and delicious, smoked salmon and prawns. Mum made a beautiful salad that complemented the seafood and they visited a wonderful bakery for some great bread! Mum also made the birthday cake which was delicious as well!

After going to Church tonight, I made a lovely cheese platter for Mark and I to enjoy. Given we aren't fans of the commercialised Valentines Day - yes there was a St Valentine, we didn't really 'do' anything to mark the day. I did arrange the cheese platter. See the photo for the amazing cheeses. It contains some very amazing cheeses. Testun Pecora Chest Leave - is a delicious hard cheese with a very subtle taste. It is one of the most expensive cheeses I have tasted - at $120/ kg we bought just over 250 grams. Other cheeses that we bought were Lagrein and Comte Gruyere, both delicious hard cheeses and Fromage De Meaux which is made from cow's milk and is a very soft (at room temp) almost runny cheese. We love good cheese, so spending about $70 on some cheese was an indulgence more enjoyable a stuffed teddy bear or dare I say, chocolate...

I have been reading a cookbook this weekend. It is called Arabesque by Claudia Roden. It details recipes from Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon. I am copying some of the recipes in the hope of trying to recreate them for dinner at some stage this week.

I have also photographed something I love more than a bunch of flowers... well perhaps not more than orchids and lillies... but as much... a huge bunch of fresh herbs. All of these herbs came from my mother's garden. I don't think I have purchased basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, bay leaves or flat leaf parsely or mint ever!!! I have included a picture because it represents a very very small section of the produce from mum's garden. I am looking forward to making basil pesto (Melinda's recipe) and a few other things this week.