TRAVEL TUESDAY 505 - HAWAII, USA

“For me, the magic of Hawaii comes from the stillness, the sea, the stars.” - Joanne Harris

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.
There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.
Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Hawaii is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about 3,200 km southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state in the tropics. Hawaii consists of 137 volcanic islands that comprise almost the entire Hawaiian archipelago (the exception, which is outside the state, is Midway Atoll).

Spanning 2,400 km, the state is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania. Hawaii's ocean coastline is consequently the fourth-longest in the U.S., at about 1,210 km. The eight main islands, from northwest to southeast, are Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and Hawaiʻi, after which the state is named; the last is often called the "Big Island" or "Hawaii Island" to avoid confusion with the state or archipelago. The uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands make up most of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, the largest protected area in the U.S. and the fourth-largest in the world.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY 230 - SITHONIA, GREECE

“On a summer night, I have sat on the balcony drinking ouzo, watching the ghosts of Greek heroes sailing past, listening to the rustle of their sail cloths and the gentle lapping of their oars.” - Phil Simpkin 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Sithonia (Greek: Σιθωνία), also known as Longos, is a peninsula of Chalkidiki, which itself is located on a larger peninsula within Northern Greece. The Kassandra Peninsula lies to the west of Sithonia and the Mount Athos peninsula to the east. The neareest big city is Thessaloniki to the Northwest.

Sithonia is also a municipality, covering the Sithonia peninsula. The seat of the municipality is the town Nikiti.Spathies Beach is typical of the beaches in this region, with crystal clear waters and pine trees that come down almost to the water. The beach is about 44 km southeast of Polygyros and south of Nikiti. 

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY 207 - PHILLIP ISLAND, AUSTRALIA

“Every island to a child is a treasure island.” ― P.D. James  

Phillip Island is an Australian island about 140 km south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria. Named after Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, Phillip Island forms a natural breakwater for the shallow waters of the Western Port. It is 26 km long and 9 km wide, with an area of about 100 km2. It has 97 km of coastline and is part of the Bass Coast Shire. A 640 m concrete bridge (originally a wooden bridge) connects the mainland town San Remo with the island town Newhaven.

In the 2011 census the island's permanent population was 9,406, compared to 7,071 in 2001. During the summer, the population swells to 40,000. 60% of the island is farmland devoted to grazing of sheep and cattle. Here is Cowes Beach. We are having fine, summery weather in Melbourne at the moment, with a maximum of 32˚ C expected this Thursday and Friday.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY #152 - BROOME, AUSTRALIA

“To escape and sit quietly on the beach – that’s my idea of paradise.” - Emilia Wickstead 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.  

Broome is a coastal, pearling and tourist town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, 2,240 km north of Perth. The urban population is estimated at 14,776, growing to over 45,000 per month during the tourist season. Broome International Airport provides transport to several domestic destinations.

Cable Beach is situated 7 km from town along a bitumen road and is named in honour of the Java-to-Australia undersea telegraph cable which reaches shore there. The beach itself is 22.5 km long with white sand, washed by tides that can reach over 9 m. The beach is almost perfectly flat. Caution is required when swimming from November to March as box jellyfish are present during those months. There have been cases where crocodiles have been sighted off the shore, but this is a rarity and measures are taken to prevent these situations.

Four wheel drive vehicles may be driven onto the beach from the car park. This allows people to explore the beach at low tide to a much greater extent than would be possible on foot. Sunset camel rides operate daily along the beach.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

FOOD FRIDAY - MOUSSAKA

“I wonder if Socrates and Plato took a house on Crete during the summer.” – Woody Allen 

It is Summer and we have harvested lots of zucchinis from our garden and the first couple of eggplants. It is time to make this special traditional Greek summertime dish, which seems to be a favourite the world over: 

MOUSSAKA
Ingredients
For the mince filling:
    • 4 tablespoonfuls of olive oil
    • 2 onions (+ 2 cloves of garlic - optional)
    • 500 g of beef or lamb minced meat
    • 400 mL of tomato purée
    • Salt, pepper, oregano, rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, paprika
For the vegetable filling:
    • 3 medium sized potatoes
    • 2 largish eggplants
    • 2 largish zucchini (courgettes)
    • Vegetable oil for frying
For the topping:
    • 160 g of butter
    • 4 tablespoonfuls of plain flour
    • 1 litre of milk
    • 6 eggs
    • Nutmeg, pepper, salt
    • Grated parmesan. 

