• 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.

  • Prawn and Chorizo Skewers

    A couple weeks ago I was invited to a party at a good friend’s house.  She asked me to arrive a bit early to help out, but truthfully, she had everything done when I got there so I think she was really just up for a bit of a chat.  In any case, I dragged myself out of bed early and made an extra strong coffee to get all the limbs and the mind functioning.  Off to the market I went.  I wanted to make a dish to add to the spread but it would have to be something I could prepare at her house because I had nearly an hour on the train and didn’t want to be carrying a platter of food. Not to mention it would be bad by the time I got there.  So I decided on something relatively simple; prawn and chorizo skewers. I knew the fish monger would be happy to put my prawns on ice for me and the chorizo would be fine as well so I wasn’t worried about a thing.  I turned my music on, put in the earbuds and off I went!Prawn and Chorizo Skewers ~ Living the Savory Life

  • Fish Stew

    Hello friends.  Long time no chat.  It had to happen eventually though, right?  A new post?  Here it is!

    So 2015…. not my best year for blogging.  I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be able to find a single soul to disagree.  But that’s the lovely thing about life right?  We get to start again.  Let’s put 2015 blogging in past and move forward shall we?  It might take a bit to get back into the swing of things but I will.  Like riding a bike and all, right?  I think so, but please stick with me until my writing gets a bit less clumsy.  And wait until you get a look at these photos!! Shocking!!!!Fish Stew

  • Christmas Recap and Prawn Cocktail

    DSC_0709The holiday season was SO busy for us, but I’m guessing that statement is not unique to me.  I hope you all have had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  I know I was so spoiled with not one, not two, but THREE Christmases!  How does a girl get so lucky?  I had one with my family in November in the US, one with just my better half in the middle of December in Perth and a third with his family on Christmas in Melbourne.  It was a whirlwind of food and family and presents too!

  • Tradition and Italian Style Steamed Mussels

    Italian Style Steamed Mussels ~ Living the Savory LifeI’m a lover of tradition.  Whether it be a husband and wife taking a 45 minute Sunday drive every week to share their favorite breakfast muffin, a group of girlfriends meeting up for a weekend away from all corners of the country, or an annual family photo album (yes, our 2013 album is “still in the works”).Italian Style Steamed Mussels ~ Living the Savory Life

    Traditions make you feel a part of something bigger than just you; something to look forward to and something to treasure.  They connect you to others.  I have a lovely tradition I share with a friend I’ve had since early childhood.  It is something we both look forward to.  It first started when I was living in Seattle and she was (and still is) living in San Francisco.  I traveled a lot for my job then and when I could, I would route through San Fran stopping in to say hello to my friend I grew up with in Vermont.  We would have a night out for dinner, or perhaps a Sunday brunch,  but after high stress hectic work weeks, we were both just as happy to have chilled out evenings at her house, cooking in her fantastic kitchen and just having a good ol’ catch up.  There’s one meal we ALWAYS make.  You see, I CRAVE the salads she makes and she quite likes my mussels.  So we grab a bottle (or two) of wine, a beautiful French baguette, she makes the salad, and I make the mussels.Italian Style Steamed Mussels ~ Living the Savory Life

  • Shrimp and Pineapple Salsa Bites

    Today I’m offering a double feature.   We just talked about the House Special Margarita that I highly recommend you try!

    Let’s switch over and talk about a little nibble you can have with your margarita.  I’m calling these Shrimp and Pineapple Salsa Bites but you could also consider them individual shrimp nachos.Shrimp and Pineapple Salsa Nacho ~ Living the Savory Life

  • Another Vegetable Filled Adventure ~ Salmon Rice Paper Rolls Served with Green Bean and Red Pepper Salad

    It’s Friday again and in my house that either means fly to work morning or fly home evening for my better half.  Every Friday means a trip to the airport for us.  I have to say I much prefer the Friday evening trips over the Friday insanely early morning trips.  Those morning trips you never can tell what mismatched clothes I might be wearing or what direction my hair will be pointing.  I totally pull off the “I just rolled out of bed to make this drop off and plan on going straight back to bed” look.  And of course, I don’t jut struggle with the early morning but also the fact that it is good-bye for the week.  But lets not dwell on the early mornings anymore for today is an evening trip to the airport which means, not only am I more presentable, but also that it is fly home day!!  Yay for us!!

    Fly home day means a low key night with a good catch up and a clean meal pack with veggies.  Tonight I really wanted to do a make ahead meal so all I really had to do was pull it from the fridge, pour some wine and sit an enjoy.  I knew I wanted to make salmon.  I toyed with a lot of ideas; a house favorite Salmon Nicoise, Salmon and Asparagus pasta, Honey Soy Salmon, Salmon Banh Mi…  I could keep going.  There are a couple pages of scribbled notes.  What I did decide on is Salmon Rice Paper Rolls with a Chilled Green Bean and Red Pepper Salad.Vietnamese Salmon Rolls with Green Bean and Red Pepper Salad

  • Parchment Baked Fish with Steamed Baby Bok Choy

    Parchment Baked Fish with Steamed Baby Bok Choy and Sambal MatahIf there’s one thing I can count on this would be it; nights my better half comes home from a week away at work, the one and only request I ever get is to have veggies with dinner.  Not that I don’t always serve up a vegetable with dinner but on these nights I do try to make sure there are extras and they are a more substantial part of the meal.  Apparently at work he is quite deprived of all things leafy and green.  Now I’ve never seen it, but I’m sure the cafeteria up on site does serve up veggies on a regular basis but considering the amount of people they cook for daily I can only imagine that they are a lovely frozen precut variety that sit in a bain marie after being over cooked to begin with.  They likely take on that green-gray mushy color.  Is mushy a color?  Ah well, you get my drift.  Not appetizing at all!