A piece of crumpet

When was the last time that you had a home-made crumpet?  Not a question asked much when commercially made crumpets are so readily available to the crumpet eating household.  In fact until a couple of weeks ago (when I decided to have a go at making some myself), I could safely answer my own question with "never".  However now that I have both tasted home-made and made them for the cafe, I can say without a doubt that I will not be buying commercial crumpets again.  There is absolutely no comparison. 

A home-made crumpet is so very different and so much nicer.  Even though it takes more time and effort to make, I can say that it was worth the effort.  And fortunately for Blue Bird customers, you do not need to go to so much effort in your own kitchen, let me do the work and make the crumpets for you.  One customer's comment was that it was just like her grandma used to make and that it took her back to childhood.  And that is why we make them here at the cafe ...because the Blue Bird is all about recapturing childhood and enjoying the memories of grandma's house.  So next time you are in Lockhart on a Sunday for brunch or afternoon tea, try one of our homemade crumpets with butter, jam or golden syrup...whatever takes your fancy.

Take Home Dinners for One

We have designed some easy and affordable home-cooked meals that you can take with you as an alternative to factory produced supermarket frozen dinners.  We figure that they will suit busy working people with little time to cook, single older people living independently but who don't want to cook every night, and travellers in caravans wanting a break from toasted sandwiches and soup in a cup.

Our meals are single person serves.  They are handmade with care and designed for your convenience.  All you need to do is take them home and heat them up, then enjoy the fact that someone else has done the cooking for you tonight.

Choose from the following growing list of options:

• Traditional Lasagna
• Chicken Lasagna (our fresh take on the familiar baked pasta)
• Roast Lamb Dinner Pie (an entire lamb dinner in one pie!)
• Roast Chicken Dinner Pie (chicken, gravy, vegetables and potatoes all in a pie!)
• Tuscan Beef Pie
• Bacon and Egg Quiche
• Smoked Salmon Quiche

To make an inquiry or place an order, please contact us on 6920 5559.

Go the Pies!

 Not those Pies...these ones.  

As of this week I have started making my own pies each day as well as our own sausage rolls.  I love a good pie even better than a good plate of fish and chips.  Pies can be traditional or as inventive as you like so there is plenty of scope to play with taste and flavour combinations.

So far this week I have stuck to some traditional flavours to kick start the pies and get a few runs on the board before winter.  The bacon and egg and the beef, bacon and cheese have been the most popular and I think that people appreciate that the pies are made fresh, made here and made by hand.  No mass produced factory frozen kinds.

But I have also been fine tuning some gourmet flavours like; Chicken, sweet potato and mushroom, Tuscan beef, Greek lamb, Roast chicken dinner and the Friday special Smoked fish.  They will be coming soon to the menu but as the pies are made fresh each day and only one or two flavours at a time, you will need to be quick to get one.

Real Fruit Granita (that's a slushie to the kids)

Roger has mastered the juicer and we are full steam ahead making real fruit slushies served out of the milk bar just like they used to in the old days.  Back then it was the Veneris family's secret recipe Orange Ale and we are not claiming ours to be as good as everyone's memory of their refreshing drink.  However we would like to dedicate our version of something similar to the memory of Jack and Peter.  Everyone remembers their drink so very fondly.  They remember how it was a drink but used to ice up around the edges of the freezer and how it had to be stirred once in a while to keep it liquid.

Well, ours is more a traditional granita, in fact that is exactly what it is.  We make two varieties so far using freshly squeezed fruit juice (Roger has been slaving over the juicer just like Peter used to).  Orange and Watermelon Real Fruit Slushies are now on tap so to speak at The Blue Bird.  And as it has most definitely been 40+ degree temperatures all this week the summer is well and truly into what I call 'Watermelon Weather'.  In fact it has been the only thing that has managed to cool us (and our customers) down this week.  Roger reckons that the icy drink is quite moreish but as it is made with 90% fruit including pulp, it is probably not a bad thing to become addicted to in the scheme of things.

From the original comes the even better

I was truly surprised at how quickly our original home-made sausage rolls became a hit in Lockhart not long after I first started making them.  I think that was sometime in February last year...certainly before the Antiques Under the Verandah day because I remember making truck loads of them to sell that weekend.  Since then I have made a batch every day and almost every day, they have sold out.  That is really good feedback that I was on the right track when I decided to focus on flavour over size as the commercial varieties seem to do.  It has certainly been one of the main comments we have received about them...that our sausage rolls have flavour and that you can taste the meat filling.

So I decided to have fun experimenting with other flavours and came up with my own version of the classic Cheese and Spinach Roll.  It has a secret ingredient to give it a bit of extra pep.  That has featured sporadically on our menu now for a number of months.  At long last I can unveil a new, gourmet range of 'sausage' rolls...

Turkey, cranberry and brie - subtly sophisticated and slightly festive

Pork, apple and mustard - an English country flavour inspired by the Hairy Bikers

and..

Chicken, macadamia and sundried tomato -my personal favourite, the intense hit of sundried tomato balanced out by the creaminess of Australian macadamia.

Who said that a sausage roll had to be all about the meat?  My new flavours test the boundaries of the ordinary sausage roll and I hope I can tempt some traditionalists into stretching their imaginations and their taste buds to try something a bit different and new.

