Seasons

  • Hunter Valley Part 3 casa-la-vina-photog-thierry-boudan-photography-1

    Hola from the Hunter Valley! No, not the Hunter Valley of Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is, in fact, the Hunter Valley of New South Wales. As we made our way up the drive of Casa La Vina we half expected the Three Amigos to be facing down El Guapo's me...

  • Hunter Valley Part 2 CFH_120723_16_HunterValley2

    Please join me for another jaunt around the wine-producing region of the Hunter Valley. I am sure it will make you as green as the rows of vines that lace the landscape. As you may recall, I was one of three lucky bloggers selected to report to you, d...

  • Welcome To The Hunter Valley - Part 1 120316_huntervalley_01

    When Hunter Valley Tourism announced they were on the hunt for three Ambassador Bloggers to report about some of the finds in the wine growing region that is a mere 45 minutes by car from my front gate, I entered. If I die not winning another competiti...

  • Cheat's Chocolate Mousse and Banana Ice Cream CFTH_120123_01_Cheats

    You’ve heard of four ingredient recipes, right? Let me introduce you to one and two ingredient recipes. The first is a chocolate mousse that only uses chocolate and water and the second is a banana ice cream that only uses bananas. In the spirit o...

  • Tips For Entering A Regional Show Cooking Competition CFTH_120131_01_NewcastleShow

    As the Newcastle Show Cookery & Jams Competition draws closer (March 16-18) I’ve had a number of friends mention they would like to have a crack at entering. Their reasoning is that if Dean can win Best Chocolate Cake then surely it can’t be to...

  • Udder Delight CFTH_120125_01_Udder

    Milk is getting some old-school treatment up in the Hunter Valley. Family operated Udder Farm Dairy at Luskintyre is packaging up non-homogenised cow’s milk in glass bottles and by-passing Coles-worths to sell direct to local corner stores. When c...

  • Mango Sorbet CFTH_120118_01_MangoSorbet

    Ever since Sienna started on solids at six months of age she’s had a thing for mango. When she was that little I would let her go to town on the cubes of mango cut from the cheeks. More would slip out of her chubby little fingers and onto the floor t...

  • Lamingtons CFTH_120124_01_Lamington

    Every national dish is surrounded by contentious debate about what ingredients form the official recipe. I’ve already had the inclusion of carrot in meat pie questioned and now on making lamingtons I was asked by more than one person why there wasnâ€...

  • Favourite Cookbooks of 2011 CFTH_120116_02_Cookbooks

    You might remember last year I asked some of my favourite blogging peeps for their two favourite cookbooks OF ALL TIME (part 1 & part 2). This year I wanted to update you on the cookbooks I got the most use out of in 2011. Ple...

  • Do The Hokey Pokey CFTH_111207_01_HokeyPokey

    Hello and Happy New Year to you! How was your Christmas break? Did you eat too much? Despite the bizarre whether of late (18C and miserable rain for days in summer?) there have been several breakthrough days of real summer that have provided the per...

  • Nicola & Gerry's Tomato Chilli Jam CFTH_111214_01_TomatoJam

    I had a plan to make tomato chutney as Christmas gifts when a funny thing happened. On returning Gerry’s great-uncle’s confectionery recipe book I inadvertently stumbled into an annual tomato chilli jam cook-off. One of Gerry’s friends...

  • Our Gingerbread House CFTH_111219_01_GingerbreadHouse

    Our house is unlike any other in our street, as it sports a distinctive front portico. When we attended the local Christmas street party recently and the inevitable question of where we lived came up, we’d give directions and invariably receive a res...

  • Crackle & Crunch CFTH_111212_01_CrackleCrunch

    Christmas Day is not Christmas Day without a full roast pork lunch – at least that is the case in our family. After a decidedly Australian starter of fresh cooked prawns with squeezed lemon and icy-cold beer, an early afternoon pork roast has been th...

