Spring is well and truly here, although, being Brisbane, perhaps it is unfair to label it such. The season calls to mind mild days, the sound of trickling meltwater, lambs frolicking… No, this is Brisbane. September is a time for hailstorms, dive-bombing magpie attacks and a return to heat and humidity. The three-month Cold season [...]
March was a busy, busy month. As well as starting back at uni and hospital placements, there were family weddings in distant locations on consecutive weekends – first my mother’s, in Charleville, and then my cousin Steph’s, on the NSW central coast. In case you missed the news, Charleville was mostly under water about a [...]
This is my favourite breakfast ever. It’s it’s a bit like Mexican huevos rancheros or Berber omelette. If you wanted, you could add a drizzle of chilli oil at the end to really spice it up, but the pinch of cumin already in the recipe does it for me. Moroccan poached eggs. Serves two. 1½ [...]
Last night Hannah and I put together a little party to welcome her back to Australia, to introduce her to my friends, and to introduce my friends to hers. The food went down well. We made rice paper rolls, baba ganoush, hummous and a carrot dip, served with with grilled Turkish bread and crudités. Carrot [...]
Hannah is moving to Australia tonight. We’re probably having ramen for tea, and I’ve been making some of the ingredients in advance. The stock is on the simmer, and the tea eggs have just come out of their broth. These eggs are beautifully marbled and delicately infused with the taste of tea and spices. They’re [...]
It’s one week exactly until Hannah arrives home. I spent last weekend in Townsville, partly to see Dad, and partly so that I’d make it to Althea’s 21st. It’d been raining for quite a few days before I got there, but on my last day, just before I was due at the airport, we drove [...]
I arrived home in Brisbane to find myself waist-deep in a few varieties of basil. They’re all potted in water-storing pots, which means they survived a month with no watering at all, until the rain started after Christmas. A surplus of basil means only one thing: Almond Pesto 1½ cups raw almond kernels 1 cup [...]
I’ve just spent the last five weeks with the girl I love, in my favourite city in the world. Bliss. We did lots of the usual couple things we’ve been unable to do for the ten months since I moved to Brisbane: dates, movies, falling over in the snow. We’ve built snowmen, cooked meals together [...]
I was a little nervous about Belfast after lasts month’s attempted bombings. I arrived after dark, and having spent all day travelling, settled in for an early night. I woke early and spent several quiet hours walking around the city centre. Sunday morning is a quiet time for Belfast – the only other person I [...]
Days without getting soaked to the bone: zero. Wednesday saw me on a bus through County Clare and the Burren, bound towards the Cliffs of Moher, towering more than a hundred metres over the Atlantic ocean. I’ve gotten used to forecasts like “Maximum of 0ºC, humidity at 100%,” but the wind off the Atlantic was [...]