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For years, Mirinda has wanted to have a boating life. A life spent puttering around in a small boat, stopping at deserted islands, having a picnic then puttering back. Inspired by delightful memories of Nambucca Heads and going out in her dad’s tinny during summer holidays.
Over the years, the possibility of owning a boat has been somewhat complex given where we’ve lived. For instance, it would have been a logistical nightmare when we were living high up in the Blue Mountains at Katoomba.
However, living in Trosa, on the edge of the Baltic and surrounded by swarms of small boats every summer, she felt the lure of the sea grow stronger and stronger. I knew it was only a matter of time before she succumbed to the siren’s song.
And today she did. We now have a boat. It’s a Yamarin 4510 and is sitting at our very own mooring not far from the house. In fact, I could walk there if I so wanted.
This is what it looks like. Note that I pinched this photo from another site.
Sadly, I have no photo of my own, given I’m still on the road to gout recovery so that will have to wait but, suffice it to say, Mirinda spent most of today down by the water. Of course, a photo will arrive once I have been to see our new mode of transport.
No, what I was doing was trying out a new recipe. It’s called Confit Byaldi and was sent to me by my favourite French cook, Géraldine Leverd. The original recipe was by French chef, Michel Guérard, then developed and changed a bit by another chef, Thomas Keller, for the film Ratatouille and was the dish made by the rat, Remy.
Anyway, it’s a bit fiddly but looks very pretty. At least mine did before I put it in the oven.
Something I learned very quickly is the importance of having vegetables of equal diameter. For a start, the courgette we bought from the Button People was both strangely shaped like a horseshoe and much bigger than even the aubergine.
Of course, me being me, I added mozzarella (the white bits in the photo above) and some bacon to the sauce below the veg. Obviously, as it cooked in the oven, the mozzarella melted and the pretty pattern collapsed into itself. Still, Mirinda thought it looked lovely when it came out of the oven. That was until she saw what it looked like before it went in.
But, looks aside, it tasted delicious. Mirinda declared it guest worthy. High praise indeed. Though, for guests I would probably ditch the cheese and, instead, serve it with stuffed chicken breast which is where I’d put the mozzarella.
Here’s the result:
It might look like a big smoosh up (which it was) but it was a delicious smoosh up from Chez Gaz.
Just in passing…my stats shot up after switching my blog back to its original domain. Suddenly I am visible again! It felt very good when I saw the stats graph this morning. Over the last month, the only views have come from Facebook which is not surprising given that’s the only place they have been seen. This morning, however, they were back to being from random, anonymous people searching from all over the world.
And that makes me happy.
