So long 2020

The Christmas ham is finished and I'm starting to cook meals again. Panettone French toast for breakfast and simple things for dinner like vegetable soup and spaghetti with anchovies, chilli and chard. I'm also watching Bridgerton on Netflix, which feels like Pride & Prejudice, Gossip Girl and Little Women combined (a little soapy but highly addictive).

I'm feeling a little nervous as this year ends, not knowing how the pandemic will play out in 2021. But I've also really enjoyed parts of this year - being able to work from home, spending more time with family (IRL and playing lots of online games), and feeling really loved by those closest to me. 

Tony and I were talking about our highlights of 2020 the other night and mine were all personal projects and events, nothing work-related. They were things like making a wedding cake for my brother and a mini-podcast for my other brother in hotel quarantine. Then there were two special Sydney trips, one to witness a tiny wedding and another to meet a best friend's new baby. And hosting my whole family - with kids and partners - for lunch in July. It was the first time we'd all been together since Christmas 2018. I'm also grateful for all the times I saw my friend Angie - in March for a pasta party, in June right after I learnt that I might lose my job (thankfully, I didn't), and again in October when she visited Canberra to celebrate her birthday.

Tony and I holidayed in Jervis Bay in early December, driving through burnt out areas from last summer's bushfires to get there. Parts of this year have been so scary - terrifying even - and I'm grateful to have gone through it with Tony. Despite it all - bushfires, smoke, intense hail, a pandemic, job insecurity and WFH - we've stayed close, had fun and taken care of each other when things got hairy.

It sounds silly but I've always loved planning and giving gifts and this year they've felt more important than ever. Even when we were preparing for the possibility of job loss, small gifts were something I wanted to be able to keep giving. And while I've sent some presents for comfort and consolation in 2020, next year I'm hoping to send more for celebratory reasons too. Because if this year has taught me anything, it's to celebrate the small stuff and let loved ones know you're thinking of them (especially when you can't see them). 

I hope you have a safe and happy new year, though I know that's not always possible given the shocker of the year we've just had. Thank you for being here and reading along. Old-school blogging has brought me a lot of comfort this year and helped me make sense of it in some ways too. I hope to share fewer photos from the inside of my apartment in 2021 😂

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Son

Christmas 2020

Hello, I hope you had a lovely Christmas! In a very 2020 way, ours was a bit different to what we'd originally planned. We were due to host my family on Boxing Day - 12 people altogether - but the latest outbreak in Sydney meant no one could visit without quarantining on arrival.

At first I was pretty accepting of it all (maybe this year had taught me to roll with the punches?) but I was definitely bummed as Christmas drew nearer. But lining up to collect our annual ham, a big box of presents arriving from my brother in Sydney and doing the Christmas market run helped make it festive again. 

Christmas Day was just the two of us. I made Julia Ostro's spiced maple glazed ham with peach relish (so good!!), these excellent dinner rolls (worth the trip to the shops to buy the weird ingredients) and a Hetty McKinnon potato salad. 

Then on Boxing Day, my sister and her family came round for leftovers with a cold soba noodle salad, a massive cheese platter my sister made and my first ever pavlova. We video chatted with the rest of the family in Sydney and played a family quiz my youngest brother made (I came second and won a prize!). 

And now we're settling into a lovely routine of morning bike rides and coffee, making up plates of leftovers for lunch and dinner before watching and re-watching movies. We're making our way through the five Small Axe films on Binge and loving them (the playlist too!). I'm reading Bryan Washington's novel Memorial, which may be my favourite book of the year. Podcast-wise, The Year in Good News from The Daily is really nice. I liked Mari Andrew's list of nice things to do during this particular Christmas. And I'm listening to The Avalanches new album, We Will Always Love You.

Tony and I keep talking about the smoke haze that covered the city last Christmas. Even though this year has been hard in its own way, being able to see blue sky and go outside for walks and rides while on holidays feels special.

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So many things

It's my last full week of work for the year and I'm going into it with Tony's leftover birthday cake in the fridge (a cheesecake with jelly on top!), which seems very right for this point of the year. We spent last week at the beach - our first time in Jervis Bay - and had the nicest time going for daily swims, and eating every single meal out. I've lots of things to share, which I've been amassing over the last few weeks. Hope you enjoy: 

Writer Bryan Washington was so good on The Sporkful, where he talked about food and read excerpts from essays and his new book Memorial. 

