website for the Restaurant

www.thetable.on.net

OPEN for business

I'm exhausted!

It has been a few months of blood,sweat and tears but we have reached the end of the arduous tunnel and the result is one of true happiness.

Our Italian restaurant has finally opened and the response has been very positive. My hubby and I with the help of many a great tradesman completely made over this magnificent building. We are situated in the Adelaide Hills in the leafy English style village of Stirling.

The cuisine on the menu is Italian, a dream I have had for many years.

We serve only the freshest locally sourced produce. Adelaide Hills region prides themselves on producing amazing quality ingredients for us foodies to create with.

My very dear friend Micheal Murphy ( smellier of award winning wine list fame) has jumped on board to give his guidance on the wine list. We have plenty to choose from, the area lends itself to producing great White's. The list is predominately local with a splash of the Coonawarra and the Mc Claren Vale regions.

Our pizza oven finally arrived last week!!  Very limited menu for pizza, only 6. The rule of our pizza making is LESS IS MORE... our chef ( Jim who is Italian) specialises in pizza and together we have created simple and delicious flavours to top our Lauke Flour semolina bases.

An example is the "FUNGI"  marinated Swiss brown mushrooms,spinach,tallegio cheese and a squeeze of lemon.

So this venture has been keeping me extremely hectic as well as running KINDERCHEFS and looking after my most hilarious little toddler who has the vocabulary of an english professor!

Hope to be back posting soon,

Take care and enjoy yourselves over this festive season.

Ciao.

Where Have I Been....

Well its been an embarrassingly long time between posts!

I have been very busy setting up business. My new venture is " KinderChefs"  organic cooking lessons for pre-schoolers and their parents.

We haven't started as yet but next week will be our first demo class to practice on our friends, try to iron out any creases before the REAL class begins.

The aim of the lessons is to create a fun, educational, musical environment for our children to learn about food and cooking. Our vision is for children and their parents to understand how easy it is to eat healthy with minimum fuss and time spent in the kitchen.

So far the response has been very positive and the local media has been very generous.

We are using as much organic produce as possible and our recipes are low sugar and low fat.

I have sourced great local suppliers so this will keep our carbon imprint low. Our butcher is organic and makes his own small goods with NO nitrates and sulphates or preservatives!!!

So wish me luck as I venture into the world of wee chefs.....

Keep you posted!

Where does the time go???

Dear Blog,

How very sorry I am for my lapse. I have not been nourishing you at all...you have been so good to me and I am completely taking you for granted.....

Well now I have apologised and feel better for it!  ;)

So why have I not been around???  Well where do I start...I have been very busy with motherhood and work.

The universe sent me the most perfect little cafe that is local to me and it just so happens to be on the market for sale!!  I just cant give up a bargain and this quaint little building is truly perfect for my next venture.  What will that be you ask???   (insert drum roll....) Italian Restaurant!!!

Its the next step for us after being in cafes for years we are now ready to operate a night time restaurant. We intend to do rustic, family ordinated dining serving good Nonna's food.

We are just in the process of pleading with the banks to lend us more money so we can open in October with a lovely renovated restaurant.

So this is why I have been neglecting my lovely little blog. I hope to be able to start sharing with you all some lovely Italian recipes and yummy photos soon.

"Watch this Space"

Ciao for now. 

Quarantine and Chicken Pox

Hello my lovely blog...its been too long between visits.

I have no excuses, time has been on my side. My button was exposed to chicken pox over 2 wks ago and I have had to go into quarantine mode. Alas he did not get the spots, but my poor husband did this week!!

Not a great thing to catch as an older person Im afraid. So I have been playing nurse and trying to keep a very active toddler happy and busy during the most rain I have ever seen! 

I have had plenty of time to write on my blog but to be honest I have lost my mojo...:(

So today I searched high and low for it and found it in the packet of some wonderful Pizza Flour and dried yeast.

Both my boys are having huge sleeps today. Little one is coming up to 3 hrs and My big one has been snoozing on the sofa for the last 2.

I need to make a great afternoon snack for when they wake up ravenous. Not being able to make noise I decided to go with pizzas.

My dough is proving while i write this post.

It got me thinking about our favourite foods as children and especially the food we were given when sick.

My mother always made me creamy mashed potato with chicken gravy. To this day its my favourite sooky la la food.

My husband took some soup out of the freezer for lunch today and it just so happened to be his mothers Pumpkin and Tomato. Coincidence I think not... We all revert back to our inner child when feeling poorly and there was nothing better then snuggling in to your mothers open arms for a cuddle and dozing off to the melodic beat of her heart.

I  saw a glaze go over on my husbands face as he slurped his mother's soup. Like a big warm cuddle in a bowl.

My little button loves my pizza. So today he will have some!

I always make my own dough and tomato sauce. Its really easy and very self satisfying. The romance of making dough will never be over for me. Working and kneading the dough puts me in a trance every time. Then watching the ball of yumminess grow before your eyes as it rests in the bowl will never be boring.

Today Im going to use my fresh buffalo mozzarella, salami and mint. Yes I know mint sounds strange on a pizza but I saw this combination on a TV show the other night and I have been dying to try it.

Button just likes his true Italian style...tomato and cheese.

Well the boys are stirring from their slumber so I must get on with it and be the italian mumma makin da pizza!!

Ciao.