Method

Prepare the minced meat by heating the olive oil and frying the thinly sliced onion (and garlic) until golden brown, then incorporating the mince, stirring and breaking up completely so that an intimate mixing and cooking is taking place.  When the mince is thoroughly brown add the tomato puree to the pan and about 150 mL of water.  Stir until thoroughly mixed and simmer until well cooked and the water is absorbed.  Add the spices and seasonings stirring well.  Let the mince cool.

Wash the vegetables, peel the potatoes and slice all of them lengthwise to give oval slices about 3-4 mm thick. Salt them and drain in colander. Heat the vegetable oil until very hot and fry firstly the potatoes until they are golden on both sides.  Drain the oil on absorbent kitchen paper and then lay the cooked potato slices on the bottom of a rectangular baking tray (approx. 35 cm by 25 cm).  Cook the eggplant slices until golden on both sides and drain of the oil.  Lay one layer of the eggplant slices on top of the potatoes.  Repeat with the fried zucchini slices.  Lay any remaining eggplant slices over the zucchini.  Lay the cooked minced meat mixture over the vegetables smoothing and packing to form a smooth surface over the tray.

Melt the butter in a pan and add the flour mixing well all the while with a whisk.  Add the nutmeg and seasonings.  Cook until the mixture is golden.  Add the milk stirring well all the time.  Keep whisking over a low flame until the mixture thickens to the consistency of custard.  Remove from heat and add the eggs one by one, whisking rapidly continuously.  Pour the mixture over the minced meat and top with the grated parmesan.  Cook in moderate oven until the top is golden brown.  Serve with cold retsina or kokkineli wine and a crisp seasonal salad.

FOOD FRIDAY - PEACH CLAFOUTIS

“Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it.” - Alice Walker

One of Summer’s delights is the fresh stone fruits in season. We bought some delightful peaches yesterday and this dessert was made to use up the last few very ripe ones. 

Peach Clafoutis

Ingredients

2/3 cup plain flour

1/3 cup self-raising flour

1 cup caster sugar

5 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

40g butter, melted, cooled

1 cup milk

1 cup pure cream

5 ripe peaches, peeled, stones removed, sliced (you may used drained canned peaches)

Flaked blanched almonds (freshly toasted), to serve

Vanilla ice-cream, to serve (optional) 

Method

Preheat oven to 160°C fan-forced. Grease an 8 cup-capacity ceramic baking dish.

Combine flour, sugar and eggs in a bowl. Stir to combine and add vanilla essence. Add butter, milk and cream. Whisk to combine.

Arrange peach slices in prepared dish in a regular pattern. Carefully add flour mixture so as not to disturb the fruit.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until just set. Stand for 2 minutes. Sprinkle with flaked almonds to serve. Ice-cream on the side, if desired.

FOOD FRIDAY - BAKED PEACHES

“The ripest peach is highest on the tree.” – James Whitcomb Riley

Peaches are in season at the moment and we chanced upon some in a farmers’ market today. Unlike the supermarket variety, these were ripe, juicy and fragrant. We had some for lunch and then took the opportunity to make this summery dessert for after dinner:

Baked Peaches 

Ingredients

6 ripe fresh peaches

200 g ground blanched almonds

4 tbsp maraschino liqueur

80 g unsalted butter, melted

12 tbsp icing sugar

Softened mascarpone cheese to serve

Method

Carefully cut the peaches in half lengthwise and remove the pit with a sharp knife leaving a hollow in each half. Place the peach halves on a buttered baking tray, hollow side up.

In a blender, mix the almond meal with the liqueur and blend well until well-moistened and homogenised.

Fill each peach hollow with a spoonful of the almond paste and brush them with melted butter. Sprinkle a tablespoon of icing sugar over each peach half.

Bake at 180˚C until they are soft and golden brown. Serve with a dollop of mascarpone cheese.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme.

FOOD FRIDAY - SUMMER SALAD

“It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.” - Lewis Grizzard

Our weather here in Melbourne has suddenly turned very hot with temperatures in the mid- to high 30s. Meals tend to be quickly prepared and salads are very much de rigueur! A friend of ours gave us some home-grown tomatoes and cucumbers so we took advantage of this delicious produce that were sun-ripened on the vine and made a Summer Salad.

