This month of modern and traditional Chinese recipes cannot pass without a recipe for the magical ‘cookie of fortune’. I probably first saw these cookies, packaged in a simple white noodle box on an 80’s American sitcom or teen movie. Who could forget when Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan’s fortune cookie caused a 24 [...]

Easter for me was 1 car accident, 3 swims, 1 finished book and an ‘almost’ surf (squeezed into my wetsuit, board tucked under my arm, ankles wet and then face to face with the ferocious surf I thought it was best left to the professionals – I’m just a learner, so I’m allowed to chicken [...]

This post is a wee ode to my Mum for having instilled in me the dogged determination to gift things handmade.  I remember as a young child taking a sheet of white A4 paper and carefully folding it in two, lining up each edge so that it was perfectly square.  Then out came the paints [...]

This post marks the occasion of Valentine’s Day – which doesn’t have to be all about having a mate; it can simply be thinking about the things you love. I love vanilla ice cream, hydrangeas, singing in the car, board games, new stationary, old baking tins, watching my cat lick her paws and I love [...]

On numerous occasions I have told of my passion for tea, and on numerous occasions (probably in the same breath) I have told of my desire to blend my own tea.  I remember several years ago now feeling particularly inspired, wanting to blend, package and brand my own tea, as well as design wee tea [...]

In October this year, I packed my suitcase and popped across the ditch to be bridesmaid at my best friend’s wedding on Queensland’s Gold Coast.  A few days before the wedding, we travelled south-west along the Pacific Highway

Last night I indulged.  I poured myself a whiskey, sat down at my kitchen table and gingerly cued Frank Sinatra’s Christmas carols.  Whilst I awaited the protests of my flatmates (which strangely enough never came) I spent the evening sketching.  I sketched with purpose, in the hope that from the collection of scribbles on the [...]

My love for Halloween stems from my older sister; born on the 30th of October she hosted an annual Halloween party throughout her teenage years and I can remember anticipation and excitement for the event building from about August. In recent years I have been lucky to befriend a little lady with a passion for black magic and entertaining, the perfect combination for throwing Halloween parties.

It is comforting to know exactly what goes into the things we eat.  For me, the less processed and refined the better.  For a while now I have thought about making my own crackers as the store bought ones are more often than not full of preservatives and saturated fats, two things which I can [...]

It’s the old saying that food connects people – friends, families and even strangers. These Lebanese Easter cookies lead me on a journey to another local person, passionate about producing and sharing food.

This recipe is a take on the classic pavlova that Kiwis are very proud of and well known for. Having lived in Samoa for nearly half of my life, the only pavlova I became accustomed to was a rolled version with coconut threads baked on top and smothered with heaps of whipped cream and fresh [...]

I love the intangible feeling of Christmas – that big, warm, swelling feeling that rises up inside you.  The closer we draw to Christmas (9 days and counting) the more palpable this feeling becomes.  It’s in the shop windows, it’s in the Christmas trees – strung with lights that twinkle in darkened lounge windows and [...]