Wedding Anniversary Lunch at Tall Poppy, Port Chalmers

Today was my 12th Wedding Anniversary....and we went to Tall Poppy Restaurant in Port Chalmers for an early lunch.  Here I am wearing one of my favourite polyester dresses.  This dress has featured on my blog before but it was longer.  I recently re-hemmed it and turned it up a bit more.  Plus when wearing a wide belt it tends to scoot up a bit, and therefore appears shorter.  Not sure if you can see in the photos but the sleeves have an interesting pointed bit on the cuff and this feature is also on the collar, but a the back which goes to a point.

The Tall Poppy is a lovely restaurant which has some interesting shipping things including a model ship and the picture behind me.  It was cosy and warm inside and the bright red walls are warming too.

It was a really grey, miserable, wet and windy day.  There is a lovely courtyard where you can sit outside but as you can see it was not very appealing.  In the background is the historic Iona Church.

The Tall Poppy has a wonderful selection of desserts which you can see when you enter, which makes it quite difficult to choose what to eat from the menu.  I am always thinking of dessert before I eat my main.  You can see from the picture below that the desserts are spectacular.

I had broccoli and cheese soup which was delicious but unbelievabley rich and therefore I found it impossible to eat all of it.

 Dear Darling H had the Chicken curry which he said was fabulous and one of the best he had ever eaten (see pic below).  Dear Darling D had crispy chicken and chips.

We wanted to have an early lunch so that we could go to the official re-opening of the Ravensbourne Railway Footbridge which has been closed for nearly two years.

There is a long history for the footbridge - it is the only only surviving Edwardian lattice trussed overbridge in Dunedin or possibly in New Zealand (depending on the reporter) in the  local paper.  In the book "Bush to Borough and Beyond" which is a pictorial history of the West Harbour,  it is dated specifically to 1911.   Anyway, it is a prominent landmark and had been raised to accommodate the newer style railway wagons when in 2009, it was announced that it was to be closed.  To make things worse, it appeared that neither the city council nor the railway could agree who actually owned the bridge and therefore would be liable for the maintenance and repairs.  Not shy of sticking up for the underdog I lobbied my local councillor vigorously and was delighted to last year that it was finally being repaired.  In my community newsletter this month was a small advertisement proclaiming that on the 11th March at 1pm, the repaired bridge would be re-opened.  I had to be there!!  It was pouring with rain and a howling southerly but a dozen or so die hard residents stood at the top of the bridge (see below) while Jan Tucker and Andrew Noone cut a lovely red ribbon in half to symbolise the opening of the bridge.  

When we have a fine day, maybe even next weekend, I will ask my supporting family to photograph me on the bridge so you can get a better idea of what it looks like.  I was hoping to spend some time thinking about my Liebster Blog Award and who to pass the award on to, but honestly I am running out of time to do it today.  After the bridge opening we went home for a warming hot drink before going to the pool for the weekly flippaball (like water polo for kids) and I managed to crawl my way back and forth a few times in my inaugural swim of 2012.  By the time we got home it was nearly tea time, so as Dear D had a friend over for tea, I quickly made batch of ANZAC biscuits and a Chocolate Fudge Brownie cake.  

I promised a recipe so here is my version of ANZACs*:

3/4 cup of sugar.  I like brown sugar, but today I used raw sugar

1 cup of coconut

1 cup of rolled oats.  I use the cheapest ones - I like my biscuits with a bit of fibre :-)

1 cup of flour and a bit extra.

mix together in a big bowl.

In a saucepan melt 100g butter and a largish tablespoon of golden syrup and a drop of two of vanilla essence.  Boil the kettle and make a cup of tea.  No seriously, put a teaspoon of bicarbinate of soda in a cup and add two tablespoons of boiling water.  It will go all foamy.  Add this to the butter and syrup mixture but only when its all melted and liquid.  

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid.  Stir until completely mixed.  If you think it is too runny then add a bit more flour.  But do not be tempted to add too much else your biscuits will not flatten out when cooking.  It is is soft then it will spread and you will have lovely round biscuits.  If it is not, you will have to flatten with a fork.  

Cook in a moderate oven 180 degrees celcius until golden brown.  While waiting have a cup of tea ;-)

For very special occasions such as Dear D going on school camp, I melted a cup of white chocolate buttons and then when the biscuits are cold, I put a blob on the top of each.  White chocolate goes really well with these.  

Who were the ANZACS?  Well they were the brave soldiers from New Zealand and Australia who fought in WWI and WWII.  I also think New Zealand soldiers fought in the Boer war, but I am not sure if there was a combined Australian and New Zealand Armed Corps.   

* PS I have been using the famous Edmonds Cookbook for years and there is an excellent recipe in it for ANZAC biscuits, but this one is different as I have made some small changes.

Enjoy!!!