Asparagus and Poached Eggs on Toast

With the exclusion of the Gen Y’s who are reading my blog, would it be fair to say Gen Y’s are useless?  They’re not stupid as they’re perfectly capable of getting amazing results for their final school exams, and they walk right on into amazing universities, and they hold down jobs.  They can even converse […]

Medlar Jelly

Medlars!  I’d never heard of them. A good friend of mine lives on a property outside of Goulburn with a lot of medlar trees.  And the trees were laden with autumn fruit.  She posted a picture of the subsequent abundant harvest on facebook and how she was going to turn them into medlar jelly which […]

3-Ingredient Cranberry Sauce

Today was my right leg’s turn to be operated on. And yes, I am talking it up.  Not exactly an operation as such, just continuing on with the sclerotherapy and ligations I had last week on my left leg. After an ultrasound where my leg was marked-up I went into the operating room.  The surgeon […]

Cracker Mania

Day 7 in our 10-part series and we’ve landed back in Australia and we’re in Sydney. I mentioned in Part 1 of the series that I would be sharing recipes that intimidated me.  This is one of them.  I’ve seen crackers on other blogs and although I’ve been inspired to take up the challenge, I’ve […]

Mum’s Cherry Chutney – Perfect with Turkey or Ham

When I was growing up there were a lot of traditions to be observed.  Christmas had the bulk of these traditions. On Christmas Eve my mother would be up at around half past five to begin a day spent in the kitchen and in the climbing heat. In the early evening my father would gather […]

Preserved Lemons and…The Misery of Jogging

One of the blogs I follow is My San Francisco Kitchen.  Recently Kristianne wrote a sentence that stunned me.  She said, ‘I’m going out for a nice long run‘.  How are the words, ‘nice long run’ compatible? I have had my second early morning session with the Jogging Group.  I should have had my third […]

Brussells Sprouts with Bacon and Home Science

Before we graduated from textiles classes we had to prove we could make an apron.  Before we were allowed to stitch the apron we had to practise sewing straight lines on brown paper with no cotton in the machine.  If the needle holes in the brown paper were straight enough we were allowed to use […]

Confit Duck and…Necessary Tracksuit Moments

Following on from my confit duck legs I thought I had better share with you the side dishes I served.  I didn’t go with Jamie Oliver’s recommendation of Roasted Radicchio because I’ve made this before and it hasn’t been at all popular.  Perhaps I didn’t roast the radicchio for long enough or perhaps our palettes […]

Green Olive Dip and…Do You Like Biscuits?

(This post will make more sense if you have read my previous post, Hangi Time).  So the neighbours with the six children and the dirt bikes and the chickens and the rooster and the cigarettes and the long-neck bottles of beer and the bricks, tiles and concrete and the offensive language that landed one of […]

Mango Chutney and…I Was Nearly Killed

It was Carl who suggested I needed the ‘Ocean Swim’ experience.  ‘You’ll love it’ he enthused and then he registered me for the Blackmores Bilgola Ocean Swim. About 400 swimmers had registered for the 1.5km race and I thought that was a manageable number.  But on the day extras arrived by the busload swelling the […]