Easter is almost here! For most of us that means a lovely long weekend and lots of food, friends and family. Here are some of my suggestions to help with your Easter preparations. Silly Yaks in Northcote is opening their factory outlet on Saturday 27th March, with gluten free hot cross buns for sale along with heaps of other gluten free food goodies to stock up on, click here for more details. Or if you’d...

Week 14 of the Cookbook Challenge, theme is Japanese. I love eating Japanese food, but I’ve never really tried to cook it properly, like with an actual recipe. I’ve had this Women’s Weekly Japanese cookbook for over 10 years so I think it’s time now to give it a go. I decided on 2 recipes – Beef and Vegetable Rolls and Sushi Rolls. Beef and Vegetable Rolls 2 medium carrots 6 asparagus...

Week 10 of the Cookbook Challenge and the theme is Cool. I happened to be in an Asian grocery when thinking of inspiration and decided on rice paper rolls. I went with a recipe from a Marie Claire cookbook called Cooking, which is actually written by Donna Hay. Ingredients 12 rice paper sheets 1 cup snow pea sprouts (I’m not sure what this is, I just used bean sprouts!) 1/2 cup shredded carrot 1/2 cup...

Week 3 of the Cookbook Challenge and the theme is Hor d’oeuvres (appetisers). I dug out a cookbook I usually only use for cooking soups, called Soups, Starters & Salads and picked this eggplant recipe. Ingredients (makes 12 fritters) 3 1/2 coarsley grated eggplant 2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese 2 eggs, beaten 4 tablespoons plain flour (I used gluten free flour) vegetable oil salt and pepper For the...