Category: Memories
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Moist Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
Unlike many bakers, I didn’t grow up baking at my grandmother’s knee. In fact, my most regular activity in my granny’s kitchen was drying the dishes (can you even qualify that as a skill? – ‘oh her baking is delicious’ ‘you haven’t seen anything, just watch her dry up’). My granny was of the generation…
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Cheat’s Prawn Ceviche with Avocado
Our evening binge-TV is Modern Family. There are 11 seasons so it looks like we’re covered until next summer (who am I kidding, we’ll be finished within a month). In an episode we watched the other night, a character lamented, ‘Do you remember when summer meant fireflies, cut-off shorts and ice cream trucks?’ Do I…
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No place like home
Yesterday, my parents moved out of the house we as a family have lived in for twenty-seven years. It is white and has bumpy roughcast exterior walls, and when I was younger I would find a soft section and dig my finger in, dislodging the occasional pebble. I apologise to the new owners for the…
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Rice Pudding Pancakes
At the beginning of this little hiccup known as Covid, panic descended on the world’s population and people stormed the supermarkets. A natural instinct, sure, although I still can’t understand the toilet roll wipe-out. In the general rush of stockpiling, everyone went mad for tinned goods, just in case we needed to climb into our…
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Chocolate self-saucing pudding
We’re all children at heart. Do we really need anything more than chocolate self-saucing pudding? Imagine me aged seven. ‘What’s for pudding?’ was my favourite expression (has anything changed?). Along with a winning grin, minus a front tooth, I would enthusiastically chant this along with my table of classmates, in an infuriating sing-song voice every…
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Europe 2011: An inter-railing adventure
It was a ‘Gap Year’ style holiday unlike all others. Look no further for sun-kissed beach bodies, drunken out-of-focus photographs of the Full Moon party, fluorescent face paint and sky diving. You won’t find them here. This holiday, my dear reader, took me to Europe for a tour of gastronomy. I think holidays reflect our personalities…
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Favourite Combinations: Apples and pastry
Apples and pastry. And with that, I take my leave. I doubt I am the only one with a weakness for this combination. The comforting, familiar taste of juicy apple softened by the heat of the oven, enclosed in pastry, has always been my go-to treat. The days when my parents took Fiona and I to a…
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Memories of food
Food triggers memory so poignantly and some of my most treasured memories are deeply entrenched in flavour and the act of eating. Hot chocolateWhen the weather is like this – the sky, the bare trees, the wilting hedge are all roughly the same colour, and rain drips half-heartedly (also known as miserable) – I remember…
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A&E and Gooey Honeycomb and Sea Salt Chocolate Brownies
Today I have been thinking about cake. Generally speaking this is a normal day for me. Cake is satisfying, whether to eat or simply think about; the softness of the crumb, the smooth crack of icing under your teeth. Ok, I appreciate eating cake is much more satisfying than just thinking about it, especially for…
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Coconut cheesecakes in a glass
University is not the time to be channelling your inner culinary goddess. Amid the daunting hubbub of your new, shared living-space, independent lifestyle, and friends with whom to socialise and act cool around, spending time cooking in a dismal, slightly greasy and stained student kitchen is low down on the priority list. Instead, you become…