A New Year and a Milestone

Roger and I have not only made it through Christmas and New Year 2013, but we have also reached a bit of a personal milestone and are taking the time to reflect on all that we have achieved, as well as of course, as breathing deep for some new year's resolve.  January 2014 heralds the anniversary of the re-opening of The Blue Bird for meals and a rekindling of the business.  It might not have been as dramatic a year for the Shire of Lockhart as 2012, there were no floods in 2013, but it was a huge year for us.

The winter was long and hard to undergo our first year in business but we made it through and now we can say that we have seen all the seasons and seasonal changes.  We will know better what to expect in the coming year.  A tremendous learning curve and we are grateful that we have been able to roll with the times.  Spring arrived after a good rainy winter and the canola bloomed its butter yellow early.  The changeable spring with unfortunate late frosts was not kind to the farmers or their crops but Lockhart pulled through better than other areas and harvest took place earlier than usual to make the most of the crops that were left undamaged.

In December we suffered an early heatwave.  After the mild previous December in 2012, Lockhart had lulled me into a false sense of security.  Here I was thinking that it would not be as hot as people had warned me.  We sweltered for four days of temperatures that tipped over the 40 degree mark, followed then by sticky humid rain.  It wasn't so much the heat that distressed me as the multiplying bugs.  They might have been little but they learned over the week of their life span, to bite and be very, persistently irritating.  Tiny insects that pestered me day and night, attracted to light coloured things like our vehicle, our toilet and our skin.  The local Banjo frog was a welcome visitor in our back garden as they enjoyed a marvelous feast of insects.

Fortunately the weather cooled just before Christmas and it has since been a couple of weeks of lovely temperate 30 degree, fine days and cool nights so we have been able to get some sleep.  Christmas Eve presented a picture perfect sunset and since then we have been busy, busy, busy in the cafe as the traveling families make the most of the nice weather to trip around and stop at The Blue Bird.  Of course, I am having the same feeling that I do every year I work through the Christmas/New Year season.  I envy everyone else who is on holiday when I am not.  But it is a case of 'making hay' for us as we build up our business and we will be hopefully be able to stand back some time in the future and see the rewards of our hard work.

I terms of new year's projects?  Well, we are enhancing our collection of milk bar memorabilia and working on researching more of the history of The Blue Bird, Greek-Australian cafes and milk bars.  We have known all along that the most important part of what we are doing here is preserving a precious part of Lockhart's and indeed Australian history and the more of that history that we can share with the world, the better.  So here's to 2014 and its place in history.

The last minute Christmas rush

Now I know that there are not many people who have their Christmas shopping completed, wrapped and under the tree before Christmas Eve.  The last minute rush is almost traditional for some.  I remember occasionally being kicked out of shopping malls at 9 o'clock on Christmas Eve as the worn out staff tried not to lose their cool in their effort to get rid of the annoying last minute shoppers.  The roller doors came down and the big burly security guard stood stoic and grim, shaking his head at pathetic protests of desperation.  He did not look at all like a jolly Santa.  But there was that dreadful sinking feeling that the shops were shutting one after another and there were still presents not yet bought.  Someone in the family was going to miss out on Christmas Day.  Oh the nightmare of Christmas.

It's not supposed to be like that.  Maggie Beer has a new Christmas recipe book out and Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver and all the other TV cooks make Christmas look perfectly magical.  The preparation of food and the consumption of the feast with family and friends is supposed to be joyous and infinitely easy.  Or so we are told.  I don't think anyone of us mere mortals really believe that, now do we?  The preparation of a hot cooked meal for a host of relatives is no easy feat.  It is successfully done in many kitchens in many houses all over the world but it is certainly not easy.  And in countries like New Zealand and Australia, it is a stiflingly hot task.

I am fond of the memory of the first Christmas I spent in Australia.  It was just Roger and I.  We took a picnic basket of crackers, cheese, grapes, chocolate and a bottle of wine to the Botanic Gardens in Melbourne and sat under a tree each with a book to read.  We spent the afternoon in quite pursuit of Peace on Earth.  Now that was magical to me.  In the past the lead up to Christmas, throughout my library career, was usually full of stressed customers and the pressure of booking in leave three months in advance or missing out.  I often had no idea in September what I wanted to do at Christmas so invariably I would agree to work through and let other staff take holidays.  And every year, come the first week of January when everyone else looked rested and relaxed from their holidays, I would regret the decision.

So this year I have some advice on how to beat the end of year stress and the last minute Christmas panic.  Here it is.

Take your break now and go on a mini holiday in the last couple of weeks before Christmas.  Don't wait till after when you are already too stressed to wind down.  Avoid the shopping malls with their endless earworm Christmas music.  You will never get it out of your head.  Do your shopping in small towns rather than big cities.  There is less stress and less hype to distract and pressure you into buying in panic.  In fact, come to Lockhart.

This Friday night the town is having late night opening and a street festival to get the community out enjoying the season together.  And if you are still looking for gifts at that point, then there are a number of opportunities in Green Street to find something that you are unlikely to get elsewhere (certainly not at the price).  The Blue Bird has good books and unique handmade retro crafts for sale and the other shops, Heaven in Rags, Intuition, Ginge and Fluffs are all places that offers something quite different and special in a world full of mass produced and chain stores.  There is a relaxed atmosphere in Lockhart this Christmas, come and catch the bug.