Hold the Beef

Hello Sweden, this is Perth calling

Conor — Sat, 18 May 2013 08:58:59 +0000

It’s the time of year when you become one of two types of people – those who carry on their lives without a care in the world, and those who shut themselves away from society, shunning usual pleasures of Facebook and Reddit and madly turning off carelessly left on radios and TVs with their elbows [...]

Squiddly diddly

Conor — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 02:29:47 +0000

Cooking squid at home can be a bit scary for two reasons – the process of transforming them from looking like little (peacefully sleeping) sea creatures to inanimate tubes ready for the kitchen, and the danger of ending up with conversation-stalling rubbery lumps if you overcook it. Although the cleaning process involves a number of [...]

Margaret River Gourmet Escape – discounted ticket offer

Conor — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 10:13:38 +0000

Spring, it is sprung! Well, it is trying. The spring slinky is not quite at perfectly-down-the-stairs mode, but rather down-a-couple-of-steps-and-then-you-have-to-nudge-it-again mode. Come late November, I am sure our summer clothes will have shed their musty winter smell and we’ll be well into the swing of bragging about our enormous zucchini plants on Facebook (there’s a terrible [...]

They’re heading for the old mill!

Conor — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:28:19 +0000

It wasn’t cider that was calling us but spring weather had finally arrived and we decided to head off on a day trip to York to see what we could see. Country driving confidence is still not what it was pre-crash, but we happily encountered nothing but other Sunday drivers on the ~1 hr 20 [...]

North Perth Seafood Chowder

Conor — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 08:15:26 +0000

Chowder seems to be one of those dishes that causes fisticuffs between one town and another. It is, perhaps, the vanilla slice of New England and Atlantic Canada, with each chowder-maker laying claim to the definitive recipe. The word itself apparently has roots in the Latin word from which we get the word cauldron, and also in [...]

Once upon a cake

Conor — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 05:06:45 +0000

You remind me of the babe What babe? The babe with the power What power? The power of voodoo Who do? You do! Do what? Remind me of the babe! You know who’s a total babe? My friend Kate. She is also the most impressive fancy dresser I know, proven by her win of best [...]

Kick out the jams

Conor — Sun, 20 May 2012 15:50:50 +0000

So, I think I’ve left sufficient time between blog posts for Hold the Beef to become retro. Ten months is about all it takes these days, yeah? I realised too late that I should have had a Rugs-a-Million style closing down sale or a Farnesy-esque final tour before I disappeared off into the ether, but [...]

My 7 Links

Conor — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:15:23 +0000

Firstly, thanks to everyone for your support and donations with my Dry July efforts! It was a long 31 days, and even longer FIVE WEEKENDS but we got through it and well over $2.7 million was raised for adult cancer patients across the country. As wryly noted by Gcroft, I also seemed to give up [...]

Lounging and Lunching

Conor — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 07:24:47 +0000

Ah, July. It’s a month to get accountants stocking up on tax-deductible coffee, us southern hemisphere dwellers to start getting a bit over this whole winter malarkey, and those of us who thought signing up for Dry July was a good idea wonder what the hell we were thinking. We must have been drunk. Dry [...]

Amazing Honkers

Conor — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 09:06:13 +0000

Happiness is a Kong Foo Sing, with good fortune that it brings. So quit your moping, and crack one open. Smiles abound, the cookie has spoken. Unless of course you are tasked with biting into hundreds of fortune cookies, reading each one aloud in a quest to find the elusive one that will end the [...]