Recipes - Ideas and Links

Posted on Sat, 31/03/2018

Most years I talk about making hot cross buns but often never get round to it. The various recipes I've tried over time have never quite got me enthusastic enough to warrant  putting in the effort. But in the ...>>>

Posted on Sat, 27/08/2011

Courteney is home at the moment on mid term break, and she and Rick went out today for a 4 hour bike ride, as you do. I stayed home working on some photography homework, and trying to get the dogs to run for me down below...>>>

Posted on Tue, 02/08/2011

The current cookschool series is well underway, and so for the next few weeks I will eat the dishes for lunch with the rest of the attendees, becos after the class we all sit down for lunch around a table in the restaurant,...>>>

Posted on Fri, 29/04/2011

We called into The Good Food Company the other day, when we were over at the Mount, and had a wander round the shop picking up things that appealed. It is a very inspiring space to wander through I must say, becos the range...>>>

Posted on Sat, 02/04/2011

The day has dawned steely gray and chilly, and after taking the dogs down below for their early morning run, and breakfast over the papers, I decided to head into the kitchen and turn the oven on, and play round with some...>>>

Posted on Wed, 09/02/2011

I am currently finishing rereading Gay Bilsons "Plenty", which is not so much a book as rather a series of erudite essays revolving around the subject matter of food. She has marked credibility in my world becos she was...>>>

Posted on Fri, 14/01/2011

Just been catching up on some internet reading, and one of David Lebovitzs latest blogs appealed. I enjoy Davids take on things, and he has considerable credibility in my eyes, becos of the years of hard yards that he has...>>>

Posted on Fri, 26/11/2010

We did a private cookschool yesterday morning - an interesting group of people from all over New Zealand. And we have another class today. Its unususal for us to do back to back classes these days - I quite deliberately set...>>>

Posted on Tue, 16/11/2010

This short video shows one of our cooking gurus, Thomas Keller, poaching eggs, and it is loaded with interesting little hints on how to get the perfect poached egg. I happen to think my husband is one of the best chefs in...>>>

Posted on Fri, 20/08/2010

I've just been over to the restaurant, where Roz and Hayley, have got the candles lit, the tables allocated, and the section sheet drawn up. All we need now are some customers! So while I wait for the first tables to arrive,...>>>

Posted on Fri, 13/08/2010

We are having an exceptionally quiet week at the restaurant, and I'm working hard at being proactive, and using the unexpected free time, to focus on other things, rather than stewing in a juice of funk, becos not enough...>>>

Posted on Thu, 12/08/2010

I am writing this post on Saturday, but possibly won't get to put it on the website till tomorrow, becos Courteney has possesion of my camera and doesn't look likely to relinquish it any time soon. She's a girl on a mission...>>>

Posted on Wed, 02/06/2010

I've spent a fair whack of today trying to find the source of this pea recipe so that I could pass it on. I get alot of daily emails regarding the food world and thought it was in one of those, but going thru all my deleted...>>>

Posted on Thu, 20/05/2010

While Rhonda is on holiday, I'm covering her Thursday lunch shift, and Roz is doing Wednesday and Friday. Its a long time  since I've fronted lunchtime - mainly becos I'm usually tied up with cookschools when lunch is...>>>

Posted on Sun, 09/05/2010

I had a beetroot salad recently and the beetroot just didn't quite taste right. Decided later that it must have been boiled - becos the flavours were flat and muddied, and there was no sweetness. So when I went to cook some...>>>

Posted on Wed, 05/05/2010

Quite what inspired the need for some rice pudding this afternoon I'm not sure - but it suddenly occurred to me that it'd be a nice thing to have a bowlful of, before we headed over to the restaurant for evening service....>>>

Posted on Fri, 30/04/2010

I am indulging in some classic procrastination, and I'm not going to let myself get away with it for too much longer - but just before I bring out the annual accounts folder and get stuck into what I need to do to wrap all...>>>

Posted on Wed, 14/04/2010

I grew up in a family where my mother insisted, all thru our college years that we had to eat a major, sit down at the table, kind of breakfast. No grab and run eating was ever allowed - even when we tryed to find excuses...>>>

Posted on Tue, 06/04/2010

I do realise that Hot Cross Buns are supposed to be eaten on Good Friday, and that I'm a little late linking to a recipe, now that the long Easter weekend is done and dusted. My first couple of efforts to make some buns...>>>

Posted on Sat, 03/04/2010

We have got into the habit of  calling these biscuits 'Outward Bound' biscuits, but their correct name I believe, is Anankiwa Flapjacks. They're a biscuit I make quite often when either of the girls are racing.In fact...>>>

Posted on Fri, 26/02/2010

 I've been contacted by a couple of people who have read the previous sponge recipe and said it is exactly the one that they have used for years of baking. Curiously all of those people lived the earlier part of their...>>>

Posted on Tue, 23/02/2010

In one of the cookschools last week we got into a discussion that I'd provoked, by saying that in my recent reading about baking techniques, it had  been explained that its better to use granulated sugar, than it is...>>>

Posted on Sun, 14/02/2010

Somerset at Home is designed to help people, who enjoy cooking, to eat good food at home. I understand that that may sound like a contradiction in terms, since all of the items available under the Somerset at Home label,...>>>

Posted on Sat, 13/02/2010

In the years that I've been enjoying musing via this blog, I've never been tempted to relay recipes, even though one of the things I refer to the most, is the cooking of food. The reason for this reluctance is that I don't...>>>