I've been wrapping Christmas presents while watching the Hillary documentary series on SBS OnDemand. I like comparing notes with the fictional novel Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld and found the series via Lisa Marie Corso's newsletter.

I've had You Were Meant For Me stuck in my head ever since I listened to this extremely nostalgic episode of Song Exploder with Jewel. 

Heidi's cauliflower pasta bake with shells is so comforting and easy - and heavy on the veg! 

David Chang's new podcast Recipe Club is really fun. Each episode is based on a food item, with three food guests choosing a recipe to match the theme. They make all three and dissect the process, outcome and rank them. It's kind of about learning to cook more intuitively but it's also really silly. The brownies episode is my fave so far.

If you're a Smitten Kitchen fan, you might enjoy this New Yorker interview with Deb Perelman. I've never cooked a Smitten Kitchen recipe that didn't work or that I didn't like!

Also on the topic of food, a recent episode of The Daily documents a day at a New York food bank. Over the weekend I read about Heart of Dinner, a New York food pantry that specifically caters to older Asian Americans who are isolated and have limited access to food. I love the hand decorated bags and their culturally thoughtful contents - with things like tofu, soy milk, rice. Closer to home, I've been donating to St John's Care, who run a food pantry for the local community and will be hosting their annual Christmas lunch as a takeaway affair this year. 

I've just started listening to Days Like These, tuning into an episode about one family's experience of the summer bushfires in Mallacoota. It was recommended by Julia Busuttil Nishimura in Sophie Hansen's newsletter. 

I finished Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half while on holidays. I really enjoyed her first book The Mothers but was totally captivated by this epic family story. In a way it reminded me of If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim, maybe because of the intergenerational plot and detail.

Finally, Michaela Coel's interview with Louis Theroux on his podcast Grounded is excellent. 

Back to Sydney

We went back to Sydney a few weekends ago, to meet a lovely new baby, see my grandmother and so Tony to pick up some prints. It'd been six months since we were last in town - maybe the longest stretch we've ever gone without visiting.  We ended up visiting a bunch of favourite places and two new ones. A highlight was Happyfield, a really cheery diner in Haberfield that serves fluffy pancakes, hash browns and English muffins filled with sausage, egg or bacon. I'd seen it on Alana's Instagram (side note: her pandemic food zine is gorgeous) and we're already planning our return trip. 

I've made a lot of my own long weekends this year and we arrived in town on Friday, just in time for lunch. We went to Cherry Moon, a bakery in Annandale that I'd heard about on Highly Enthused. We'd thought about coming here the morning after my brother's wedding in March but were pretty zonked - plus I was meant to be back in Sydney the following weekend for a hen's! That was the same week that everything shut down, so it's been this funny thing I've been meaning to do since then. 

We stayed in Balmain so I could be in walking distance of my friend but also because it's such a lovely part of Sydney. During uni, I worked as a part-time counter girl at the Adriano Zumbo store on the main street (pre-Masterchef when it was busy but not crazy). So staying in the area was nostalgic. We ate at old favourites - which were as good as I remembered from 15 years ago. We ordered dinner from Teriyaki Boy and ate it in the park and then gelato from Rosso Pomordoro to eat in bed because it'd been a big day.

While we were in town, we dropped off our first Christmas presents, ate cherries with my grandmother and asked her about meeting the Queen (!) and I got to hold one of my oldest friend's new baby after watching the little one do a full body stretch after a nap (is there anything cuter??). And suddenly it's December. 

Almost summer

It's starting to get properly hot in Canberra, so I've made a hard switch to cold food. This weekend I'll be making Hetty McKinnon's chilled soba noodle salad with quick pickled cucumbers and avocado. It's delicious - I made it the other week to film a video for work and it's somehow refreshing and filling at the same time. It's so good I'm going to make it for Christmas.

Also on my list is this simple lentil, pesto and cherry tomato salad from a few years ago. It means I can still do some fun cooking over the weekend (making pesto!) without turning the stove on. 

I have a new, lazy dessert inspired by Elizabeth Hewson's cookbook Saturday Night Pasta. She recommends serving a simple dessert of ice cream, olive oil and sea salt. I was intrigued and a little scared but it's totally delicious! I have a container of cheesecake base crumbs in my freezer, leftover from the time I made this jelly tart - and I've been sprinkling it on top of this ice cream combo for a little extra crunch.

