Stir-Fried Mushrooms and Downtime

I have to say I’m enjoying my downtime from Arabella and her dramas.  We had the final week of her schooling that was intensity plus and now there’s this wonderful breather before the exams begin.  It’s a wonderful breather because she’s gone and is away on study camp so I feel like I’m having to […]

Soy Sauce Chicken and The Squash Player

We have a lot of drought in Australia and when we’re not in drought, it’s flooding. About a six or seven hour drive north of Sydney is a town called Coffs Harbour.  When I was about 15 my parents announced to us with great excitement that we were going to Coffs Harbour for a very […]

White-Cooked Chicken andThe Plague

Last night I had tickets to a Barry Humphries concert starring his world famous creations, Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.  And what made these tickets even more special was that they’d been given to me.  I’d been looking forward to the night for so long but alas, I’ve been struck down with a […]

Cat Fight on the Cat Walk

The formal drama is not over. Yes, I was blessed with a few days reprieve, four to be exact, but yesterday it started again. Just to refresh your memory, Arabella’s formal was last Thursday but that boy, Flynn, who has invited her to his formal, is cranking up the drama. Flynn is ‘just a friend’ […]

Stir-Fried Pork Fillets and…I Will Survive

I had it all in the bag.  It looked like it was all about to happen – an enormous stroke of luck that would see Archie out of my hair for a good few months. Archie had an audition.  A few weeks ago he phoned me from Uni to let me know he wouldn’t be […]

Stir-Fried Chicken and…My Sanctuary

I have a sanctuary. That’s what I call my shower recess.  It’s that one little place where you are perfectly entitled to be on your own and also, be undisturbed. But my children were born with a huge amount of ignorance towards understanding that their mother was not just having a shower to shampoo her […]

Mongolian Beef and…Pianos, Rice and Tambourines

My parents believed their children should be ‘good all-rounders’ so as well as enrolling us in swimming lessons, signing us up for Little Athletics, dropping us off at Art Classes, making us do ballet with Mrs Warwick, somehow they found the time and the economic means to give us piano lessons. We didn’t always have […]

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 […]