The ultimate trick to cooking a good stir fry is all in the pan and the high heat. I would love to get my hands on a commercial wok like they use in restaurants. I’ve always loved watching the chefs toss the ingredients high in the air and adding in the oil and sauces using […]
Category: friends for dinner
spinach + cheese triangles | perfect meat free monday meal | terrific party food
Growing up, one of my favourite meals was Mum’s ‘mince in pastry’. Hands down. Basically, Mum would make her bolognese mince and instead of serving it with the usual suspect – spaghetti, (which she used to add some chopped parsley and a dash of cream to) she would wrap it in puff pastry instead. Served […]
jamie’s roast tikka chicken
The word on the street is that Prince Harry proposed to Meghan Markle over a home cooked roast chook. So with the royal wedding fast approaching I thought it fitting to cook some dinners inspired by some of my favourite British chefs, starting with a chicken. Everyone knows I’m a fan of Jamie (haven’t forgotten […]
beef curry w apples + bananas
I’m on a bit of an ‘old school recipe’ roll at the moment. I’ve made three batches of jam drops in the last week trying to perfect my recipe before posting it (they taste out of this world but can’t get the jam to sit still in the middle). I’ve been scouring through the old […]
warm cous cous salad w roasted carrots + haloumi + broccolini + pine nuts
How about a delicious warm salad for a healthy meat free Monday night meal? This cous cous salad is filling and delicious. Meat free Monday for me is really about playing around with ingredients and flavours. We’re constantly told to ditch the red meat for more veggies, (now please don’t get me wrong – I […]
strawberries + ice cream | strawberries soaked in liquor | a delicious + simple dessert
This dish is inspired by a lovely dessert Mim used to make using homegrown peaches and oranges from her trees on the farm. She used to cover the freshly picked peaches with a sprinkling of sugar, some freshly squeezed orange juice and a generous amount of Cointreau. Oh my gosh- talk about heaven on a […]
honey + mustard + garlic chicken | made in the slow cooker
I love a good recipe for the slow cooker. Especially when the weather is starting to get cool and you’re looking for something comforting to warm you up. This chicken recipe is so easy to make, tastes delicious and can be served with rice, salad, mashed potato or steamed vege. It’s so versatile, a must […]
mushroom risotto | oozy + delicious
When my sister Elles lived in Sydney, she used to always have Chinese containers full of leftover risotto in her freezer. Whenever I’d head to the big smoke to go out for a night on the town, Jez and Elle would kindly let me crash at theirs. Oh how good was a steaming hot serve […]
spaghetti + meatballs | a family favourite
There’s something that little bit romantic about eating a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs that you don’t get with spaghetti bol. It reminds me of Lady and the Tramp sitting at the red and white checkered table out the back of Tony’s Italian. Oh how I loved that movie growing up and thought the […]
mediterranean pasta | meat free monday
I used to be addicted to the Mediterranean pasta they sold at Sydney Uni in the students food court. A little Chinese container full of pasta, loaded up with olives and feta really used to do it for me between tutes (if I ever stayed around for the afternoon classes that is). I then went […]
homemade chicken schnitzel burgers | the perfect friday night tv dinner
My sister Case recently ate her way through Austria on a grand schnitzel tour. Well, that’s how she refers to her uni exchange trip anyway. She sent me pics of many a gorgeously thin Wiener schnitzel the size of a large dinner plate. So jel! I recall doing the same thing when Cork Daddy and […]
caramelised salmon
Back in the uni days my sister Elle used to buy a container of satay sauce from the Thai place down the road from Sydney Uni for just $2. She would eat it for days with some boiled rice. The perfect uni student meal which allowed all of her spare pennies to be put behind […]
cheat’s chicken rice paper roll bowls
Do you absolutely love rice paper rolls but don’t have the time or energy to make them for dinner during the week? Then this is the dish for you. By all means, add the ingredients in to the rice paper and roll them up properly, but for a speedy and fuss free meal that tastes […]
beef nachos | another way with mince
Nachos are brilliant to dish up when friends come round for a few drinks on the weekend. How many times have you sat around a cheese board staring down the usual suspects – a wheel of Camembert, some stuffed olives, a bit of French onion dip, broken up with a box of Jatz dumped in […]
pulled pork rolls w a creamy chilli slaw + homemade apple sauce | made in the slow cooker
For mum’s 60th birthday party at Tomalong I cooked 12 kilos of pulled pork! That’s six slow cookers full! I had three slow cookers going during the day and woke up to my alarm in the middle of the night to tend to the meat. We had more pulled pork than you could poke a […]
baked fish w a crispy breadcrumb topping | good friday meal | friends for dinner
For centuries, people have been keeping with tradition and eating fish on Good Friday. The Sydney Fish Markets sell more seafood on this day than any other day of the year! One of these years I’m going to go and experience it for myself. Apparently the fish markets on Good Friday doesn’t make for a […]
spaghetti w tuna + chilli + garlic
This is THE quickest, easiest and tastiest pasta dish going round. The recipe was given to me by my brother Pete and his wife Amy. If you know me – or Pete, you know that we like tuna. Pete reckons he has eaten a tin of tuna for his lunch everyday for the past 15 […]
grilled haloumi w strawberries + pinenuts + mint
Since I’ve started writing this blog I’ve had a growing number of people contact me letting me know that they’ve cooked one of the dishes I’ve made. This gives me so much satisfaction and keeps me motivated to continue to share what I’m cooking. That’s what it’s all about. If I can post a recipe […]
succulent lamb chops | oven baked w brown sugar + tomato + spices
There’s absolutely nothing fancy about these lamb chops. They’re not much to look at, but oh my gosh do they taste good. This dish was around long before food photography was even a thing! For as long as I can remember, Mum has made these chops and Corks has many a happy memory eating this […]
prawns on the barbie | thai style
“I’ll slip another shrimp on the barbie for ya”, promises a young Paul Hogan in the 1984 Australian tourism ad designed to get American tourists to visit our remarkable ‘land down under’. Before this iconic campaign, Australia ranked number 78 on the most ‘desireable holiday hotspots’ in the States; which climbed to number 7 shortly after […]
