o frabjous day! books, recipes & other things

Cauliflower Soup

This is a lovely creamy soup with a beautifully smooth rich texture and sweet flavour, and very quick to make. It’s a recipe from the August 2007 issue of delicious magazine, which I altered slightly to make it a little lower in fat. It didn’t detract from the creaminess of the soup – in fact,…
Read more: Cauliflower Soup
1 February, 2009
King Parrot

A block of wild bird seed on the verandah has been attracting the local lorikeets, and a pair of king parrots have been turning up recently to feed. They’re such pretty birds, so vibrantly coloured – I keep wishing they would drop a feather or two.
Read more: King Parrot
26 January, 2009
The Week in Books

This week’s books were a mixed bag. I finished the excellent When Will There Be Good News, a Christmas present, polished off a mediocre audio book, From Dead to Worse, and had a couple of books from the library – the terrible Hold Tight, and the decent Origin in Death. Hold Tight is the first…
Read more: The Week in Books
25 January, 2009
Book Round-Up for 2008

In 2007, I read 173 books. I was aiming, in a vague sort of way, for a total of 200 books in 2008 (just for the pleasure of the round number). However, I didn’t quite make it – instead I read 183 books in 2008, including audio books. Best Nostalgic Journey I start re-reading the…
Read more: Book Round-Up for 2008
11 January, 2009
Bubbles

We spent Christmas at the farm in Daintree, the whole family (in a way). I don’t know if we still call it the farm, as it’s hardly an accurate description – but “at the nature refuge” doesn’t have quite the same ring. It’s been many years since we were all together for a celebration up…
Read more: Bubbles
3 January, 2009
Herb pilaf

I wanted to do something a little different to accompany some chicken breasts, and settled on the idea of a herb pilaf from the ever useful Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly as, frustratingly, I didn’t have quite enough of all the herbs – I suspect the proper amounts of…
Read more: Herb pilaf
3 January, 2009
Banana bread with dates

When I cut into this banana bread, still warm and steaming from the oven, and had my first exploratory taste, I decided that this could possibly be the best banana bread I’ve ever made. Some banana breads are too dry, some are too oily, but this banana bread was just, absolutely right. It’s essentially Nigella’s…
Read more: Banana bread with dates
3 January, 2009
Pumpkin & Choc Chip Biscuits

I found this recipe at the always inventive Baking Bites – I’ve never had a failure with her cookie and cupcake recipes, and as she described, these cookies were moist and slightly chewy without being cakey or overly dense. I’d never actually used pumpkin in a sweet baking recipe before – it’s more of an…
Read more: Pumpkin & Choc Chip Biscuits
3 January, 2009
Roast Tomato Soup

This soup is so gorgeous – tangy, chunky tomatoey goodness. And it barely warrants being called a recipe. Take about 1.5 kilos of very ripe tomatoes. Cut them in half or quarters, depending on the size, and spread out on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle over salt. Roughly chop two onions…
Read more: Roast Tomato Soup
21 December, 2008
Transition

I’m doing Triathlon Pink on the Gold Coast next weekend, an all-women’s triathlon raising money for breast cancer. It’s not a full triathlon – I think I might die if I attempted to do a full triathlon – and there’s three different lengths you can do. I’m doing the longest version – a 300m swim,…
Read more: Transition
2 October, 2008