

Mission impossible? Clean out the fridge
"We start to unload and are brought face to face with our own quietly liquefying shame." Jay Rayner/The Guardian I have not made any New Year's resolutions this year, because we all know that's an exercise that's doomed to failure, isn't it? However, even though January 1 is really just another day - the next day in your life - I can't resist kind of making plans - on the 2nd. I was too busy temporarily farewelling my sister yesterday. And one of those immediate plans is
Jan 2


Guilt from browsing cookbooks
Don't be fooled by this photograph. This is not another Nigel homage, although he will get a mention or two - well more, but it's not really about him or his recipes. I also don't think I shall have much to say but I did want to say something arising from my attempt to decide what to cook for our friends coming to lunch on Sunday. And yes, I ended up with these three books and some bookmarks, but let me tell you how I came to this, and why I ended up feeling guilty. I wasn
Dec 10, 2025


A photograph and a quote - Picnics .......
" The main principle of all outdoor eating stays the same: Logistics trump almost everything else" Yotam Ottolenghi on picnics...
Sep 20, 2025


That other problem
"Of course, you could wait to eat until after the sun goes down, if you have the backbone." Zoe Williams/The Guardian This is a problem...
Jan 30, 2025


To plan or not to plan
"It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see." Winston Churchill I have a busy week ahead of me: a...
Jan 20, 2025


So Christmas is coming ...
"Humans need fantasy to be human, to be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape." Terry Pratchett The quote above...
Dec 15, 2024


Do you plan a week's meals?
"Is "planning" this stuff just for people who need another thing to make their life more difficult?" dethwatch/Reddit I have just spent...
Aug 9, 2024


Planning for a birthday party
"Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning." Gloria...
Jun 18, 2024


An empty week
"One seventh of your life is spent on Monday." Aldous Huxley Actually it is now Tuesday, which demonstrates some of what I was going to...
May 28, 2024


Christmas was, Christmas is ...
"We've reached the most wonderful time of year" Coles Magazine "Christmas magic exists in the little things doesn't it?" Woolworths...
Dec 18, 2023


My grandchildren didn't eat the sausages
"I live in fear of the phrase "just enough". I regard just enough as nowhere near enough. Just enough means too little. It means one...
Oct 28, 2023


The challenge of feeding families
"Family dinners are more often than not an ordeal of nervous indigestion, preceded by hidden resentment and ennui and accompanied by...
Oct 7, 2023


Serve with?
I said I would, and tonight is the night that I am going to cook Ottolenghi's Double lemon chicken with cheat's preserved lemon. It's...
Oct 13, 2022


Normality - a Coles shop
This is our second day back in Melbourne and today we did a biggish shop. Yesterday we shopped but only for what we immediately needed -...
Sep 22, 2022


Is your freezer your friend or enemy?
"much insight can be gained when having a rummage through a person's freezer." Shelf Love Which is a bit of a worry if you rummaged...
Jan 22, 2022


My pissaladière story
"just add spring sunshine and a glass of wine" Andrew McConnell Tonight my local book group is meeting to choose our books for next year....
Dec 1, 2021


What's for dinner?
"We have to stop seeing cooking as a problem when it's actually a solution." Adam Liaw I have to say that I am totally uninspired today....
Aug 27, 2021


Delia to the rescue
"Formal dinners are over, but casual cooking for friends throws up a new set of dilemmas." Tony Naylor My mind is currently preoccupied...
May 15, 2021


Is your fridge big enough?
"The appliance they illustrated the rule with was so comically clean and colour-coordinated, you wonder who can live – and shop and cook...
Apr 12, 2021


Bring a plate
"Yes, bring a plate is an Aussie thing, but what does it mean? According to the Australian National University’s ‘Meanings and origins of...
Mar 30, 2021

