Blog
Good living on the land
I’d be terrible at farming. Getting up close and a little too personal - hello, lambing season anyone? - with nature. But I love to hear stories of farmers bucking the system and reaping the rewards. Take George and Kate Heathcote. The publicity shots from the British reality TV show, A Farm Life, for which they agreed to be guinea pigs might make them look like an old-fashioned cliche, More →
Five steps to a truly merry Christmas
Tis the season to be sil-ly, fa la la la la, la la, la, la. Okay, it’s not quite the lyrics to Deck the Halls, but Christmas does seem to promote largesse in more ways than one. Not only do we go overboard with the credit cards, we seem to think it’s a given that we must dish up more food than nubile nymphs at a Roman feast. More →
All I want for Christmas
When money is tight, Christmas seems to loom like an all-devouring beast. Expectations are high. Gifts for everyone. Even if you start from a low base of $10 a person or only buy for the children, most families are heading well into the hundreds of dollars before too long. It\’s hard to see a way out of it cheaply. More →
Cooking a stock to die for
I love nothing more than the good hubble bubble of making stock. As I drop in my chicken carcasses and twigs of this and that herb I wonder whether I was a witch in a previous life. It is so comforting to fill the kitchen with stream and promising aromas. More →
Painting the White House green
Obama the Organic Commander in Chief? It’s an interesting proposition, although it’s hard to know where he sits in the great food debate. The only comment I’ve seen attributed to him in this interminable election - what is it with American polls? - was one bemoaning the cost of arugula in organic leader WholeFoods. Whether that means he shops there, or he just thinks organics are over-priced is not clear. More →
The celebrity seal of approval
So Liz Hurley is getting ready to bring out a range of organic food. It’s easy to sneer isn’t it? What’s a model-turned-actor who looks as if food is an afterthought at best doing asking us to eat better and with more concern for the environment? A woman best known for wearing a dress barely held together with safety pins and sticking by Hugh Grant after his infamous fandango with a prostitute. Someone who has made a fortune as the face of a cosmetics conglomerate. Who is she kidding? More →
Oprah dumps diet dramas
Oprah Winfrey has finally woken up to the fact that diets simply don’t work. Or if they do appear to work - as in the case when she famously lost a wheelbarrow load of fat on a stupid liquid protein diet - they are not sustainable. After years of well-documented fluctuations in size, More →
Hug in a bowl
The name risotto dances off the tongue and gives you a bounce in your step just by saying it – risotto.
This is the full breast of all rice dishes. Warm, smooth and deeply comforting.
Take out the homemade organic stock that you have squirreled away in your freezer.
Get ready to let time stand still – More →
Celebrate life with cake
Four weeks after having spinal surgery my daughter baked a chocolate cake. It wasn’t easy - she needed me and some industrial pain killers - but bake she did. Some people find their passion early in life; my daughter found cake. In fact some of her first words were “yummy yums”. I remember dropping her at her grandparents when she was three. It was my birthday and I was off shopping. More →
Hospital food making us sick
No one goes to hospital for the food. While the doctors and nurses work their magic, we submit to daily showings of “Guess What’s Coming For Dinner”. We may complain about the lack of taste as we try to figure out exactly what’s on the end of our forks, but by and large we accept the below par diet as a given. More →
