Find out what is happening at ACC and in the neighbourhood.
“connecting our community”
Our ukulele group The Flukes gave us an amazing performance at the Alphington Show in March and on Sunday the 28th of June they are back again for a singalong!
Come down to the Centre from 3.00-4.30pm for an end of term celebration. We can’t wait to sing our hearts out to a classic list of songs, including:
-Sunny Afternoon
-Eight Days a Week
-Echo Beach
-Count on Me
-Then I Kissed Her
-I’m a Believer
-Happy Together
-Rhythm of the Falling Rain
-Hit the Road Jack
We love Alphington Farmers’ Market! Always great to buy some local produce.
It’s long a weekend - so I hope you are taking it easy today and doing something extra nice … and thinking of King Charles? Or more likely maybe not??
We’re in the last month of Term 2 which means it is time for us to be thinking about programs we can run in the second half of the year.
If you have a program you’d like to run let us know!
You can volunteer and run one (like Rosie did with Community Yoga - we love it Rosie!) , or if you have an ABN we can support your small business efforts to run something (like Clare running art classes and Yoyo teaching violin).
Or, you may have been to a great one-off workshop that you think people in our neighbourhood would like … and have a contact for the person who runs it … we’re always interested.
You can email info@alphington.org.au or call us on 9499 7227 if you have an idea!
Looking forward to another great (but short) week at ACC. Please note Kalimna is away for 2 weeks - poor sausage now has her hand in a cast after her operation on her finger.
This coming Saturday 13 June we have the Sewing Machine Maintenance Workshop on from 9.30am. You can check the previous post for the booking link.
See you soon I hope!
Cheers Leanne
Gosh we’ve been busy lately. With Corrado, David, Karim and Thomas on the job, ably led by Clare, we’ve been spreading compost and wrangling leaves - and making friends with the street sweeper … oh autumn with plane trees!
Once again we’ve access to the FOGO compost from Darebin Council. This is the compost that is made from our green bin waste … and this year (the 3rd year I think now) it is getting really great. The right PH, smelling delightful, with very little plastic waste caught up in it.
It is so amazing to think that all the scraps from our houses turn into the fabulous resource!
I snapped a picture of the action in the garden on Friday. See below.
And also a picture of Community Lunch. We had chicken burgers and AMAZING sticky date pudding made by Margaret this week. We’re so lucky!
If you are looking for company on a Friday please feel free to join us from 10am. Craft and chats inside, gardening outside. Lunch at 12pm.
‘Tis the season for mushrooms, walnuts, spinach, onion and lemons. Here is the delicious food we cooked for lunch on Thursday at Garden to Plate.
Lemony chicken (using a lemon from Jill and a lemon from Sheryl) … and green onions and spinach from our garden, stuffed mushrooms (cheese and walnuts - amazing) and a roast pumpkin and potato mash. So very yum!
Stuffed Mushrooms (blue cheese and walnuts)
Ingredients
4 large mushrooms
100g blue cheese, crumbled
40g walnuts, coarsely chopped
6 fresh thyme sprigs (or dried thyme is ok too)
2 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs
1 1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil or butter
Directions
Preheat oven to 200C/180C fan-forced. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and finely dice. Arrange mushrooms on the tray.
Mix mushroom stalks, cheese, walnuts and thyme. Fill mushrooms. Top with panko breadcrumbs. Drizzle with oil or a small knob of butter and season with pepper.
Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese melts and mushrooms are tender.
Serve sprinkled with baby herbs if desired.
Mashed Potato and Pumpkin
Ingredients
¼ pumpkin, cut 3 cm chunks
4 potatoes, peeled and cut in 3cm chunks
Salt and pepper
Butter
Cream
Nutmeg
Instructions
Roast the pumpkin in the air fryer for 20 minutes, then microwave with a little water for 5-10 minutes to ensure they are well cooked. Drain and whizz with butter, cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Boil the potato in salty water until soft, drain and mash, then add in the pumpkin mash. Add additional cream and butter to get to the right consistency. Taste and season as needed.
Creamy Lemon Chicken with Sage
Ingredients
2-4 chicken breasts, sliced in half and pounded thin
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Handful of sage leaves
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chicken stock
Zest of 1 lemon, minced
Juice of 1 lemon
2-3 cups packed spinach (or use 1 bag)
3 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions
Mix oil, garlic, sage and salt and pepper and cover chicken breasts. Marinate until cooking.
Heat a large, flat-bottomed sauté pan to medium high heat, set aside the sage leaves and fry the chicken breasts for 3-4 minutes on each side, until done through. Remove the chicken from the pan and set on a plate while completing the rest of the dish.
To the hot pan, add the red onion slices, letting them soften for 2-3 minutes. Pour in the chicken broth. The pan will sizzle. Stir the onions and let cook another 2-3 minutes until they soften more.
Then add in the sage leaves, lemon zest and lemon juice and mix well.
Fold in the spinach and cook for 1-2 minutes.
Turn off the heat, stir in the heavy cream and season once more with salt and pepper.
Add the chicken back into the pan and reheat in the sauce.
Serve immediately.