  • Lost Confection CFTH_111215_01_AustCrunch

    My friend Gerry had a great-uncle, Norman Thomas Brown, who was a confectionery maker in Sydney. Mr. Brown was born into a family with a long food lineage that included bakers, pastry cooks and cordial manufacturers. He catalogued all his recipes in a ...

  • Swallowing Clouds CFTH_111202_01_Dumplings

    Someone once told me that the translation for the Chinese word wonton translates to swallowing clouds. If that’s true I could not imagine a more delicious way to eat condensed water vapour. Our favourite Chinese food is dumplings - of any kind; ji...

  • Bread Subscription CFTH_111204_01_Baker

    A recent exhibition at Newcastle Library, Eat History, displayed archival photographs of the city’s food and cooking heritage. The idea of this exhibition appealed in equal measure to both the history and cooking nut inside of me. While our lives hav...

  • One Year On CFTH_111111_01_Animation_Cake

    This month marks one year since I started writing Cooking From The Heart (with a post on spanakopita strangely enough). Starting this blog has given me a gentle push to continue exploring recipes and ingredients that would have otherwise ended up on th...

  • Sushi Homework CFTH_111109_01_Sushi

    Sienna’s kindergarten class has been learning about planning and building projects, so it was with much excitement when she announced her first ever homework project would be planning on making sushi. I may or may not have beamed with pride from the ...

  • Zucchini Flowers CFTH_111028_01_ZucchiniFowers

    I’ve wanted to make stuffed zucchini flowers since the first time I tasted them at an Italian restaurant in Leichhardt many, many years ago. They used to be so hard to come by at the shops and then every time they were around I wasn’t sure what els...

  • Fresh Ricotta CFTH_111026_01_Ricotta

    OK, so I am making my way through some homemade goodness this year. So far I’ve mastered yoghurt, labna, jam & scones and ramen. Now I can add ricotta to the list. Man, oh man! I can’t quite believe I’ve waited this long to discover homemade rico...

  • Place Making CFTH_111024_01_CarrotCake

    There is a little park in my neighbourhood hidden along a laneway. The back fences of surrounding houses border three sides of the park and the entrances from the main roads at either end of the laneway are disguised to look like the driveway of a hous...

  • Subo, Newcastle CFTH_111021_02_Subo

    When I first heard that a new restaurant was slated to open in Newcastle by a former Australia’s Lexus Young Chef of the Year winner, who spent his formative years training under Tetsuya Wakuda, Guillaume Brahimi and Warren Turnbull at Assiette, my e...

  • Comfort Food CFTH_111019_01_Lasagne

    It’s no secret that food provides people with comfort and a sense of security. When we’re feeling our most fragile, emotionally or physically, there’s more to a meal than just in the eating, particularly when a meal is given as a gift. And while ...

  • Fosterton Farm CFTH_111018_01_Fosterton

    Simon Brownbridge and Loo Boothroyd operate Fosterton Farm, a biodynamic mill, bakery and beef farm just outside the main centre of beautiful Dungog in the Hunter Valley. Since they chanced upon the farm nearly nine years ago, they realised its potenti...

  • Making Holubsti CFTH_110913_01_CabbageRolls

    You might recall my visit to the local Ukranian Church hall I made a couple of months ago to learn how to make highly addictive varenyky. Well, I went back again, this time to get my head around holubsti; seasoned minced beef and pork wrapped in a ciga...

  • Millthorpe CFTH_110927_01_Millthorpe

    On our way back home from Orange we detoured via the heritage township of Millthorpe. Everyone recommended we go. By all accounts there were some great places to eat and some shopping to be had. On our way we stopped off at Millthorpe Truffles, a tr...

  • All About Orange CFTH_110927_01_Orange

    While Dean and I were in Orange for the Australian Cider Awards we decided to discover more of what was on offer during our brief stay. We soon realised only ever having driven through Orange on our way to Dubbo some years earlier was a mistake. Orange...

  • The Great Decider CFTH_110927_01_Cider

    My first experience with cider is one that will most likely be shared by many others. It involves being underage, overzealous and out of my depth. ‘Tis the reason I avoided it at all costs…until recently when a friend of mine was diagnosed with coe...

