Lavender Cottage

It's very rare to find a great restaurant which serves beautiful, simple food with local and seasonal ingredients. Many claim to do so but just don't quite pull it off. I have to say I am a bit fussy when it comes to dining out. I love doing it but often I leave unsatisfied and thinking 'Why didn't I just cook myself a medium rare steak at home properly?' As you can tell this is a big pet peeve along with grated carrots and cheese on the side of my plate claiming to be a salad. What the??!

And so to the review of Lavender Cottage in Albany which I recently dined at one Friday evening. This little cottage has been converted to a French inspired cafe/restaurant that is open for lunch during the day and every Friday night serves dinner. The Friday night meal was very tasty and the best I've had in a long time.. although I don't get out that much. The menu is simple with few options but I still found myself unable to decide, it all looked so good. Here's some of the dishes myself and my other two diners sampled.


Potato Gratin

Beef Carpaccio



French Onion Soup



 Photos courtesy of my sister










Hapuka and Prawns with a bouillabaisse sauce

I had the beef carpaccio and hapuka fish with prawns with a refreshing sorbet as a palate cleanser in between. All the main dishes came with potato gratin and a garden salad with mustard dressing.

I loved loved the beef with shavings of Parmesan and a celeriac remulade on top- nice touch. The fish was also nice but could have done without the rice due to the side of yummy creamy potatoes.

I will definitely be back to this place again and want to try the lunch. I hear they do a fabulous french-style bento box ??!!

Just a couple of extra notes fellow foodies: do book ahead, and this place is cosy and intimate, suitable for small groups and couples. I would probably suggest to get yourselves a babysitter and leave the kidlets at home. Although saying that they do have an outdoor area which is open during the day and great in summer months. I also love their big black dog 'Rembrant' who occasionally makes an appearance.

Lavender Cottage is much I love about a good dining experience in food, service, and setting. They do what they do and they do it well. It is some of the best food that Albany has to offer.



Mothers Day 2012

This year we did the trek to Fonty's Farm in Manjimup to pick chestnuts. The farm is beautiful and also grows apples, guavas, and avocados. We had a picnic lunch and roasted chestnuts on the open fire. Yummy and wintry and chestnutty...



 Miss A and her dad peel the spiky outer shell from the chestnuts and put them in a bucket. Gloves are very much needed!

I also had my first guava which tastes like bubblegum.

So now we have an abundance of fruit to get through. I think jam is in order or apple and pear crumble? Hubby's Italian cousin said they make apple jam which sounds interesting- time for some experimenting!



Old school, New School

I have been reading a few good books lately and trying multiple books from the same author, so the first instalment is Stephen King.

People that know me well know that my favourite author is the afore mentioned genius King. I have a few thing to say about this:

• many people regard Stephen King as a popular horror only writer which puts them off reading if they don't like the genre. 'This is not literature!'
• I read and like many different genres but can always come back to any of Kings novels and love them.
• Stephen King is essentially a great storyteller who drags you into his world from the first page. He writes about good and evil, the human condition, love, friendship.... 

So two reviews today that I have read in the last couple of months. Two very different King novels- an old school and new school.

Desperation- published 1996
This is your traditional horror, gore-fest, good v evil Stephen King old skool novel. This one had by-passed me on it's release so it's the first time I have read it.
Whilst not the best of his horror novels I still couldn't put it down. A brief plot blurb:

'There's a place along Interstate 50 that some call the loneliest place on Earth. It's known as Desperation, Nevada.
It's not a very nice place to live. It's an even worse place to die. Let the battle against evil begin.
Welcome to ... Desperation.'
courtesy of GoodReads.com

I loved the landscape in this novel which became a character, changing and evolving all the time. King always explorers his characters and in this case their personal demons and what they are capable of doing in an impossible situation.
If you also enjoy the odd apocalyptic drama this ones for you... 

11.22.63- published 2011
and now for the new skool.
This definitely is your most mainstream Stephen King novel, being part historical drama, part time travel. If you are skeptical about the Kingster this is your entry level novel. A brief blurb:

'WHAT IF you could go back in time and change the course of history? WHAT IF the watershed moment you could change was the JFK assassination? WHAT HAPPENS WHEN a young teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, 2011, gets the chance to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from shooting JFK in November 1963 is the premise of the brilliant new novel by STEPHEN KING: 11/22/63, the date that Kennedy was shot—unless . . .

King takes his protagonist Jake Epping, a high school English teacher, on a fascinating journey back to the world of 1958—from a world in 2011 of mobile phones and iPods to a new world of Elvis and JFK, of Plymouth Fury cars and Lindy Hopping, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake's life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.'
courtesy of GoodReads.com

Very cool book. Time travel to the 50's- hell yes! I loved concept of this book from the get go. Always love a good time travel novel and this was no exception although at a whopping 740 pages it got a bit lengthy in sections. One of the great things about this novel was the exploration of 'cause and effect' and how the very littlest things may cause consequences in the future, and can some things never be changed? Read it and find out, you know you want to.
King fans look out for the shout out to 'It' and Derry. Always love a hidden reference.