This might be the most 2020 thing but I bought myself a flour subscription! The flour comes from a mill in country Victoria and every month it's a surprise selection of flours plus a handmade zine with recipe ideas. I've never baked with Rosella wheat flour before and have heard it's the best for cakes and sponges. But first up, I'm going to try my hand at Russian Rye bread (I'm imaging it with smoked salmon, which I haven't had for almost a year). And I'm going to take some to Sydney for my friend Angie to have a play with. 

I'm starting to feel excited for Christmas and the summer holidays. I haven't had a week off since March, which happened to be the same week everything was shutting down. It wasn't the most relaxing week so I'm very much looking forward to three weeks off this December. 

In the meantime I'm watching The Crown at night (yay!) and seeing friends for pizza picnics, yummy lunches, and morning coffees.

Hope you have a lovely weekend! I'm going to walk up the street to get the paper and a coffee (there's a new place near our house that's great!), and maybe some baking supplies. Claire Saffitz's cookbook Dessert Person arrived this week and it's so much bigger than I anticipated. I'm thinking of starting with her pistachio pinwheel cookies.

And then on Sunday Tony's taking me out to lunch at our favourite restaurant :) He sold a big painting this week and we feel like celebrating.

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Hello weekend

I have a bad back at the moment (which makes me feel so old!) and was lucky enough to see a physio yesterday to get it seen to and strapped in time for the weekend. Now the pain is subsiding, it's actually been a nice excuse to hang around on the couch with a heat pack and do a little less. Still, I'm planning to make ravioli for dinner 😜 I've been squirrelling away lots of good things to share. Hope you enjoy:

The joy that is this episode of The Sporkful podcast with special guests Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway that's all about cookies! 

I've bookmarked this beautiful Christmas cake and added it to my shortlist. 

Speaking of Christmas, if you love baking biscuits as gifts, Julia Ostro has a lemon and almond shortbread over at ABC Life. 

My new favourite TV/movie snack aka fancy Malteasers. I blitzed through all four seasons of Insecure in the last month (on Binge - so so good!!!) and we've just started watching The Queen's Gambit on Netflix because we've heard so many good things about it.

I really needed to hear this podcast about taking care of yourself at work in 2020, which was recommended by a lovely coworker.  It's from Harvard Business Review's podcast Women at Work. Surprisingly, one of the biggest takeaways was not fixing work but knowing who and what you care about and letting that lead the way. 

I treated myself to the cutest packet of nail stickers designed by Beci Orpin :)

Fired up, ready to go. A sweet animation of an Obama speech that popped up in the week of the US election. I'm super keen to watch The Way I See It, a doco about Pete Souza, the official White House photographer for the Obama and Reagan administrations. 

It's still been cool enough for comfort food and the week of the election (and let's be honest, non-stop refreshing of news sites) I thoroughly enjoyed the delicious distraction that was making Heidi Sze's chicken sausage rolls. This recipe makes heaps so we had enough for two dinners with enough for another two stashed in the freezer. 

I have the longest list of new recipes I want to try, including Hetty McKinnon's kimchi mac and cheese and salted caramel peanut butter cake. 

I'm still doing yoga at home and loved this energising flow from Good Vibes yoga in Melbourne.

P.S Check out my baby eggplant! My friend Angie brought a seedling down when she visited for her birthday and has a very inspiring Insta account for her veggie garden that's mostly grown in pots.

A very busy October

It's nice to be back here after a super busy month. We had visitors, weekend road trips and catch ups with Canberra friends every single weekend for the month of October and into November. Plenty of cheese was consumed, birthday candles were blown out and there were some much needed belly laughs too.

I made Rachel's peach and raspberry jelly tart when I knew we'd be having a little person over for dinner. It was a hit with the adults too :) For dinner I made Deborah's perfect meatballs which were fast to prep (I doubled the recipe so I could freeze some), and just left making a simple sauce and reheating the meatballs when our friends arrived. 

Tony and I both had close friends visit on back to back weekends. It raining both weekends, which meant fewer long walks and more cold-weather comfort food (my fave). We ended up booking a table at this pizza cafe in Gundaroo two Sundays in a row because we loved it so much the first time. A guy from our favourite wine shop recommended it and we probably wouldn't have found it otherwise. It's down a little path from the main street in a cosy old barn. They let you order half and half pizzas and serve old school tiramisu for dessert. 

