As the inauguration approaches, I suffer post-election blues. It's sort of like post-partum depression, which in reality I know little about, so have every right to compare to. He's not even president yet, and I'm already disappointed. Enough of the disgraceful, careless, soul-wrenching payouts to the big banks and car manufacturers! It's a vicious crime, what these companies have done... I'm already tired of this tirade. Let me focus on something easier: the selection of Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration. He is, simply, a bigot. An ugly, hateful bigot who does not deserve this position of respect. And one more thing, good riddance George W! You were easily the worst president ever, and I will celebrate not only for Obama's election, but for the end of your reign of horridness! However, being my typical pessimistic self, I expect very little to change. OK, I'm done now.
On to the good stuff! Fennel grows wild all around our property at Maungaturoto. I read in the book Heat that it is the new "it" seasoning for foodies, so I cut some of the flowers and brought them home. I bundled them in rubber bands and hung them from a hook in a window to dry. They have a lovely fragrance. I spent a few bent-back hours hand-picking the pollen bits, which are pretty large. Funny to think that pollen is just like sperm. I did put some in a salad dressing, but it was overpowered by the balsamic vinegar, so I don't know if I've wasted my time or not. If you live in the states and want to try it, you can buy it here.
I followed up the reading of Heat with another book about being a chef, Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. This book is funny! I'll probably check out some of his other books eventually. After this I'm moving on to The Kite Runner, which has been on my library waitlist for a few months. Over the holiday break, I also read Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, which was mildly amusing, but not great. I think someone compared her to David Sedaris, but I wouldn't put her in the same league.
We have been waiting for KiwiSpan to get our garage built on the Maungaturoto property. They managed to get the concrete slab done, 
and when there was some concrete leftover, Darin applied it to the drive past the pond. 
and when there was some concrete leftover, Darin applied it to the drive past the pond. The drive was a bit smushed by that big concrete truck going over it, so this reinforcement will help, for awhile, maintain the raving crossing/pond. The building itself was delivered just today, and we are still hopeful that it will be complete by this weekend.
Darin had the extreme good fortune to be invited to go gliding with our friend Adam on a spectacular day. The photo below shows Rangitoto Island, just off the east coast of Auckland, off in the distance. (We climbed up Rangitoto back in Jan '07). Darin was totally stoked to have such a great birthday gift.
For his birthday dinner, we had a bottle of awesome old vine zinfandel from Lodi, California, Seven Deadly Zins. He wanted a steak to eat with this wine, so we went to the local steak joint in Henderson, Tony's. Unfortunately for us, the waitress didn't know how to take a cork out of a bottle, and tore the top of it off. I am pretty sure this restaurant doesn't have any bottles of wine that are not screw top. Darin had to help her get the remaining cork out so we could drink it. The rest of the meal did not improve. Unlike me, Darin took it all with calm good cheer. I desperately wanted to send his "creamed spinach" back, because it was only steamed with butter. At least we had my awesome, homemade, chocolate cake to satisfy our foodie lust. I decided that since we have planted all these fruit trees, I should learn how to can. My friend Ammie has been a terrific resource, and we made strawberry jam together one afternoon. It turned out to be more of a dessert sauce, which was fine, since it went perfectly with Darin's chocolate cake. I found a good deal on tomatoes, and decided to try canning them. This was a learning experience only, because the cost of canned tomatoes is so low, it's not really cost effective to do it yourself. I had to borrow a jar lifter, cherry pitter, and a rack to put in the bottom of the pot to keep the jars off the bottom, so they don't crack while boiling for 45 minutes. The cherry pitter was for the bing cherries I got a screaming deal on. I made brandied cherries: 1 kg of pitted, halved cherries, 1 kg (nearly) of sugar, and 700 mls of brandy, combined in a 2 liter snap-tight lidded jar, and put away in a dark place until winter. I take it out now and then to shake, to help dissolve the sugar.
There are about 5 caves of different sizes, and one can be camped in. I love caves! There are lots here in NZ, and sometimes people get trapped in them.
The picture below shows how far away from the ocean the caves are. The location is at the mouth of the Manukau Harbor, where sand has been deposited over the years. You can get to the beach from here, but it is a bit of a walk and there are many swampy areas.
For Xmas dinner I made a lamb stew recipe using a lamb shoulder (bone in) from my sister's Julia Childs cookbook, and it was the best! Pretty easy, too.
We knew there was a rabbit living in the ravine just uphill from the pond, and Darin found him hopping about early in the morning. He hadn't even had any coffee yet, but his aim was perfect, right in the head! The dogs had fresh rabbit for breakfast (post-butchering).
Once again, my friend Holly and I hosted a Thanksgiving picnic. This year's picnic was held at Muriwai Beach, on the west coast north of Auckland. A lot of people showed up, each bringing a dish to share, creating enormous amounts of food. Holly's partner Steve is shown above, cutting up the wild turkey they prepared. Darin shot it on our Maungaturoto land, but Steve and Holly plucked and cleaned it, and prepared it. I baked roast beef. Strawberries are in season again, and they are in abundance. 
Darin and I enjoy playing board games with our friends here, and we decided we needed to buy one to share. Agricola is the #1 boardgame on boardgamegeek.com (all the geek details are 
We decided to get this after seeing a distributor selling whole frozen goat carcasses for $5 per kilo. Apparently they were for export, but for some reason the sale didn't go through. We ended up with 4 of them, each about 15 lbs. We LOVE having chest freezers (yeah, we have 2: one for people food, one for dog). The idea was to feed the goat to our pets, but then I got to thinking that I should try to prepare some of it and see how it tastes. That is on my list of things to do during my holiday break.
Darin also bought a whole albacore tuna from the fish market. We ate some of it as sashimi (shown above, in soy sauce), some of it grilled, and froze the rest in vacuum sealed packages. The grilled tuna was so delicious! The recipe is to marinate tuna steaks about 30 min. in: dry sherry, 3 crushed garlic cloves, salt, pepper, and finely chopped parsley and cilantro. While it grills, a peeled/seeded mango is blended with orange juice, white wine, and 1 habanero pepper. This sauce is served over it. It's shown below with the grilled zucchini. One of them was the first one from my garden.
Here's how the garden is doing: Those are lettuces and carrots on the left, then moving right: 
another variety of carrot, spaghetti squash, tomatoes, sliverbeet (chard), red onions, spring onions, yellow onions, garlic, zucchini, another spaghetti squash, and a cucumber (the last two have yet to fruit). Darin sprayed the "wooly jumpers", but they are unaffected. So far, no sign of the nasty green stinkbugs, but the slugs have been having their way with some of the lettuces.
I have been taking Ruby to the