Jazz in the Domain

Its finally the Sydney Festival. I've been waiting since Tropfest to have an excuse to pull out the picnic rug and enjoy some wine whilst relaxing in the great outdoors. After the success of last year, I decided to cook most of the food, just to make it a bit special. So I went grocery shopping after work to pick up a few things, and spotted the loveliest strawberries and suddenly became consumed with the thought of making strawberry jam. So when I should've been making things for the Jazz, I ended up making Jam.

Once I got that out of my system, I finally got onto making the dishes for the Jazz. This included:

I finally forked out for a microplane zester!!! BEST investment ever!

The next morning, I got up a bit earlier to finish the last of my baking before the guys rocked up to my place to pick me up. We parked at work to make it easier to move everything to the Domain. (Although we did have to stop at a cafe to beg for cups for our wine!). Here's the spread for the day:

Christine's antipasto platter

Homemade puffy pinwheel pizzas

Homemade parmesan crisps

Sweet chilli stuffed mushrooms

Blueberry and strawberry friands

I also bought along 2 bottles of imported Chianti red wine and Christine bought along 2 bottles of dessert. By the 2nd bottle I was about to pass out.

Gus helping with my alcoholism

God I'm weak after my detoxing. The good thing was, we were in the perfect setting to lie down and relax (whilst I sobered up).

Me having a perve at Gus running around

And to make up for me perving on Gus

GIO marketing people

The crowds building up

The posing Alan

The crowds building up

The smart ones who brought chairs

I didn't end up taking any photos when it got later in the night. And unfortunately, thats when everyone else rocked up. However, we had a blast of the time where we sat and chatted whilst the music played in the background. The highlight of the night would've been Christine's friend Priscille helping a lost lady and then grabbing a random stranger guy to dance the salsa with her! I can't wait for next week. I don't know how we're going to get the food to top this spread!

Hitting the markets and then Thai

One of the reasons I always look forward to my sister coming back from Singapore is because we both share a love for gourmet food. We love walking through organic markets and looking at home made jams and pies. Even though the prices are sometimes double what you would pay at the Flemington Markets, we don't mind paying a bit extra for the decadence. So the first thing she wanted to do on her trip back to Sydney this time, was to hit the local market at the Orange Grove public school. We didn't end up buying much (Well, 3 full size pies, infused oils and vinegars amongst other things....) , but we had a fantastic time which found us at Toby's Estate at Broadway enjoying the best coffee we've ever had.

Beautiful fresh organic tomatoes

Toby's Latte

Toby's Cappuccino

Whenever family comes from overseas to visit, the one who suffers the most is my mum. She spends the entire cooking and cleaning nonstop. She ends up catering for 17 people at a time. So to give her a break, we decided to eat out at our favourite Thai restaurant Chedi.

Chicken and Cashew with Chilli Jam

My nephew's all time favourite - Massamum Beef

Chicken Pad Thai

Salt and pepper squid

Red Duck Curry

Pork Pad See Ew

Grilled BBQ Pork

Grilled BBQ Chicken

Thai duck salad

After dinner, we decided to put up the xmas tree where the kids got to hang their own xmas ornament. And by "their own", I had their photos printed onto ceramic ornaments. One for each kid. They absolutely loved it! And I think this is a tradition that I'm going to try and keep it going each year. My sister has requested that I get ornaments done for each of the adults. I guess that will become our family tree.