Hello lovely readers, I must admit, we had a real touch of winter here this weekend. I present to you a summary of what has been happening in the Maddabling household this weekend - A Winters Crafternoon, Seaside Sculpture and White Wine Poached Pears. Enjoy x
A Winters CrafternoonWith inclement weather lingering on the weekend, I started on a new craft project that I have been meaning to get to. Let's call it a solo Winters Crafternoon effort. It is a simple task, some hand stamped and hand coloured gift tags.
Seaside Sculpture
While watching a whale off Middleton Beach yesterday I spied a new sculpture on the beach front. I took some happy snaps and when I got home did some background research to find out more about the sculpture.
storm cloud rolling in over Middleton Beach - sculpture on the right.
looking through the view finder on the new sculpture.
looking through the view finder on the new sculpture.
Here is what I found. This sculpture - and three others not yet seen by me, were part of a project to create public beach side art. They incorporate pieces of the Albany Town Jetty which was demolished in October 2009.
I found this article written by Andrew Collins on the local abc website and it gives a little more background on the project.
"Old Albany jetty now peers onto Middleton Beach" by Andrew Collins
"Parts of the old town jetty in Albany have been transformed into sculptural pieces and installed at the iconic Middleton Beach.
The idea of turning the old timber into art was spearheaded by the Middleton Beach Group and the sculptural artistry performed by Many Peaks based sculptor, John Wills.
Pat Kerruish from the Middleton Beach Group says the four pieces are a great addition to the Middleton Beach area.
"It adds public art, which was one of the quite strong wishes on the list from our Middleton Beach survey...and it retains a bit of the history of the old town jetty."
If you are interested in reading a little more about this project, you can find some more information here:
What to do with a half empty bottle of sweet white wine? This was a dilemma I faced - I just don't enjoy this style of wine and didn't want it to go to waste. It was left over from a recent event we were involved in. So I googled and found a Poached Pears in White Wine recipe. It really is a decadent winter treat - you should try it!
2 cups sweet white wine
3 1/2 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean (substitute 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 pears, peeled with stems left intact
2 cups granulated sugar
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Serves: 4
Method:
Stir together the white wine, water, cinnamon stick, vanilla bean, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a large saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat and add the prepared pears.
Poach the pears, uncovered, for 7 to 9 minutes, until they turn tender, but not mushy.
Use a large slotted spoon to transfer the pears onto a serving plate.
Return the poaching liquid to a simmer, add the sugar, and allow the mixture to reduce by half in volume, about 6 to 8 minutes. The syrup is ready when it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove the cinnamon stick and vanilla bean from the syrup.
Arrange the pears on individual serving plates and drizzle with the wine syrup.
recipe from http://frenchfood.about.com
note : I found coring the pears prior to poaching an advantage. Also we used Bosc Pears which needed a little longer to poach.
Dear readers, that wraps up the weekend blog post. I hope you enjoyed reading A Winters Crafternoon, Seaside Sculpture and White Wine Poached Pears. See you all on Wednesday for a new edition of Wednesday Wishes xo
P.S. thank you for continuing to support my ramblings on the Maddabling blog - I do love reading your comments and feedback!
P.S. thank you for continuing to support my ramblings on the Maddabling blog - I do love reading your comments and feedback!
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