We had a wonderful Bastille French Lunch today – we used the Atlas Masterclass special French Mother’s Day menu as inspiration. Rita made voilà cocktails- recipe from the Drinking French cookbook & she also made a gluten free walnut French cake. Sue made the Charlie Carrington chicken liver pate recipe. Rosey made French onion soup Christine made sourdough baguettes and boeuf bourguignon. I made brioche, truffle butter, Dani Valent recipes for Café de Paris, Lemon & Tarragon butter and Aligot (French cheesy mashed potato). Roquefort salad, baked salmon, roasted garlic kipfler potatoes, roast beetroot, steamed beans and my pork rillettes recipe.Natalie made a delicious Apple Tart served with vanilla bean ice cream.
This was a foodie dream come true, especially for my friend & Chef Eloise Emmett see her blog post here. What a magical spot at Bangor with a glorious view & we say long table – yes it was a looooooong table – It don’t even think the person at the other end of the table would even hear you asking to pass the salt!
We got to help pick the last of the grapes – pinot noir (we found out later the wine won’t be ready till another 3 years from the grapes we picked today)
Matt gave us a lesson in grape picking before we could start – one of the main things was don’t cut yourself, we all managed to get that one right – It was also important not to pick any under ripe grapes at this will effect the wine in a negative way! No pressure at all!!
So what about the food & the menu?The menu featured seafood & local produce of course. We started with mugs os creamy seafood chowder – this was good because it gave a bit more time to take more photos of the food on the table before everyone sat down & ate 🙂 And of course we had to have the Bangor oysters too – They are amazing! I think I sat in the right spot because the people around me either couldn’t eat them or didn’t like oysters!!
One of my favourite Ellie salads – Greek salad with octopus!!
Smoked salmon & potato salad
Quail salad
Of course there was delicious Bangor Wine & we had a Seafood Lasagne too not to mention freshly baked bread & cheese plates.
For dessert we had chocolate profiteroles, apple & rhubarb crumble cake, brownies by Isobel & poached pears with a red wine syrup.
And just like that our magical lunch was over & it was time to pack up! I am so grateful to have been a part of this wonderful day. I left full & happy, what wonderful bunch of people we met while picking grapes & eating a gourmet seafood feast!
Love ’em or hate ’em, lunchboxes are an unavoidable necessity. Parents have an important role to play when packing a lunchbox. Learning is hungry work! To fuel children for a day at school, pack a nutritious main lunch plus snacks from the five food groups. Pack to suit your child’s appetite. Keep food safe by packing lunchboxes in an insulated bag with an ice brick. Include a water bottle.
Kids love to help! Get the kids involved in planning and packing their lunchbox. Try making the following recipes together.
KIDS COOKING LUNCHBOX IDEAS* Puff pastry scrolls Filo pastry triangles Cornish pasties Zucchini slice Lasagne cups Potato & veg bake into cupcake liners Fritters or corn cakes Pikelets Left over cold pasta bake or macaroni cheese or bake in muffin tins Dip & veg sticks or crackers Quesadillas Rice paper rolls Sushi rolls Wraps Scrolls – savoury or sweet Pasta or noodle salad Mini pies or potato pies Mini quiche Frittata in muffin cups or a rectangle cut into squares Mini pizzas Calzone Meatballs Tuna or salmon fish cakes or balls Falafel balls Mini hamburger Sausage rolls or vegetarian sausage rolls Savoury muffins Hard-boiled eggs Stuffed potatoes or sweet potatoes Mini sausages baked in puff pastry Corn chips and avocado dip serve with cheese sticks and vegetable sticks Savoury or sweet flavoured popcorn Potato or sweet potato salad with bacon Home-made baked beans with toast soldiers Leftover fried rice Fresh, frozen or dried fruit Cold dogs Pizza subs Egg & bacon pies Mini meat loves wrapped in bacon Homemade crumpets with butter & honey or Vegemite Noodle salad Cornbread served with butter cheese & relish Cherry tomatoes to snack on Dry cereal or toasted muesli (as long as there is no nuts) or dried fruit and seed mix Cold roasted vegetable wedges with sour cream dip Lettuce cup filled with favourite mince & or salad mix Pumpkin, carrot, spinach and ricotta cheese triangles Savoury scones Fruit sticks with cream cheese dip Silverbeet and cream cheese quiche Ploughman’s lunch – cheese pickles vegetable sticks cold ham/salami Home-made potato cake Pasta salad Home made yoghurt and stewed fruit or vanilla bean paste
Fillings for sandwiches, rolls & wraps Avocado and egg Chicken avocado and spring onion Roast beef with beetroot dip Cheese with relish, hummus or pesto & salad Tuna mayonnaise and lettuce Curried egg & Mayo Cucumber dill & Mayo & cheese Ham cheese and mayo Vegemite cheese and lettuce Butter banana and cinnamon Crispy bacon and egg BLT Bacon lettuce tomato Strawberry honey and cream cheese Cheese and tomato bread and butter puddings Fresh pineapple and cheese with lettuce Apple cheese and ham Lemon butter
Keep sandwiches interesting – try varying the fillings or cut sandwiches into different shapes. 3 layer sandwich – club sandwich Pinwheel or spiral sandwich Different shapes using a cookie cutter; little mini sandwiches can also put put onto a skewer Rectangles Squares Triangles Fingers Open sandwich Different types of bread, multigrain, brown, white Try making your own wraps
Add to the dough – seeds, or a bit or veg to colour the wrap, beetroot for pink spinach for green, carrot coloured etc.
