Food, wine and Lotsa Rain

Friday evening and on my way home from work and she says (Sue that is), "buy some sparkling red to start the weekend with." I always do as I'm told so that was the beginning of our weekend.
I usually start with a Saturday morning ride but my back is playing up and from mid-Friday to early Sunday we have had a huge rainfall so cycling was out. I actually didn't mind really, forgot what a sleep-in was like.

For 48 hours it has rained and rained - that's a good thing with our water catchment areas are filling.

We decided on doing a late morning market thing at Prahran and buy some ingredients for our Saturday night dinner. The Prahran market is not the cheapest market but is a little special in many ways.

Sue had in mind rabbit (Lapin) for dinner and I have to say that this was the best I have EVER had. It was fall of the bone stuff, so tender. I'll let Sue tell you how it was done.

An entree of scallops
Scallops were little, but local. They were great quickly seared and on a broad bean puree with some crispy prosciutto.



Complemented by a Riesling from the Strathbogie ranges.





We love rabbit, but his photo looks like rabbit that disagreed with someone!! Good one Leon!

It was simply braised in stock and wine after browning with shallots, garlic, celery, mushrooms and prosciutto. Dampened parchment paper and a lid on top for an hour or so, then finished with a spoonful of light cream. We served it with a mash of potatoes, garlic and peas. Yummo.

It's a shame that rabbit is expensive here and not that easy to get.



The red was from the Languedoc region in the south of France - perfect with bunny.

Still wet Sunday AM, and a date to catch up with friends on the Mornington Peninsula didn't allow for a ride, but that's OK.

Our friends Glor and Baz just returned from their trip to Italy and France and we wanted to share their experiences. What with a week in Sicily, then Rome and then Nice before a week in Avignon, they had plenty to tell us.

Many riders would have been on the 220 kms ride for 12 hours.
There were probably as many as 10,000 riders.



The guys above were going to ride 220 kms around Port Phillip Bay and that included a ferry ride to the other side of the bay. Brave or stupid??????

 While we drove down to see our friends we were amongst virtually 1000s of cyclists on the annual "Round the Bay" ride. I did this several years back (2006 I think) and you can get 4 seasons in one day over the 220 kms. The start was at 6.00 AM and we returned home at 6.00 PM, and so were many of the riders looking very fatigued.

Can't say I missed not riding really................