Kai Auckland has been established just a few months but already it has the makings of something very positive. It’s for Aucklanders who yearn to feel connected and a part of a growing resurgence – swapping, creating and caring, over community kai. Not just a chit-chat over a Sunday roast (although that could certainly...
Homemade Mayonnaise
No longer will you need, or even want, to buy mayonnaise after trying this. I was genuinely delighted to rediscover just how quick and satisfying it is to make fresh, creamy homemade mayo in a matter of minutes. If this doesn’t impress your mother (or dinner guests), goodness knows what will. Imagine tossing together...
Tattie Scones
Tattie Scones are famous in Scotland. Mashed potato whipped to perfection then baked until risen, yum! I must say, it does sound a bit like fancy mashed potato. I won’t lie to you, it pretty much is! However, unlike just ‘mash’, Tattie Scones have a few extra ingredients to help bind it PLUS it...
Jammy Coconut Muffins
Jammy Coconut Muffins: A Sweet Welcome Home After a few weeks on the road, I’ve been rediscovering the joy of home-cooked goodness. I’m finally back in the kitchen, loving every second of it, and I accidentally stumbled on a new recipe that’s quickly become a favourite. There’s a certain novelty to travel food, especially...
Mushroom Burgers
Rediscovering the Mushroom Burger: A Hearty Meat-Free Favourite If you’re looking for a satisfying, flavour-packed alternative to a traditional burger, a mushroom burger might be just what your plate needs. Whether you’re cooking for vegetarians, cutting back on meat, or simply wanting something new, mushrooms are a deliciously versatile option. The beauty of using...
Going vege
For the past three months we have, voluntarily, for no political statement nor protest, for all good intents and purposes, become vegetarian. Why, I hear you ask? The decision to go cold turkey (mind the pun) and do away with meat was a simple decision based on a realisation we were eating far too...
New life for upcycled cable drum
Summer was a perfect time to use newly acquired cable drum as an instant bar lean-to, but come winter it was dismantled and upcycled into an under-step storage hide-away. We enjoyed a few cold beverages around our make-shift bar over summer, however rather than sitting water-logged during our rainy winter months we decided to...
Native Spinach
Native Spinach (Tetragonia tetragonoides): The Unsung Hero of My Winter Garden If there’s one vegetable that’s outshining the rest in my winter garden this year, it’s Tetragonia tetragonoides, or for those who know their Latin, Native New Zealand Spinach. This sprawling, hardy green has become the envy of the patch, thriving with an energy...
Applying a perfect silicone sealant
We’ve had a handy-man job we were dreading to be honest, yet still dog-determined not to get a tradesman in to fix. We needed to waterproof the join where the kitchen counter top meets the splash-back with silicone sealant. The good news is that we discovered a nifty little gadget called a Caulk-Rite tool....
Upcycling jam jars
I love upcycling jam jars and sauce bottles. From a perfect individual serve, to a rustic vase, when they are not used for home preserves glass jars are certainly put to good use. Of course, jam jars a perfect for reuse as ‘jam jars’. You can recycle both the jars and the lids, as...
Lemon Curd Brownies
Lemon Curd Brownies: A Dreamy Winter Bake Winter feels like the perfect excuse to retreat to the kitchen for some Sunday baking, not that I ever need much convincing. This time, it was Lemon Curd Brownies that stole the show, and I might just have a new favourite. Swirled through a buttery brownie batter,...
Trifle in a Jar
You don’t have to wait until Christmas for a great excuse to whip up a trifle. And by creatively compiling your mini-masterpiece by the glass, you can tailor-make for guest’s tastebuds too. In many Kiwi homes, trifle is a festive showstopper, making its grand appearance just after the glazed ham. It’s often rich with...
Bitter Sweet Chocolate Brownies
It’s a dreary Sunday. There’s nothing like the aroma of lemon curd and dark chocolate swirling around the kitchen and the excuse for stocking up the cake tins for another week of school holidays. Time for Bitter Sweet Brownies. There was a time when our grandmothers would have cake tins constantly replenished. Not just...
A mid-winter harvest
There is a lot of rain in my neck of the woods. While we don’t have to fight battles with snow as the Mainlanders do, and while frosts are unlikely, the rain has made the backyard sodden. First world problems! The garden is looking a bit ratty and bare. Much of the work this...
Know your bones and why the dance that way
In a modest workshop nestled in the Karangahake Valley lay the works of Mike O’Donnell – sculptor, ecologist, spiritualist, activist and vessel maker. Known as the ‘water man’ his skilled hands create clay vessels to carry water around the globe asking the same question. “Do you remember?” It was quite an unexpected Sunday when...
