The first fire

A few days ago we built the first fire in our new place. The main feature of the living room is a large brick fireplace, but it hadn't gotten cold enough to use it until recently. Well, it's still not really cold enough, but we went ahead anyway:

with flash:


no flash:
I had a little bit of trouble getting it to light but some crumpled up newspaper did the trick. It was really enjoyable, although it would probably be best on a weekend night when we don't have to be rushing around too much.

Dinner at Awaroa Lodge

Last night we had one of the best meals that we can remember. Unfortunately we didn't have our camera so no pictures (stay tuned tho - we'll try to get some at a future dinner). It started with Dana and I getting a drink at the bar and relaxing on plush leather armchairs in front of the enormous, organically shaped fireplace that dominates the lounge area. We talked about how we eventually want to have a similar fireplace in our own home, and it made me think of the project I want to start once back in San Diego - making my own bread oven out of cob. On the back of this fireplace there is a built-in bench which is very toasty to sit on - Dana really enjoyed that.

I think I mentioned before that the lodge has their own organic garden - they also bake all their bread every morning. Our dinner started off with a sampling of their breads with several different little bowls of homemade relishes and sauces, each one unique and excellent. There were three different varieties of bread, sliced and grilled with oil. We enjoyed it so much we agreed right away that we would have to order it again tonight.

After that I had a flounder from Nelson Bay, pan-grilled. It was served as a whole fish, with the lower half of one side scooped out and combined with a peanut-citrus stuffing. Dana got the beef fillet on a potato cake with green beans from the garden. Both main dishes were very good.

The end of the meal was amazing. We ordered dessert on a whim (we don't normally) because we didn't want the meal to end. We got a rich chocolate marquise with triple chocolate ice cream. It was also served with two dark chocolate pieces impaled on the ice cream, and the entire plate was drizzled with chocolate sauces and dusted with cocoa powder. Dana also had a latte which was very complementary to the chocolate. It was a fantastic dish, and I especially enjoyed looking down at my fork to see it layered with chocolate marquise, triple chocolate ice cream, a piece of dark chocolate, and dripping with chocolate sauce.