Last weekend we went to Wagga Wagga, where Tony was hosting an artist talk for a print maker he's collaborated with who had an exhibition in the gallery. It was a little surreal to be back - next month will mark 10 years since we moved there (we've been in Canberra for about 5 years now!). We were only in town for two nights but I loved that we could run into most of the people we knew in that time. I miss funny things about Wagga, like a very particular noodle dish at a Thai restaurant that I've never seen anywhere else, which I made sure to eat on the first night.

The highlight was easily seeing some of our favourite people at our friend's place for a pasta night. And hanging out with kids I held as newborns, who are now in primary school. We stopped in Yass on the way home so we could visit Clementine's Bakery. A few years ago we went to their restaurant for a fancy lunch, but they've had to close it due to the pandemic and open a bakery in town instead. We had pastries, sambos and the most delicious chocolate and raspberry mousse tart. I bought some beautiful looking milk buns for the freezer (such a random running theme of this post), and we also went home with eggs from our friends Sophie and Tim's chooks and flowers from Soph's flower farm too!

And now we're back home with very few plans for the weekend :) I've just finished Christmas shopping (gift wrap and all!) and buying pressies for December birthdays, along with a few things for myself. Mainly coloured candles (these ones are cute and not too $$), Kindle books and a novelty cushion. 

Most of the time I can't believe it's November, even though I really want the year to end! It's been tough going through a restructure while working from home (I think they're hard at the best of times) and being a lot more social than usual has really helped take my mind off things.

Christmas wish list

 

We're going to be hosting Christmas for my family this year, a summer version of our June reunion. I'm planning to make a pavlova and maybe some mini bagels to go with smoked salmon and pickled onions. I'm also going to stash a few boxes of mango Weiss bars in the freezer :) Aside from deciding what we'll eat, I'm excited not to be posting presents this year.  

As is tradition (and a nice distraction from this week), here are a few things on my list. First up... a cookbook! I love the look of Yossy Arefi's Snacking Cakes, which includes recipes like powdered donut cake.

I upgraded my round cake tins earlier this year, before making my brother's wedding cake. It makes a huge difference having a cake tin that's the exact size most recipes call for. Now I'm keen to replace my square and loaf tins with ones that have crisp square edges, rather than rounded ones. 

I rarely wear pants anymore - just trackies and leggings while WFH, so I'm keen for a pair of bike shorts for comfy days at home, walks and trips to the shops.

A pretty hand towel because we're still at home a lot and I'm craving more colour in unexpected places. I'm slowly making the apartment more and more like a hotel :p

A panettone from a favourite Sydney bakery to eat alongside mango on Christmas Eve, and to make into French toast on Boxing Day. Last year I bought a 1kg panettone in Melbourne, which took up a lot of space in my suitcase. 

And a cute little pasta cookbook with plenty of new sauce ideas, because it's still mine and Tony's most favourite food.

Lovely little things

Hello! I've been busying myself with nice things like buying mint-chocolate ice creams for the freezer, making dumplings for a friend and ordering Christmas presents. I still lose track of where in the year we are, but hang out for little weekly anchors, like a new episode of a podcast or a favourite newsletter. I hope you've been well. Here are some nice things to share:

This mini-podcast episode called 'Let your pile of small good things grow' got me out of a funk the other week. Now, I write a list of nice things for the day in my journal before I write out my work to-do list. 

Definitely going to make Claire Saffitz's malted 'forever' brownies. 

The Modern Love podcast has been rebooted. And it's lovely. 

Classic spaghetti puttanesca with a dollop of ricotta. 

Death, Sex & Money has been running a week-long audio festival, and it's been a great way to discover new podcasts. This episode broke my heart - some of the interviews are so raw.

I made Dorie Greenspan's lemon-spice visiting cake and it looked just like the picture. I took it to my in-laws place with some seedlings for their garden and coffee pods too. It feels good to see people again.

Chat soon! 

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Chiffon cake and nice weekend things

The very best thing I did last week was bake a passionfruit chiffon cake for my parents who came over for lunch. It was the first recipe I tried from the Beatrix Bakes cookbook and the same cake I ordered when I visited the bakery back in 2018. It was so tall and fluffy and tasted just like the real thing :) After a rainy week, we're going to head out for a lunch in the sun and zone out. It was a short week but a big one. Some things to share:

Helen Garner's lockdown diaries interview on the 7am podcast is great. I especially love how the interview almost ends. Via Jess.

