The picnic

Going to Perth's outdoor cinemas in summer is one of my favourite things to do. Last week I packed up a picnic and we went to see a comedy with some friends. As the sun went down, we snacked on a whole range of things from my garden:

 

 

We had delicious home-grown and home-made; basil pesto, semi dried tomatoes with thyme and garlic, mini zucchini and bacon quiches... and at the top of the picture are slices of fresh cucumber, with a dollop of cream cheese mixed with chopped chives, with smoked salmon on top, finished with a sprig of dill. Fresh and delicious. The picnic was a big success!

Chilli mussels

We made chilli tomato mussels for dinner the other night, with lots of ingredients from the garden. They were delicious:

 

 

...and quite easy to make too!

 

I made a sauce by gently frying some finely chopped onion in a little olive oil, adding crushed garlic (from last year's harvest) and some chopped red chillies (from the garden). Then I added diced tomatoes (from the garden) and a glug or two of white wine.

Then we quickly steamed the clean mussels with about a cup of boiling water for 3 minutes before emptying the water out and pouring the sauce over the top to bring to the boil for a few more minutes. We stirred in some fresh chopped continental parsley (from the garden) and served it with fresh sour dough bread and real butter. Yum!