Cooking Corner

Herbal Mushroom Quiche (self crusting)
Ingredients
2 medium sized onions
2 tbsp oil
200gr mushrooms
½ tsp dried basil
¼ tsp dried thyme
pepper to taste
2 eggs
½ cup sour cream
¾ cup milk
1/tsp salt
½ cup self rising flour
½ cup tasty cheese (grated)
Method
Finely slice onions. Sauté in oil, when soft add sliced mushrooms and cook until they too soften. Add thyme, basil and pepper then remove from heat while preparing the egg mixture.
In medium sized bowl lightly beat together the eggs, sour cream, milk, and salt.
Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir just enough to combine. Then add grated cheese , again stirring just enough to mix.
Butter a 25-30 cm flan or pie dish. Spread the onion- mushroom mix evenly on the bottom. Pour the batter evenly over this and bake 220 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes – until light brown and firm in the centre . Cool for 10 – 15 minutes before turning out.

Community Board Conference

WOW!!!  That’s what I felt the whole time at this years national community board conference. Meeting lots of lovely people doing wonderful things for their communities, devoting their time and energy. Sure we get paid but it  barely pays for our petrol, one lady from Auckland reckons she wouldn’t do it for what we get paid. I said “who does it for the money?
The main topics this year was “YOUTH” but it wasn’t supposed to be, it evolved. Sam Johnson, you know the Christchurch Earthquake Student army shovel boy, talked first. He talked about being on his community board for the last three years and how he puts a totally different aspect on things through  his eyes. And lots of energy!
Meetings and local politics are boring to him (and a lot of us) so they get him to be there only when he has to, and they give him a job to do. Then he’s off to social media organise it all.  He says he’s good at delegating but his father, a local farmer, calls it lazy.

Trevor Johnston, a retired CEO from Riverlands, says he was too thick for varsity, and not enough brains for a surgeon so he went into the meat works. He started as an office boy and worked his way up. He’s saying that we could also learn a lot from our older retired people.

Look around Martinborough, we have such interesting, diverse people living here, and all for the same reason, friendly, helpful village atmosphere.

He says a lot of these people would just love to be asked, but not for money. Time, knowledge, expertise. He has helped with a lot of squash then golf clubs as his body packed up. The first thing he asks them is how many juniors on your committee? They looked blank and asked “why do we want youngsters, what do they know about being on a committee?”

But they put another slant on attracting other youths to clubs, which as we all know are having trouble with memberships all over the world. So if you know of any youngster keen to be involved in our community or just have wonderful ideas, please phone or email me
Adi McMaster 3069064 or 0274822220 pakohe@infogen.net,nz

COBBLESTONES MUSEUM

A project to change the face of Cobblestones Settlers Museum in Greytown has received a major boost with a grant from the Lottery Grants Board of $274,000.

The hefty grant means that the Museum has achieved 85 percent funding of the total required to complete the redevelopment which is expected to start in spring.

Chairman of the Cobblestones Trust, Graeme Gray and the Trust Committee are delighted with the Lottery grant but they will still be seeking funding to obtain the remainder needed.  All donations, small or large will be appreciated as they strive to get the funding in place. … Continue Reading

Book review

Johnson’s life of London
Boris Johnson, Editor of The Spectator, Member of parliament for Henley on Thames and Lord Mayor of London, clearly loves his city- and is keen to share his enthusiasm. The result is a very enjoyable book.

Johnson has chosen a novel approach by combining the telling of both the city’s ruled and social history through the life a well known person of each era.

Along with this he has added a two page item (distinguished by a different font) between each era. In this he tells of an important development of the time. These, for example, include such as the invention of the flush toilet, not by Thomas Crapper as you were probably taught but by John Harington. Or again the patenting of the bicycle in 1818 which revolutionised transport, the writing of the King James Bible, or the numerous sports, like table tennis, invented in London. … Continue Reading