Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans

I just read a fantastic blog post by my friend and fellow baker LibrarianJ. She has an great blog called Baking Bread and is documenting her baking experiences. It is so much fun to see others also loving to bake and the added advantage of actually knowing this particular blogger and living in the same city, is I hope that we can exchange some samples from time to time :-) It is, of course, also an great use of Web 2.0, but that is another story. Also on the bread front, in preparation for my birthday on Tuesday, I have split my starter in two, so I can bake 3 loaves.

Well last night we had a great BBQ with friends Hannah, Wayne and Iris, Jenny and Vic, and my neighbour Nina. It was just a simple affair with good food, wine and company. One of the things that made it specially great for me on the food front was the meat. The meat was a rolled Lamb Leg Roast which the butcher at NOSH boned for me and rolled on the spot. These guys are seriously good and if you live in Auckland and have not been to NOSH I would urge you to go. It was so great to see the leg boned before my eyes and know it was fresh and well done. I have a hood on my BBQ, and so I just roasted the meat on a rack with some olive oil and rosemary picked fresh from our garden. The other thing food wise, was the fact that the green part of the salad consisted almost entirely of greens from our garden. Our Rocket is just going to seed, so I will need to plant some more, but it has served us well and has the most amazing peppery taste. Much better than the store bought Rocket, which invariably tastes of nothing at all. We also had some standard lettuce in the salad. The tomatoes were all store bought as mine are not quite ready but with my 8 plants, I should be able to move in to using my own tomatoes within a few weeks.

Speaking of the garden, everything is going well. The tomato plants are really almost out of control, but I choose not to prune back, so I have to roll with the punches there. The rocket needs pulling and replanting and the whole place needs a jolly good weed!

Ok, that is all for now