“I don’t know why, but the meals we have on picnics always taste so much nicer than the ones we have indoors.” – Five Go Off in a Caravan This is a perfect springtime cake. It is buttery and deliciously citrus-sy, but it’s not a fragile edifice that can’t travel in a picnic basket to…
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No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life…
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I was going to call this recipe “Rustic ricotta and raspberry tarts” but that seemed a little too alliterative, even to provide an excuse for pastry that did not turn out quite as it should. However, it was very delicious and a perfect vehicle for my latest obsession – home made ricotta. It was a revelation to…
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Anzac Day (25th April) was a special occasion this year for many Australians and New Zealanders because it was the centenary of the landing at Gallipoli in Turkey during the First World War, a defining campaign, although ultimately unsuccessful. My working life has been closely tied to commemorative activities related to the First World War, and…
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This luscious tart marries gently roasted vanilla plums with a crisp puff pastry and a rich creamy filling. With the last of the season’s plums now available it seemed opportune to make this tart for an autumnal dessert. Find the recipe for the plums here, but you could also roast peaches or apricots the same way…
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Last month I went on a grand adventure with two friends to New York. We attended the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and then spent a week exploring the city. It was an amazing experience in all respects and I grew very quickly to love New York – the city scape (look…
Read MoreThe beauty of late summer, aside from a welcome relief from constant humidity and long, hot, sweaty nights, is the abundance of tomatoes that ripen almost before our eyes. There are a great variety of tomatoes available now – yellow pear tomatoes, vine ripened red tomatoes, green heritage varieties, cherry tomatoes and luscious roma tomatoes.…
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Sweet and tender and crumbly, these sugar cookies are based on what I think is a traditional American recipe – although there seems to be an almost endless variety of sugar cookie recipes available, both in recipe books and online. It is hard to say for certain the true provenance, although I did read that…
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When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you flour, butter, sugar and eggs, preheat the oven. One of the advantages of occasionally working at home is that at lunchtime you can decide that the time is right to make a cake, get up from your desk, and get started. I was thinking this…
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I have been working my way through my mother’s recipe book, revisiting memories of her baking biscuits and cakes for our family, and looking for recipes to tweak, develop or share just as they are. I have four siblings and we are all close in age with only seven years between the youngest and oldest,…
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Simple food 