Despite my best intentions, I've already fallen off the meal planning wagon for 2016. I tried to be organised. I tried to write shopping lists and stick to them. But all it takes is one busy weekend and I'm right back to where I started, flying by the seat of my pants in the kitchen. I don't mind ...
# Cookbook chat – My top six Thermomix cookbooks
A couple of months after I bought my Thermomix back in 2013, I filled out an online survey to share my feedback with Thermomix HQ. Unknowingly, I had also entered a competition to win the entire range of Thermomix cookbooks. And I won! Nothing like winning a competition you didn't even know you'd ...
# Cookbookchat – Italian cookbooks (August 2015)
For this month's #cookbookchat, I've decided to select cookbooks about my favourite cuisine - Italian. It has been a tough subject to narrow down, seeing as I own about 324 Italian cookbooks, plus I keep the 'Italian' issue of every food magazine AND I still have Italian food magazines that I bought ...
# Cookbookchat – July 2015 edition
Cookbooks have been on my mind lately. It started with a few readers contacting me to ask about my favourite cookbooks. Then for my Masters subject last semester, I wrote and delivered a presentation on the future of cookbooks, which involved many hours of research into sales, trends and the ...
Book review: Under a Mackeral Sky by Rick Stein
Rick Stein’s well-written autobiography is more a coming-of-age tale than foodie memoir. On screen, celebrity chef Rick Stein is known for his affable persona and impressive knowledge of seafood. Whether chatting to Cornish fishermen about their latest haul or regaling viewers with travel tales ...
Cookbook gift guide: Christmas 2014
When it comes to cookbooks, my philosophy is you can never have too many. It's become a bit of a tradition between my mum, sister and me to give each other cookbooks at Christmas, and nothing excites me more than seeing a heavy, rectangular package under the tree. All of us have our own favourite ...
Editors’ Dinner at Gerard’s Bistro
So there I was: Champagne in hand, enjoying adult conversation, a five-course meal with matching wines and mixing it with critics and mad foodies. My Wednesday nights don't usually look like this. But last Wednesday night was pretty damn amazing. I frocked up for the "Editors' Dinner" at Gerard's ...
Brisbane’s best Thai? Review of Thai Wi-Rat
A few weeks ago, my Thai friend Rong invited me to lunch at her favourite Thai restaurant in Brisbane, Thai Wi-Rat in the Valley. A Thai person revealing the most authentic local Thai restaurant? Cue my happy dance. Thai Wi-Rat claims to be one of the only restaurants in Brisbane serving dishes from ...
How do you find time to read?
One of my new year's resolutions for 2014 was to read more. And I mean properly read. Focused, book-in-hand, no distractions, lost-in-faraway-world reading. It's something I've really struggled to do over the past few years (something to do with three little munchkins, perhaps) but I decided it was ...
Elizabeth Gilbert on creativity
Last week I had the pleasure of attending an inspiring talk given by bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert. You might be familiar with a little book she wrote called Eat, Pray, Love? Or the movie of the same name? It was the kind of book you either love or hate. For the record, I loved it (although ...
