bentenlaughing

With winter around the corner in the Land of Oz I've collected some recipes from family and friends to warm the cockles of your heart. From David Rowland's kitchen, a Blues pioneer of Australian music ..(drummer/Phil Jones & the Unknown Blues) ...(and interestingly enough with one of my own Mum's favourites) - a down to the bone recipe from his kitchen too! Pea & Ham for the Winter Blues Get a ham-bone from the butchers and a pack of dried split peas from the supermarket. Rinse the peas and leave to soak. Put it all in a pot and cook until tender. Season to taste and enjoy:) Thanks David. I've decided to cook it tonight!!!!Can't wait to tell you how it went!! The report is, not as good as Mums!!! Now for a recipe from my cousin Kerry Thorp! That same cousin who was born in America. I wanted to hang out with that cowboy kid and indeed I did but I never got to wear the suit! Well here's one of that cowboy's  favourite reci...

It's moved past being an Autumnal Blue Mountains day to being one on the verge of snowing....but in these here hills, snow is rare...so instead it's listening to Alison Krauss and her beautiful vocals of country music and imagining the woods where the snowfall is deep. Now with winter on its way here in Australia it's time to find hearty recipes for warming the cockles of one's heart...and bringing into being ways to keep the chills away....so I hope to soon be sharing with you some of my friends hearty winter soup recipes!!!  Also their photos from places where Spring is in the air and Summer on its way!!  So from these hills until then I send you wintry but warm greetings....and the little boat of the Seven Lucky Gods of Japan with Benten playing the Biwa....this beautiful boat has been sailing with me since I was a child thanks to one of my brothers....

Jan.s: Bobi when did you begin painting? Bobi: I started learning to paint beginning March 1993. I had a friend who had been going to Derek Newton who taught from his home on the North Shore, her husband was an artist and still is. So we all started from the beginning, with learning to draw, something I had never done in my life, watercolours they say its the hardest medium. I would go for a term and have a term off, So I went on an off till 1996. We started using one colour only, light to dark and I really enjoyed it. Derek of course would help us through the painting when we started, and we were all pretty neat and tidy - we learned how to mix paints from the primary 3 colours. Red/blue and yellow. We would go off to the beach and paint also quite early on. Skies, waves, beach, birds, houses, hills, landscapes in 1994 - and painted on and off during 1995/1996 Motor Racing took over our life for a few years so had time off, as I was in charge of the food, cooking for our Te...