Today I met my friend Shelley in London and we had a lovely day exploring the Borough Food Market (so amazing), walking the South Bank of the Thames and mooching around Portobello Rd ( Read more... )

I've been taking almost an absurd pleasure in cooking since we got to England. When we first arrived, I didn't feel at home or secure until I'd made a cake in my own kitchen, until I had a baking box and a pie tin. I felt at sea, almost distressed! I remember buying a cake tin back in March, letting a few bananas go bad then making banana cake. I ( Read more... )

Steve's always telling me I need to put on weight, so being a good and dutiful and obedient wife, I made lunch. Just for me. There's half a cup of cheese, half a cup of mayonnaise and a tub of cream cheese in that puppy. (Along with a smattering of spinach and onion for health.) The bread bits have butter and cheese on them and I am a HAPPY GIRL. ( Read more... )

Just back from Paris - what do you say about Paris? It’s Paris. It’s difficult whenever you go to a place which has such mythology surrounding it to experience the ‘real’ place - not the tinsel-bedecked plastic-model faux-‘culture’ hung in the window for tourists ( Read more... )

Steve turned 33 on the weekend and we had a lovely dinner party, which included salmon, lamb, home-made foccaccia, green beans from the garden, and deep-fried Spanish churros with chocolate pots! YUM! Then on Saturday we went to Leigh for snorkelling, a summer tradition. I don’t have a wetsuit so just swam while Steve snorkelled, but spent a lovely ( Read more... )

I had the best night last night! It was my friend Nikki’s 31st, and, clever girl, she decided to go to the French Café for the tasting menu. So four of us went and had the MOST AMAZING meal I’ve had since the pinnacle of my culinary life, the meal at Town in New York three years ago ( Read more... )

I had an atomsmith-like moment of junkfood Zen yesterday. Twelve years ago you could buy in Auckland supermarkets what had to be the best breakfast food on the market, the truly sublime Apple Cinnamon Pop-Tart. One of them comprised your entire fat intake for a day and it was REAL easy to eat three at a sitting. Then about nine years ago, some wanna-make- ( Read more... )

Dang it, my stock is going UP! It’s been a weird few days. On Friday at 4:55 I got a call at work from a publishing company offering me a job. Out of the blue. Not one I’d take, but flattering all the same. Then last night I popped into an unfamiliar supermarket to buy rennet (of all things) and ran into the owner of another publishing company, who ( Read more... )

Had a very cool weekend. For a start, it was Steve’s and my FIVE year wedding anniversary on Friday (FIVE!) which means that we’ve been together for 8 ½ years which is a LONG time. To celebrate the unending monotony of married bliss, we went to the French Café, where I ate snails for the first and possibly last time. The first three were fine till ( Read more... )

All around me, people are getting ready for their Friday nights. They’re talking about the clubs and the parties, the dates and the clothes and one girl, I kid you not, has got her GHD hair straighteners plugged in and is sitting under her desk straightening her hair. I too am earnestly planning my Friday night. Will it be buttered popcorn or icing ( Read more... )