Costello Christmas

We had a lovely evening Christmas dinner under our back pergola. Mark had to have a Milo to finish off. We had so many treats. We ordered our ham from Teys' meat van at the West End Market. It was beautiful! Our lovely large and moist turkey breasts (that David hot smoked) were so good. They were from David's favourite butcher - Major Cuts at Morningside Central. Our table did look good at the beginning - believe me!

L'Arte

Vivo coffee was my treat this morning. I had a latte at L'arte - a beautiful new coffee shop just around the corner on Riding Rd. Kylie is the lovely proprietor and I had fun browsing around her shop looking at beautiful artworks, jewellery and gifts. Byron Bay Cookies sticky date and ginger cookie was also a yummy treat with my coffee.

Fab Time in Toowoomba

Another lovely family Christmas photo from the Toowoomba get-together. Terri is the spectacular hostess in the middle. We all bring food and drink but they go to a lot of trouble to bring it all together. What a nice do!

Neighbour Christmas

It's our Christmas street get-together today - this year at Caroline and Roger's house. Here's my sliced turkey breast (smoked by David) garlanded with orange slices and mint and a nice dollop of Hank's cranberry and citrus jam in the middle.

Here's some nice Santa Pudding from Charlesworth Nuts in Adelaide decorated with some sliced nectarines. How ironic that Christmas celebrates the preserved summer fruits but we have them all in abundance here in topsy-turvy land at Christmas time.

And some nice potato salad with truffle mayonnaise from Doodles Creek decorated with chopped red onion and fresh herbs and lots of mint from the back garden. Can't wait to get to the neighbours' place to tuck into what everyone else has brought!

Toowoomba Christmas

Here's all the young ones at Michael and Terri's family Christmas gathering in Toowoomba. They had their own special table - just like when they were little.

Here's Cathy with her four brothers. We're all looking a little middle-aged.

Danielle made some beautifully decorated Christmas cookies. Here's Lindsay and Patrick with the treats that went well with the beer.

All the cousins together with only one missing - our lovely Gracie who is busy picking watermelons at Chinchilla. We missed her so much. What a treat it is to still have little Jack believing in Santa and maybe Thomas too.

Christmas Cake Success

Grandma Charlesworth's Christmas Cake is a success. Charlesworth's Nuts from Adelaide send us all the fruit and nuts measured and weighed and we beat up our butter and sugar, eggs, flour, spice and add the fruit (chopped and soaked overnight in brandy). It's so easy and no waste.

Christmas Dekkies

Here's the gang admiring our tree. I like getting out all the Danish decorations Amy collected when she was over there. The Danes think they invented Christmas almost as much as the Swedes do.

Liz and Danielle like the Santa hats.

I like my gum leaf wreath made from leaves I found in the park. It may need a freshen up before next week.

Brother Espresso have great toast toppers. Marinated vegetables with feta is our favourite.

Christmas Treats

Charlesworth Nuts from Adelaide have a mail order system and they send you all the fruit and nuts measured out and ready to chop. We bought two Christmas puddings and a Christmas cake. People in SA have known about them for years and we found them at the markets on one of our treattracking expeditions to Adelaide. I steamed my puddings for four hours each in pyrex casserole dishes. They'll heat up very easily in the microwave on Christmas day.

Pearl Day

Hooray! Pearl Cafe, Woolloongabba, is open for business again after their unfortunate fire. They have done a lot of fixing up over the last few weeks and everything is back to normal, thank goodness.

We're so glad to be back to admiring their homemade cakes and goodies. Everything looks just the same and we had our usual beautiful breakfast there.

Give Thanks for Danielle

I made Stephanie Alexander's old fashioned pumpkin pie - lots of lemon juice, brown sugar and currants and spice. We celebrated Thanksgiving so Danielle didn't miss out.

We roasted a turkey breast and had some vegies. We made turkey place cards. They were cute!

Hong Kong Tales

Dalene Wray is from Obe beef. They are importing organic grass fed beef into Hong Kong grown in the Channel Country in Queensland.

David learned to make seafood dumplings that look like penguins at Superstar seafood restaurant in Hong Kong. They have a centre made from chopped shrimp and abalone; the white chest is rice flour and water; the outer coat is coloured with squid ink. David is very pleased with his penguin on the right.

Here's David at his lesson with Jackie Lau learning to roll and shape the penguin dumplings.

treattracker David is about to tuck into a goose foot in Hong Kong. He's just back from a week up there for work. Nice looking foot!

Mavas

Ikea call this style of shelf Mavas, so now it's Ria's new friend Mavas. We're about to take it into her new space and I can't wait to see it dressed up with all her goodies on it.

Here's Ria and Mavas in her new space. It looks nice! We do not need to mention any tiny imperfections that only we can notice.

Rue de Paris

Rue de Paris Cafe in Park Rd Milton has a beautiful breakfast. Hillary had an avocado, egg, spinach, and hollandaise combination - healthy and yummy!

Steve and David both ordered the omelette which was choc-a-block with bacon, tomato, mushroom and lots of pepper. It looked so good!

