Hi everyone,

We had a particularly gardeny productive week last week with Community Lunch (where we cooked a yummy Thai meal with vegetables from our garden) and Preserves Group … we made cumquat marmalade, lime marmalade AND tomato relish. Big thanks to Margaret for donating the cumquats and to Megan for donating the limes. Pop in and buy some of our excellent (not bragging - it is good!) marmalade if you like.

We are going to have our Annual General Meeting next Monday the 31st of August. Anyone who is interested is welcome to come along. It’s free, but you need to RSVP by booking in online at this link.

Also coming up in our calendar we are going to be running another of our Op-Shop Adventures on Thursday the 10th of September. These events are $10 and include lunch after a fun day out shopping. Book in online here.

And this week, we look forward to seeing you all at:

• Heart-Centred Breathwork with John on Tuesday from 7.30-8.30am (book in here).

• Line Dancing at Alphington Scout Hall on Wednesday at 10am-12pm.

• Alphington Playgroup here at ACC on Wednesday at 10am-12pm.

• U3A Armchair Theatre on Wednesday from 12-2pm.

• Cardboard Playgroup on Thursday at 10am-12pm.

• Cook by the Book on Thursday from 11.30am-1pm (book in here).

• CRUNCH on Thursday from 12.30-2pm (book in here).

• Embracing Life and Death on Thursday from 1-3pm (contact eoldoulasinmelb@gmail.com).

• Community Morning on Friday from 10am-1pm.

Lastly, here’s another link to the Yarra Council website - this time featuring Rob in the video. Thanks Rob, for talking about why you come along to ACC and why neighbourhood houses are great places for social connection.

Cheers Leanne

Last year (or was it the year before …) Thomas came along to Gardening Group with a fresh chilli, and asked Clare to teach him how to grow his own chilli plant from it. So Clare and Thomas started the process - drying the chilli pod, saving the seeds, planting the seeds, nurturing the seedlings … planting and growing the plants, harvesting the chillies, drying them … and saving the seeds … AND NOW … if you pop past our little seed library out the front you can pick up some of Thomas’s seeds to plant in your own garden! And Thomas is an expert in growing chilli plants.

Also … we’ve got some dried chillies (that we put in the dehydrator) in the kitchen for our community cooking too!

If you would like to learn more about the processes and practicalities of gardening and growing food at home, join Clare on Friday mornings in the garden from 10.30am-12pm … spring is a great time to get going so you have a wonderful summer vegetable garden to admire (and eat!).

Hi everyone,

We had a great time last Thursday cooking up a Korean feast at Cook by the Book! Rob thinks it might have been our best collective cooking effort yet!

It was also super (if somewhat chaotic - because I forgot they were coming) to have Yarra Council staff along to do some video interviews about how ace neighbourhood houses are - for a loneliness week campaign they are putting together. We’ll share the material when they publish it! They also stayed for our yummy Korean lunch and it was great to have a chat with them.

Thanks so much to Jamie from Kew High who was here doing work experience with us for the week. He was a super conversationalist and worked really hard. It really was a pleasure to have him here!

This week we’ve got lots on including:

• Heart-Centred Breathwork on Tuesday at 7.30am (we’ve set up a weekly payment option for this now so you can come along and give it a try)

• Line Dancing at Alphington Scout Hall on Wednesday from 10am-12pm

• Playtime in the Garden, also on Wednesday from 10am-12pm

• U3A Armchair Theatre on Wednesday from 1pm-3pm

• Cardboard Playgroup on Thursday from 10am-12pm

• Cook by the Book on Thursday from 11.30am-1pm

• CRUNCH on Thursday from 12.30pm-2pm

• Alphingtones Choir at St. Andrew’s Church on Thursday from 7.30pm-9pm

• Community Morning on Friday from 10am-1pm

To find out more and book in online, please visit our website at this link.

Cheers Leanne

Hi everyone,

Ooops, I wrote this message last week but forgot to press publish … so our newsletter last week looked a bit different from usual, but I am more organised and on the job this week (hopefully).

Our big news is that Kalimna has resigned. After 9 plus years she is hanging up her neighbourhood house hat. I am sad. She is happy to have more time to dedicate to her family and her photography. This is her last week and she’ll be in Tuesday and Wednesday, so please pop past to say goodbye if you’d like to, and you can sign this ecard.

Onto more mundane things …

The Sewing Machine Maintenance workshop on last Saturday was full once again! Always popular. We love Gordon. Thanks Darebin Repair Cafe friends for roping us in to share this event - great to be working together on great things like this. Don’t forget the Overlocker Maintenance version is still the come in July (if you have one). You can book in at this link - it is on at 9.30am on Saturday 11 July.

Last week we had Preserves Group on Tuesday and Alphington Arts in the evening - both very productive. At preserves we made lime marmalade with limes from Megan’s garden, feijoa chutney with fruit from Kevin’s friend and greengage plum jam (I think perhaps using fruit from Fiona’s garden … but this could be incorrect as I wasn’t there right at the start as things were being discussed). Anyway … we have loads of preserves on offer if you need a little gift for someone or a little treat to pick yourself up! Only $7. Beautifully decorated with a fun little label written by Rose this time.

And we made some cute little weavings in Alphington Arts which was excellent - thanks Corrin from Work Play House for running this mini workshop for us! If you are interested in learning to weave Corrin runs courses - for kids and adults (visit the link to find out more).

And, we are coming up to the end of Term 2 and looking ahead to next semester. Our new brochures will be available soon and in particular we’re looking forward to running a new 4 week course nest term for people who might be interested in writing a novel … or already have one on the go and need some inspiration to keep on going! Fran Cusworth is a local author who has approached us to share her skills at the community level, and it should be terrific - she has previously taught writing at RMIT and LaTrobe university and has lots of expertise to share and is generally a super nice person! I’ll publish a post next week with all the details.

In the meantime, we hope to see you at our upcoming Ukulele Singalong!!! at 3pm this Sunday 28 June (should be fun - with afternoon tea included). Suggested and run by the talented members of our uke group The Flukes. Book in here and see the post from last week for further details.

And … this Friday, if you are into the World Cup (soccer) you will know that Australia is playing Paraguay at 12pm smack bang at Community Lunch time … soooooo … we’ll be having a suitable community lunch and a screen to watch the big game! Come along if you want to share in the excitement (and wear your green and gold!).

And then it’s holidays for two weeks … And then semester two starts. Yikes time flies.

Cheers Leanne

‘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.