Easter 2020

How has your Easter been? Ours was pasta-filled and relaxing, with a couple of long walks when the rain and icy winds made way for the sun. We ate homemade hot cross buns, listened to podcasts and took turns making pasta dinners.

A highlight was a Monopoly game played with my brothers in Sydney and New York. We stumbled across the Monopoly app a couple of weekends ago, when we were considering driving to Big W to buy a board, before deciding it wasn't essential.

The app is fun because you can add remote players and don't have to do any maths! Plus, the sound effects are very cute. We were on a video call too, for chatting and sledging and I ended up winning the whole thing! My aim going into it was not to come last.

I bought a bunch of dairy products before lockdown and had been saving the creme fraiche for weeks, so I could make Julia Turshen's lasagne over Easter. I've seen so many times on Heidi's Instagram and decided it was worth four tins of tomatoes (life these days) and made it with some minced beef we'd stashed in the freezer. The ingredients alone felt extravagant. 

Lasagne is Tony's most favourite food and I've tried so many different recipes, including Smitten Kitchen's "Mount Everest" lasagne. Out of all of them, this was the easiest by far (no chopping onions, celery, carrot etc, no bechamel sauce) and we agreed, the most delicious too.

So far, we haven't ordered any takeaway because we're both enjoying cooking and love it as a way to pass the time. But for Easter we have ordered nice wine from a cafe we used to visit every Saturday.

Other lovely things - Tony's busy making tortellini from his Pasta Grannies cookbook 😋 And I'm typing away at the new desk we bought for the spare room. It's a sit/stand desk from IKEA that magically came back into stock last week. Going to the store and actually finding it on the shelf felt like a small triumph (it was my third attempt). 

We've been trying our best to get by with what we have but I was starting to feel a little restless at the dining table, which wasn't the right height for a whole work day. We built the desk that night and it's already improved my WFH situation. I really appreciate being able to go to a different room for work or to blog, given we now spend so much of our time in the lounge/dining room.

Finally, here are some things you might like too.... 

Good Vibes Yoga has released a bunch of new classes, including a Yin practice and a lovely mellow flow. This is my favourite online yoga so far - it's Australian, made for these very strange times, and many of the classes are under 60 minutes. The instructors are excellent. 

Musician Bill Withers was Anna Sales' very first guest on Death Sex and Money. They have re-aired the episode to commemorate his death. It's a very beautiful listen.

Tonight I'm making mini chocolate fondants (aka molten chocolate puddings) because our Easter egg delivery didn't arrive in time, and we're out of chocolate! I'm going to add some salted caramel sauce we have in the pantry :) 

The Strokes have a new album and it's super great.

The Margaret Atwood episode of Sugar Calling is cheery. I listened to the Rebecca Solnit episode of On Being immediately afterwards and needed to hear her definition of hope in uncertain times (it's not straight-up optimism). 

And I've been loving Jenny's series Project Pantry Purpose. There's a new post almost every day, with notes on what she's cooking, noticing and doing during the stay home period.

S

Fun stuff for Easter

Hello! We made it to the Easter long weekend, one of my favourite holidays of the year. We usually spend it at home, cooking, going for walks and often welcoming visitors from Sydney. So this year, things will just be a little different. I sent a bunch of Easter chocolate to my family and friends to help keep things festive and it's been nice seeing them arrive at people's homes! I'm not sure about you but I'm finding the mail extremely exciting these days :) Here are some nice things for your long weekend:

A relaxing playlist, nice for the early evenings and quiet work.

I'm waiting for Tigertail to drop on Netflix, it should be out today or tomorrow. It's a movie by Alan Yang, one of the co-creators of Master of None. I've started rewatching Master of None - it's the perfect funny and familiar show to put on at the end of the day.

This is beautiful - photos and stories of women before they were mothers.

Sugar Calling is a new podcast from Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild, and agony aunt from the Dear Sugar advice column. It's made for right now, and she calls a writer every episode to help make sense of the pandemic. Tony and I listened to the first episode with George Saunders one night after work, and while I'm not familiar with his writing I loved his thoughtful and funny take on this time, which didn't shy away from its grim realities. The second episode features Margaret Atwood!

