WELL I'VE GOT THE BEETROOT ...

... and the carrots but - no green apples.

With The Old Girl away I'd kind of planned out the things I was going to cook for myself. Some of the dishes 'planned' are Nicoise salad, Caesar salad, pizza, stir fry, Kaimai steak KAIMAI, bacon and egg pie, fish and chips, stuffed potatoes, beetroot salad and orange and kumara pasta.

It's the last two that I've run into a problem with.

Northland has a problem with the supply of apples and kumara. The kumara stocks and replanting were last year decimated by Cyclone Gabriel and the other bad weather and Hawks Bay orchards were devastated by the same. Nowhere can I find either.

I need the apple - Granny Smith green apple for my beetroot, apple and carrot salad with pomegranate molasses as a dressing.

Yummy!

I've got the beetroot and carrot - here's a pic of these for the meat eaters down south ... 

... but the salad just won't be the same without the apple.

The other dish that I'm thwarted by lack of ingredient for is Pasta Siciliana which I've made many times and absolutely love.

Unfortunately I cannot make it without kumara (I use golden kumara). I don't see potato as a viable alternative.

Bummer!

SUCH A PERFECT DAY

 It's Lynn's birthday today and we've had a cracker of a day - the best of the summer so far.

Morning walks before it got too hot and a visit from my sister and husband, their daughter and her husband and their new 8 week old baby boy Zac filled the day nicely for an old Gruncle like me.

I've pre-prepared dinner (salmon, shrimp and zucchini pie with salad) and the pie will go in the oven soon.

Lynn (The Old Girl) and I just shared a bottle of Veuve Cliquot Rose while playing a best of three at pool (I won - hey! It's not as if it's a significant birthday date yet) and listening to a random selection of blues and jazz music. It's times like these that make me glad we bought the snooker table and dedicated a room to it. The room (the pool room see video) is also the music room where the stereo, records and cd's are housed. Great.