Or use lettuce leaves like Dani Valent’s Chicken Lettuce Cup Lunchbox Recipe Try different types of rolls, different shapes & flavours, Turkish bread, baguette, hamburger bun, multigrain, wholemeal, sourdough etc.
* If your school is nut-free, either omit the nuts or substitute a mix of seeds in recipes that contain nuts. Try pine nuts (a seed, not a nut), linseeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds or chia seeds.
A girls road trip to Deloraine with Ellie & Sarah to the most magic place The Black Hen for a styling lunch with Michelle Crawford author of the book A Table in the Orchard & her own blog Hugo & Elisa.
Michelle gave us some tips, ideas & suggestions for styling and then it was time to play!
We were given produce & props; ready set style & shoot!!
I was drawn to the broad beans – Ellie & I got to work 🙂
And pomegranates
Chillies & spices
Here are some scenes other groups created
Very important now – Lunch – Julie from the Black Hen had prepared us an amazing feast, now we all helped to set & style the table.
Then the food
Let’s style some pears & some desserts
I was really happy with my tea & biscuits shot 🙂
And I took a picture os Ellie’s styled waffle too!
We had had such a wonderful time, learnt so much & also made some new friends.
We did a spot of shopping at the Black Hen shop before we left with our bags full, minds full of inspiration & bellies full of delicious food.
I have been so excited about this workshop & got to pick up our stylist & photographer for the weekend JJ of 84th & 3rd from the airport on Friday night & drove her down to Mussel Boys on the Tasman peninsula where chef Eloise Emmett was preparing food for a wonderful weekend of food styling & photography.
Day 1: We started with styling morning tea 🙂 Apple crumble cake -recipe from Ellie’s the real food for kids cookbook.
I made some dips in the Thermomix too 🙂
Lunch anyone?YUM!! You will never be hungry on a food styling workshop 😉
My most favourite salad ever Ellie’s Octopus Salad!!
I was so happy I was able to use the Thermomix for the creme’ patisserie & ganache for the sponge cake. Ellie even used it to make the sponge cake.
My happy accident arty cake shot 🙂
The amount of drooling happening while all the cameras were shooting the cake being assembled was intense & amazing!!
Oh & then we had to eat it of course!! I think I am in foodie heaven!!
(I will be adding in more photos of our G&T’s & our delicious dinner later on)
Breakfast shoot 🙂
Yes I got to use the Thermomix again for JJ’s green smoothie recipe – find it on her blog – link below.
We had an excursion to a local oyster farm, we had a shucking lesson & tasting with some more amazing sparkling wine from Bream Creek Vineyard.
I was so happy with this shot I actually printed out for my exhibition for TAFE & titled it “Taste of the Sea”
JJ tasting the best oyster of her life 🙂 You can buy her ceramic versions of the oysters to use as a salt dish on The Decadent Pantry.
We finished off our amazing weekend with a picnic – as soon as we set it up outside it started to rain & we had to bring it indoors to shoot it. (I will upload pictures of this soon)
I had the best time on this weekend, I learnt so much about styling & shooting made some new friends & not to mention the endless feast of the most amazing food & beverages. Very happy memories made indeed & I want to Thank Ellie & JJ so much for organising & running the event.
See JJ’s blog post here & Ellie’s post here which includes the video of the “The Shuck Off” oyster shucking race 🙂
Christine made sourdough baguettes 
and boeuf bourguignon. I made brioche, truffle butter, Dani Valent recipes for Café de Paris, Lemon & Tarragon butter and Aligot (French cheesy mashed potato). Roquefort salad, baked salmon, roasted garlic kipfler potatoes, roast beetroot, steamed beans and my pork rillettes recipe.Natalie made a delicious Apple Tart served with vanilla bean ice cream.
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