A massive bunch of silver beet
"They encourage you to stretch boundaries, take a few chances , and be a bit left-field with your combinations and seasonings." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Yesterday we went on an excursion with our friends into the Dandenongs hinterlands, finishing up in their house, where the lovely Monika handed me a massive bag of goodies from her superproductive veggie garden. Flowers too on this occasion. The star was this massive bunch of silverbeet - it's just one plant - she had s
5 days ago
"Probability not possibility"
"Hell, it's only food. Just enjoy it." Jill Dupleix I have a long list of ideas for blog posts in my little notebook, and of late I have been making an effort at getting rid of some of the older ones. This one comes from one that I called 'Confidence/reality - Rachel Cooke' -Rachel Cooke being a most thoughtful contributor to The Guardian, and actually the daughter of Katherine Whitehorn - one of our favourite columnists of the 60s. Alas Rachel died recently - last year I
Sep 27
Carottes râpées - too simple to mess with?
"it’s one of those things, the simpler the better. Simple restaurants like Chartier just toss a plate of carrots at you with a wedge of lemon." David Lebovitz I don't think that's quite true because of the above picture on the left which I found. The lemons here seemed to have been whipped into a slightly eggy looking sauce. I suspect he was really talking about something like the one on the right from Leite's Culinaria. And this is something else again - Sesame and Aleppo
Sep 23
Preserving capsicums
"It is not possible to have too many sweet peppers." Hank Shaw/Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook Oh yes it is. Yesterday I stupidly bought this - a bag of - in my case - red capsicums. A kilo of them. So at the moment I feel that yes it is possible to have too many of them. I mean they go off fairly quickly don't they? But they are expensive - really pretty expensive, when they used to be cheap, so finding some that were cheaper - not exactly cheap - was too much of a temp
Sep 22
A rambling change of plan
"The cream of enjoyment in this life is always impromptu. The chance walk; the unexpected visit; the unpremeditated journey; the unsought conversation or acquaintance." Fanny Fern Today I was facing the eternal problem - the dual one of what to cook for dinner, and what to do with a problem ingredient or, indeed, ingredients. Nothing new there. The starting point was romanesco, the end point after an enjoyable ramble around the net which encompassed life, the universe and
Aug 30
The joy of the galette
"flat, round and quintessentially French." Great British Chefs This not terribly prepossessing photograph is the remains of last night's dinner - cold from the fridge. I should have taken a photograph last night but didn't. Anyway it was a dish that gave me great joy and satisfaction for a number of different reasons. Perhaps the main reason, was because in complete contrast to my previous night's dinner - the very disappointing pasta and romanesco dish - this was really,
Aug 22
Abundance - a challenge
abundunce - "the situation in which there is more than enough of something" or "the quality of having what you want in life" Cambridge English Dictionary Yesterday we lunched with our friends with the superabundant garden. We over indulged in the most delicious food and wine, which has led to me feeling marginally poorly - mild alcohol poisoning to be blunt. On top of the wonderful food - the best lamb shank tagine I have ever tasted, and some orangey poached pears, not to
Aug 20
Hummus - a problem of overcatering
"Many of us enjoy hummus as a dip but struggle to figure out what to do with it before it spoils" Tasting Table That's me. Last night it was our turn to host the monthly neighbourly get together - last night an estimated group of 14 which ended up as 11 I think. It's not a meal, but sort of is - at the same time. Anyway, as usual, not wanting to disappoint the neighbours - or more importantly my husband - we had too much food. Cold meats and cheese? No problem - they ju
Aug 13
Leftover lettuce salad omelette - so many ways
"Done and dusted. Out of this world." Foodie China 888/YouTube This picture comes from the end of one of the most captivating cooking videos I have seen on YouTube. In roughly 25 seconds you are shown - complete with instructions to use either your right hand or your left hand -how to make this Rolled lettuce omelette. The pictures are very clear, the voiceover is male - he calls himself Foodie China 888 and has a slight Chinese accent I think. Halfway through, a kitsch
Jul 24
Tonight's dinner? - some kind of pumpkin tart
It's Friday, which is generally quiche night, but David has been loyally eating the remains of last week's quiche for his dinner when I was fasting, and so my thoughts turned to a galette - and specifically a pumpkin galette because I have some pumpkin that needs using. My thoughts immediately turned to Ottolenghi's (maybe Ixta Belfrage's too since the recipe is from their book Flavour) Butternut and sage galette with orange caramel which I have made a couple of times before