  • Afternoon Life Savers CFTH_110915_01_Doughnuts

    I finally found some time to read through the new food magazine from SBS, Feast. It included a feature on doughnuts of the world that instantly reminded of the little doughnut shop on the ski-tube platform at Perisher Valley. Every time we go on a s...

  • Nortenhof Boer Goat Stud CFTH_110908_01_Nortenhof

    During the 1800s, Paterson, like many other river towns in the Hunter Valley, was a valuable supply of cedar for the growing towns of Maitland, Newcastle and further afield, Sydney. As landholdings grew over time so too did the variety of crops that we...

  • David Chang’s Ramen from Lucky Peach CFTH_110906_01_Ramen

    Maybe you’ve heard of charismatic Korean-American chef, David Chang. You might be accused of living under a rock if you haven’t. His much-hyped Momofuku (translation = Lucky Peach) restaurants in New York are notoriously difficult to secure a rese...

  • Intimidating Artichokes CFTH_110825_01_Artichokes

    Aaah the artichoke. An intriguing vegetable that often gets overlooked mostly out of timidity. Well, in my case anyway. The layers of intimidation began many, many years ago when I was confused about exactly what an artichoke was. Determining that art...

  • Shaun Presland at Millfield Hall CFTH_110901_01_ShaunPresland

    This week has an inadvertent Japanese theme that I am really excited to share. My experience cooking Japanese food to date includes a grand total of two dishes: miso soup and sushi rolls. So I was really excited to learn that Shaun Presland, Executive ...

  • Bourke Street Bakery CFTH_110830_01_BourkeStBakery

    A day in Sydney afforded me the opportunity to visit an old haunt - Bourke Street Bakery. This time I went to the Marrickville outpost to stock up on sourdough, pork & fennel sausage rolls and of course a beef pie for Dean. Owners David...

  • To Market, To Market CFTH_110824_01_KidsMarket

    Sometimes I love cooking with my kids. I find they are more likely to eat what’s cooked if they’ve had a hand in making it and I like hearing the questions they come up with about ingredients, why things are done a certain way and seeing them piece...

  • Varenyky CFTH_110811_01_Varenyky

    About five years ago I researched my family history to determine if there was any truth to the family rumor that there was Chinese heritage on my father’s side. It turns out that my great-great-grandmother was illegitimate and the father’s name was...

  • Bistro Dalby: Chef Justin Rose Slow-roasted duck pie with pea pie

    So, I’ve managed a second special lunch out in as many weeks, this time with my mother-in-law. Any feelings of guilt went out the window when I reminded myself that I haven’t had a meal that doesn’t involve ordering a kid’s chicken nuggets and ...

  • Alka & The Carrot Fritters CFTH_110809_01_Carrots

    Before we moved to Newcastle, we were juggling full-time work, daycare and traffic jams in Sydney. During that busy time, we were (and still are) so grateful for our family day-carer, Alka. Alka was born in India and together with her husband, Raj, imm...

  • Margan Estate: Chef Josh Davidson CFTH_110804_01_Margan

    In a quest to explore areas of the Hunter Valley besides Pokolbin, my Mum and I headed off on a road trip last week to Broke, population 540. Word on the street was Margan Estate have marvelous wines and an exceptional restaurant that benefits from a o...

  • Stinging Nettles Sting CFTH_110802_01_Nettles

    I should know. Despite being told I should wear gloves to handle nettles, I thought removing a stem or two while wilting them down in a pan couldn’t do too much damage. Oh, how wrong I was. A brush with those little hairs caused my index finger to th...

  • Alice's Kitchen CFTH_110721_04_AlicesKitchen

    You know when you meet someone whose job seems such a natural fit, that you can’t imagine them doing anything else? When I met Alice this time last year, I never in a million years considered that the person responsible for the muffins I was buying o...

  • How To: Pate CFTH_110726_01_Pate

    Offal is not for the faint-hearted. A dicey subject from the moment it is revealed, often at the just-starting-school-asking-lots-of-questions age, that the lovely crumbed rounds you’ve been happily guzzling for dinner are, in fact, lambs brains. Or ...

