Monday already…what happened to the weekend?
Ours was spent doing not very much at all. We had friends over for dinner on Saturday night and then yesterday it rained, all day. It was, in fact, one of those absolutely perfect Sundays where there’s nowhere to be and we could hunker down in tracky-daks and ugg boots and do pretty much faff all.
Anyways, without further ado, here are the five…
1.Cold mornings
The mornings last week were unusually cold – sub 10C, which is a rarity here. It did, however, make for some amazing colour in the sunrises and was a good excuse to get a beanie out for my early morning walks.
I think this pic shows my best side…
2. Blue days
The mornings might have been cold but the days were glorious. Winters in Queensland really do suck…said no one ever!
3. Celebrating
Sarah finished her last practical placement in her degree last week. It’s been a long 10 weeks as she’s juggled a full-time work placement with her paid part-time work, but it’s done. She now has just one semester of uni left to go.
To celebrate, and because we needed an excuse, we had lunch at a new modern Asian restaurant in Buderim village – Honeysuckle, so named because Buderim was apparently named after the Gabi Gabi word for place of the Hairpin Honeysuckle Banksia.
We went for the $25pp luncha yumcha menu which gave us a taste of everything.
It looks like a lot of food but was pretty much one piece of everything. Sarah also ordered a deconstructed creme brûlée with coconut foam for her and Grant to share and it was seriously one of the prettiest plates of food I’ve seen in a long time.
4. This word and this meme…
5. In the kitchen
Not much happening in the kitchen this week. We had friends over for dinner, so no Destination Kitchen – if you’re interested, homemade pizzas were on the menu with treacle tart, homemade vanilla ice cream and real custard to finish.
Yesterday was scone making weather so I experimented with a new (to me) buttermilk scone (recipe coming).
Also yesterday I was craving tomato soup but didn’t have any in the house. I did, however, have some tinned tomatoes and a thriving basil plant. I sautéed a few shallots in some olive oil, whacked in the tomatoes and some basil, blitzed it up and hey presto, tomato soup. I did add a pinch of sugar and a drizzle of cream to cut through the acidity, but it was on the table in hardly any time and perfect for a rainy Sunday.
Okay, that was my week… how was yours?
And Anyways... 
I saw you mention the deconstructed creme brulee on Facebook or somewhere and it does look amazing.
This is very boring but I’ve recently found some GF (vegan actually) spring rolls in the frozen section of Coles that taste like I remember spring rolls tasting and I find them soooo exciting. I’ve tried to make rice paper rolls and failed, let alone spring rolls but as you know there are certain asian foods I really miss. (Though I also not more and more asian-based sauces are available GF now so I’m hoping cafes and restaurants catch up soon.)
I reckon spring rolls would be something I’d miss if I had to be GF…
That tomato soup looks amazing, Jo. You truly are a kitchen wizard!
Oh, and the Luncha Yumcha and Deconstructed Creme Brûlée look mighty fine as well! 😀
I always love your morning sunrise photos and well bloody done getting up and still going on these FREEZING (for us Queenslanders anyway) mornings lately! Love the look of the yum cha lunch and well done to Sarah. I hope she is soaking up and enjoying the wonderful achievement of hers! OMG Cecily and her towel – cracked me up. I knew towels weighed more than I thought! And finally, if I ever visit you at your place can I please be served those scones with my cuppa – merci beaucoup! Have a wonderful week Jo! xo
You’re on re the scones!
Hi Jo – I love how you just “whip” something up – whereas I’d see it as a major cooking achievement! Our oven died last week so my culinary skills are even more restricted – and there’s a 6-8wk wait on parts – so covid killed my oven for the next couple of months! Congrats to Sarah on finishing her prac and having the end in sight – hopefully she’ll walk straight into a lovely job at the end of it all.
6-8 weeks! Now that would be a challenge…
I have had a pretty slow week as the weather hasn’t been great. Lots of board games with the kids. Oh and we also bought a new camper trailer!!
Happy new camper trailer!
Well done to Sarah, thats a great achievement and not much longer now! Your days looks glorious and hopefully soon we will be able to get up there and enjoy the winter you’re having! I laughed at the Cecily cartoon – too true! Enjoy the week ahead! #lifethisweek
You’ll be up here before you know it now.
‘Tacenda’ is officially my word of the day! Thank you for introducing it to us here.
Well done, Sarah!
SSG xxx
Go forth and use it in a meeting…
Making it through a placement during Covid is impressive. Downhill stretch for her now.
Yep, not long to go…
I’m now craving tomato soup! As always, loving your sunrise pics. Queensland winters are amazing – if only the summers weren’t so humid. That’s a brand new word for me! Love the meme. Hope you have a good week ahead!
Summers can be tough, that’s for sure, but the winters are divine.
And poof weekend gone! Happy Monday for you
and you. Thanks for dropping by.
Celebrations are always fun, but especially when it’s your kid you’re celebrating! Congrats! The menu looks delicious and the dessert – Yum! Have a great week.
It was an amazing meal – any excuse will do…
Sounds a wonderful excuse for having dinner out. It has been very hard for students during the last few days if my nieces are anything to go by. That’s how I make up a tomato soup, I love using fresh tomatoes if in season and having a cold soup.
I’ve been impressed at her resilience actually – she’s just stuck her head down and done it. The tough bit has been going into other people’s homes & having to sanitise, sanitise, sanitise & then change her clothes and have a shower before she touches anything at home.
How hard is it when degrees required full-time placements for a long time. I know my son struggled with this, having a family while he did that for one of his prac placements. I sure had a lot to do with student teachers back in 2013-2014 and it was very hard on them combining full-time teaching prac and prep, Uni assignments and some kind of paid employment.
All the best to Sarah.
Thank you so much for linking up. We are more half way through the year now. Next week it’s time for: 27/51 Taking Stock #3 6.7.2020 so I look forward to seeing you then, on or off prompt. Denyse.
It’s tough. She’s been lucky to be able to keep her part time job throughout.
I love all your pics. I envy you and your glorious Queensland weather. I was up there last winter (on the sunshine coast) and was amazed how warm it is. My sister laughed when we all got off the plane because we were all carrying jackets. It was cold in Sydney at 6am! My daughter has a 6 weeks placement next term then she has finished her teaching degree.