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! 

X

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). 

X