Oh dear, this blog’s been looking a bit neglected lately. Which isn’t to say that I haven’t been cooking or eating, but simply that I’ve been too busy to blog all the time. So here is a collection of small things that I have been making and eating recently, which are too small to warrant a whole post, but which I love too much not to share.


Wholemeal soft dinner rolls with Vegemite and Butter (Feast)

These bread rolls are easy to make and absolutely delicious straight out of the oven with unsalted butter, vegemite and jam (although not all together). The thing about them though, is that they never get finished and I always end up chucking a couple of mouldy ones out after a few days. Maybe I should save them for when we have lots of people around.


Lemon salad (Forever Summer)

The recipe for this salad is in Forever Summer, and is called “Cold Roast Beef with Lemon Salad”. I love the festively red and yellow flecks of chilli and lemon throughout the leaves. And because we didn’t have any roast beef, I followed Nigella’s suggestion of serving it with steak. It’s quick, it’s healthy and very very good.


White chocolate and raspberry souffle (not mine, unfortunately!)

Last week I went to a dinner party in Glen Waverley, and the dessert they served was a very impressive white chocolate and raspberry soufflé. It rose, it was very sweet, and the raspberries inside were HOT!


Watermelon, Feta and Black Olive Salad (Forever Summer)

I made this salad, again from Forever Summer, because we had a watermelon sitting around from Chinese New Year and I wanted to use it up. It is such a fabulous combination; in fact, I prefer it to the ordinary Greek salad (and even Nigella’s “Ultimate Greek Salad”).


Chilled Pea and Mint Soup with salad, ricotta on Turkish bread and roast capsicum (Forever Summer)

This is a yummy soup. I had this summery lunch on Tuesday when my friend Frances came over. It's very quick to make, provided you have frozen peas in the freezer (and I always have frozen peas in my freezer). I also had a bunch of mint lying around threatening to die on me, so this was a good way to use them. It's delicious warm, and nice chilled as well. I think it's a good thing to have sitting in the fridge for healthy snacking. Look how green it is, it MUST be good for you!


Soba noodles with poached chicken, spinach and mushrooms (adapted from Bill Granger's bills food)

I wanted to make something healthy, and we had chicken breasts in the fridge. Bill's recipe teams the soba and fragrant poached chicken (fragrant thanks to the addition of spices in the cooking liquid) with snow pea shoots and radish. Unfortuantely, I had neither at home so I used Chinese mushrooms and frozen spinach, which is another addiction of mine. Also, I didn't use garlic in the dressing to spoon over the chicken, as I was afraid of acrid garlic-breath. Instead we sprinkled over nanami togarashi (Japanese chilli pepper) to add vibrant colour and lift the flavour. My family loved it.

Dad: hopefully... Is there any more of the green vegetable??


So those are the little things that I've been making and eating over the past 10 days or so. And by the way, since Wednesday I have been cooking a lot because my fantastic gay uncle-slash-godfather is visiting us from Malaysia for two weeks... in the style of true Malaysian hospitality, we're fattening him up something chronic! I haven't been taking photos of all the food, because it's stuff I've made and blogged before. I think I'll just present a list of dishes at the end of his trip here...

Happy cooking!