January 9, 2013
This salad is brought to you by: the insane heat that blanketed Sydney yesterday and my favorite skirt that’s a little tight after the long holiday season.
Seriously, it was shockingly hot. Like hotter than your average person’s body temperature. Clearly, seeing 43 degrees (109 Fahrenheit) on my phone weather left a big impact on me.
Anyway, turning on the oven wasn’t an option, nor was boiling or simmering anything. I needed something refreshing but also something with substance to get through the mid-day slump.
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January 8, 2013
So 2013, this is happening!
Resolutions are in full force – are you sticking to yours so far?
I took a look back some of my cooking goals for 2012 to see what I actually accomplished.
Making my own yogurt didn’t happen, and I definitely need to learn more of my Dad’s seafood secrets. But I did make frozen things and, wouldn’t you know it, I’ve made a paella that I’m happy to share with you today.
Please please please tell me you’re not on a juice cleanse. Then you wouldn’t be able to eat paella with me.
The thought of a juice cleanse brings back memories of my job as an advertising assistant for the most serious of all fashion magazines. Picture irritable, high-powered women in an underfed, over-caffeinated state. Juice and stress and terror go hand in hand in hand in my brain. Just say no.
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December 28, 2012
Merry post-Christmas!
You look lovely today, btw.
I could have brought you a cookie recipe but that just seems wrong now. I can’t be bothered to turn on the oven, let alone throw measuring spoons and flour sifting into the mix. Ugh.
For me it was a Christmas filled with warm days, mangoes, pavlova, prosecco mimosas by the pool and lots of ham. Not too shabby.
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December 21, 2012
I have a cookie recipe for you before Christmas…it’s not unlike my orange gingerbread cake – with its molasses and spices. But this time, there’s a little sugar-coated crunch and you know, it’s a cookie. A Christmas one.
But before we get there, let’s talk basil.
My love of basil runs deep.
It’s just all warm days, simple meals and pesto to me. It takes my brain to a happy place.
I bought this big bundle of basil at the market the other morning and walked around holding it like it was a bouquet of flowers, sneaking a sniff every now and then. Sure, I looked like a crazylady, so what?
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December 19, 2012
This time of year, Gammy (my totally awesome grandma) always brings out this tiered serving dish with old-timey Christmas trees painted on it. Each of the tiers display an assortment Christmas-colored candies like M&Ms (plain M&M’s in Christmas colors taste infinitely better than regular, amiright?), those spearmint gummy trees coated in sugar, and always always fun-sized, silver foil-wrapped York Peppermint Patties.
I’ve wanted to make homemade peppermint patties since I first realized that was a thing about 2 Christmases ago. Honestly, I don’t know what’s taken me so dang long. Besides the dough being a bit sticky, these little morsels were the easiest and most fun treats I’ve made this holiday season so far.
There are some recipes that call for butter or shortening or coconut oil but this one just uses egg whites…and a generous helping of powdered sugar.
As a life-long fan of the original York Peppermint Patty, I can attest to the fact that these are oh so close to the real thing. The snap of the dark chocolate and the slight crunch of the whipped peppermint filling (which is pretty much the edible equivalent to stepping into freshly fallen snow) – gaahhh. I can’t deal. I’m on a chocolate peppermint high.
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December 14, 2012
I’ve lived on Fire Island, Long Island, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and even in a fancy part London for a spell. I think those experiences grant me the right to say that Bondi Beach is the strangest place I have ever lived.
Everyone is beautiful. Everyone is fit. Everyone is tan.
And it is exhausting just to look at sometimes.
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December 11, 2012
I know the last thing you want to hear me talk about is how I STILL cannot deal with being in the opposite season of what I’m used to.
But it just doesn’t feel right, you guys.
The symbols of the holiday season are all out of place, for starters. There are no snowmen (or women), disposable pine trees or need for a yule log. And Santa’s apparel makes me sweat just looking at it. Get that man some shorts! Or at least some capri pants.
I started to wonder if the usual heady holiday baking spices were appropriate for the summertime?
I feel like the whole point of using lots of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves is to warm me up when it’s cold and I’m looking for some comfort wrapped in sugar wrapped in cake.
But really, the point of all of these awesome spices is to make it taste unmistakably like holiday time.
So short answer: they’re totally appropriate.
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December 10, 2012
I love those nights when dinner is eaten outside, or at the very least, with the windows wide open.
When there’s a balmy breeze and the sun is juuuuust setting and all you need for a satisfying dinner is a good salad and a bit of grilled fish. Oh and maybe a crisp, cold glass of white wine. It’s the picture of summertime.
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