Sweets & Preserves

I enjoy making jams and chutneys but with only two of us in the house, it takes forever to finish a jar of anything. Even gifting does little to make a dent into stockpiles. The answer is ‘small batch preserving’. There’s no need for kilos of fruit and sugar. This Plum & Ginger Relish is… Read more

When we had friends over for dinner recently, there was a request for ‘no onion’. That’s a fairly simple request to accommodate however there was a particular salad I wanted to make which featured red onions. I saw some radishes in the market and decided they would make a good substitute from a colour and… Read more

I have previously written about Mr Tiffin’s adoration of broccoli and the mounds that are eaten in our house every week. To deal with the excess stalks, I shared a clever idea for making a thrifty Broccoli Soup from stalks straight out of the freezer. With the weather warming up though, I decided I needed a… Read more

A couple of weeks ago we hosted a huge party. We fed and watered 50 people, all without using a paper plate or serviette or plastic cups or cutlery. A ton of food, plenty of drink and lots of laughs. It went off. There were no leftovers and minimal food waste so I was very… Read more

Last week Mr Tiffin told me that his boss still made, on a regular basis, the recipe I had given her years ago for Tomato Kasundi. That sent me into the depths of the recipe basket to hunt it out. I couldn’t even recall how I had first encountered kasundi or came across a recipe… Read more

Christmas is done and dusted. The ham has been consumed or frozen for later use, the last delicious morsels of shortbread eaten and if you’re anything like me, the forgotten plum pudding has been stored for ‘Christmas in July’ use later in the year. The other thing I have a lot of, is nuts. Usually very… Read more

Despite being quite an accomplished cook, there are many dishes I have not I cooked and techniques I haven’t mastered. Sometimes it’s because the dish requires a degree of precision I’m not prepared to labour over but more often than not, it’s a time constraint. Really though, who has the time to candy fruit? No… Read more

A while ago we visited Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt. In addition to being Queensland’s premiere wine growing region, the cool climate means the area is also well known for fruit growing and in particular, apples. We returned to Brisbane with a mixed case of local apples. Apart from eating the apples as is, one… Read more

After I’d made the marmalade, the cake, the jug of juice, the ice cubes and eaten my weight in segments, I had yet more of Redbelly Citrus’ gifted blood oranges to make the most of. I have quite a few fruit preserving and sweet making books that I’ve collected from my forays to the Lifeline Bookfest… Read more

If you are part of the ‘I Quit Sugar’ brigade, back away from this post now. By the time you get to the end, your whole exterior will be lightly dusted in sugar crystals and if the sugar high doesn’t kill you, the fat content will finish you off. For the rest of you sensible people… Read more

‘…and after dipping a paw into an open jar of marmalade by his bed in order to make sure everything really was all right, he closed his eyes again.’ Paddington Treasury, Michael Bond Marmalade. You either like it, or you don’t. I’m in the ‘don’t’ camp whilst both Anthony and Paddington Bear are in the… Read more

I’m very excited to see the first flowers on my eggplant (aubergine) bush.  I lovingly tended this plant from seed, to seedling, to small bush. Now, the first flowers!  Let’s hope the fruit sets. These eggplants are an heirloom variety that I bought when I went along to an Heirloom Vegetable workshop late last year. … Read more

Whether you’re shivering through wintry blasts or baking under the blazing sun, Christmas is a time that has an enduring sense memory linked to food.  I always wonder why we only ever buy a leg ham at Christmas when it’s available all year round?  The same for petticoat shortbread, Danish butter cookies and pfeffernusse.  Once, they… Read more

Gerald Durrell is one of my favourite authors.  The books tell of his adventures around the world collecting, capturing and nurturing animals first for other zoos and then for his own. His use of language to paint captivating scenes and amusing anecdotes is masterful and wherever I go in the world, I often recollect tales… Read more

Cherries and Summer are interchangeable words. They remind us that Christmas is on the way and that there are plenty of long, hot, lazy days ahead to enjoy these sweet, juicy treats.  I have fond memories of Summer 2010 in France, buying a kilo of cherries from the front door of a local and heading… Read more

I don’t make jam but I do make Chutney, which is very in keeping with the TIFFIN theme. I do use recipes but have also been known to whip up a batch of whatever I have to hand and just make it up as I go along. You can’t go far wrong as long as… Read more

Last night I went to a dinner party being thrown by Josie, at a house she was minding in Paddington. I wanted to contribute but knew that Josie would have catered for everything so I decided to whip up a batch of Nigella Lawson’s Hokey Pokey, to have with coffee.It’s amazingly quick to make but… Read more