1 year old

This day 1 year ago I started this blog and it has been so much fun maintaining it. I have meet some lovely people and have taken part in a number of blog events. It has kept me busy in the kitchen and has thought me all sorts of tricks with my camera. 95 posts later and I'm still enjoying it.

I wasn’t sure if the novelty of writing about food would wear off but it obviously hasn't. I was a bit worried about the blog falling by the wayside when we bought the house and moved in. There was a lot going on but I still managed to post every now and then. I’m not too fond of our new kitchen (which is due to be renovated this year) so I really don’t spend as much time pottering in the kitchen as I used to. No doubt there will be numerous posts about the disaster zone that will be our kitchen during the renovations.

Recently a friend said to me “I really like your blog but do you mind me asking you why you do it?” He didn’t seem impressed when I said I just do it because I enjoy it. I love reading other peoples blogs so why not add my own two cents worth. People also frequently talk about how I can make money out of it. It’s like there’s no point putting all that effort in if you don’t get money for it. It’s just for the sheer pleasure of it. No need for advertising and money making schemes, just fun and food. It’s interesting because I have been reading Ximena’s post about the same point over at Lobstersquad this week.

Since the festive season ended I have been looking forward to making some great little culinary creations. I had plans for a rapturous post about a three course meal that I cooked for J last night. But alas it did not turn out as planned. As usual J was very complimentary about the food but not one of the dishes turned out as I had imagined.


I started with some stuffed zucchini flowers. I have eaten these in restaurants a number of times and they were always so delicious and light. Well not mine, unfortunately. They looked lovely pre battering and deep frying. They were stuffed with basil puree, anchovies and mozzarella cheese but once they came out of the hot oil they were shrivelled little bundles of oily flavoured nothingness. I was very disappointed. The recipe called for the oil to be at a certain temperature but since I didn’t have a thermometer I think I might have had the oil too hot. Oh well we ate them anyway. A fancy garnish and a good squeeze of lemon juice hides a multitude of mistakes.

Then it was on to the main dish. This was spaghetti with garlic prawns, squid and a herby stir through paste. It was from Bill Grangers latest book, Everyday. It was included in a section for cooking a meal for two. There is nothing I like more than “Serves 2” in the recipe. It makes the cooking process seem so much more intimate. As in - it was only meant to be for two. As opposed to those recipes that say “serves 16” and make you wonder where you are going to find 14 others to join you at such short notice. Alternatively you can divide every quantity by 8 and hope for the best. “Serves 2” just sounds right. “Serves 1” sounds even better sometimes.

I digress; this seafood spaghetti was very ordinary. I was so disappointed I didn’t even take a photo. So moving on we have dessert. I was very excited about this one because again it came from Bill Grangers book and it looked divine in the photo. It was a self saucing chocolate pudding and it seemed very easy to make. The recipe bumf said that this was very popular in his restaurants so I had high hopes for it. I followed the recipe exactly … well almost exactly … ok so maybe I used slightly smaller ramekins then he recommended but could that make such a big difference? Obviously it could because these were more like no-saucing puddings. That said, they did still taste great but there wasn’t a single smidge of sauce in them. Oh well. The photo I took just looked like brown mush so I won’t even be including that.

It’s tricky when you cook late at night to take a decent photo of the food. If anyone has any tips on lighting food when there’s no natural light to work with could you please let me know.


My other kitchen disaster was when I tried to make Roast tomatoes. I read about these great tomatoes again at Lobstersquad. I read it months ago and scribbled down the recipe in a notebook. When looking for something else I came across the recipe and thought I would give them a try. I bought some lovely ripe tomatoes. Tthey were so big and juicy I thought they would turn out lovely roasted. Again, I think that my major flaw was that I did not know what temperature to roast them at. I prepared the tomatoes and popped then in the oven at 200C. I did slightly neglect my cooking responsibilities when I headed off for a swim while they were roasting. But I left my able assistant, J, in charge of turning the oven down to 100C after an hour. Unfortunately, when I got home (1½ hours later) the lovely juicy tomatoes had turned into black burnt bumps on the roasting tray. Apparently they were even a bit burnt looking when my able assistant turned them down but he thought “I wanted them burnt” oh well he was only following instructions. I did try to salvage them but whooshing them up in the food processor with some olive oil but I could only taste the sour burnt flavour.

I am not going to let these disasters deter me. I will persevere. We have J’s parents coming to stay soon so better that I get the disasters out of the way good and early. Some day I will tell you about the first time I made dinner for J’s Mum and the pavlova turned out green !!!