Here we are with our old friends Hillary and Steve Connolly from over in the western suburbs. We met at Park Rd Milton for brekky at Rue de Paris. They're off to New York, London, and Hong Kong for Christmas. We love catching up with all the news of our work, travel, kids,etc. It was so fun!

Antique Antics

What a nice time I had at Woolloongabba Antique Centre helping Ria put together her new Ikea stand. It is a nice plain white to emphasize the beautiful colours in her jewellery and antiques.

Let's hope we get it finished in time for opening time tomorrow morning. Here's Ria doing some banging. We love the Allan key.

Our lovely old cutting board made it into the Courier Mail this week for a photo. I think we got it years ago when we used to visit the North Pine Markets. Here it is with some Alba Mozzarella David bought at Feast on Fruit at Morningside and some of the fabulous garlic grown by Patrice Newell who has a farm at Gundy near Scone in NSW. Here's a link to the latest Fossicking columnhttp://www.news.com.au/couriermail/index/0,23806,5013516,00.html

Black Pearl Trivia

We just visited Brother Espresso on Riding Rd, Bulimba again and had breakfast with the gang. We all like the coffee and Elizabeth and Danielle loved the breakfast sandwiches. Here's Amy and Mark having a good time on a beautiful morning.

We came third in the Black Pearl food trivia night. Here's two of our team members - Mel and Helen. We had a nice time and Babak's lovely supper was delicious.

Cottage Garden

treattracker David found some Vietnamese mint at Cottage Garden Nursery at East Brisbane to plant in his herb garden.












We had breakfast at Cottage Garden Nursery. The cafe is run by the lovely Chris Einem who makes amazing jams and relishes and he preserves beautiful fruit which he is able to get from friends and relatives with orchards on the Granite Belt. David loved his omelette with pumpkin, feta, and pastrami and my fruit and nut toast was nice too.

Good Food and Wine Show

Another great find at the Convention Centre Good Food and Wine Show was Huon Valley smoked trout. You can find them at mmceneany@huonaqua.com.au treattracker David liked the look of this amazing green tea made by Aya Green Tea. It is so good for you! Find Aya at http://www.ayagreentea.com/ She's a Japanese tea instructor.

treattracker David - also Fossicker from the Courier Mail - loves his friend Margi Kirkby who produces olive oil at Gwydir Grove near Moree. He found them at the Good Food and Wine Show at the Convention Centre today. Margi is promoting her new Balsamic Vinegar, Australian Fusions Spicy Chilli and Fresh Lime Olive Oil, and Australian Fusions Native Mint and Garlic Olive Oil. Can't wait to try these in our next salad. Wow! Find Margi at http://www.gydirolives.com.au/

Time Flies

treattrackers had our lovely friends Michael and Josiane Lynch over for David's special hare krishna vego lasagne on Sunday night. We also had roast lamb for the non-vegos. What a nice dinner! Wow, I started teaching with Michael nearly 30 years ago and now we all find ourselves with five (altogether) grown-up daughters. How time flies!

(Find 'treattrackers' on twitter now).

Vine Morning

Elizabeth and Danielle like Abbott St New Farm with its beautiful shady camphor laurel trees.

We went to Vine for breakfast. It's in Merthyr Rd New Farm. The girls loved their asparagus with hollandaise sauce and eggs and David liked his vego breakfast which featured some beautiful fried haloumi. My fruit toast with ricotta and berry compote was delish too.

Tropicana Cafe on Lytton Road, Colmslie, is my favourite coffee place on my way from the gym in the morning. It caters for office workers, truckies, and all sorts of delivery guys. These blokes were looking at pamphlets and discussing the latest types of trucks. The coffee's great and they do a roaring trade.

Halloween Horrors

treattrackers had another trip to Brother Espresso which, luckily for us, is just around the corner on Riding Rd, Bulimba. They have the best coffee and are quickly gathering a very loyal following. Fossicker from the Courier Mail, David, ran into Toby, an old acquaintance whom he knows from Fino Foods. Here's a link http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/index/0,23806,5013516,00.html
treattrackers had a great Halloween this year. Danielle, who hails from Maine, carved a beautiful Jack o' Lantern for us and we bought a mountain of lollies. Our neighbours are originally from North America too and their two little girls have a BIG party.

Here's Danielle and Lili with our Jack o' Lantern and our lolly mountain.

It looked so impressive when it got dark.

Sunday Post

Here's a special salt David's friend Natalie Poyhonen brought back from France. It's called Fleur de Sel de Guerande and it's organic flower sea salt hand-harvested in Guerande. It tasted good on our steamed broad beans.

Spunky Spuds at the West End Markets were selling fresh broad beans yesterday. We steamed ours and added butter and salt and pepper. Not just ordinary salt, but French hand harvested sea salt which David's friend Natalie Poyhonen brought back from France for him.

Here's the latest bustling addition to our neighbourhood - Brother cafe at Bulimba. We went there for a quiet coffee on a Sunday morning and it was packed. I had a nice banana patty cake, made by the Mum of the brothers, with my coffee and David had a breakfast sandwich packed with avocado, prosciutto, and a fried egg.