The latest craze in our kitchen is Middle Eastern food.  If it doesn’t contain pinenuts or pistachios, coriander or cumin, tahini or tamarind then we’re not interested!  What I find most appealing about this style of cuisine is its generous use of spices, fresh herbs, nuts and vegetables and they way in which they marry [...]

The weather is warming up here in Aotearoa which means barbecue season is upon us. After 17 years barbecuing (taken from my thirteenth birthday where I was gifted my first barbecue) I’m looking for something different, interesting and a change

Yesterday was a special day, it was the day we celebrated our first Father’s Day as a new family.  It was filled with sunshine and sea air and a walk under a cool green canopy of cabbage and punga trees in the hills out west of our fair city.  And if this wasn’t enough, it [...]

 I remember a version of this as a staff meal and at the time I thought it was so gourmet.  Looking at this recipe today, it may have lost its gourmet shine but it is however just as delicious and worthy of a blog post

I’m thinking that if there should ever be a campaign for real ginger….then this cake would become iconic.

Growing up, we had a pear tree down at the bottom of the garden. It has had various swings tied to its low hanging branches over the years. A shady haven over the summer, as the weather cooled it would become weighed down with fruit, so much that if you got the swing going back [...]

Anyone who has dined regularly at our family dinner table will have eaten broccoli pasta.  Once upon a time it was our signature dish and we ate it with such enthusiasm that after leaving home I found I had completely lost any appetite for it, fearing I may never wish to consume it again!  Many [...]

These ginger kisses are for my boyfriend.  He’s rather partial to them you see and prior to me making these ones he had only ever eaten ginger kisses of the store bought variety.  A fact which as a passionate cook and foodie is rather hard to stomach (excuse the pun!).  And so we set about [...]

In more recent times, my husband and I have become campfire experts. Several years ago, prior to marriage and a baby, at the start of our epic journey around the world (which culminated with us living in little old Dunedin) we travelled around Europe and Africa in our campervan for 10 months and for a significant portion of that time, [...]

This recipe reminds me of my dad. When we were kids and it was Dad’s choice for dinner it would be either mince on toast or devilled sausages with boiled potatoes; my sister and I were never excited about eating either of these staple meals. But what made up for our basic weeknight fare was [...]

This is the second of two recipes intended for our hangi which sadly was rained out.  I had intended to marinate the chicken overnight, then wrapping it in banana leaves before placing it into the hangi baskets to spend the day slowly cooking.  Whilst the rain quashed these plans I decided to resolutely stick to [...]

Two days ago it was Waitangi Day here in NZ; a public holiday to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. The weather was beautiful and so we thought what better way to spend a public holiday than at our local beach