Hello weekend

Post-Melbourne, I have been skipping a bunch of yoga classes, cooking plenty of Heidi recipes (pasta, frittata and smoothies) and watching a lot of TV (we're obsessed with Morning Wars on Apple atm). I didn't realise it at the time but last week was packed!

Tony's just left for another residency - this time in Sydney - so I'll be having a solo weekend and week ahead. I'm planning to rewatch Call Me By Your Name, go to the farmers markets and bake a cake (this lemon loaf by Alison Roman that's on the NY Times).

Have a lovely weekend! Back with more recommendations soon :)

Super fun Melbourne week

Hello! We are freshly back from nine days in Melbourne, where we ate plenty of delicious food and met some very good people. But most of all, I'm just glad I went! I almost didn't go because I was a bit worried about money and am a homebody but thankfully a good friend gave me just the shove I needed. Turns out that 'choosing the bigger life' is very good life advice.

Here are some highlights and places we liked to eat. I'm definitely into low-key and chill places these days :)

Tony was the main reason I was in Melbourne. He had a week-long print making residency at VCA and a place to stay in the city. Luckily, I was able to work out of the Melbourne office for the week, which was right around the corner from him. Every morning we walked to Patricia's for coffee before catching the tram to work. It's a stand up coffee bar with fun vibes, sparkling water on tap and a cute neon ceiling sign.

For dinner, one of our favourite spots was City Wine Shop in the CBD, especially on a night when we didn't feel like venturing far. I was extremely proud of my order - grilled saganaki with wild figs, house smoked salmon with sour cream, lemony meatballs in tomato sauce, and later a spring vegetable gnocchi - all to share. It was also near two good bookshops, the Hill of Content and The Paperback Bookshop, plus Spring Street Grocer for post-dinner gelato :)

Tony was working on a lithographic print and it was so great to visit him after to work to get my head around what he was up to. The process is so intricate and complicated, involving plate work, paint work and the printing itself. Sometimes multiple people are working on the print at the same time. Tony was paired with a master printer for the week to realise his image before the edition was finalised - it's being printed this week!

Visiting the studio gave me a new appreciation of how handmade prints like these can be. Tony's shared more of the process on Instagram including videos if you're curious. Seeing his work made me think of all of the times I've visited his studios, in Sydney, Wagga, Canberra and this time round Melbourne. It is always a nice surprise to see what direction the work is taking.

We both really enjoyed the change of scenery when it came to work, more than we'd anticipated. I found it easier to write and get things done, which surprised me because I love nothing more than routine during the work week.

Another highlight for me was catching up food writers that I work with but had never met. They were the best kinds of meetings too, at pasta bars and cake shops. I met Julia at Beatrix, which had a small crowd waiting for it to open at 9am. It was so hard just to pick one thing but I went with the sponge cake with whipped cream, lemon curd and passionfruit icing. And it was so lovely meeting Heidi for an afternoon picnic in the sun. 

Along with the week of work, we had two weekends either side of our stay which meant we could make it to the KAWS exhibition and cross town for doughnuts. We always find our way to Carlton for pizza, bookstore browsing, drinks, snacks and gelato. This visit I was introduced to the D.O.C deli and pasta bar, where I bought a panettone from Italy to lug home for Christmas.

Not pictured, a trip to Babajan for a Turkish lunch (it's as good as it's hyped up to be - especially the baked eggs with 12 hour lamb shoulder), a blustery 38 degree day, getting lost in Queen Victoria Markets, feeling awkward in a brand new office, and freshly baked Nutella filled madeleines.

I'll leave you with two last things - a post-work park hang out and our first dinner in town - honey and jalapeno pizza at Lazerpig which was noisy and fun. Travelling with Tony was so nice - he took care of all of the navigation, which was one less thing to worry about (I am terrible with directions) and it was nice among all of the busyness to be together for meals and just to chat and be ourselves. Sometimes when I'm on a work trip I feel like I have to be on all of the time or am just hyper-aware so I really noticed the difference doing it together.

