Posted on Jan 25, 2010 in Travel | 1 comment

Vietnamese coffee

Vietnamese coffee
A cup of hot coffee with milk at Café Mai, 79 Le Van Huu Street, Hanoi. Dark, strong and very sweet – there’s a layer of condensed milk at the bottom of the cup – Vietnamese coffee is just the thing to get you going in the morning, and for the rest of the day. The coffee often comes...
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Posted on Jan 25, 2010 in Work | 0 comments

SilverCircle.ie: Soup Days

SilverCircle.ie: Soup Days
On a cold, wet, miserable day, there’s nothing better than coming home to a big bowl of piping hot, homemade soup. Pick from Chicken Noodle, Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato or White Bean and Cabbage Soups and make a meal of it with Caroline Hennessy’s recipes for pots of pleasure on...
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Posted on Jan 19, 2010 in Do, Travel | 3 comments

Goodbye to New Zealand…

Goodbye to New Zealand…
…to blue skies and lakeside walks, to fabulous food (we’ve been truly spoiled by the Husband’s Mother!) and rich, dark coffees, to post-swim fish and chips and bowlfuls of fresh, seasonal fruit, to Little Missy figuring out how to pick the fresh peas from a homegrown pod and lazy bach...
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Posted on Jan 17, 2010 in Travel | 2 comments

New Zealand flavours

New Zealand flavours
Flowers on a feijoa tree at Stafford Lane Estate when we visited on a wine tour of the Nelson area. Feijoas are very popular in New Zealand, I loved them when we were living here, but it’s the wrong time of year for the fruit. You can, however, get a little of the tropical flavour from the fleshy...
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Posted on Jan 15, 2010 in Cookery Books, Read | 2 comments

Cooking for Your Child by Nicola Galloway

Cooking for Your Child by Nicola Galloway
Nicola Galloway may be based in Nelson, New Zealand, but this no-nonsense, practical cookbook will appeal to parents in any hemisphere. From first tastes and flavors to school lunches and dinnertimes, there are plenty of ideas here for feeding children of every age group as well as recipes you can adapt for...
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Posted on Jan 12, 2010 in Cookery Books, Read | 0 comments

Summer reading at the bach

Summer reading at the bach
Without television, radio or mobile reception, heading off to the Husband’s family bach, or holiday home, at Lake Rotoiti always entails packing lots of books. The use of the Husband’s Mother’s library card is always very much appreciated and gives me a chance to pick up a few cookbooks...
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Posted on Jan 3, 2010 in Eating Out, Travel | 0 comments

Fossil Ridge: wine on the doorstep

Fossil Ridge: wine on the doorstep
While in New Zealand, staying with the Husband’s parents, our nearest café is actually a boutique winery called Fossil Ridge. We pass the small vineyard on our daily walk (sometimes several times a day as the Husband tries to balance lots of eating his mother’s fabulous food with regular...
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