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Same old, same old ... Part 2 - cooking
"Cooking is not something you do, and then it's finished with. It is a thread woven through our lives ... It can never be an end in...
Mar 20, 2021
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Same old same old ... Part 1 - Parmesan and ricotta
Every day - 365 days a year - for I don't know how many years now, this lady makes ricotta twice a day, and helps her husband make...
Mar 18, 2021
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A moment in time - men in cafés
"Men - the art of the cafe is mostly a male preserve – have been nattering in cafes for centuries." Brian Johnston - Traveller.com...
Mar 9, 2021
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Ordinary
"We have enough masterpieces, what we need is a better standard of ordinariness." Jane Grigson I've been feeling a bit uninspired when...
Mar 6, 2021
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The end of summer
“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” William Shakespeare And suddenly summer is gone. Here in Melbourne I wonder if it ever...
Mar 1, 2021
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Rambling - a moment in time
"One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy." Jane Austen You must be able...
Feb 21, 2021
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New is old, old is new
and sometimes old is old and new is new and what do old and new mean anyway? I was very struck by Elizabeth David's quote about food...
Feb 7, 2021
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La cuisine pour tous - coincidence again
"I was instantly transported back to the years I lived in France and devoured everything, especially the food. And the years that...
Feb 2, 2021
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Coincidence, postscripts and lucky dips
"Very few cookbooks contain recipes for guinea fowl. Most chicken or pheasant recipes can be interchanged with guinea fowl". Maggie Beer...
Jan 31, 2021
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A book group gathering
"What's the point of having a book club if you don't get to eat brownies and drink wine?" Jami Attenberg I am actually in two bookclubs...
Jan 21, 2021
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Inventing dinner - a journey
I think I'm aiming to cook something that will look a little like this for dinner tonight, but then again maybe not. There are...
Jan 15, 2021
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Who makes toast for you?
"It is impossible not to love someone who makes toast for you .... Once the warm, salty butter has hit your tongue, you are smitten....
Jan 8, 2021
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20 to 21 - coming of age
"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the...
Jan 1, 2021
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A table
"When I moved into my first home, before I did anything else, I bought a table, a table not just to eat at, but to live around." Nigella...
Dec 30, 2020
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Happy Christmas
This is the last picture from my 2020 Charley Harper diary - a rather cute Christmassy picture of somewhat bemused looking cats. Or are...
Dec 25, 2020
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Christmas overkill panic
This is just a quickie because - guess what - it's just over a day to Christmas and I am in my usual Christmas panic even though I am not...
Dec 23, 2020
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Brave new world or the end of days?
"Come to the edge, He said. They said, We are afraid. Come to the edge, He said. They came. He pushed them... and they flew." Guillaume...
Dec 16, 2020
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Memory + imagination = dinner
“It needs to have whatever it was that you were reaching for as a kid: This is my after school memory, or this is the thing we always...
Dec 6, 2020
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Indecision and macaroni cheese
"simplicity is the key to macaroni cheese ... nothing should leap out at you except a clumsy, gooey richness" Tom Norrington-Davies...
Nov 29, 2020
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Salade Niçoise and breaking rules
"Call me old-fashioned, but surely the whole point of a classic recipe is that the punter knows, within an olive or two, what they are...
Nov 24, 2020
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