Brussels Sprout: Grow from Seed
The (Surprisingly Entertaining) Life Cycle of a Brussels Sprout OK, I’ll be honest. I only bought a packet of seeds because they were labelled “gourmet” and purple. It sounded fancy, and I figured if they looked cute, they might taste better than the green ones I remembered from childhood. Back then, Brussels sprouts were...
Three cups of sugar – how to make caster sugar & icing sugar
It took a minor catastrophe in the making to work this one out! I needed caster sugar for a batch of meringues. The whites were already beaten to soft peaks, the oven was set, visitors were on their way and there was no caster sugar in the pantry! Why couldn’t I just magically get...
Broccoli Balls
We’ve gone vegetarian for a week at our house and Broccoli Balls is on the menu. Thinking back, I don’t know why meat has been such a large focus of the evening meal. It’s expensive, it’s often a little plain without creating something delicious to go with it or on it (mostly vegetable based...
Vegetable Stack
Layered Goodness: Make the Most of Your Homegrown Veg One of the joys of having a vegetable garden is being able to harvest a little of this and a little of that without needing huge amounts of any one thing. This layered vegetable stack is the perfect way to celebrate that abundance in a...
Life isn’t all about the money, honey
The recession in Britain has seemingly put an end to the ‘greed is good’ culture. There’s a study just out this week in the Daily Mail reporting the shift in UK attitudes from wealth, to the importance of family, health and well-being. After all, “Life isn’t just about the money, honey” said someone famous,...
Rhubarb Raspberry Ripple Tea Cake
What got me excited about this Rhubarb & Raspberry tea cake recipe, was it only calls for two stems of rhubarb – enough to enjoy but not enough to obliterate the plant completely! I love rhubarb and as it’s only the first year growing our very own, I’m on strict self-regulated instructions not to...
My soapbox: kerbside food waste collection trials
While I appreciate it’s not quite like throwing the slops into the street, the upcoming kerbside food waste collection trials seem to have opened a can of worms for me. Why? I’m glad you asked. As read in the NZHerald this week ‘Compost Food, Save Money‘, Auckland is about to undergo a trial. Within...
Spring Onions: Grow from Seed
Spring onions are simply easy to grow and a staple for so many meals you may put on the table. You can’t go wrong and odds are high you’ll be wishing you planted more. That’s how I felt at least, when I harvested my first plantings of spring onion. It was a gradual harvest,...
Liptauer Cheese
Rediscovering Liptauer: A Luxury from the Fridge Scraps When I was a kid, one of the real treats from our Friday night supermarket shop was a little tub of Liptauer cheese. It was never an everyday item…more of a special splurge. Spreadable, tangy, and just fancy enough to feel luxurious, we’d savour every bite...
Potatoes: Our first ever harvest
Talking about rediscovering the joys of digging your own spuds! Just 12 weeks ago it was just a concept – but now, it’s a reality. Today we harvested our very first crop of potatoes. Delighted with the thought of freshly dug spuds for tea, our potato harvest offered surprising results. One of our first...
Meet Leo, the disco DIY Scarecrow
A good scarecrow is worth its weight in wet hay. Even if it is not birds you are battling, something standing tall in your garden can make a surprising difference. Here in New Zealand, crows are not the problem. But sparrows? They will turn a tray of tender seedlings into a salad bar in...
Upcycle your old Sky dish into a birdbath
What do you do with an unused, broken-down SkyTV dish dangling precariously from the roof? Upcycle it into a birdbath – of course! While you can create a masterpiece out of kitchen tiles and helpful guidance from DIY classes, we opted to make it up as we went along. If you don’t have a...
Making a bird feeder
Invite the Birds In: How to Make a Simple DIY Bird Feeder With a little love, some creativity, and a sprinkling of DIY inspiration, you can bring nature right to your backyard. Homemade bird feeders are a beautiful way to connect with wildlife, involve the whole family, and rediscover the joy of small, everyday...
Ice Ice Baby – the wonders of flat fizz
Flat Fizz, Fresh Tricks: Turning Leftover Soda into Fruity Ice Cubes Am I the only one who doesn’t enjoy flat lemonade? It doesn’t take much. Someone forgets to screw the cap back on for a second, and that glorious fizz vanishes into thin air. For years, I grumbled every time it happened. It always...
Upcycling your Christmas Tree into a bird feeder
From Tinsel to Tweets: How We Turned Our Christmas Tree Into a Backyard Bird Feeder With Christmas Day a distant memory, we were once again faced with the yearly dilemma: what to do with the now-prickly, dried-out pine tree leaning forlornly in the backyard? It had brought joy and the scent of pine indoors,...
Carrots: How to Grow
Mutant Carrots and How to Grow Your Own (Without the Tentacles) After harvesting our first-ever crop of carrots, we discovered that Mother Nature has a wicked sense of humour. Out of the soil came a wild and wonderful assortment of mutant carrots. Some twisted like corkscrews, others with legs, arms, or spider-like tentacles. Not...
