On The Twentythird Day of Christmas: Dining with the Bloggers - Stonesoup

Surely, what is a Christmas Countdown without at least two installments of DwB? And seeing I only gave you one so far, here's one more, for your entertainment.

If it wasn't because I like Denmark as much as I do, I'm sure one place I'd love to call home would be Australia. They have a great food scene, it seems. And they have the most fanatstic light there - at least that's what I gather from the photos taken by Jules of Stonesoup. They are nothing short of amazing - light, natural, ethereal. Beautiful.

As if taking incredible photos isn't enough, she also writes awfully well. About her friends, about her family - she writes about life with an honesty that is captivating. Her pieces on the recent passing away of her Mum had me in tears. Even though she is several oceans and time zones away, and all I know of her is what she writes on her blog, I felt like reaching out and giving her a big hug. When a blogger does this to me, I know there's no way I'll ever stop reading their blog.

But that's one thing - this is a food blogger, after all, and as if all of the above doesn't float your boat, her descriptions of the food she serves - often in carefully composed and arranged menu set-ups - is the kind of food I dream of. Lamb shanks. Duck confit. Braised fennel with olives and soft polenta. Osso Buco. Chocolate Souffle with Dulce de Leche. Mmm-mmm-mmm. Also, she recently started doing this shopping guide to Sydney, a must-read if you're going anywhere near there. And, just maybe, an idea I have to steal and apply to the shops around my city :)

Exactly why I decided to make mahamarra is a good question. It's a dip! It's not braised or nothing, like a lot of the other things on her blog I'd love to try. But that's a thing she's able to do - make me think about trying things I never thought I would. I'm actually not crazy about walnuts, so why I decided I had to try it - well. I told you, she writes with conviction, that Jules. I guess I thought that if she liked it, so would I. And I did have that bottle of pomegranate molasses in the back of the cupboard, needing to be put to good use.

So I made it, for a night where the girls and their significant others came around for a couple beers and vegetable sticks, and it went down a treat. The roasted red peppers takes a bit of the bitterness away form the walnuts, and the pomegranate molasses, together with the smoked paprika, makes this dip something special. Definitely not the last time this has graced my table. And definitely not the last time I'll let Jules convince me there's something I got to try. Next up, lamb shanks, in any of her disguises. I'm game. All good things...;)