I had invited some friends over for a Saturday afternoon ‘tea’, at the time thinking that the ‘tea’ might be more of the type that goes with G&. However, having noticed a couple of days before said afternoon get-together, a bunch of bananas languishing beyond the point of firmness in the fridge, I decided that I would try to turn them into banana bread, and stick to a more traditional afternoon tea. Continue reading “Gluten-refined-sugar-and-dairy-free, paleo banana bread”
Exactly how it came to be that I found myself in possession of leftover lentils escapes me. Well, I do remember them being cooked to go with something, and that there was an excess, but since becoming the star of a surprisingly good salad, the earlier use for the lentils has been forgotten.
Continue reading “Salad of Serrano ham, lentils, avocado and a fried egg”
Disappointment = when you realise, the moment you open it, that you’ve accidentally bought LIGHT cream cheese. This sort of thing I find quite difficult to get over. It just happened to me and my plan to try to move on from that is to concentrate on something that I rarely find disappointing: red curry. Continue reading “Thai red curry”
The next morning – Good Friday – after a slow start, we headed over the hill to the beautiful Cataract Gorge Reserve. Arriving there at about 11am, I was surprised to find the carpark close to full, but apparently this is not an actual surprise because it turns out that Cataract Gorge is Launceston’s number one tourist attraction. Entering the grounds of the reserve, visitors are greeted with a plaque that proudly announces that it is home to the world’s longest single span chairlift. With a total length of 457m and a centre span of 308m, it was also an official carrier of the year 2000 Olympic flame. Continue reading “Cataract Gorge and the east Tamar Valley wine route (part two)”
A short hour after taking off from Melbourne airport, the plane dropped through the clouds revealing a carpet of green as far as the eye could see. We were going to land very soon, but I couldn’t quite make sense of that. It looked as though we were going to land in a paddock; I couldn’t see anything out the window that suggested that the city of Launceston was anywhere nearby. I’d had my head in a book and tunes in my ears throughout the quick flight so hadn’t heard any of the usual announcements that you get about the time of landing and weather at the destination. Were we making an emergency landing in a field? Had I somehow got on the wrong flight? Continue reading “Launceston – it’s nice to meet you (part one)”
Breakfast, I think, is a meal with multiple personalities. It can be the same every day, it can be slurped out of a straw on the run, it can be hot, cold, big, small, nutritious, unhealthy, NBD, the most important meal of the day or skipped altogether. And sometimes, it can be so fantastic that you keep telling people about it for the whole day. Continue reading “Square & Compass minted peas with whipped ricotta, avocado, jamon and poached egg”
Yoghurt, to my mind, is about the biggest rort going. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, and eat it almost every day for breakfast. But until I lived in Phnom Penh I had no idea how easy it is to make. It is seriously easy. So my question is, if you can buy milk in the supermarket for as little as $1.00 for a litre, why is a litre of no-added-sugar, natural yoghurt upward of $6.00? Continue reading “Make your own yoghurt”
On a recent excursion to the very excellent greengrocer where I pick up my weekly fresh foodstuffs, I went a bit cray cray with the kale and mushrooms. I’m not sure how many meals or people I thought I was cooking for, Continue reading “Frittata of chorizo, mushrooms, kale and feta”
Oh the little happy dance I did when I found out that a very exciting new butcher was to open in my neighbourhood … Not that there is any shortage of purveyors of meaty wares where I live – there is an abundance of supermarkets, large and small, as well as stand-alone butchers, but it isn’t quantity that I’m after, it’s quality. Continue reading “Meatsmith country terrine”
eating & going places 