This weekend I got to do my favourite things cook, garden and hang out with the fur kids.  I have 5 fur children, 3 dogs and 2 cats they teach me about life; how to enjoy the little things like walks, sun and a good feed.  To embrace the luxury of an electric blanket, mohair throw or a vintage persian rug.  Not to place to much value on things…..the cats in particular are good at teaching this one by vomiting on anything valuable they can find.

I love how they are all so different, Ollie BoBo is our first born.  He is highly anxious and obsessive, constantly paces and protects the house (or his bone).  He is a stocky little ball of grumpy maltese cross.    On the weekend he can usually be found hovering under the picnic table waiting for falling gems.  Ollie teaches me that anxiety is a natural part of life and when he overcomes a fear I cheer like it is me learning to deal with the unexpected.  He gives me hope.  This weekend I couldn’t figure out what he was doing sitting in the middle of the lawn, he wouldn’t move for anyone….. then I realised he was guarding the BBQ and the slow cooked leg of lamb and glazed ham that were slowly cooking away.

With Ollie’s patient guarding I finally finished my ham this weekend, the process started a month ago (see adventures with pork) when I made my ham.  This weekend I finally got to glaze it ready for family Christmas on the 19th.  Using Nigella Lawson’s ginger glazed ham recipe , I scored the fat and put cloves into each juicy square.  Then I poached it in ginger beer, hot english mustard and brown sugar for a few hours, finishing with a whisky marmalade glaze.  It looks amazing and when a piece accidentally fell of the side of it I had to try it and it is amazing.  So different to bought ham, sweet and tender not salty.  With the ham in the Weber or Ziegler & Brown in my case I also had room for a leg of lamb.  I rubbed the lamb with olive oil and za’atar; a middle eastern spice mix made of thyme, sesame seeds, sumac and salt.  Then it went into the BBQ for 3 hours till it was falling off the bone.

While Ollie was busy guarding the above meat dishes, Jackey Jack our second child was inside trying to break into the bedroom so he could sleep on a mohair rug.  He feels that he can only really rest on mohair, as soon as he feels it under his feet he collapses like he has had a stroke and refuses to move until either parent or his bladder makes him move.  Jack is pure french poodle, he has never been fat in his life, even if the food is good he only eats a small portion.    He is always poised, normally found on the back of the couch peering out the front window and observing the passing parade of dogs walking past.  He cry like a baby when he really wants something and can remember were you hide the squeaky toys long after I have forgotten were I put them.  Jack teaches me to enjoy the nice things in life and that it’s OK to have a little luxury.  Jack was inside while the bake fest was on but it was all a bit beneath him, especially when I poured the Jantz into the blackberries to make jam.

So along with the BBQ, I also made vanilla ice-cream, chilli jam, blackberry & champagne jam, ginger star biscuits & chocolate truffles.

The chilli jam was yum, just tomato, red capsicum chilli’s, sugar, red wine vinegar, cinnamon, bay leaves and rosemary.  It was sweet, hot, sour and will be great with left over ham.  The blackberry jam was just blackberries, bubbles, sugar and vanilla.  The jams were for Chrissie Kringle at work, I can’t stand buying $10 gifts, you can’t get anything for $10 so I make instead.

The vanilla ice-cream is to go with Great Grandma Edna’s Christmas Pudding and the ginger biscuits were a little treat for Will after making loads of yummy food that he is banned from eating for the week.  Maybe the fur kids will get a ginger biscuit treat as well.

Our final dog fur child is Mistress Johnson, she is our accidental child.  Missy came into our lives when she was abandoned by her owner in a remote community in Central Australia.  All scraggly and full of dags for the first time in 8 years Will took pity.  He had to dose her with Phenergan laced sausage rolls to get her to Melbourne were she sat in the far corner of the back yard for the next 8 weeks staring at me.  She slowly came around and now she is 95% happy and chilled out dog.  She has limited teeth but still makes swift work of a bone or pigs ear.  She has also put on 4kgs since we got her and grown an enormous amount of hair…….she had mange when we got her and we had hoped that the accidental child might not be a molter……….hahaha fat chance….. at least Will can have an affair with a blonde while I am away……..I’d never know.