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

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

Book in online here.

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

‘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.

Budgets, grants applications and acquittals, Council submissions … last week was flat out behind the scenes … and busy in person as well.

Lots of people attended the Embracing Life and Death discussions on Thursday afternoon. Crunch was a small group this time (but lovely - we did still life painting with gouache paint), we got a delivery of a couple of cubic metres of compost to keep us busy in the garden on Friday (thanks Nat at Darebin Council for organising this again!) … and two birthday parties were held at ACC 🥳 on Sunday.

This week CWA is meeting at the Gleeson Centre on Monday night, Garden to Plate is on Thursday at 11.30am … and it’s the long weekend … so we’ll see you back on deck next Tuesday.

Hope you make the most of it. I am planning to go to Rutherglen (to check out the wineries) with some of my oldest friends from university. Should be fun!

Cheers Leanne