P.S Here are some notes from our 2018 Melbourne trip, plus earlier visits in 2017, early 2016 and late  2016!
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Hello weekend + getting ready for Melbourne

For the first time ever, Tony and I have managed to break the internet at home. We're blaming our free Amazon trial for using up all of our data... from all of our Fleabag, Modern Love, Seinfeld and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel viewing. So, you might notice that this week's list of recommendations is a little shorter than usual 😂 While the TV has been off, we've been cooking together and doing the odd SMH target puzzle too (!). We're off to Melbourne tomorrow and I'm super excited about doing regular things in a new city like a market shop or a morning coffee. We're planning to visit this funny pizza parlour for our first dinner in town. To share:

I've been enjoying a couple of excellent longer reads - even if they take me a few sittings to get through. This story, where a former Obama speech-writer spending a year with an injured veteran who was written into many Presidential speeches moved me. It's nuanced and sensitive.

Also, I found this essay about a New York company's 'pivot to burnout' equally hilarious and relatable.

I know very little about Thanksgiving but am suddenly very interested in it and its funny food traditions after watching Alison Roman's (almost) real-time video of putting a feast together in a tiny kitchen.

And a couple of recipes to share! Julia Ostro has made a super summery chopped steak salad for ABC Life (avocado, mint, charred corn!). If you don't eat meat, she's also written a recipe for my No Big Deal Dinner Party newsletter, a Panzanella that's easily made vegan, vegetarian or GF.

P.S I'll be offline for much of next week - trying to catch cool films after work and night markets too. Write to you again from Canberra X

Hello weekend

Hello! I made a cheesecake last weekend, this ricotta one to be exact, and still feel the need to bake something this weekend. Maybe because the weather's dipped again or maybe because it's the thing that can clear my head at the end of a week. I'm taking Tony on a surprise date tonight, we'll be stopping at a new cheese, cold cuts and wine bar (yay!) and seeing a movie about an artist at the British Film Festival. Also on the cards, a day trip to Braidwood and a favourite bakery/pasta shop with friends. For your weekend... sweets! Thoughtful thoughts! And brand new podcasts:

'I race to relax' is a little too relatable for me. Food writer and podcaster Lindsay Cameron Wilson on structuring her days.

Annabelle Hickson (of Dispatch to a Friend) writes a beautiful newsletter.

After Making Oprah and Making Obama comes the latest season... Making Beyonce. So excited for this podcast!

Also trying out Esther Perel's new podcast, How's Work?

Annabel Crabb's gingernut and caramel ice cream sandwiches via Benjamin Law.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Vogue interview (and cover).

And something I'm proud of... No Big Deal Dinner Party is a four-part newsletter series I've been producing that launched this week. It's all about feeding your friends and family without freaking out. The first edition is all about snacks and drinks and you can sign up here if you'd like to receive the three remaining editions.

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Hello weekend

I've got that slightly delirious feeling that comes with finishing the work week - a combination of feeling happy/relieved but also being totally spent. I'm taking things extra easy this weekend as a result and because last weekend was an accidental whirlwind of five cooking projects, tackled over two days. Tony and I are going to make a lasagne (his favourite!) and I am hoping the rainy Sunday that's forecast comes through. For your weekend (and thank you for being here!):

I'll be in Melbourne in a few weeks and am super excited to work my way through Eater's Ultimate Guide to Melbourne in preparation. Their guide to Australian snacks from a US perspective is very fun.

I am... 11 years too late but thoroughly enjoying Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize winning novel Olive Kitteridge. The best thing about arriving late is that there's already a TV show and a sequel :)

An easy tomato sauce for summer pasta - Julia Ostro's cherry tomato, basil and garlic sauce. Inspired by this pic, we ate ours with bucatini.

Making plans according to your star sign. Can confirm, the Leo one is 100% correct.

Eva Chen was hilarious on The Cut podcast (plus she's a fellow germaphobe).

I've been really into thoughtful foodies of late. Especially Yasmin Khan (author of Zaitoun) on Julia Turshen's podcast and Aran Goyoaga's beautiful video series A Cook's Remedy. I'm waiting for her cookbook to arrive... hopefully it's any day now.

And two new ABC Life recipes to share this week! Hetty McKinnon's zucchini, couscous and preserved lemon salad (snapped above) is Christmas-worthy. Plus, Julia Ostro's sardines with midweek roast potatoes. I was nervous about cooking sardines but loved them - they're so fatty and satisfying, and the potatoes in this recipe are salt-and-vinegar chip like. Enjoy!

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