Andrew's birthday Spit

I wish I have had more time to blog this week.  There has been lots of things going on and lots more yummy smells coming from the kitchen.  Lets begin with Saturday...
I was Andrew's birthday about 2 weeks ago now.  Andrew's sister decided she would like to do a spit for his birthday.  Saturday, the day before the spit, we went to go pick up a trailer from Andrew's uncle's in-law's house (yep, this is how the family works).  We were greeted by an old Italian couple (who didn't know us from a bar of soap) with open arms.  We were invited in and asked to stay for a cup of coffee when Andrew and I noticed the vegetable garden outside.  Being keen veggie gardeners we couldn't walk past it.  Seeing how impressed we were with his garden, one very proud Tony proceeded to take us outside to show us around in the misty rain.  The veggie patch took up at least 2/3 of their huge back yard and was laden with late growing tomatoes and capsicums and some very healthy looking spinach. The other 1/3 of the garden was taken up with a massive shed kitchen for cooking (so the kitchen in the house doesn't get dirty) and another building used for wine making (yep, he makes his own wine) and salami making (even better)!  A small portion of the garden is dedicated to a proud Hills Hoist surrounded by a small patch of grass. We drove away from the house with a trailer, 4 bottles of home made wine, a bag of capsicums and a belly full of coffee, grog and waffles!  Amazing Italian hospitality!
That night Andrew and I drove into the hills to pick up the spit Andrew's friend had made form the locally owned pear orchard.  We got talking to his mate's dad who proceeded to tell stories of the things he and his son's made together and took us to see a beautiful fully restored water pump, something that you would have seen about 85 years ago.  It was a great reminder of my Grandpa, who made these things with his bare hands while he was alive.  It was a lovely stroll down memory lane!
Needless to say that obtaining the spit was a whole day out and I was exhausted by the time we got home.
While Andrew's sister and brother in-law spent the morning driving to pick up the 18kg lamb, Andrew prepared the spit.  The beast was basted with garlic, lemon, rosemary, oregano and seasoning, sewn up with the help of Andrew's uncle who drove for 20 minutes just to help baste and secured to the spit where it mesmerised Tom and Andrew for almost 4 hours.  It was their baby.  The baste was almost gone in the first hour.  I think they may have been a little excited!

Meanwhile, I had some Kiwi fruit in the fridge which I had been dying to turn into a cake so Joy and I made the Kiwi cake a reality.  Not something you would usually find in a cake but it totally worked!
Needless to say we ate like Grecian royalty that night.  Greek salad, tzaziki, amazing spit roast lamb yiros and an abundance of sweets.  No one went hungry, in fact i think we could have fed the whole street with our left overs!