  • Redgate Farm CFTH_110719_01_Redgate

    This story began as a quest for fresh chicken livers and ended up being all about quails. Let me explain. I’ve been hoping to make pate for a while now, so when my search for fresh chicken livers came to naught, I asked a local restaurateur where ...

  • Dean and the Meat Pie CFTH_110715_01_BeefPie

    It seems a prerequisite for any tradie profession is to be able to distinguish a good pie from a bad one. Dean, being an electrician with over 20 years experience, has exemplary qualifications in determining such important culinary questions of our day...

  • The Passed-On Recipe CFTH_110712_01_Wintersalad

    This is the table that sits behind my desk. It was once clean and clear, but like most flat surfaces in our house, it has since become a refuge for ‘good things’. In this case it’s the cookbooks that I refer to most. There’s one tome in the pil...

  • In Season: Cauliflower CFTH_110707_01_Cauliflower

    The ill-will towards some vegetables like squash or brussels sprouts is hardly defensible when, with a basic pairing, they shine with flavour. Case in point, cauliflower and cheese. I’ve let one of the cauliflowers in the garden go, harvesting it ...

  • In Season: Oranges (Sort Of) CFTH_110630_01_OrangeCake

    I’ve been waiting in vain for blood oranges to appear at the market. Although I know the season isn’t in full swing until August, I hoped I’d be able to get my hands on a few by now. It’s comforting to be reminded that real food comes when itâ€...

  • A Warm Hug CFTH_110705_01_Porridge

    As sure as the weather turns from summer to winter, I turn from granola to porridge for my breakfast. It’s easy to get porridge wrong. I’ve seen my fair share of grey-looking stodge, which is made all the more frustrating by the simple fact that it...

  • Winter, Chocolate, Sofa CFTH_110616_01_ChocPudding

    Are you feeling this bone-chilling cold weather? For the first time I can remember, the Snowy Mountains have lived up to their name before the June long weekend. It’s time for some serious fingertip defrosting food. Being stuck in the house with a...

  • Sharing: Mal's Pork Belly CFTH_110628_01_Porkbelly

    Personal experience has me convinced that an open-minded enjoyment of food is influenced primarily by the company you keep. This could not be more apparent than with my husband, Dean, who, in his heyday was a meat-and-three-veg kind of guy. After tr...

  • Bread, Cake and Juice CFTH_110623_01_Katoomba

    Our weekend in the Blue Mountains continues. We fuel up on a hearty breakfast and excellent coffee from The Elephant Bean in Katoomba before wandering a few doors down to a local favourite, Hominy Bakery. I was in for two surprises here. The first was ...

  • Chocolate, Lollies, Cider & Bread CFTH_110621_01_Leura

    Following on from our trip to Bilpin in the Blue Mountains, we arrived in the town of Leura in the late afternoon. With only a short time before the shops closed for the day’s trading, we went for a wander down The Mall. Leura has always catered for ...

  • The Bells Line of Road CFTH_110614_01_Bilpin

    Last weekend we packed the car for a trip to the Blue Mountains to visit friends who’d recently moved to the town of Leura. For years I’d heard of the orchards where you can pick your own fruit dotted along the alternate (ultra) scenic route to the...

  • Fish Supper CFTH_110607_01_Fish

    It’s been a while since I cooked a whole fish. In fact it’s been a while since I cooked a whole anything. Boneless fillets are just so easy with the kids, but there’s a certain sense of accomplishment in getting your way around a whole piece of f...

  • Beetroot Risotto CFTH_110531_01_Beetroot

    The beetroots are ready for harvesting. I’ve kept true to my New Year to-do, which was to plant smaller quantities so we don’t have a glut. Without having to include beetroot in a juice every day for the next couple of weeks, I can focus on some di...

  • School Garden CFTH_110526_01_SchoolGarden

    I’ve joined the Environment Committee at my daughter’s primary school. I can not help myself. When it comes to educating children about the environment, our impact on it and how we can help to reduce our pressure on the planet, I want to be invlove...

