Spring long weekend plans

It may still be Sunday afternoon but I'm already day dreaming about the long weekend that's right around the corner. My parents and brother will be in town to hang out and celebrate my niece's sixth birthday. We've talked about a fish and chip picnic by the lake, a trip to a late night Indonesian diner and we almost always end up at the local gelato shop - because my dad loves it.

My favourite thing to do on a long weekend (or any weekend really) is try a new and slightly more decadent recipe. Next weekend I'm planning to make braised beef short ribs and rice and serve an apple crisp with ice cream for dessert.

If you're planning an extra yummy meal too, I can highly recommend Ottolenghi's chicken marbella (roast chicken with dates, olives and capters) and baked saffron rice. I made both this weekend and we ate them in our friend's sunny backyard.

The best thing about this meal is that you can do most of the prep ahead of time - I marinated the chicken for the full two recommended days, turning it every now and then. The rice bakes in 25 minutes (and has onion, plenty of garlic and saffron) and stays warm, so you can easily bake it before the chicken and pack up both if you're heading to a picnic. It meant we could have a decent Sunday sleep in, blueberry bagels and coffee for brekkie before getting a start on the rice and then roasting the chicken. We were out of the house before 12!

Other plans for next weekend... getting stuck into Three Women (my library reserve finally came good) and a lakeside walk with friends from yoga (with a pit stop for homemade salted miso brownies). The only thing left to do is get through the working week ;) I'll be heading back to Sydney for a couple of days, which has been the best excuse to make a booking at Bella Brutta for pizza.

Have a lovely week!

X

An easy peasy breakfast with friends

I made my very first batch of cinnamon scrolls in 2017. They were on my list of tiny fun things to try, plus they seemed to be popping up everywhere - in this little book of hygge, on Instagram and in recipe books I bought and borrowed. I tried a recipe from Violet Bakery. It's so good that I now feel like I have a cinnamon-scroll-making superpower :) 

Here's what makes the recipe so great: it's unfussy because it doesn't use yeast, and you can make them ahead of time and store them in the freezer until you're ready to bake (and eat) them.

On the last weekend of the year, we invited some friends round for breakfast. We kept things simple and served cinnamon scrolls, mangoes and coffee. I made the buns the night before, so all we had to do in the morning was prep the mango cheeks (Tony's specialty), make a pot of coffee, and pop the buns in the oven (which also made the house smell delicious).

Easiest breakfast party ever!

Recent discoveries

These last few weeks have been filled with small and satisfying discoveries. This weekend, at my brother's recommendation, I listened to Stevie Wonder's classic album Songs in the Key of Life from start to finish. When I listen to music, I tend to listen to individual songs over and over again but listening to the whole album and concentrating on it was something I really enjoyed.

I've also been listening to Dirty John, a new podcast from the LA Times. It's an addictive tale of a deceptive relationship that begins to impact a whole family. It's based in Orange County and the opening minutes of the first episode almost put me off - they're violent and graphic - but it's worth listening even if it means skipping that part or listening with one ear.

My very first housemate (we shared a little cottage in Sydney's inner-west) used to work in the organic shop in our neighbourhood. We could rarely afford to buy anything but every now and then she'd bring home a block of Green & Black's dark chocolate. I stumbled across it in the supermarket the other day and I am hooked. It's much richer and more satisfying than other dark chocolate, so it gets savoured. Also - have you tried dark chocolate Maltesers? Another recent obsession :)

We had a book sale at work last week to raise money for the Indigenous Literacy Fund and I was lucky enough to pick up Brooke McAlary's new book Slow. Tony and I have been taking turns reading chapters, and of all of the books on slow living and minimalism I've sampled recently, this one really brings everything together. The best thing? It encourages slow change, which feels exciting and achievable.

And I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of Anna Jones's new cookbook, The Modern Cook's Year. Every Christmas I receive a book voucher from work and I've been saving my 2016 one for something great. We make her kale, tomato and lemon spaghetti all the time and have been shifting towards veggie-filled meals of late. The new book is due out in a few week's time.

Speaking of new cookbook releases, I've been loving the sample recipes from Helen Goh and Yottam Ottolenghi's book Sweet. I've bookmarked this apple and olive oil cake with maple frosting.

Monday night dinner

Tony's friend Emma had us round for dinner last Monday and it was a relaxing way to start the week. She made a spicy puttanesca, a salad with cheese and served up a plate of chewy almond biscuits and dark chocolate for dessert. Her theory was that Monday night dinners help make the weekend last that little bit longer.

We do most of our entertaining on a Saturday night, when we've had time to tidy up the house, do the shopping and some meal prep. But I really love the idea of simpler meals on weeknights, when everyone's feeling fresh.

The other week I borrowed a trick from my friend Mayaan and ordered a big Turkish feast when our friends Sean and Jill were visiting from Sydney. It made for a really unfussy Friday night dinner, with plenty of leftovers for the long weekend.

A simple supermarket dessert

When we first moved in together, Tony and I would go grocery shopping after work and had a habit of buying marked down donuts ($1 for six!) for a weekday treat. We're a bit more health-conscious now, and fruit platters have become my go-to lazy dessert.

They're colourful and quick to make, which is great if it's too hot to bake or you're having a busy day. I made one the other night when a friend came round for a midweek meal.

Here's what works:

• Pick fruits with a variety of colours and shapes. Once I was helping to cater an event and accidentally made up a plate of honeydew, celery sticks, dip and grapes and got in trouble because it looked so bland!

• Cut the fruit and make sure there's at least once piece of each fruit per person, so one slice of watermelon, half a passionfruit and so on. It's best if it can be eaten without cutlery.

• A tiny ramekin to stop runaway blueberries.

• Finally, chocolate. I've been buying the organic dark sea salt variety at Aldi and one packet per platter seems to be the perfect amount :)

P.S If I was having friends round for dinner around during the week, I'd make this simple vegetarian pasta and have the fruit platter to end. The leftovers make super easy weekday snacks - yay!