We hear it all the time, "you can make a difference in someone's life for less than the cost of a cup of coffee..." Well thanks to CafeSmart, an annual initiative from charity StreetSmart, on Friday 7 June 2013 coffee won’t just kick-start your day, it could change someone's life. Really. "How will my cappuccino/macchiato/latte/tall black/short black/flat white/mocha caramel whoozywhatsitcino help others?", I hear you ask. $1 from every coffee sold in participating CafeSmart cafes … [Read more...]
Williams-Sonoma, West Elm, Pottery Barn & Pottery Barn Kids now open in Sydney!
The entry way of each store beckons you from the footpath, only to stop you in your tracks with stunning displays just inside the door. The ceiling-high shelves and multi-layered vignettes pull you from side to side, deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of design and colour and light. This past Wednesday, I had the opportunity to tour the Williams-Sonoma, West Elm, Pottery Barn & Pottery Barn Kids stores in Bondi Junction before they officially opened to the public. I have been waiting … [Read more...]
In My Kitchen – March/April 2013
I'm not sure what happened to March but all of a sudden it was April so I figured I'd just do a big'ol combined post to link up with Celia’s April ‘In My Kitchen’… In my kitchen this March and April: Remember my ginger growing attempts from February? Well both the one under the soil and on top were failures, but what would you know another piece sprouted on its own... I buried most of it leaving only the very top of the bud to peek out of the soil out and before I knew it roots were growing … [Read more...]
Aussie BBQ Sauce
It's funny you know, the differences you find in an activity as simple as cooking food over an open flame. For starters what do you call said activity - barbeque, barbecue, BBQ, grilling or something else - and what do the terms mean? Then there's the question of what to cook, and even what equipment to use. Let me paint the smoky picture in very broad brushstrokes... In America-land, grilling is what happens on a charcoal or gas grill, usually with chicken legs and hamburgers and maybe a … [Read more...]
Lamington Cupcakes & Chocolate Fudge Glaze
For the number of desserts that get shared here most of them are whole grain or gluten free, many are vegan, and almost all are refined sugar free. This isn't a bad thing by any means and as much as I love the challenge of flipping recipes, sometimes I just want to make something classic and naughty. For a while I was making cakes for other people and got to stretch my chocolate-peanut-butter-meringue-raspberry-sauce-cream-cheese-dulce-de-leche-more-chocolate baking muscles on a regular basis … [Read more...]
Sour Cherry & Macadamia Cake – plus 15 of my favourite cherry recipes!
Ah, shimmery childhood memories. You know the ones, they dance and glisten around the edges, things are bigger - because you were smaller, and brighter - as memories can be, and you're never quite sure how much truth exists in the memory versus how much is stacked and stitched-on from photos and stories told around long ago late night boardgames. I have a shimmery, wispy childhood memory of a pool with a mermaid on the bottom, it was in the basement of a house at the edge of a cherry … [Read more...]
Mushroom & Lentil Burgers – Vegan, Gluten Free
It's fine, don't worry about me, I'll just have salad and bread... It's a phrase known well by many non-meat eaters when faced with a weekend BBQ in Australia. Barbequing here generally consists of steaks, sausages, a bit more steak, another sausage, and maybe some chops. No, we don't generally 'throw another shrimp on the barbie' [and even if we did we'd call them prawns and they'd probably still have the heads on] and while there is always a pile of white bread or rolls and perhaps some … [Read more...]