o frabjous day!

o frabjous day! books, recipes & other things

  • 100 new recipes: part nine and last

    The project is finished! 100 new recipes in a year. It was great fun cooking so many new things, I discovered chefs that I’m now very fond of (Ottolenghi!) and made some completely new-to-me things such as yoghurt. I can’t say I kept up a consistent cooking pace and flagged at some points – my…

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  • 100 new recipes: part eight

    The penultimate update! Only seven recipes to go. 73/100: Herb, Tofu & Kidney Bean Stew – from this recipe. This stew had such a beautiful combination of flavours, although it was an irritatingly fiddly recipe in terms of the steps involved. Freezing, defrosting then baking the tofu makes it wonderfully chewy. 74/100: Brioche – from…

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  • Sleep

    On nights when Ted isn’t sleeping well, I sometimes sleep on a swag on the floor of his room with him snuggled up against me. This arrangement is not very comfortable, partly because it’s a single mattress and partly because Ted is a restless sleeper. This morning at around 4.30 he was thrashing around in…

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  • 15 months

    We’ve moved into the world of toddler – Edward starting walking, suddenly, at around 14 months, and now a month later he walks and runs everywhere. Usually while shouting and smashing things. Things I’m enjoying at 15 months: 1. Having a mobile toddler. I like walking around with him, hand in hand (although he generally…

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  • 100 new recipes: part seven

    62/100: Braised Pork with Cabbage – from this recipe. Ridiculously easy, tender pork. Also, braising. I love braising. 63/100: Roasted Eggplant with Crispy Chickpeas – from a recipe in the Smitten Kitchen book, written about here. Nice easy unattended-in-the-oven dish, and the combo of silky roasted eggplant and crunchy chickpeas is great. 64/100: Bread Pudding…

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  • Links to things, all the things

    Transcience of All Things in Life The 2013 Hugo Awards were announced this week. Tansy Rayner Roberts won for Best Fan Writer, which I found exciting as I’m a fan of her blog writing and podcasting, as well as her published work. She is also the first Australian woman to win a Hugo. Ken Liu’s…

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  • Challah

    While I was making this loaf of challah, glancing down occasionally at my son “playing” around my feet (in other words, unravelling a roll of alfoil and emptied a drawer of baking implements), I realised that I hadn’t been making bread recently because breadmaking is a little more difficult with a toddler, or proto-toddler, than…

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  • Stars

    It was dark when I arrived home tonight, and unbuckled Ted from his carseat, hooking his bags over my arms. We paused in the garden before heading up the stairs towards the house, and I pointed up to the sky. “Look up there, Ted – can you see the stars?” His head tilted back, nestled…

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  • 100 new recipes: part six

    45/100: Sweet Potato & Chickpea Salad – from this recipe. Roasted sweet potatoes are obviously delicious, and this is a great substantial salad that also works as a main meal. 46/100: Muesli Muffins – from this recipe. I made a batch of these and froze them, and they were very handy to take to work…

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  • One year

    Edward is a couple of days past his first birthday, which we spent up north with his Gran. He had a marvellous time spending a week in a new place and I enjoyed being with him in the place I grew up, watching him gazing up at the rainforest trees that still feel so familiar…

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