'Who dat?,' Peter called out playfully as he opened the front door. Hearing giggles, he knew it would be our neighbour's children back for a another helping of my freshly-baked triple chocolate chip cookies. I had made a double batch and, judging by the delicious aromas wafting from my kitchen, and the look on the little ones' faces, they were really good. 'I'm making meatloaf again tonight,' I said to Peter. 'The one with the black sesame seeds on top?,' he asked. 'Yep,' I replied. 'Great,' he said, his eyes lighting up. 'That's my favourite and it's a keeper.' Words like that coming from my man are music to this cook's ears. Stamp collecting, was one of my favourite pastimes when I was a child. I still treasure the little orange album full of postage stamps from around the world, which were painstakingly examined with a magnifying glass before being tweezered into place and secured with gummed stamp hinges. I wonder, do the children of today enjoy this hobby? 'Over 9,000 years ago agriculture began on different parts of the planet: the Middle east, China and Greater Australia in the highlands of New Guinea, which was then still attached to the mainland. As seas rose, agriculture spread to the Torres Strait Islands, but on mainland Australia [the Aboriginal] people rejected it, choosing to carefully manipulate the available natural plants and animals to increase their food resources. In Queensland’s rainforest people learned how to remove poison from some of the forest's most abundant toxic nuts. Fire stick farming was used across Australia to create habitats that encouraged particular plants and animals. Eucalypt forests were burned to create deliberate grass lanes used to lure and trap kangaroos. Here, people created something unique in human history: they transformed an entire continent into the biggest estate on earth - fully sustainable into the future until outsiders arrived'. Once upon a time in the tree-lined streets of my childhood, children frolicked on the front lawn playing chasings, hide'n'seek and badminton—and rode their bicycles on the road with their ears peeled, listening eagerly for the sound of the ice cream van which made regular rounds of the suburbs. Breakfast out on the town isn't always all that it's cracked up to be, as a recent experience of ours showed. 'How are your scrambled eggs?,' I asked. 'Honestly? I thought they'd be fantastic, but they're disappointing,' Peter replied. 'How's the bircher muesli?,' he asked. 'Well, it's fresh enough and the apple on top is crisp, but it's completely lacking taste and is more like pulped cardboard than good bircher muesli,' I responded. 'Disappointing too, considering the $12.50 price tag!.' Summertime. Canberra. 1960s. My childhood. Life was carefree and simple--and when it came to keeping cool there were only a couple of rules according to my parents: 'Go outside and play under the sprinkler'. And, 'Come, eat some fresh watermelon', or dinnye (diɲːɛ) as it is known in Magyar. 'There are few more important foods in the world than the potato. Its history goes back to the early days of man—a past spanning feast and famine. Potatoes were discovered by pre-Inca Indians in the foothills of the Andes Mountains in South America and archaeological remains have been found dating from 400BC on the shores of Lake Titicaca, in ruins near Bolivia, and on the coast of Peru. Now the potato is the staple food for two thirds of the world's population.' Fresh, light and healthy. That's my vision for 2014, in terms of both the food I prepare and how I'd like to feel from head to toe. I'd like to spend more time at the beach, too, basking in the goodness of the sun, surf and sand. Sounds like a well-considered plan, no? Well, let me tell you, things are well underway. 'No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.' |
Welcome...Üdvözölöm
Cooking and writing have been a lifelong passion. Join me as I share with you my favourite recipes; postcards and morsels from my travels; conversations with cookery writers and chefs; and news on food, cookbooks and cooking. - Liz Posmyk
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NB: I use Australian standard measuring cups and spoons in my recipes.
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