Jul 17
First to clear out - a no-brainer
"Just as a turkey is not just for Christmas – why should a curry simply sleep on a bed of rice?" Saptarshi Ray/The Guardian Inspired by my post about all the jars, packets, tins, etc that lurk somewhere in my kitchen I decided to make a start with this opened jar of tikka masala paste. Its first use was in a leftovers stir-fry last night - leftover stir-fry as the base, leftover chicken and leftover slaw. In some ways a real Nigel fry up. I decided there would only be a t
Jul 2
Those gifts and impulse buys
"You shouldn't have anything in your pantry that you wouldn't want to cook with." Alison Roman I have two lovely daughters-in-law and two lovely sons, who, because of my love of food and cooking, often give me foodie gifts and hampers. This year for my birthday I was given this glorious Italian 'hamper' - which also included a Graham Swift novel in Italian that the local library had serendipitously been throwing out, and a bottle of Italian pinot grigio - but my husband go
Jun 30
Nigel's fry ups
"The fry-up has always appealed to me, in particular the bits that stay put at the bottom of the pan, the crusty scrapings that brown rather too much." Nigel Slater Uninspired as usual of late, I did my own kind of lucky dip by just picking a page from Nigel Slater's Tender volume 1 - and came up with A fry-up of pumpkin and apple to accompany a meaty supper - well why not I thought. Another enticing recipe title that sets a scene. I thought he might have some more fry-up
Jun 22
Cauliflower cheese soup
"It has something of the Welsh rarebit about it." Nigel Slater Often I have a vague idea of what to do for dinner, and then I either go with what is to hand, or search around my cookbooks and the net to find the answer. Today I thought I should probably use the last bit of cauliflower that I have in my fridge before it goes off completely - small brown spots are already appearing. And when vegetables are getting to that stage, then soup is the answer. There is some leftov
Jun 16
Moods and leftovers
"such a dish is always ... made more scrumptious by the knowledge of its unpromising beginnings." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall I see I have used this photograph - the frontispiece to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's most wonderful book - Love Your Leftovers - a few times. It's because, in so many ways it epitomises comfort does it not? Even the fact that it's in a cup and you can picture yourself in some comfortable chair with as many layers of clothes on as you can fashionab
Jun 2
Supper and how to write a recipe
"Supper is simply the comforting end point to which the whole day has been leading." Bee Wilson A subtitle to this post might also be "why I love Nigel's recipes" What's the connection with supper? Well I'm down to my last few bookmarked pages in Nigel Slater's Tender volume 2 so today I decided to deal with one of them which is a recipe entitled "A supper of courgettes, tomatoes and basil" - to which I shall return - but it's also one of the reasons I love his recipes - t
May 26
Friday pastry fun
"There is never enough crust." Nigel Slater Somehow or other it is now almost a tradition that Friday is for pastry - usually a quiche. It is also true that by Friday I am using up leftovers, or even leftovers of leftovers. Like today. Pastry and leftovers offer an infinity of possibilities, and a fun challenge. Behold today's challenge. What absolutely has to be used is the tiny bit of leftover vegetable toad-in-the-hole in the front. Actually the vegetables only cons
May 22
Half the garden soup - if only
"improvising is what leads to discovery." Mark Diacono Time for a first recipe on a dismal day. And I guess my first recipe today - Half the garden soup - Mark Diacono/The Accidental Smallholder, if not exactly dismal is hardly exciting. Although actually it could be because of those words about improvising. The book is no. 4 of the River Cottage Handbooks - Veg Patch - and here is the River Cottage veg patch. Hardly a patch of course, and professional one too. And, of c
May 7
Whipped feta
"The Best Whipped Feta Contains Feta and Nothing Else" Claire Lower/ Lifehacker Australia I'm not a member/subscriber to TikTok, Facebook, Instagram et al. and so I am not immediately aware of foodie trends. Only when they filter into recipe books and newsletters. So I'm always behind. This one seems to have begun around 2019 - but a recent 2025 study by Datassential maintains that it's only at the Adoption stage - the other stages being Inception - then Adoption - Proli
Apr 18
Deliciously bland?
"you need to be proper greedy to do leftovers well." Jay Rayner I know this photograph of yesterday's soup - now cold, contrived from the leftovers in my fridge, doesn't look that appetising, but David said I should write the recipe down because it was so delicious. He almost sort of went 'wow' when he took his first sip which was flattering - and honestly I'm not at all sure it was that good. Good, comforting, surprisingly tasty. But also unrepeatable, because of the way
Apr 7