Summer Salad
Ingredients
3 ripe tomatoes
2 Lebanese cucumbers (small and seed free)
2 Spring onions, chopped
As much blue-vein cheese as you like, in chunks
A few sprigs of tender purslane (Portulaca oleracea, a common garden “weed”)
Oregano (dried is best)
Salt, pepper
Olive oil and vinegar

Method
Wash the vegetables and chop them up. Add the washed purslane by picking off tops and tender leaves and discarding the lower stems.
Make the dressing by mixing 2 tbsp olive with 1 tbsp vinegar and adding salt and pepper to taste.
Add the cheese and toss the salad at the table, just before serving.


This post is part of Marie's Food Friday meme.

FOOD FRIDAY - TARTE AUX PÊCHES

“Chocolate’s okay, but I prefer a really intense fruit taste. You know when a peach is absolutely perfect... it's sublime. I'd like to capture that and then use it in a dessert.” - Kathy Mattea

When the mellow, warm, fine and sunny weather of Autumn comes it makes you think that Summer has come back just to say goodbye. You shed a few clothes that were made necessary by the low temperatures of just a couple days ago, sip on an iced tea and hanker for a Summer dessert. Too bad if ripe fresh peaches are out season, thankfully there are those you’ve preserved yourself or those that come in a can. In any case, the summery dessert is made, ready to be served on an early Autumn evening…

Upside Down Peach Tart

(Tarte aux Pêches)

Ingredients

350 g puff pastry (we use the frozen variety from the supermarket)

70 g unsalted butter

140 g caster sugar

1 cassia stick

4 perfectly ripe peaches, halved, stoned and each cut into 8 segments

(or use drained, canned peach segments)

Method

Roll out the puff pastry until 3 mm-thick. Using a 27 cm skillet or heavy oven-proof frying pan as a guide, cut out a 27 cm circle of pastry and place on a baking paper lined tray and refrigerate until needed. Preheat the oven to 200ºC.

Place the butter in the skillet with the sugar and cassia stick and cook over medium heat, shaking the pan occasionally, until the sugar melts and the syrup starts to become lightly golden. Carefully remove the cassia stick.

Arrange a neat layer of peach segments on top of the syrup in the skillet - they can overlap each other but must cover the base of the pan. Cook the peaches over low heat for 5 minutes without moving them, then remove the pan from the heat. 

Remove the pastry circle from the refrigerator and carefully place it on top of the peaches, using the back of a spoon to ease the edges of the pastry down between the peaches and the pan as if tucking in a blanket. Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastry is golden and you can see juices bubbling around the outside.  Remove from the oven and stand for 10 minutes before carefully inverting the tart onto a serving plate.

Garnish with clotted cream or French vanilla ice cream.

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FOOD FRIDAY - SUMMER PUDDING

“Summer is a promissory note signed in June, its long days spent and gone before you know it, and due to be repaid next January.” - Hal Borland

We have a range of fresh berries in the greengrocer’s at the moment and this is the time of the year that we get to enjoy a very traditional English dessert. It’s very simple to make, but making it taste good depends so much on the good quality of all the ingredients used.

English Summer Pudding
Ingredients
3 tbsp maraschino liqueur
180 g caster sugar
500 g washed, mixed summer fruits as available (raspberries, strawberries, red and blackcurrants, damsons and blackberries)
180 g plain sponge cake, cut into 1 cm slices
Whipped cream, or chilled vanilla yoghurt

Method
Stir the liqueur and sugar together and bring to a gentle boil. Add all the berries and fruits except strawberries. Stew the fruits very gently and not for too long. They should simply be softened but still retain their shape. Once they are ready put to one side (juice and all) and leave to cool.
Cut the slices of cake into triangles. They do not all have to match perfectly, but you will use these to line a 700 ml pudding basin.
Start by lining your pudding basin with cling film. Then continue by dipping a couple of cake triangles in the juices of the stewed fruits. Lay these in the bottom of the dish and then continue the same way but lining the sides of the basin with cake slices ensuring there are no gaps. Once completed, fill with the stewed fruits including the strawberries. Cover the top with more juice dipped cake slices.
Make sure to not add too much of the juices from the fruits as this may cause the cake to lose its shape. There must be enough to soak into the cake though. Place a saucer on the top of the basin and weigh down with something heavy. Place in the refrigerator and leave overnight. The next day, before serving, turn the pudding out onto a pretty serving plate and serve with either the whipped cream or chilled vanilla yoghurt.

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POETS UNITED - RIVER

“Summer is a promissory note signed in June, its long days spent and gone before you know it, and due to be repaid next January.” - Hal Borland

Poets United this week is all about rivers. And poets have been waxing lyrical about these ever flowing watercourses since ancient times. Here is my contribution, as Summer approaches us Downunder!


