The amazing Charmaine Jones, our much loved choir leader, and her extraordinarily talented group Gospo are performing next Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Melbourne Fringe Festival. They are a force to be reckoned with and tickets are still available so don't miss your chance to see this incredible show... how I wish I could be there! -MB Read the rest...
I do love a good party, which for me means putting on beautiful food without getting into a terrible bind about it. I always try very hard to do as much work as I can in advance, that way the day of the party is more about the details of making sure the music is right, everyone has a drink and hand and giving the host time to socialise (which can so often get overlooked due to being hidden in the kitchen preparing!). I also recommend having the right equipment at hand - basics like a good apron, plenty of tea towels and the right utensils make every difference to how much you enjoy cooking. With things like spring rolls and sausage rolls, be sure to have a good space cleared on your bench top so you have plenty of room to set the pastry out and roll the ingredients up. A few little dipping pots of sauce are a great idea with my spring rolls or sausage rolls too; a straight up table sauce, usually tomato for the sausage rolls, but with the spring rolls I like to mix my Ginger Chilli Sauce with a little soy sauce for something different. -MB Read the rest...
If ever you were looking for that little nudge into home gardening, fresh asparagus has got to be one of the most convincing reasons to start digging a veggie patch. Although all vegetables are most delicious when the time between cutting and serving is kept to a minimum, to me, it is even more so the case with asparagus. That extraordinary snap of fresh spears, picked straight from the garden (and in my case eaten raw, right then and there most of the time) is without competition when it comes to experiencing the true flavour of this special vegetable. If you have a little more self-restraint than I do, and these wonderful asparagus spears do make it into your kitchen, you might like to give these delicious recipes a try! -MB Read the rest...
It has always been Maggie’s thinking that armed with super fresh ingredients there is very little you need to do to really let the produce shine. But having tasted the latest additions to her gourmet range, we’re convinced there is a simple amendment to that notion; all that stands between you and taking your favourite produce to an extra delicious level is a generous drizzle of her new ready-to-go vinaigrettes. You'll find them in the following flavours; Read the rest...
I really didn’t know what I wanted to do when I was growing up, so when I left school I carried out a career ‘degustation’ of sorts - from a Lift Driver in a New Zealand department store to the Assistant to the Senior Geophysicist for British Petroleum in Libya and in the fields of light aircraft to being a Citizen-ship Law Clerk for the American Embassy and undertaking House Management at the Women’s College of Sydney University. So when it came to a career involving food it really just evolved. There was no grand plan - but moving to the Barossa when I married Colin and being surrounded by such wonderful, seasonal produce certainly sparked my existing interest in food to be taken to the next level. -MB Read the rest...
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