It was the middle of February and I’d just come home from being away for the weekend when we first started talking about the coronavirus. There were a handful of people in Australia who had it, and while the global implications of this loomed large, it seemed like we – at the time – were fairly removed from it all. In fact, with my limited knowledge of both China and infectious illnesses, it sounded a little bit like China’s strict lockdown reaction was somewhat disproportionate. Like it was being paranoid, like they were trying to save face more than attempting to stop a virus from exploding ..read more

I’m assuming newslettering is the new blogging these days – everybody’s doing it! Your mum’s got one! That girl who never spoke to you in high school! Your kid’s teacher’s dog! It’s the analog version of our social media lives and if you’ve been here for even two minutes you’ll know I back that one all the way in. It’s mega old-school, which I find extremely soothing in these fraught digital times. If you too want some – especially obviously because I’ve never been able to write a newsletter two weeks running despite having one for oh about six years now and clearly you have a hole in your in ..read more

So I struggled to get my jeans on yesterday morning, and struggled to keep them on all day – they were the absolute most uncomfortable thing, heaven help them, because a. I love eating and b. i’ve hit that juncture of life where you sort of just start expanding sideways. these two things do not mesh well together. Do I eat differently now? buy new jeans? is this the new normal? what do I do here?! anyway, denim woes aside, the kitchen has been (figuratively) on fire here as usual. I’m still in love with Korean food, which shows no sign of abating, and i’ve gone off in search of related delici ..read more

Well hello. Today was one of those days where we didn’t do much at all, but that’s where a lot of stuff got done. The incidental learning! It’s all good! Our Rebel Girl of the day was Alek Wek, a model from Sudan. We discussed what it would be like to live with no running water and electricity. What it would be like to flee from violence and leave your home in the rain. To try and survive in frightening times. And how growing up all I saw was pretty white girls on the covers of magazines, and definitely not African women with shaved heads – and how cool it is that that definitions of beauty ..read more

Well, here we are. Hunkered down in our houses, trying to work, or wrangle kids, or both, or figuring out how we’re going to get any Children’s Nurofen, or if our parents will be ok, or how safe are we when we head out to work, or how are we going to get our families to like beans all of a sudden, or how we’ll feed our children who have allergies, or how we’ll pay our bills now that our businesses are going under, or how our immunocompromised friends will stay safe, or that we have to go work a double shift in the ICU, or how our elderly neighbours will fare, or how to teach grade 6 maths to k ..read more

Well, would you look at that! We survived two days! We kept occupied, learned some stuff, had some fun, and live to give it a go for another day before I go back to work on Friday. Smalls did say she missed school a little bit, and Bigs said she missed her friends. But they’re both still enthusiastic about school at home – for now. Our Rebel Girl story was Ada Lovelace, so we talked a little bit about computers, and maths, and what it must have been like to calculate things and live our lives without computers… or electricity… or even lighting like we’re used to. Or calculators! Once somebo ..read more

While everyone is wondering what to do with the packets of lentils they now find themselves in possession of thanks to COVID-19 (either because they bought long-life items in the event they had to self-isolate, or because that was all that was left on the damn shelves after everyone bought all the good stuff), well, you know, obviously here’s where I come in handy. From my very first post 10 years ago, entitled “not just a load of old lentils“, where I promised this blog wouldn’t just be copious amounts of frightening dried pulses for those of us who grew up on meat and three veg – until no ..read more

In the interests of flattening the curve whilst the world struggles under the weight of the coronavirus COVID-19, we are staying home as much as possible, and that includes from school. In the interests of my children not just playing minecraft for 12 hours a day, I’ve organised some activities, most of which I hope will be cool. I’m no expert (although I’ve thought about homeschooling A LOT) and this is genuinely just stuff to keep them occupied while the school scrambles to convert their curriculum to stuff numpties like me can do at home with children and not completely derail their l ..read more

Sooo I just realised I didn’t blog my preserving efforts from my annual sauce and jam day (usually done to coincide with Triple J’s Hottest 100) – more about what I make and why I make it here. How good is eating outdoors in summer? Carn Melbs. This was my oatcakes waiting patiently for that marrow chutney to cool so I could whack it on with some English cheddar.It was just me solo this year but I still put up enough tomato, barbecue, and chilli sauce, pickles, and strawberry jam for the year. Oh! and I made a batch of marrow chutney, made famous by Our Cath that year when she made some for ..read more

I’m a bit of a latecomer to Mexican rice, I am afraid I must have just had boring versions whenever I’ve eaten it. They seemed bland and tasteless and fairly useless. Fortunately through trial and error, I’ve found a rice that kicks actual arse. I keep it fairly mild in the hopes that my children will eat it, but if I was serving to adults I’d definitely up the spice factor. It’s a great complement to whatever else you’ve got going on and is super easy to make in bulk. The squeeze of fresh lime at the end makes all the difference. Print Mexican Rice ..read more