  • Herbie, Bourdain, Gill & The Dip CFTH_110524_01_Sydney

    Last Thursday I had myself a food-love adventure in Sydney. The motivation was the Sydney Writers Festival. I was anticipating a war of words between US chef, author and host of TV show No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain and acerbic UK food critic AA Gi...

  • Chilli Trepidations CFTH_110519_03_Pumpkin

    Brrrr! The chill factor is extreme for this time of the year don’t you think? I don’t know about you, but autumn seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. I’m into winter comfort food in a big way already, with lots of recipes popping into my head t...

  • Pukara Estate Olive Oil CFTH_110517_01_Olives

    Do you ever wonder what was filling the supermarket shelves before olive oil came along? It’s not been that long since the cooking oil of choice was limited to sunflower or vegetable. Now the ubiquitous extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), virgin olive oil...

  • Hunters & Gatherers CFTH_110510_01_HunterValley

    A funny thing happened a couple of weeks ago. I received a message from a Twitter friend who had won a competition through our local ABC radio station to take 10 friends to the Hunter Valley for a day of feasting… and I was one of the 10 names she pu...

  • Recipe Renditions: Steak & Chips CFTH_110506_01_SteakFrites

    My mum’s steak and chips are legendary. The chips for all the right reasons; crunchy, golden and perfectly salted. The steak on the other hand is famous for all the wrong reasons. Cooked under the grill for as long as it took to heat the oil and fry ...

  • Nanna's Apple Pie CFTH_110503_02_ApplePie

    There’s something to be said about the comfort of grandmother’s cooking. It’s a sentiment I was reminded of recently after reading from My Grandmother’s Kitchen, a cookbook that details classic Nanna recipes from grandmothers the world over. F...

  • The Remedy (Chicken Soup) CFTH_110428_01_Stock

    My daughter decided to ignore my advice not to swim in a pool cooled by autumnal weather on Good Friday and woke the house up with the most horrific sounding chesty cough the following morning. There was nothing for it but rugging up on the sofa with s...

  • Easter Hat Parade & Hot Cross Buns CFTH_110420_03_Easter

    On the last week of the school term, my daughter’s school had an Easter bonnet parade. I totally jumped to conclusions and thought parents would help make a bonnet at home for the kids to bring to school for the parade. As it turns out, the children ...

  • Brownies CFTH_110415_01_Brownies

    I had a little trouble deciding whether to include Rocky Road or Brownies in The Design Files chocolate story so I asked Twitter and the responses came back with Rocky Road winning by a narrow margin of just one vote. So I thought it best to include t...

  • Indian Spiced Nuts CFTH_110413_05_Nuts

    While the cinnamon sugar amaretto almonds that appear over on The Design Files earlier this week are exceptionally tasty and addictive, this version of spiced nuts is a fierce contender for the title of biggest habit-forming nut mix around. I should kn...

  • Mushroom CFTH_110408_01_Mushrooms

    Have you experienced a mushroom explosion in your backyard recently? It’s as if a village of Smurfs decided to set up camp on our lawn, at the base of the old fig tree and beside the lettuce, seemingly overnight. It’s a pity identifying them is nex...

  • The Design Files CFTH_110413_01_Breakfast

    Hello! I've been a busy bee these last couple of weeks preparing for a spot as a guest blogger at The Design Files this week. I nearly fell of my chair when Lucy asked me if I'd like to offer up some food-as-gift ideas. The Design Files is only one of ...

  • Entrée to Autumn CFTH_110406_01_Pears

    This week’s visit to the Farmer’s Market turned my attention to pears. Yet another signal of the arrival of Autumn, alongside getting dressed into jeans first thing in the morning and having to change to shorts by 11am. The joy of in-between season...

  • Stefano's Kitchen Garden CFTH_110331_01_KitchenGarden

    A recent visit to Bells at Killcare on the NSW Central Coast may have finally provided me with an excuse to purchase a pair of Hunter wellies. A long anticipated visit to see Stefano Manfredi’s kitchen garden and lunch at the restaurant for a birthda...