One of the nicest things I listened to all week was this conversation between Samin Nosrat and Wendy MacNaughton about how they collaborated on Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. It's another podcast by Hrishikesh Hirway :) 

I finally watched Knock Down The House, the Netflix doco about AOC's election that follows three other first-time female candidates.

If you're a fan of Lindt balls, guess what? They come in block for too! My friend Jen sent me one in the mail and it's a revelation. 

Sky Ting yoga's 20 minute strength practice comes with its own playlist and goes fast. I loved taking a look into one of the co-founder's tiny NY apartment complete with a bathtub in the kitchen.

Cup of Jo's Ultimate TV guide looks great! We're going to start Olive Kitterage because I loved the books and Bill Murray co-stars.

And a little bit of wanderlust - camping in Zion National Park, Utah. We're hoping to book a coast holiday soon, it's been so long.

Have a nice weekend!

X

October joy

There's the news and everything else 2020 has thrown our way and then there's rainbow birthday cake. I made this for my niece's party and found sorting Skittles into colour groups to be a very calming and mindful activity. Tony encouraged me to make the biggest rainbow possible and it was such a happy cake, art directed by the birthday girl herself with vanilla cake and hidden lollies inside. 

My parents are here for the long weekend and my niece's birthday. We haven't seen each other since June and are enjoying the simple joy that comes with sharing meals and exchanging gifts - just-read books and propagated plants.

Here are some other lovely things gathered throughout the week - hope you're having a lovely weekend:

Bryan Washington on what it means to be a cafe regular during the coronavirus pandemic. A beautiful piece of writing that's less about special occasion restaurants than the casual places we visit most weeks.

Tips for hotel quarantine if you need them. A soda stream sounds genius. 

A highlight of this week was Alana Dimou's food zine arriving in the mail. She chronicled some of the meals she made and ate during the first lockdown. I love the writing (so honest and funny), the gorgeous food photos and the occasional recipe too.

We've been watching The Trip to Greece the TV series, which is on iView. The movie wasn't my fave The Trip film (I didn't know many of the references!) but am finding the television series a lot funnier. 

"Oftentimes when the world feels chaotic, we feel as if it is somehow inappropriate to have joy. Have you joy," writes Cleo Wade. Discovered via the gals at Slice.

Hetty McKinnon has a new cookbook, To Asia, With Love. Reading the intro made me teary - she writes about being a Chinese girl who was born in Australia. Just that description alone made me feel very seen and understood, as did the photo of eggs in a bowl with a fish drawing, which my mum and grandparents have. You can sample some of the recipes here. I'm planning to make the life-changing udon for my parents on Monday for lunch. 

Parts of this interview with American TV cook Ina Garten made me laugh, "I go through the recipe with them and I find out they didn't have any chocolate so they used sardines instead."

And after listening to Home Cooking with Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Herway, I'm getting into his new Netflix show Song Exploder, based on his own podcast (which I've actually never listened to! Excited to check it out too). 

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Hello weekend

I saw two double rainbows from our apartment this week, just days apart. In lots of ways it's been a good week, there was a book in the mail from a friend, early morning walks, a new ep of a fave podcast, and an exhibition opening with friends. But it was a challenging one too as my job continues to change ever so slightly. 

I'm especially grateful to have a weekend with no real plans. It's cold again here, so I'm baking bread, roasting a chicken and maybe making cookies too. All of the good and cosy things :) 

Here are some nice things to share:

Loved this tiny park wedding and the song they played after the ceremony. 

How to bake cinnamon scrolls at home! These are a cross between classic cinnamon scrolls and cardamom morning buns. And if you've never made buns before, I filmed the video inside the recipe. 

We just finished watching I May Destroy You (Binge) and it was insanely good. This article answered all the questions I had about the series and its writer/star/co-director Michaela Coel. 

I've just started listening to a new podcast, The Diversity Hires with Christina Lee and Neha Potalia. 

I also thought this episode of The Cut podcast with Emily Ratajkowski was great (it's based on the essay she wrote for New York Magazine). 

My friend Sarah gave me a copy of Pandora Syke's first book for my birthday. It's a book of essays covering everything from work and the pressure to self-optimise for peak performance to fast fashion. It felt spooky at times as she connected the dots of things that I've lived through - including silly things like discoveringThe Sartorialist blog in uni to the popularity of Zara.  

