Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Miscellaneous”
(Update: For VDP No. 3, click here) Coronavirus Lockdown With most of us in self-isolation or even total lockdown, a VDP (virtual dinner party) is one way to catch up with friends and to continue to test your cooking skills. A week ago we held our first such event, and you can read about it here: Virtual Dinner Party No. …
(Update: For VDP No. 2, click here) Coronavirus Lockdown With most of us in self-isolation or even total lockdown, a VDP or virtual dinner party is one way to catch up with friends and to continue to test your cooking skills. We thought we were so clever to come up with the idea: to have an online hookup with friends …
When the term ‘vanilla version’ is used in general, it means the simplest, least complicated version of what we are talking about. Thus, vanilla ice cream is considered to be the simplest flavour of all. However, when it comes to shortbread, the ‘vanilla version’ has no actual vanilla in it. Thus, the key ingredients for the typical shortbread made in …
Carrot, Harissa and Basil Soup We are all familiar with the build-up of bits and pieces that need to be used up. Some, like butter, cheese, cream and milk we freeze and use them later in pastry, quiches and desserts. Others we use to concoct a dish. Recently we had some leftover white wine, milk, carrots and a half bunch …
Elizabeth Chong’s Pork Dumplings Some decades ago we would often hear Elizabeth Chong’s name mentioned. In particular, from various friends who had attended her cooking classes in Melbourne. They would recreate the recipes for us, producing memorable meals of Cantonese cuisine, based on freshness and elegance combined with simplicity. Our experience is that Cantonese cooking, and Chinese cooking in general, …
A braise of sausages, vegetables, lemon and bay leaves – And variations (Updated July 2021) With a forced layoff from posting of a few months due to surgery, we return to Olive’s Kitchen with another post in the series “What’s in the Fridge?”. Not only is one of us largely incapacitated but we are also currently having a significant amount …
Dinner parties are hard work if you try to do all the catering yourself. And they are made more daunting by the need to “perform”, given Australians’ growing knowledge and expectations about what is good food. Apart from working out a “modern” menu and doing the actual cooking, much time is also taken up doing the shopping, setting the table …
Australia Day, January 26, is a contentious date because it celebrates white settlement in Australia. We raised this issue in an earlier blog post here. We feel it is important to have a national day so until our leaders come up with an alternative we will probably continue to celebrate on the 26th with a gathering of friends. We started …
On the last day of December 2018, with New Year’s Day pending, we thought a summary of some of our Christmas and New Year food experiences might be in order. The Lead Up Our local farmers’ market fell at the right time, mid-December. So we stocked up for pending functions. Our purchase of Swiss chard and baby leeks led us …
Christmas Sink Cake The Olive’s Kitchen recipe for Summer Fruit Cake is very versatile. You can modify the ingredients in many ways, keeping the key cake ingredients (dry and wet) to roughly the same proportions. The fruit, including the apple, can be varied according to what you have on hand. The recipe came in handy before Christmas for Rhonda’s family’s …
