• Baked Cod with Shiitake Mushrooms and Bok Choy

    I’m currently working on finishing up a couple of stories and recipes to share but they’re taking me a little extra time to get just right. In the meantime I thought I’d give you another quick and easy meal. Let’s call this the baking paper meal. Like the sheet pan meal, this recipe comes together with very little prep work or clean up required. It is also quick, extremely customisable and requires no fancy equipment in order to execute, and the options are endless. However, unlike the sheet pan meal, the baking paper meal bakes all at one time, so the components need to have equal cooking times.

  • Budapest and the Sheet Pan Dinner

    Budapest is honestly, hands down, one of my most favourite places in the world. I don’t speak the language (though I’m trying to learn), yet I feel like I belong. I’m just so at ease there. The city is absolutely beautiful and so accessible by foot or public transportation with two sides of the river, Buda and Pest, that are diverse in personality and terrain. I often wonder what it would be like if I spent any length of time there. I’m hoping to find out soon.

  • Where in the World?!

    Have I been absent from the writing world because I’ve had nothing to say and have been leading a boring hermit life? Well I don’t think so…. Life has actually been quite busy and chaotic. The down days I have had have been mainly restorative; getting over jet lag, planning the next adventure, catching up on sleep. The chaos I might add, is completely by choice.

  • Kale Chopped Salad with Stone Ground Mustard Vinaigrette

     

    Today’s post is dedicated to my sister who eats so much kale her perfect complexion is in danger of turning dark, leafy green. I kid, sorta. I’ve never known anyone to eat so much of the stuff. A day without and she gets the shakes. I admire her commitment. Thanks sis for setting such a good example.  You know I’ll have to balance this out with a burger and fries so my body doesn’t go into shock.

  • Dinner Party Catch Up – Two New Party Menus – Modern Australian and Seafood

    Has it really been six months since we last spoke?  But seriously, where does the time go?! One day, one day I’ll figure this whole writing thing out and do it on a consistent basis.  It’s like every time I step away for a bit and then come back to it, I have to get back into the groove again, but then when I get there I stop writing again.  So, here’s to trying to make it work, again.

    Let’s talk dinner parties today and then maybe next week I can get back to writing recipes and actually post something for you to try? Writing recipes are quite the challenge for me considering I mostly cook out of my head. I play with ratios and ingredients to sort out the result I’m looking for.  My problem, producing the same thing over and over again so that I can share with you how I get to my end result. Practice, practice, practice. Right?

  • The French Dinner Party

    Hi there!  I thought I’d sneak in one more post before we say adieu to 2017. I don’t know about you but I’m ready to welcome 2018; fresh starts, new beginnings, and new challenges. I have some really great things on my plate at the moment and I plan on hitting the ground running.  More on some of those in the coming months, but for now, lets talk about the final dinner party of 2017.

    Last we spoke, I shared with you how I develop, organise, and execute my dinner parties so I won’t recap any of that.  Instead, I’ll just dive right in.

    I was REALLY excited about this menu.  A fair bit of time was spent developing it and testing a few of the items.  I wanted to make sure that it was well balanced and that each dish was well composed.  I also spent quite a bit of time thinking about how each dish was going to be plated and what it would all look like.  I really wanted to up my plating game.  Spoiler alert: at the end of the night, I was so pleased with how it all went.  What a great night!Cooking

  • Dinner Parties: How To (or at least how I do….)

    Now I’ll be totally up front and tell you, I don’t claim to be a complete professional when it comes to dinner parties.  I mean I’m not Ina Garten with a florist and vendors on call, and an industrial kitchen.  Nor do I have a gorgeous center piece floral arrangement that runs the full length of my 20 foot dining table.  I’m just not that good.  BUT, I will say my parties are well planned and well executed and I can tell you if I stressed out at any point about the food during the night, no one was any the wiser.

    You see, to say I love throwing a dinner party is a gross understatement.  I live for the parties we have and I don’t think I can tell you what I love more, planning them or executing them.  The whole process is so much fun for me.  So….. I thought I’d share with you my whole process and some of the menus that I’ve cooked.IMG_4829_2

  • Trials and Tribulations of Dating in the Modern Age

    We all compile funny and embarrassing stories over the course of our lives.  Like that time you slipped and fell in front of the cutest boy at school and he laughed at you.  Now that’s just an example I pulled off the top of my head.  It absolutely never ever happened to me.  No way.  No how.

    Now, I’m definitely not a subject matter expert in funny and embarrassing stories….  Scratch that, I’m pretty sure I wrote the handbook on how to be awkward and end up embarrassing yourself.  Today’s story isn’t really embarrassing, well at least not for me anyway.  Today I thought I’d reach into the vault and pull out an old first date story from way back when I lived in Seattle.  I remember the ladies at the office used to love when I’d come in with these horrifying first date stories.  Like the time my date asked our server for her number right in front of me….  Yeah, he was a winner.  Or the time my date “forgot” his wallet.  Anyway, this one is a gem.  I hope you enjoy it and I hope it makes you laugh.  If you do like it I might be persuaded to throw in some more recent stories.  I have a couple doozies.Seattle Skyline

  • It’s funny……

    …..well maybe not funny, haha but funny how when we live in the moment we don’t really think about how much changes over time but then we have a look back and all of sudden it is almost hard to recognize that person and what was happening at that time.

    The last couple of years have been a whirlwind for me and while some days seem to creep by, for the most part time is just flying by.  I mean, can it just slow down a bit?! So let’s see, what has really gone on……

    1. I moved from Perth to Melbourne.  I know many of you who know me personally already know that but I’m not sure I ever really said that I had moved.  What a wonderful decision.  Melbourne is one of my most favorite places on earth.  A really great city and I absolutely love my current neighborhood.  I suppose I could also mention that I, more or less, live in Airbnbs.  Well currently it is really just a furnished apartment and not technically an Airbnb but I’ve been fortunate enough to live without leases or long term commitments and pesky bonds and quarterly rental inspections.  Life is grand!  My current place is small but it has absolutely everything I need plus some outdoor space.  Best of all, it is close to everything!Melbourne

    Melbourne

  • Dad & the Cream Cheese, Lettuce and Tomato

    I’ve been thinking about my dad a lot lately.  Maybe because it was just father’s day or maybe because his would be 71st birthday is coming up soon, but I also think it’s because I’ve been talking to a lot of people about their experiences with their fathers or step-fathers and I’ve heard the full range of the best to the worst.  It makes me really thankful that my dad fell on the scale of the best.Dad and the Cream Cheese, Lettuce and Tomato ~ Living the Savory Life