It’s hot in Brisbane but it’s Coolangatta – summer salads for celebrations

It’s so hot here – unreasonably hot for November, and as my thoughts turn towards upcoming end-of-year and Christmas celebrations, I’ve gathered a collection of my salad recipes for inspiration and to help me to keep cool in the kitchen. There’s something here for all tastes, and each one has a little twist to lift it above the…

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Happy Christmas

Wishing you a happy Christmas with precious family and friends. I look forward to sharing more recipes in 2014 and learning from and being inspired by the wonderful food writers and cooks I meet online. Bless you. Margaret Here’s a roundup of some of the recipes that made it onto our summertime Christmas table. We…

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Nectarines, prosciutto, mozzarella and mint

I’ve been thinking a lot over the last week or so about what to feed my family this Christmas time, experimenting with ideas and recipes old and new. We need joyful, bright food this year, to counter the almost savage sadness of another empty place at the table. My sister-in-law Lesley died quite suddenly in…

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Lemon and thyme shortbread

Shortbread is a traditional Christmas-time treat and always makes an appearance at our place. I wanted to try something a little different this year, so I added lemon zest and some fresh thyme to my usual recipe and sprinkled the shortbread with demerrara sugar before baking. The thyme and lemon might seem odd flavours to…

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Wicked salted caramel pecans

Salted caramel seems to be the flavour of the moment and there’s a reason why – it tastes so astoundingly good. If you have never tried it before you simply must, although it is really addictive and you might not be able to resist once you acquire a taste for it. These salted caramel pecans…

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