  • The Newcastle Show Part 2 CFTH_110329_01_Show2

    You’ll recall my shock win at The Newcastle Show last week for my plate of four plain scones and strawberry jam. While I may have caught the local establishment off guard, no one was more surprised than me at having placed anything outside of disqual...

  • The Show Part I CFTH_110325_01_Show

    Regional Shows are the last bastion of home baking and preserving. Recipes for traditional cakes, slices, scones, puddings, biscuits, pickles, relishes, jams and marmalades are put to the test by Country Women’s Association judges at Agricultural Sho...

  • Vietnamese Banh Mi CFTH_110317_01_Banh Mi

    I really miss banh mi, the Vietnamese roll with pork or chicken and Asian salad. There is a Vietnamese bread shop in Mascot, Sydney called Hong Ha that serves the most insanely addictive banh mi. When I was working in nearby Alexandria an email would g...

  • How To Make Apples Even More Delicious CFTH_110315_10_Apples

    Apple season is here as a recent visit to the market made abundantly clear. The cherry lady is now selling apples, however at this stage only Galas, with Jonathons to come in two weeks. As I was passing the organic stall I saw wicker baskets filled wit...

  • Labna Love CFTH_110311_01_Labna

    The first time I encountered labna (or labneh) was when I was working on a food magazine. One of the food editors brought a plate of these little white balls they'd made for a shoot over to the editorial staff. I'd never seen them before and when I ask...

  • My Show Debut CFTH_110308_01_Scones

    It’s not looking good. In the words of Ellice Schrader, the long-time Cookery Steward for The Newcastle Regional Show, my attempt at scones is ‘not great’. All the more telling when my scruffy scones are sat side by side with her perfectly symmet...

  • Trivia Night Pizza CFTH_110304_01_Pizza

    The Fig Tree Community Garden is located in an inner-city suburb of Newcastle. Unlike most community gardens, plots are not allocated to people. Rather, everyone works the whole garden and then takes what they need, ensuring huge variety in produce and...

  • The Prawns That Nearly Got Away CFTH_110301_01_Prawns FA

    My grandfather Charlie and his brother Eddie built a little fibro house one block from Bateau Bay beach on the Central Coast of New South Wales. This is where we would stay for summer holidays. I would sleep next to my cousins on a squeaky spring bed on the enclosed verandah. The bathroom was outside and open on one side with a twin tub washing machine that took up most of the space. Other tiny fibro cottages in varying pastel colours surrounded us. Local amenities were meager. There was a park with swings, where if you stood too long in the same spot you were guaranteed to get bitten by green ants. Across the road was a set of shops that sold fresh bread, milk, hot chips, 10-cent lolly bags and the newspaper. The soil was grey and powdery and it coated everything from your feet to the lino floor in the kitchen.

  • Favourite Cookbooks Part 2 CFTH_110224_12_Cookbooks FA

    So, after last week's Part 1 post I couldn't help myself and went on Booko over the weekend to finally order Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries and Tender Vol 1, plus Rose Bakery's Breakfast, Lunch, Tea. Naughty I know, but after so many recommendation...

  • Favourite Cookbooks Part 1 CFTH_110224_01_Cookbooks FA

    When I get my hands on a new cookbook it is never far from reach for at least the first couple of weeks. After a quick flick-through at the shop, I impatiently wait for a solid block of time back at home where I can devour each page without interruptio...

  • From YoGo To Yoghurt CFTH_110122_01_Yoghurt FA

    About as close as I got to yoghurt growing up was the chocolate confection known as YoGo. I remember trying real yoghurt for the first time as an early teen and wondering how there were so many passionate lovers of the stuff given it’s acidy, sour ta...

  • The Perils of Pastry CFTH_110117_01_CustardTart FA

    One of my New Year’s To-Do’s was to start making more of those recipes that require practice to become skilled at. This week I decided to have a crack at sweet short crust pastry, or pâte brisée (pronounced paht bree-zay). I came across a few rec...

