Posted on Oct 30, 2005 in Living in New Zealand, Storecupboard Specials | 0 comments

Peter Gordon’s Tomato and Chilli Jam

Peter Gordon’s Tomato and Chilli Jam
Before I came to New Zealand I had only vaguely heard of Kiwi chef Peter Gordon. From articles that popped up every so often in the English newspapers that I read, I knew that he cooked at The Sugar Club (still, I think, a truly brilliant name for a restaurant) and that he was designated king of what became...
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Posted on Oct 28, 2005 in Do | 3 comments

Starbucks Challenge

After some discussion about Fair Trade goods, green LA girl challenged me to take the Starbucks Challenge. In their policy document – Starbucks, Fair Trade, and Coffee Social Responsibility – they say that “Fair Trade Certified coffee has been promoted by Starbucks as a brewed “Coffee...
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Posted on Oct 26, 2005 in Cook, Do, Living in New Zealand | 2 comments

A tale of camping food and missing sleeping bags: Sloppy Joes for Campsite Cooking

Last weekend being a long weekend, the Boyfriend and I decided to abandon Christchurch and open our personal camping season with a trip to the small town of Geraldine. For me, camping is a challenge to see what I can cook with limited ingredients and resources and this, the first camping trip of the year,...
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Posted on Oct 25, 2005 in Do, Living in New Zealand | 7 comments

Cup conversion issues

Although I’m not a huge fan of her bare basics books, Delia Smith’s website is a very useful reference point. She has a helpful table of conversions here that are especially good when you’re trying to convert a recipe using American cup measurements to metric but, alas, there are no...
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Posted on Oct 23, 2005 in Cookery Books, Read | 0 comments

Brilliant But Basic by Genevieve McGough ***

Brilliant But Basic by Genevieve McGough ***
It’s not often that chefs can manage to simplify techniques so that they are both intelligible and useful to those of us who confine our cooking to the home kitchen but Auckland-based Genevieve McGough has managed it in Brilliant But Basic. In this slim publication she deals with a total of 19...
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Posted on Oct 21, 2005 in Kitchen, Lovely Lunches | 6 comments

A self-sufficient lunch: A Simple Goat’s Cheese

A self-sufficient lunch: A Simple Goat’s Cheese
Last year, while still in Ireland, the Boyfriend and I attended a cheese-making weekend workshop at Rossinver Organic Farm in County Leitrim. My knowledge of cheese-making had previously been limited to a school outing during primary school. A schoolmate’s father, Glenroe’s Matt O’Brien,...
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Posted on Oct 20, 2005 in Brewing and beer, Do, Eating Out, Living in New Zealand | 0 comments

Beer and food matching at Canterbury Brewery

Beer and food matching at Canterbury Brewery
One night a few weeks ago the Boyfriend and I accompanied our Scottish physiotherapist housemates to a celebration of International Physiotherapist Day. Now, going to celebrations of other people’s careers is not something that we would normally do but, as this was taking place at Christchurch’s...
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Posted on Oct 18, 2005 in Cook | 5 comments

A decadent solo supper: Roasted Asparagus

A decadent solo supper: Roasted Asparagus
Asparagus is very much in season at the moment in New Zealand with signs hanging by the roadside offering freshly picked spears of this gloriously upright vegetable and quantities of it available in greengrocers. Despite the plenty, I must admit that the Boyfriend and I have been slow off the mark this year...
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Posted on Oct 16, 2005 in Read | 12 comments

Thoughts on cookbook collections

Just looking up Margaret Costa’s Four Seasons Cookery Book – a friend loaned it to me the other night and I was wondering how much it would cost to get my own copy! – and I came across this article by pedant in the kitchen, Julian Barnes. I thoroughly enjoyed his debate about and efforts to...
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Posted on Oct 14, 2005 in Do | 2 comments

23/5 Meme

A couple of days ago I got tagged for the 23/5 Meme by my favourite Melbourne Plum. Unlike the last meme I was involved with, it is not a difficult one – you just have to go digging around the archives, find your 23rd post and ponder on the meaning of the 5th line. Hmm… Finding my 23rd post...
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Posted on Oct 13, 2005 in Bake, Print, Work | 0 comments

The Press: Brown Soda Bread

The Press: Brown Soda Bread
Published in The Press, Christchurch, on 13 October 2005. Ask an Irish emigrant what they most miss from home and it’s a sure bet that Brown Soda Bread will figure somewhere near the top of the list. A simple wholemeal loaf, leavened with bicarbonate of soda rather than yeast, it – together with...
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Posted on Oct 13, 2005 in Read | 0 comments

At Home, At Play by Penny Oliver ***

At Home, At Play by Penny Oliver ***
Penny Oliver, the New Zealand author of Beach, Bach, Boat, Barbeque, has returned to outdoor pursuits for her latest book At Home, At Play. With fabulous photographs of rivers, cooking over outdoor fires, mountains, camping with frost on tents, kayaking and heavy snowfalls, she intersperses her recipes...
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Posted on Oct 11, 2005 in Do, Eating Out, Living in New Zealand | 0 comments

A weekend hideaway

A weekend hideaway
After a stressful week, all you want to do at the weekend is get out of the city (without driving too far), stay in a comfortable place (without paying too much) and eat some good food. In search of just such a place, the Boyfriend and I stayed at the historic Governors Bay Hotel last weekend. Although it...
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Posted on Oct 9, 2005 in Read | 6 comments

Cookbooks by the bed

I’ve been taking full advantage of the Christchurch City Library and their ever-fabulous selection of cookbooks, a pile of which are currently sitting by the bed. I’ve always been an avid reader of cookbooks – in Ireland the Boyfriend accused me of spending more time reading them than...
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Posted on Oct 7, 2005 in Do | 2 comments

Blogging by Mail 2: The arrival of the parcel…

Blogging by Mail 2: The arrival of the parcel…
Yesterday morning was miserable. It was wet and stormy, I hadn’t slept well and I woke up with a nasty sore throat. I was lying in bed, feeling sorry for myself (I had to cook dinner for nine last night) when the Boyfriend said “there’s a parcel here for you!” A parcel in the post is...
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