Occasional stories, food and travel inspiration
A little secret about dinner parties: while the food and wine you offer your guests is important, they're not nearly as important as the mood you set. As a dinner party veteran I've hosted plent
A couple of weeks ago my boyfriend and I attended a special Jacob's Creek dinner in Melbourne with Novak Djokovic, the world's number one tennis player. While I played tennis all through high sc
I'm a Summer gal so I love this time of year - the baking heat, the endless blue skies and the regular swims automatically put me in a good mood. But even I can get testy after a run of 40+ Ce
"Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world,” Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables As busy as life is, I try to hav
In my last post I blogged about taking professional and creative risks and working outside of my comfort zone. My culinary comfort zone, so to speak, is modern Australian food with an empha
Smoked salmon and I have had a long and regular love affair. I like it with scrambled or soft boiled eggs and freshly steamed asparagus spears, in a bagel with cream cheese, capers and cornichons, or
In case I'd forgotten that it's Valentine's Day on Friday my Inbox is filling up with media releases from restaurants keen to promote their Valentine's Day menus. Now I've had good Valentine's
I was at a dinner party many years ago when a friend of a friend said, "it's better to have low expectations. That way you'll never be disappointed." I was speechless. All I could think was here wa
I'm still in semi-holiday mode at the moment, hence my recent lack of posting, commenting and interaction on social media. Between the hot weather, making the most of the school holidays, and my curre
Friday night is movie night at my house and on movie night we often eat pizza. Sometimes I make it and other times I buy it - it all depends on how tired or lazy I feel. Either way, pizza and movies a
Can you believe it's almost December? Yes, it's that time of year when the calendar fills up, you try to catch up with everyone you've ever met in the space of a few weeks, you eat your body weight in
My mum used to make this pâté all the time for parties when I was a little girl. I'd sneak spoonfuls of it straight out of the fridge, and hastily smooth over the tell-tale cavities to try to disgu
I had this argument with my husband a few years ago. “There are so many things about you that just drive me crazy,” he began. “For instance, you never shut the refrigerator door properly;
I'm a sucker for good seafood. Luckily, living in South Australia, I'm able to regularly indulge myself with seafood of exceptional quality. When I was a kid my dad regularly went crabbing for blue
Determined to turn my food blogger butt back into a yoga butt, I went to the gym on Sunday. Here's what happened. 1:00pm: I arrive at the gym. 1:01pm: I step onto a cross training machine and atte
Each time before I go food shopping I write out a list - it's the only way I can possibly remember what I've run out of and what I need to buy for client and blog projects. 50% of the time I end up le
One thing I love about working as a recipe developer is the chance to share my recipes -- and my family's recipes -- with a much wider audience. I'm always thrilled when someone emails me or comments
Welcome to the second recipe in my 5 Minute Eats series, which features my favourite recipes that can be made in five minutes or less. I've made this gorgeous Tomato & Bocconcini Salad many tim
Hello! Welcome to the first post in my new 5 Minute Eats series. I want to demonstrate that eating well doesn't take a lot of time or effort so recipes in this series can all be made in five minute
Sometimes food is swoon-worthy. You know what I mean. Your teeth sink into a dish and the minute the food reaches your tastebuds you see shooting stars. Your pulse quickens, and you forget your
I adore figs. I love their colour, their flavour, and their texture. I die for their sensual shape and the way their demure green and purple exterior splits open to reveal a striking red and gold
I adore Vietnamese food. The combination of Asian ingredients and cooking styles with French influences and fresh herbs makes it one of my all-time favourite cuisines. Some of my ultimate Vietnames
My brother likes buying things. Like most males, he doesn't buy a lot of things but when he does shop, he buys big-ticket items. A windsurfer. A vintage electric keyboard or guitar. A top-of-the-ra
We have this amazing smallgoods producer in South Australia called Standom, who make all kinds of smoked and preserved meat products. How good are they? Well, put it this way: my Bavarian-born, Ham
I miss Shanghai. It's a big, brash, frontier city where buildings go up seemingly overnight, hundreds of new restaurants open every week and you can buy virtually anything at 9pm at night. Want a f
When we were recently in Malaysia we ate the most amazing sui gao (dumplings) at my Grandmother's house, bought from the local hawker stall. So this is my attempt to recreate them back home in Austral
Posting a recipe for guacamole seems odd in a way. It's a bit like posting a recipe for making a ham and cheese toastie - it seems like such a simple thing to that no recipe is required. However, I
If this isn't a perfect example of fusion food, I don't know what is. I came home yesterday to find that Mr Hungry Australian had made this Italian-Chinese pizza. I was quietly appalled. It just
Fresh picked crab is an absolute luxury. Picking the crab meat out of its shell is both time consuming and finicky work so it's a real labour of love. I am extremely fortunate because it's a labour
My five year old daughter has a sweet tooth. She seems to have a never-ending capacity for ice cream, cake, buns, lollies, jelly and doughnuts. It's not that she doesn't like savoury food - she doe
