disciplined self indulgence

muesli bars

Louise — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:04:03 +0000

I’ve been experimenting with muesli bars lately. A few disasters – some of the healthier ones aren’t great as they come out the other end. My son has had some wicked nappies after a batch that were heavy with tahini. I’m back to Nigella. In various forms, she’s been on our kitchen bench a lot this [...]

nigella’s lemon roast chicken

Louise — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:37:35 +0000

Lately I’ve been thinking that it was Nigella Lawson that turned cooking around for me. Suddenly anything seemed possible, especially with her no nonsense advice. I’ve shared my versions of a lot of her recipes here, but one of my favourites is her simple take on roast chicken. Surely, you say, you just shove the bird in [...]

ancient wine

Louise — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:13:30 +0000

Tracing the history of wine parallels explorations into the history of humanity and its traditions. There is no food or beverage that is so intensely scrutinised by its fans, so it comes as no surprise to find the origins of viticulture and winemaking are subject to similar scrutiny in books such as Ancient Wine, by [...]

italian meatball in tomato sauce

Louise — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:32:09 +0000

How do you photograph a pan of beautiful little meatballs bubbling away in a rich tomato sauce? Food stylists will tell me to turn off the heat and let things go cold, then get some natural light and get up close. Unfortunately hungry husband and cranky toddler care nothing for image quality, so the best [...]

self saucing banana butterscotch pudding

Louise — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 02:23:08 +0000

It’s not often a banana survives long enough in our house to make it to the brown, mushy stage needed for good banana bread or muffins. But suprisingly one was unattractive enough to be left in the bowl until it was past eating on its own. Self-saucing puddings are delicious and I lost a very good [...]

vue de monde

Louise — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:16:58 +0000

It’s been a few weeks since we dined at Vue de monde in Melbourne but I’m still having flavour flashbacks. I wish I’d taken photos of each dish, but I was shy and distracted. I am a bad blogger. The couple at the table next to us were furiously snapping away and reminded me of tour [...]

jansson’s temptation

Louise — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:22:40 +0000

My very lovely and utterly delightful friend Val went off to university a year before me. A year later I moved to the same university town and spent a lot of time hanging out at her flat. Val, who remember is lovely and delightful, wasn’t particularly accomplished at cooking. Her favourite meal, which was also her [...]

apple and oat muffins

Louise — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:29:57 +0000

Who knows what my child eats in a day at daycare? I should know, I should read the menu posted next to the kitchen, but most days, err… every day, I forget. He knows where the biscuit tin is at home and one of his very few words is bissss, pointing to the pantry and [...]

fresh peach souffle

Louise — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:59:24 +0000

I just about fell over when these came out of the oven. There’s something about souffle that just sounds so hard. Incredibly, amazingly hard. In fact these turned out to be incredibly simple. However, when instructions for souffle say serve immediately they mean immediately. By the time hubby and I did the victory dance, took the [...]

sourdough bread starter

Louise — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:47:11 +0000

I’ve been writing a lot about wine and talking to a lot of winemakers recently, and a topic that comes up often is wild yeasts and fermentation (no suprise there). It’s been interesting especially given my new pet – a sourdough bug that I’ve started from scratch. I’ll call it a bug, because it’s like the [...]