Pancakes, hay and travelling goats

A pig and the sheep wandering Dec 08

We're back (in body and spirit) after our Christmas mini-break on Bruny Island.

The largest paddock is looking bare after the hay has been baled, though shortly we'll move the weaned lambs into it to pick at any greenery that will resurface. Moving them up there will be good for us all - a bit of exercise after lounging around eating and drinking....

The Christmas ham was beautiful - prepared by Graham the butcher at Cygnet using traditional hard wood smoking. Served cold with a range of veggies from Mum and Dad's veggie garden - it was a great no-hassle dinner.

We also enjoyed vast amounts of the most delicious fresh berries (strawberries and raspberries) thanks to our friends Collete and Chris Griffin who traded some of their crop for some bacon. The resulting fruit salads, raspberry mousse (see recipe below), and strawberry icecream were a hit with everyone.

I had a go making pancakes with the Tassie Flour - in the end I opted to use a half and half mixture (of Tassie wholemeal and some plain white I had left in the cupboard) and added 4 bantam eggs instead on 2 full size chook eggs as I thought we'd get more yolk to bind the recipe) - the result was great - the kids scoffed them down with lemon and sugar.... next time I'll go 100% Tasmanian flour.

As we were away for two nights we took the goats with us to Bruny... they were great companions and enjoyed ridding the neighbour's block of weeds. There was a fair bit of interest on the ferry as we rolled up with Muriel and Fatso in the trailer... I guess most people usually bring things like cray-pots, kayaks, and tents when they visit the island....

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

Raspberry Mousse Recipe

Ingredients
2 cups fresh raspberries
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
4 cups whipped cream
1/2 cup sugar

How to do it:

In a small saucepan combine 1 1/2 cups raspberries and sugar. Heat and stir over medium heat until it turns into liquid (it may have some lumpy bits but don't worry!). Stir in gelatin. Remove from heat and scrape into a large bowl. Let cool for 5 minutes. Remove chilled whipped cream from refrigerator. Mix 1 cup of whipped cream into raspberry mixture until well combined. Fold in remaining whipped cream. Pour into wine glasses and chill.

(adapted from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/raspberry-mousse-recipe/index.html)