  • Hola! From New York City CFTH_110215_01_Corn FA

    In Australia we have the lion’s share of Asian cuisines - think Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indonesian, Thai, Japanese, Indian. But last year I was lucky enough to visit New York City where there’s a gamut of South American food that isn’t so...

  • Alice’s Valentine Meringue Cakes CFTH_110210_01_ValentineFA

    My lovely friend Alice Lees operates Uprising from a specially designed kitchen in her house in the suburbs. Check out her blog to follow her progress as she conjures up the most incredibly tasty-looking sweet treats for local cafes and restaurants. Pe...

  • Sprocket Roasters CFTH_110208_01_Sprocket FA

    The days when the BHP steelworks once dominated Newcastle’s inner-city skyline combined with the ever-growing coal loading port affords Newcastle with a reputation as an industrial city. The young team behind Sprocket, an inner-city café on Hunter S...

  • School of Yum CFTH_110203_01_Lunch

    I’ve been thinking the thought of a thousand parents who has a child starting ‘big school’ this week; where did the time go? Thing is, there were no tears (from either of us!). I’ve been as excited for her and she is for herself. We both have t...

  • Kung Hei Fat Choi! CFTH_110201_03_Smiling

    Chinese food was the most exotic of all cuisines while growing up in suburban Sydney in the early 80s. I have fond memories of heading out to the local Chinese restaurant for dinner as a child with my family. It was a rare treat and as close to an over...

  • Love Means Nothing CFTH_110127_01_Spread

    It’s The Australia Open finals this weekend. Despite not having picked up a racquet since school, I certainly don’t mind watching a match or two, particularly when there’s some sideline snacks involved. Timely, given we have cucumbers coming out ...

  • Advance Australia Fare CFTH_110125_01_Lamb

    You may recall my mother’s fondness for a roast dinner. In fact, her love of a good roast often meant we had one more than one a week. In her mind there were not many other meals that feed so many mouths with such minimal effort. It was also a meal of a meritocracy. If you cooked it you got your choice of the best cut (or more crackle if it was roast pork). Naturally, this always happened to be Mum. Next, the best-behaved children, or Dad, depending on his track record that week, received an extra slice of meat, more gravy and potentially an extra potato or two. If you’d displayed unbecoming behaviour there was a snowballs chance in hell you’d get any of the good bits - crunchy ends (roast beef), the breast (chicken) or the little shank bone (leg of lamb).

  • Light Refreshment CFTH_110120_01_Drinks

    Being outdoors lately has been like living inside an near-empty jam jar left out in the sun – hot and sticky. Time for a cool drink or two methinks. With Australia Day rolling around next week here’s your opportunity to forgo regular soft drinks and beer in favour of something a little more adventurous. I’ve got a little repertoire that I call on under various circumstances.

  • Oh! I Do Love To Be Beside The Seaside CFTH_110118_01_Beach

    We are big beach-goers. While others despise the sand, we never give it a second thought. It comes with the territory. If the price to be paid for discovering starfish in rock pools, building sandcastle cities and learning ways to dodge a shore break is some sand in your swimmers then that’s fine by us.

  • Peachy Keen (Or How To Make Your Own Crème Fraiche) CFTH_110114_01_Peach

    God obviously made donut peaches and French bulldogs on the same day, because they are both so incredibly cute. Grown in China since the 19th century these squat versions of the ubiquitous white peach seem juicier and more flavoursome than the standard variety. Another unique aspect of this variety is that the flesh does not adhere to the stone – it’s all yours for the taking without having to suck on a bitter stone.

  • Salad Days CFTH_110112_01_Salad

    When there’s a bbq to be had it's always a treat to ‘bring a plate’. Less work for you and the occasional surprise side dish that everyone asks the recipe for. There are two kinds of people in this world, those that bring salad and those that bring dessert. Actually, there are three, but people who bring bread don’t really rate a mention. I’m a salad person, potato salad, to be specific. My friend Zoe is a tomato and bocconcini salad person and Tash is a chicken salad person. Lucky, aren’t I?