Broccoli: How to Grow from Seed
From Greenhouse to Dinner Plate: Growing Broccoli the Real Way (Caterpillars and All) There’s something deeply satisfying about pulling a head of broccoli from the garden and having it on your plate just minutes later. It tastes better, looks fresher, and even the odd caterpillar or chew-marked leaf feels like a small badge of...
Onions: Stringing for Storage
So you’ve grown your onions and you’re delighted with an awesome yield. Now what? Here’s an easy way how to string onions for storage. Once you’ve harvested your onion crop (which hopefully you have left to a sunny day to help with the drying process), you are on your way. They should still have...
Rhubarb: a vege with fruity chic
Growing rhubarb is ever-so-easy. While most definitely a vegetable, this classic compost-lover is hailed as an honorary fruit in our household. We were first inspired to grow rhubarb after seeing a massive planting of this underrated vege in the Edible Garden of the Hamilton Gardens late last year. Growing so prolifically with massive green...
Corn: How to Grow from Seed
If you’ve got the space in your garden, don’t go past growing sweet corn. As first-time corn growers, we found it absolutely fascinating from the get-go. With dreams of golden, butter-soaked cobs straight off the BBQ, we watched as these tall, alien-like plants rose from the soil with determination and flair. Fresh corn is...
Feijoa & Dark Chocolate Cake
When I strolled past a man with bagfuls of feijoa in his arms, the last thing I expected was to have a bag thrust towards me with a smile. He explained his children had collected the fallen fruit from an old tree at the back of their house and there were too many to...
Hey Presto: Basil Pesto
Sweet basil has the most intoxicating aroma – fresh, peppery, and slightly sweet. This was our first year growing it from seed, and to our delight, every single seed took. The result? A veritable basil jungle. Not a bad problem to have. But basil doesn’t wait around. Once it starts flourishing, it’s a case...
Onions: Grow from seed
Looking at those tiny, flaky onion seeds, you’d be forgiven for wondering how they’ll ever become juicy, golden slices in your stir-fry. The truth is: onions are a slow burn. You’ll wait up to 28 weeks (6–7 months) for harvest, but they really don’t ask for much in return—just water, time, and a little...
Home Infused Chilli Oil
With a healthy crop of chilli turning fiery red within a few weeks, I did wonder what to do with them all. It didn’t take long to discover that besides the success of freezing whole in an airtight bag, infused in oil is a delightful way to enjoy homegrown chilli year round. I have...
Flaky Feta & Broccoli Roll
With excess broccoli florets and loads of spinach leaves, it seemed the perfect start to a Flaky Feta and Broccoli Roll. The beauty of having your own vege garden is not really knowing what’s going to be on the menu – not through lack of choice may I add (as there’s plenty growing) but...
Fresh Mango Salsa
There is something very moreish about a freshly made Mango Salsa, complete with crunch in all the right places, kicking heat, cheek-sucking lime and soothing mango. Our chilli plants are going mad at the moment. Beautiful green chilli are turning red before our very eyes and we’re spoiled for choice and usage! While cucumber...
Zucchini & Olive Loaf
Is this a savoury cake, loaf or a bread? Not really sure to be honest, but it is something a little different and a great way to use up zucchini (aka courgette) which is certainly in season at the moment! Waste not, want not. After a busy week in the garden and harvesting all...
Green Garden Slaw
Nothing beats a freshly prepared Green Garden Slaw straight from the garden. Literally minutes from garden to plate the crunch – the flavours are tremendous. Not quite your traditional slaw, I created my own Garden Green Slaw with nothing but seasonal favourites. With no set rules in place we decided to let our vege...
Homemade Blackberry Vinaigrette
A homemade vinaigrette – and this one uses a secret ingredient that’s likely already in your pantry. But what really makes it sing? Blackberry jam. Summer garden salads reign supreme…fresh, crunchy, and always better when picked minutes before serving. And when you’ve grown the greens yourself, even a humble side salad can feel like...
Almond & Parsley Pesto
Whether it’s the bold, leafy flat-leaf Italian parsley or the curly, decorative variety that’s filled your beds and planters, parsley is the hero of this vibrant, flavour-packed Almond & Parsley Pesto. If you’ve grown an ample supply of parsley this season and can’t bear to see it go to waste, this recipe is for...
From zero to gardening hero in 3 easy months
Our self-imposed challenge was to grow our own vegetables (from seed) successfully enough that we needn’t buy them at the supermarket for a whole year. Three months later? Here’s our update…. As you can tell by our bold header, we think we did pretty well! In September the backyard was a grassy slope. After...