By the River

At last, the warming rays have bleached the day

And skies are blue, with wisps of summer cloud;

The gentle breeze makes leaves dance and play,

While dragonflies dart about the blossoms proud.

The river slowly flows and water sparkles, shines

The crowds loll about the grassy shores, with laughter

Toasting, drinking, picnicking, beneath the shady pines;

Relaxing, dozing, counting dreams for a long time after.

The day is perfect: Warm, lazy tender, balmy, sweet

Our time of rest inviting idleness, persiflage, banter.

Enjoy this gem of a day, take it as given, a rarest treat;

Our summer’s over soon, gone as horses in a crazy canter.

POETRY JAM - TIS THE SEASON

“Ecstasy! In common parlance ecstasy is fun. But ecstasy is not fun. Your very soul is seized and shaken until it tingles. After all, who will choose to feel undiluted awe? The unknowing vulgar abuse the word; we must recapture its full and terrifying sense.” - R. Gordon Wasson

There are some places around the world where the very ground seems to be suffused with energy and where there is an electricity in the air. The wind soughing through tree branches seems to whisper in ancient tongues and echoes of forgotten music still vibrate in the air. The right place and right season combine and if we are in a receptive frame of mind, we can feel awe and an ecstasy of the soul that can be a life-changing experience.

This poem was inspired by a midsummer visit to a such a very special place in Greece, where ruins of ancient temples visited while listening to the drone of cicadas and the gentle whistling of the wind, give rise to a special feeling of timelessness and of a communion with times past.

Poetry Jam this week asks participants to: "Write about the mid-winter or mid-summer season and what it means to you."

The Eleusinian Mysteries

The sun, wild,
Lashes without pity
Naked bodies.
The ancient marble lolls
Strewn amongst the pine trees
And the noontime stillness
Is mirrored in the
Midsummer heat.

Somewhere in the forest,
Dense and shady,
A fountain trills
Like Pan’s flute.
In the heart of the mountain,
Deep in the rocks, Cyparissus
Sleeps lightly,
Caressed by gentle Zephyr.

It’s enough to find a magic word,
A word both ancient and true,
And if you murmur it,
Twenty five centuries
Will shatter like glass
And crash in front of
The violet-tinged temple,
Which will arise from the ground built anew.

FOOD FRIDAY - SUMMER SALAD

“It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.” - Lewis Grizzard

We have had some quite hot weather in Melbourne lately and we have been having lots of salads, sometimes this being our main meal. Here is a Summer salad that we enjoy with freshly baked crispy bread.

SUMMER SALAD
Ingredients (for 2 persons)
3 ripe beefsteak tomatoes
2 Lebanese (i.e. baby) cucumbers
4-5 sprigs of fresh purslane
2-3 sprigs of parsley
1-2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 large fresh Spring onion
1 tbsp baby capers
A pinch or two of dried oregano
Salt, pepper to taste
70 g of blue vein cheese
Vinaigrette Dressing
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp wine vinegar
1 tsp Italian “balsamico” vinegar

Method
Cut and slice the tomatoes and put in a salad bowl. Peel and slice the cucumbers on top of it.  Pluck the tender leaves of the purslane and add to salad. Chop up the parsley and thyme and add to salad.
Add the chopped Spring onion and capers. Add the oregano, salt and pepper. Dress with the vinaigrette, tossing thoroughly, and add the cheese cut in small cubes.

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FOOD FRIDAY - BAKED SALMON

“Governing a great nation is like cooking a fish - too much handling will spoil it.” - Lao Tzu

We are beginning to experience warm days of Summer in Melbourne, alternating with milder weather. As for the next two days the temperature maxima will go above 30˚C, simple easy food that is tasty and light is indicated. This dish foots the bill perfectly!

BAKED SALMON WITH DILL

Ingredients

500 g salmon fillets

1/3 cup olive oil

5 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon dried dill tips

sea salt to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

Preheat oven to 180˚ C. 

Mix the oil and lemon juice in a bowl and place the salmon pieces in the mixture, coating well on all sides.

Place salmon in the oiled baking dish, and drizzle the remaining oil/lemon mixture from your bowl over the salmon.

Season with dill, sea salt, and pepper.

Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until salmon is easily flaked with a fork.

Garnish with lemon slices and fresh dill sprigs.

Serve with a seasonal green salad.

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