Archives for March 2012

Happy Anniversary and…Stir-Fried Chicken with Cashews

I can’t quite believe it but Hotly Spiced has just turned one! Before I started Hotly Spiced I had only ever read one blog and that was a real estate blog and now I read hundreds of blogs and none of them are about real estate! My first tentative steps into blogging were lacklustre, unremarkable […]

Chinese Fried Rice and…It Always Rains at Easter

Easter is just a few days away and I’m reminded of a saying we have here in Sydney, ‘It always rains at Easter’ and this is despite Easter being on a different date every year. One thing you should try to avoid at Easter is camping.  We made that mistake once, never twice! When we […]

Pear Tarte Tartin and…A Friendly Social

Last night was Alfie’s school’s Year 2 Social Evening and the organisers chose to hold it at the local lawn bowls club. I was desperate and dateless as Carl had double-booked himself and ended up in a seminar on the other side of town so I walked in hardly knowing a soul, adorned myself with […]

The Present and…The Marriott, Gold Coast

As Alfie’s birthday is a few short weeks after Christmas it’s usually difficult to decide what to get him for a gift as he is well-stocked from his Christmas bounty.  For this year’s birthday I just couldn’t bear to buy any more electronic gadgets that are far too expensive with the technology only to be […]

Pork Fillets with Pear and Prosciutto and…Not a Good Start

There are some mothers who are just so wonderfully organised and they work off calendars and diaries and excel spreadsheets and lists and schedules and whiteboards.  These mums always read the notes in the schoolbag (daily), they read the emailed weekly newsletter, they remember to send in photo money, signed excursion notes, permission slips, library […]

Pears in Amarone and…Thirteen Seconds

Yesterday was the Balmoral Swim for Cancer which is a 1km swim around Balmoral Beach.  This was a fundraising event raising money for the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia. Carl has been doing swimming training five days a week since August so was very keen to enter and signed up me and Arabella as well.  I […]

Chicken with Chorizo and…Mrs Hull and Jan Spick-and-Span

When we moved to Australia just after Abba had been here for their ‘Arrival’ tour and Elvis had sadly passed away, Dad had more overseas business trips and took mum with him.  We were left with more hired help. One of them was Mrs Hull and she was really, really old.  She was probably only […]

A Birthday Party and…Psycho Delilah Cake

A few days ago I was at Alfie’s swimming lessons, sitting on the sidelines next to my friend Sally.  I asked her what she had planned for the weekend and she told me and then asked what I was doing.  I told her we were having Alfie’s birthday party.  She looked at me with a […]

Hokey Pokey and…Mrs Ever-Ready

My father worked for multi-national companies and as a consequence was frequently away on overseas business trips.  Sometimes my mother was able to travel with him so we would be left in the care of hired help.  I don’t know where mum got them from, probably out of the paper, but they were all odd […]

Rock Cakes and…Transport, Torch-Light and Going Topless

I had another holiday in the Marlborough Sounds when I was 14.  By then we were living in Australia and my parents gave me a trip to New Zealand as a Christmas present.  I stayed in Wellington for a while and then took the ferry across the Cook Strait (wonderful voyage this time) and then […]