The ABC's Fran Kelly is another comforting voice at a time like this and I listened to this 14 minute interview/pep talk while assembling an IKEA desk. My screen time has been way up, so it was reassuring to hear that she hit 13 hours in a single day.

I made my YouTube debut demonstrating how to make ABC Life's hot cross bun recipe from Thalia Ho.

Alison Roman's passover dinner video is super fun. I really want to make Matzo ball soup and homemade Ice Magic.

We just finished Unorthodox on Netflix, a four-part series about a Jewish woman who leaves an arranged marriage and flees to Berlin. I couldn't wait to finish work and watch more this week.

One last and lovely thing,  an interview with Ross Gay from the On Being podcast, titled 'Tending Joy and Practicing Delight'. Via Highly Enthused.

Have a lovely Easter at home.

X

Ready for Easter!

I love spending Easter at home. By this time of year, I'm often ready for a break and a lazy one at that. This one also has more days off than usual, and I've taken the Friday off after Anzac Day to make two long weekends in a row :)

Over the extra long Easter weekend, we're planning to cycle round Lake Burley Griffin with a picnic (I'm making these pressed mozzarella sambos and will pack some lunch dessert too!), host an Easter egg hunt for my niece and nephew, and have some friends from Wagga Wagga around for soup. I also want to see the giant candle sculpture at the NGA - its head fell off the other day!

I'm also planning to spend a good chunk of time curled up on the couch, reading my fave magazine which arrived from America just in time! I'm also enjoying Ruth Reichl's memoir about her time as a NY Times food critic and Michel Lewis's podcast, Against The Rules, I've recommended the first episode to at least four separate people this week.

Two more things: this heartfelt ep of Death, Sex and Money (the maternity leave line up to fill in for Anna Sale is really lovely), and a creamy cauliflower pasta from Alison Roman.

Finally, a little tradition for Easters at home, I've just picked up a pretty bunch of Autumnal flowers for our place.

Have a lovely and relaxing Easter.

X

Easter plans

I'm super excited about the Easter break and hope you are too! My parents are coming to visit and I'm making baked salmon and sticky date pudding for their first night in town. We're all heading to my sister's place on Sunday for an Easter egg hunt and lasagne, and I can't wait to give my niece and nephew their eggs.

This holiday also marks a tiny change for me. I start a new job next week, which I'm really excited about :) I'm also grateful to have a bit of a breather in between. We'll be home this Easter, so I bought myself some flowers to make our home extra joyful. Here's what's planned:

I feel like everyone on Instagram is reading this book. I picked it up after Jessica and Megan gave it rave reviews. I'm planning to pack it on my a picnic for one!

I'll be making hot cross buns on Good Friday, plus these beautiful chocolate drops using some edible flowers leftover from this birthday cake. In years past I've made hot cross bun pancakes for Easter Sunday. Side note: Nigella's latest cookbook is all about home cooking and it's great.

There are so many good plays on in Sydney at the moment (very sad I missed this one!) and one of them is coming to Canberra. We have tickets to see Black Is The New White on Saturday night and I'm hoping for some pre-show dumplings and post-show gelato.

And here's my overly ambitious home project ;) My friend Adele gave me a copy of Beci Orpin's book Sunshine Spaces last week. I'd love to replicate this indoor plant stand at home so our apartment will be colourful come winter.

Have a safe and happy Easter!

Photos: Chocolate drop photo by Julia Gartland for Food52, cast photo from The Sydney Theatre Company, Sunshine Spaces photo by Chris Middleton.

Easter prep

We've just worked out what we're doing for Easter - we're staying in. Tony's keen to spend a few days in his studio painting and I'm looking forward to chilling out at home. I'm planning to read, watch movies and try out a few new recipes (these brown butter choc chip cookies look so good).

While we'll miss out on a long weekend in the Blue Mountains with Tony's family, we're excited about hosting a few friends for breakfast on Sunday. I'll be serving hot cross buns and Easter eggs and keeping my fingers crossed for nice weather so we can go for a long walk afterwards.

I made a few batches of hot cross buns on the weekend to share with friends. I use a recipe from this book and might tweak it over the long weekend to include choc chips and chai-infused dried fruit. And I'm hoping the Easter bunny brings me this :) Let's hope this week flies by for us all.