I rush out for an iced latte the moment spring feels near. It might be an unseasonably warm day, the faint smell of flowers in the air or the sight of a single daffodil. This year I made the switch as soon as subzero mornings had passed. So it checks out that many of my favourite meals of late are ones for warmer days.
One-pan risoni with hot smoked salmon and greens
My friend Sarah often ends a call by asking what’s for dinner. It’s such a fun question and how I found out about one of her go-to dinners: risoni with hot smoked salmon, marinated feta and lemon. It’s a quick, creamy pasta that’s easy enough to make after a big day.
Beetroot and grape salad with roasted almonds
I love the colours and sweetness of this beetroot salad, which is the easiest thing to make for work lunches. By Heidi Sze, it’s built around vacuum-packed cooked beetroots and the most cooking you’ll do is roasting some almonds before shaking up a vinaigrette. It’s a meal I make to take care of myself and it’s extra refreshing with a glass of coconut water. It’s what I imagine spa food is like!
Zucchini and tomato ‘anything’ sauce
This was a last minute meal I pivoted to after missing the crucial ‘start this the day before’ step of another recipe. We ate it with potato gnocchi from the freezer (Tony’s been taking the local potato offering very seriously). The Kelsey Miller recipe from A Cup of Jo includes a bunch of different ways you can eat it, including “usually, I just dump it on a plate and that’s that”! It’d be great on toast with a fried egg and finely grated Parmesan.
Avocado toast with salted butter and balsamic
When there’s no feta in the fridge, I make avocado toast with butter, avocado, balsamic vinegar (glaze is ideal) and a tiny sprinkle of sea salt. It’s a simple meal friends once served for lunch, which made me feel like we were entering Real Friend territory.
Lemon curd thumbprint cookies
I made my first-ever batch of lemon curd (Donna Hay’s recipe came highly recommended) using fruit from our prolific tree. It replaced jam in sourdough thumbprint cookies from
. There’s cute video of the recipe and I adore the idea of baking cookies as a little holiday from your everyday life.It’s been a big month for lemon curd, I had a vanilla and lemon curd birthday cake and hope to make it to Hobart in time to try this lemon curd mille-feuille.
Choc-dipped dates
I made two batches of the peanut butter filled dates that were everywhere last month. They definitely have a Snickers-vibe and I love having a container of them in the fridge.
Spiced poached pears
I’ve started getting up early again (yay spring!) and it’s nice to feel less rushed in the morning. I’m very into weekday breakfasts that are cafe-like, so I halved the recipe for these spiced poached pears to eat with yoghurt and granola.
Other good things
I bought a small toast painting from this Tasmanian artist ❣️
I’m planning a trip to southern Tasmania and the Huon Valley, which has beautiful sushi, crullers and an apple shed famous for cider and pie.
Julia Matuski’s new cookbook Apples & Elderflower is from this part of the world and I love how specific it is to the seasons and produce of the state. I’ve never lived in a place that has such distinct food seasons (the apricot stand at the market is there for mere weeks) or a backyard with fruit trees! This line captures how my love of cooking snuck up on me:
“Cooking crept into my life, increasingly taking up space so that I can’t imagine my life without being in the kitchen. It’s not so much a passion. It’s more like a comfort: a constant, pervading gentleness that just is.”
your posts make me hungry and inspired!