I surprised myself by thoroughly enjoying the Pavarotti documentary (Stan).

Very clever insights on work, social media and the pandemic from former Buzzfeed writer Anne Helen Peterson in Nisha Chittal's very excellent newsletter. 

And what Tina learnt from recovering from cancer in her twenties. 

Have a lovely weekend

X

P.S If you're still working from home, I highly recommend leaving your place whenever the mood strikes you (hopefully that's possible where you live). I went out to get big cookies one day, and a pot at Bunnings another. It was just the mental break I needed from being in the same space most of the time. 

Sunny days

It's been a very lovely week with visitors from Sydney, blue skies and a brand new cookbook. Spring is definitely bringing a lot of colour and happiness. 

We had my brother and sister-in-law over for dinner last weekend. It's still a thrill to set the table for more than two. We served roast chicken, a carrot salad, burrata with herbs and lemon, and salted caramel pannacotta (which only kind of worked) - all from Skye McAlpine's new book.

I've been trying to get back into making sourdough after a few dud loaves (I blame winter). While he was over, my brother helped troubleshoot my starter. I've since learnt to feed and observe it, instead of following a strict feeding schedule that doesn't match Canberra's cool weather.

Today I mixed up my first batch of bread in weeks and hope it works! Making bread during the week is one of my fave WFH perks (along with anytime snacks!). 

I ordered a copy of Carter's Cookbook after seeing it on Sophie McComas's Instagram and it arrived from NZ early in the week. Lately I've been craving a cafe-style big cookie (let me know if you have a fave in Canberra, maybe it's more of a Sydney thing?) and this book has plenty of good options. I can't wait to get stuck in. I'm going to make the green soup with feta and pesto this weekend.

On Sunday we visited a favourite cafe for the first time in months. It's small, so hard to get a seat at the best of times, so we felt super lucky to nab a seat inside with physical distancing in place too. They do doughnuts on Sundays, which was the best excuse to get out of bed.

A couple of other quick things to share - I have more than 20K photos on my phone (!!) and found this article from the NY Times so helpful! I'm going to make a photo book for 2019 and am also making time to review and delete pics from my phone from the past week so I stay on top of things. 

And the ABC Life recipe for this week is a very nourishing one-pot quinoa with sweet potato and beans from Heidi Sze. It's exactly what I feel like eating after winter's comfort food! 

I hope you have a lovely weekend. I've taken Friday off and have a burger date with Tony. I'm also going to get a start on my niece's birthday cake! Tell you more about that soon.

X

Early spring + a wedding anniversary

How nice is spring? 😭 I'm suddenly spending a lot more time out of the house - going for walks, seeing family and friends. It's felt especially important as I'm coming up to six months of working from home, with no return date in sight. 

I saw my office buddies last Friday for fish burgers and fries in the sun. I can't remember the last time the three of us were together (maybe late Feb?) and it was just so nice to see each other and shoot the breeze. It made me realise how much I miss being able to work things out together, without having to set up a meeting first.

Tony and I had our sixth wedding anniversary on Sunday and decided to book a nice lunch to celebrate. We hadn't been to a restaurant in months, so it felt extra special. We drank orange wine and ate the most delicious burrata with pistachios and blood oranges. And there was a creme caramel for dessert! 

We've been watching Succession lately, and while I'm hooked, some episodes just feel like a lot of talking in offices.

A few other sunny things. Like everyone on Instagram, I rushed out and ordered an iced latte in the first week of spring. It was barely over 20 degrees in Canberra but worth it. I found a cute new place to buy homegrown seedlings and changed over some of my pots for spring. My boss was right, it's really nice to have a hobby on the go! 

And it's strawberry season already 🍓I've been making the roasted strawberries from this recipe (the lemon yoghurt cake is great too!) and serving them alongside a plain dutch baby. And I made this lovely strawberry, rhubarb and almond crumble last weekend. My new daggy ritual is to vaccum the house after I finish work on Friday and make a nice dessert while listening to a podcast or nostalgic playlist. It makes the apartment feel fresh again and puts a bit of distance between work and the weekend. 

P.S You can bake fried rice in the oven and it's really good. Hetty McKinnon's version has all the flavours of instant noodles but feels a lot healthier!

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