DIY Ham Glaze
A traditional glazed ham is on most Kiwi Christmas Day menus. Rediscovering do-it-yourself glaze is best made from leftovers in the larder, taking the basic principles of a winning glaze and making it your own. My creation: ultra sweet with a warm ginger/tangy lime and lashings of Christmas spirit! Most legs, or half legs...
Basil: How to Grow from Seed
Basil is one of those must-have herbs in the garden, on the kitchen windowsill, or in a sunny pot on the deck. Its aroma is unmistakable, its uses are countless, and best of all, it’s surprisingly easy to grow, even for beginners. Common Basil Varieties to Try There are so many beautiful basil types...
Buying an old Stereogram
Like an old classic car it pays to be pragmatic about buying something 50 years old and expecting it to be perfect. If you are contemplating buying an old radiogram you are entering a world of maintenance, imperfection and effort, but the rewards are worth it. At least, this is our experience! Price does...
Broad Beans: How to Grow
Diary of a Broad Bean Three months ago, I didn’t think I’d be writing a blog about how to grow broad beans—but here we are. These were the first seeds we planted on our slightly mad journey to rediscover The Good Life, and the results have been nothing short of encouraging. For something so...
Rediscovering photosynthesis!
Having come to grips with containers and trays, the next thing to consider is soil and water. Seems pretty simple however, if growing from seed, you’ll need to think about more than just bunging a seed in a pile of mud and hoping for rain. Being no expert on growing from seed, I see this...
Building a Workshop
You know you need one, you know you want one. Here’s a few things to ponder when planning a workshop! How strong should your workbench be? The big question. The more stable the structure, the thicker the bench surface, the stronger things are likely to be. You need to choose a construction method that...
Growing from seed – containers or trays?
Whether you are growing seeds in trays on your windowsill, on your back deck or in a backyard greenhouse, I’ve discovered you’ll need to put your thinking cap on if your planning to ‘have a crack’ at growing from seed. Some hardy seeds can grow directly in the the ground they will eventually be...
Radish: Grow from Seed
Diary of a Radish These colourful little vegetables were never a favourite of mine as a child. Peppery, watery, and sitting suspiciously in salads. Radishes didn’t exactly excite me. That is, until I decided to rediscover the humble radish as a grown-up. My experience Germination Period: 4–10 days Variety planted: “Red Globe” Planted: Undercover in...
Potatoes: Where to Plant
Growing potatoes is heaps of fun and so easy! We’re kicking ourselves for not planting them earlier (years earlier) and rediscovering the anticipation of home-grown new potatoes for Christmas Day. First things first, just how DO you grow them? Where can you plant potatoes? Given that the humble potato is a root vegetable that...
Legionnaires Disease – be aware
Being stung by a bee, a spider bite or a prickle in your thumb may seem the worst gardening could offer, but sadly this isn’t the case. In light of recent news, Legionnaires Disease contracted from bagged potting mix, is something to take very seriously for weekend gardeners. There are plenty of health benefits...
Planning a Workshop
For some time, undertaking projects have been weather permitting – usually on the rickety back-deck table in the sun, or on the garage floor if rain was lashing down. Invariably it meant constant trips to the cupboard where the tools were kept, a huge effort putting them all away and the inability to walk...
Potatoes: preparing seed potatoes
If your potatoes resemble a wild forest more than a staple pantry fodder, then you have discovered seed potatoes. The good news: they don’t have to be chucked into the compost or turned into Mr Potato Heads (although the latter is a bit of fun for kids and confuses the cat). You can plant...
The challenge is set: home grown veges for a year!
Let’s get one thing straight. I have been personally responsible for killing every single household pot plant within a 10 metre radius. So to have dreams to ‘grow your own’ veges presents a very interesting mash of want versus capability. So to boldly announce over dinner, whilst eating yet another bagged lettuce salad, that...
Planning a Hot House – Build or Buy, Size and Positioning
Planning your greenhouse is as much about the process as the result. From the outset we should be clear – this was our experience. It’s neither right nor wrong, neither the best solution or the worst. Along the way we learnt many things and are happy with the end result. Build or Buy? So...
Building a Hot House – Glass or Plastic?
Glass or plastic Hot House? Oh how many forums deal with this question! Glass Discussion While it was an obvious consideration, we didn’t think too hard about this option as we ruled it out quite early in the planning. Glass is pricey and difficult to handle requiring some nifty building skills to utilise. Some...
Planning a Hot House: Water, Ventilation, Lighting
Don’t leave water collection, ventilation or lighting an after-thought. Plan ahead when building your DIY hot house. Well, that’s our advice, and this is how we did it! I’m certainly an enthusiastic DIYer, but my Englishman has the wicked creative designs, know-how and can-do to make things happen. In planning our plastic house, there...