  • The Great Tomato Glut cfth_110106-_tomatoes_01

    We’ve taken all the bruschetta that we can handle, added them to salads, sandwiches and pizzas, but still we have KILOS of tomatoes growing on our vines. The chickens can’t keep up with the rotten ones I’m having to toss out every couple of days....

  • New Year To-Do’s CFTH_110105_01_Chicken

    This year, rather than implement resolutions I know won’t keep as long a glass of champagne on New Years Eve (going to the gym anyone?), I have started a list of to-do’s. They are totally within my reach, providing more satisfaction than running on...

  • A Tale of a Gingerbread House CFTH_101223_01_Gingerbread

    We attempted our first-ever gingerbread house last Christmas. By ‘we’ I mean ‘me’. It was a rousing success given we were completely unprepared for just how finicky building a miniature house of dough is. We innocently underestimated the import...

  • Say Cheese CFTH_101221_01_Cheese

    When it comes to end-of-year drinks and nibbles, an excellent wedge of cheese never fails to impress. Not only will it save you valuable time in preparation but also you and your friends can happily camp beside the cheese platter gushing over how great...

  • Ham It Up CFTH_101216_01_Ham

    For me, a freshly glazed leg of ham is probably my most anticipated food moment of Christmas. The sticky, sweet golden glaze, caramelised fat and melt-in-the-mouth meat is a triumph in simplicity. Like a roast dinner, a leg of ham can feed a crowd, ...

  • A Plan For Pudding CFTH_101210_01_Pudding

    While it’s easy to bemoan Christmas decorations going up in shopping centres as early as October, preparation really is the key to sailing through this special time of the year as smoothly as possible. With calendars ever full of work deadlines, e...

  • What Came First CFTH_101209_01_Kids

    One of the things I was most excited about moving in to our own house was the possibility of keeping a couple of chickens. We’d toyed with the idea of renting chickens and a coop, but never had the courage to ask our landlord. But now we had our own ...

  • The World Is Your Oyster CFTH_101207_01_River

    People love them, hate them, or worse, are so befuddled by their origin and appearance that they don’t dare try them. This is a great pity because oysters are like summer in a shell. When I was very little we’d drive along the car-sick inducing ...

  • The Magic of Preserves CFTH_101126_01_Jam

    For many preserving is classed as one of the dark arts of the kitchen. A mystifying process reserved for those with a supernatural ability to calculate a fruit’s pectin potential by just looking at it. These are people who have the innate ability to ...

  • Market Investments CFTH_101125_01_Icecream

    Are you one of those people who sees a special, such as 50% off and instead of buying just the one and pocketing the savings you buy two because you see more value in double the quantity, not double the savings? I am. I’m sure there’s some kind of ...

  • The Signs Of Summer CFTH_101125_02_Tray

    The signs to indicate a change in the season follow a fairly regular pattern in our house. The first task is the packing away of the heater, which generally coincides with my minor heart-attack at receiving the quarterly electricity bill in the mail or...

  • Farmer’s Gate CFTH_101123_01_Shop

    When I was in primary school, mum and dad would often head off on long drives to the country side on weekends, no doubt to escape the mayhem of the older teenagers in the family. Being the youngest I would invariably be packed up in the car along with ...

  • The Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie CFTH_101111_01_Stack

    When I was in high school I bought my lunch from the school canteen EVERY SINGLE DAY. I don't remember a time when I didn't buy a chocolate chip cookie and a chocolate Moove for recess. In case you are wondering, that's about 200 cookies a year, give o...

  • Sharing Spanakopita SHARING SPANAKOPITA

    There is an incredible community garden near where I live, located on once disused land around the green of a bowling club. The space now holds a vast botanical reference of fruit trees, vegetables, herbs and other useful plants. Unlike most community ...

  • Hello! about_me

    I feel I need to confess upfront that cooking isn't in my genes. I didn't grow up watching my mother cook recipes passed down from her mother or her grandmother. My mum worked full-time and with five children to keep in line and as many loads of washin...