Summer salad days

It is summer over here down-under in Australia. Australian's love the beach, though I don't frequent the beach in summer so much these days, except when I am on holidays. I tend to stay indoors in the summer out of the burning rays of the sun.

 And when the hot days of summer hit the last thing I feel like doing is cooking. So that's when the salads come out. I have a particular favourite which I often make when we are invited to a BBQ and are asked to "bring a salad" to share. It is common here in Australia to "bring a salad to share". Is that something that happens where you live? 

How to Escape from the Kitchen

With so many of us time poor these days it is fabulous to find somewhere that will cook delicious nutritious mid-price-range meals for you to take home. Last week I was invited by former restaurateurs Bree & Dale Wiley to go down to Escape the Kitchen in Dunsborough to take photos for their new website.

 Despite the rain that morning it was a lovely drive through the trees to their small rural property just out of Dunsborough in south west Western Australia.  The road took me along a shady country road that I had never been along before despite having visited the Dunsborough-Yallingup area many times over the years.

Bree and Dale welcomed me like old friends and they were a joy to work with.  One of the things I really enjoyed was working closely with a professional chef and his partner to create the food shots they were looking for. We collaborated all the way through. They just didn't leave it to me because I was the photographer. Bree & Dale were easy to work with and knew what they wanted - a clean, no fuss look.  They wanted the food to look like it would when the customer took it home.

Escape the Kitchen came about when many people bemoaned that Bree & Dale no longer owned their restaurant and they were no longer able to enjoy the food that Dale created in his kitchen. And with so many people time poor these days, Bree & Dale realised there was a nitch they could fill, creating delicious nutritious take away food at a reasonable price. They built a commercial kitchen on their property, and Escape the Kitchen was born.

Bree & Dale are currently creating their website with a technical friend, and they searched on the net for a food photographer. They found me! Bree and I chatted on the phone and within a week I was in their kitchen in Dunsborough.

Hearty winter fare..........  

Or perhaps a light salad.......I can vouch that the Caesar salad was delicious! 

Or something for the sweet tooth.

We photographed a lot of dishes but I thoroughly enjoyed photographing Dale's chef created food and collaborating on the styling with Bree. Oops don't mind the fingers! 

How's the sauce drizzle?

Dale and Bree also cater for functions and weddings. I'm looking forward to seeing the new Escape the Kitchen website when it is completed. I'll let you know!

Thank you so much for stopping by. Are you time poor? Do you long for take away food that is delicious and nutritious? I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

Mosaic Monday  (sadly Mosaic Monday has closed)

Life Thru the Lens 

Lifestyle Fifty Monday Linkup 
Our World Tuesday
Through My Lens 
Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global
Worth Casing Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
The Weekly Postcard

Summer is here!

Summer is here and with it come the fruits and vegetables of summer and time for preserving and making salads.

I have been making Zucchini Pickle (you might call it Relish) every summer for abut 30 years.  It is a recipe that my friend Kathy gave me. It is fairly quick and easy to make. Zucchini Pickle is my husband's favourite pickle so I make it every year around this time of year when zucchini's are plentiful and cheap. He likes to give his fishing mate a jar every Christmas - it is his favourite too!

Zucchini pickle is great for having with summer salads and cold meats, or in a sandwich, or just on fresh bread with cheese or cold meat. It is also wonderful for giving to friends or family as a homemade gift.  It has some fabulous spices in the recipe - you can see them ready to go in the mosaic, and the finished product waiting for their lids. Don't you just love the yellow colour!

 You will need:

1lb (450g) brown onions, chopped and sliced finely
4lb (1.8kg) zucchini sliced finely (about 6 zucchini)
2 pints (12000ml) white vinegar 
2lb (900gm) white sugar
2 tablspn mustard powder
1 teaspoon mixed spice
t tblspn salt
1 tblspn tumeric
1 teaspn white pepper
1 cup plain flour (you could probably use cornflour or a gluten free flour)

 Don't use the really big zucchinis as the skin is too tough. 
Slice the zucchinis lengthwise and cut out the seeds. Then slice the zucchinis finely. No need to peel, but I take off any damaged skin. A food processer helps with the slicing.

Put the onions, zucchini and half the vinegar into a large pan. Cook until tender. Mix the dry ingredients with the rest of the vinegar and mix into the pan. Add the sugar. Cook for about 10 minutes stirring constantly. 

Most important to stir constantly! Otherwise it will stick and burn if you don't stir constantly!
Bottle and cover immediately. 

Summer has begun, and our tomatoes are starting to ripen in our garden. Here are some radishes, and little tomatoes. The green bunch of tomatoes tore off the vine accidentally when I tried to pluck a ripe one - oops!

I was chasing the light the morning I photographed this last week, or should I say trying to find somewhere that wasn't so bright! I should have gotten up 2 hours earlier! The sun seems to be coming up around 5.30am now! When the sun went momentarily behind a cloud around lunch time, and I grabbed this shot. Clouds are a great diffuser - especially in the harsh Australian summer sun!

I saw three slightly different variations of the salad shown below in three places last week - Tartelette - www.tarteletteblog.com; The Red Bistro - www.theredbristro.com; and in my fabulous new cook book - Ed Halmagyi's The Food Clock - The Food Clock (fabulous food pics!).
So I guess it was telling me something - that I would need to make and photograph it.

The salad includes, mixed salad leaves, radishes, fennel, pomegranate, red onion, green apple, walnuts, feta. With a drizzle of vinaigrette over it, or your favourite salad dressing, just before serving.

The salad certainly has some lovely summer colours. And Christmassy too with the red and green! Photographed here in natural morning light on my patio. The bowl is "Depression" glass from my mother-in-law's china cabinet. She always used to use this bowl for salads.

And just something a little different - Just playing around with colour and radishes and a different slant on things! Do you like the effect? 
Colour enhancement courtesy of RadLab

Thank you for stopping by. What is your favourite summer salad?
I look forward to hearing from you. Have a fabulous week.

I am linking up to Mary and all the fabulous photographers at Mosaic Monday at Little Red House - please click on the link here to visit - Mosaic Monday

You might also like - please click on the link here -

Summer tomatoes