Mount Lofty Ranges, Adelaide, South Australia

Living in Adelaide and planning to have a short one day weekend getaway? Why not visit the Mount Lofty Ranges.

The Mount Lofty Ranges are mountains located at the east of Adelaide, South Australia. It is just a 30 minutes drive from Adelaide.

Here are the attractions of Mount Lofty Ranges:-

Mount Lofty Summit 

The Mount Lofty Summit is the perfect place for you unwind while enjoying the breathtaking views across Adelaide’s city skyline to the coast. Pay a little extra and you get to use the binoculars at the summit to get a better view or just bring your own binoculars. If you are hungry, you can always get a bite at the fully licensed Summit Restaurant and Café.

The Mount Lofty Summit

(photo taken from: www.southaustralia.com)

Top view of the Mount Lofty Summit

(photo taken from: www.southaustralia.com)

Mount Lofty House 

The Mount Lofty House is an iconic country manor house that was built 160 years ago. It has now been converted into a boutique luxury accommodation and fine dining place. Even if you do not wish to stay or dine there, it is worth a visit. The house is excellently restored while maintaining its unique architecture and former glory. A visit to the house is truly a good way to help you get a glimpse of what life was like for the elite group back in the olden days. The house is also surrounded by beautiful gardens, landscape and spectacular views.

The entrance of the Mount Lofty House

The side view of the Mount Lofty House

Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens 

If you like the outdoors and mother nature, then Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens is the place to be. The garden is home to a stunning mass display of magnolias, rhododendrons, camellias and roses. The best time to visit the garden is during the spring and autumn seasons because this is the time when the magnificent flowers are blooming.

If you love walking, explore the garden through its walking trails. If not, just sit down and relax while having a picnic by the lakeside with your family and friends.

Walking trails of Mount Lofty Botanic Garden

(photo taken from: www.southaustralia.com)

Mount Lofty Ranges is a really good option for a one day weekend getaway, especially if you live in Adelaide, South Australia. Its panoramic views, fresh air and unspoilt mother nature makes the place perfect for anyone wishing to take a short break from their everyday lives.

I hope this post helps.

Cheers,

Caroline Poh

Brown Sugar Smokies

When I was asked to contribute a dish for our church potluck/pot bless event, I was clueless as to what dish I should cook for the party. It is very hard to prepare a dish for a party full of people from different cultures and nationalities. The dish has to be universally acceptable so that everybody can enjoy it. It cannot be spicy, contain any seafood or peanuts (in case anybody is allergic to those ingredients) and I must not serve any raw seafood/meat/eggs because it is not accepted in many cultures.

Keeping all this in mind, I decided to do an internet search on popular party snacks or finger food. While browsing the internet, I remembered that I have a finger food recipe from Allrecipes.com that I had stacked away in my recipe folder for many years. I never got to cook that dish because it was a party snack and I did not have any suitable occasion to cook it until then. I looked through the recipe and discovered that it had two familiar ingredients that everybody will eat – sausages and bacon!

After some modifications, I came up with my own version of Brown Sugar Smokies. As they do not sell smokie sausages at the place where I live, I substituted them with cocktail sausages and it turned out perfectly well.

The results – a deliciously addictive sweet and salty party snack that appealed to adults and children. Yes, it was a hit at the party and there was nothing left after the party!

Try it…you won’t regret it.

Brown Sugar Smokies

Brown Sugar Smokies

Ingredients: 

Bacon (enough to wrap the sausages)
Cocktail sausages
Brown sugar

Method:

Cut bacon into thirds. Coat both sides of the bacon with brown sugar.

Wrap the bacon around the sausages. Use a toothpick to attach the bacon to the sausages. Coat the bacon and sausages again with brown sugar.

Leave them to marinade for at least an hour. For better results, marinade them overnight.

Pre-heat your oven to 175 degrees C or 350 degrees F.

Place the sausages and bacon on a wired tray. Place the wired tray onto a baking tray to collect the oil drippings when baking. This keeps the sausages and bacon from getting soggy.

Place the tray in the oven. Turn over the sausages and bacon to the other side after they have been in the oven for about 15 minutes or when the sugar starts to caramelise and the bacon turns crisp.

The sausages and bacon are ready once both sides are brown and crisp. Do not overcook them.