Agapanthus are out!

Each morning I ride to work down St Georges Rd. It’s busy and bustling. Cars don’t always stop (but most do). On windy days it’s a total bitch. My bike, beautiful as she is, struggles up hills. What’s that saying about a bad tradesman blaming his tools?

Cheese and biscuits

Crackers. Biscuits. In the states, biscuits are more like scones than the crisp little tidbits they are known as in Aus. Call them crackers here and at best you'll get a raised eyebrow. Australians are decidedly set in their vernacular and here, crackers means crazy.

Corn salsa, cabbage and ham quesadillas

So, my quest to eat a little healthier has lasted one meal. These quesadillas are not too bad. Loads of vegies, very little oil and a little ham. I very rarely buy low fat food outside of milk - I'd prefer to eat less of the real stuff - but on this occasion low fat tortillas were on the menu. They weren't too bad, but I do honestly prefer the real thing.

A simple soup

If you're anything like me, you overindulged over the last couple of weeks. At work, chocolates were handed out every day. Four end of year parties, most involving fried food of some kind. One night, I shame-ate an entire large pizza, a bag of chips and drank a cider, beer and red wine. One sitting. The bathroom scales scare the bejesus out of me right now.

The leftovers conundrum

There's only so much ham a household of two people can eat. More to the point, there's only so many recipes I can cram ham into before my brain goes into a porcine meltdown. I'm in a turkey haze, a roasted pork 'episode'. I'm not looking forward to a repeat of the Great Ham Debacle of 2009.

The Boxing Day round up

Christmas was a hoot this year. The weekend before Christmas I spent the day with my mum, brother and his girlfriend. We lolled about eating, drinking and soaking our feet to stave off the hot Melbourne summer.

A very Bennetto Christmas

This weekend my brother Paul, his girlfriend Alex and my Mum celebrated Christmas at my house in Melbourne. It's been busy, crazy and stressful year but we've all managed to keep our heads above water and smiles on our faces. It's hard to keep a Bennetto from laughing.

Christmas is CRACKERS!

Bonbons are an integral part of our Christmas tradition. Bad jokes, ill-fitting hats, cheap and nasty presents: it has our name written all over it.

Du Nord

It's easy to get stuck in a bar-rut. After work of a Friday, I head to one of two destinations. The first bar is approximately 20 metres from my desk. The second is a whole block away and situated underground for maximum stale air content and minimum phone reception. That's why, when my friend Jacquie suggested trying Du Nord, I jumped at the chance.

Pauline's pavlova

Every family event for as long as I can remember has had one constant: Mum's pavlova. Normally decorated with cream and strawberries, it's the highlight of every barbecue.

On one occasion (probably just before Mum's optical prescription was due for renewal), the sugar was accidentally replaced with salt. Were it not for a sneaky taste of the mixture before it went into the oven, our lunch would have been ruined. Fortunately pavlovas are incredibly simple to make - provided your oven is low, and your eggs separated cleanly, there's not much that can go wrong. Apart from salty overload, that is.

Presents are wrapped baby!

If you're anything like me presents are normally wrapped on December 24 at 11pm. That's mainly because presents are bought on the same day at 5pm. This year I believe I've turned a new, more organised leaf.

Christmas traditions: Icecream plum pudding

We have fairly unconventional Christmas traditions in our family. There’s no turkey recipe going back generations, no angel passed down through the family to adorn the top of the tree. Our traditions are more festive season behaviours.

Gingerbread men

I need sleep. I started this post about six times. Each time I wrote the title “Fingerbread men”.

At first I thought Fingerbread men could be little gingerbread finger puppets, all cute and delicious and such. Then it dawned on me the alternative is cookies made out of fingers. Perhaps they’re seconds from an unsafe biscuit factory, the slogan on the packet reading “Made with the finest digits available: All pointer, no pinky”.

So. Yes. Sleepy. Incoherent. Rambling about unsavoury finger biscuits. Best I just hand over the recipe and catch some zzzs.

Passionfruit marshmallow

Right now in Australia, we've been hit with passionfruit fever. That's not some kind of tropical disease affecting your libido either. Passionfruit are cheap, in abundance and so tasty at the moment.

Salted peanut brittle, the hottest present of them all

This festive season I managed to burn myself no less than six times. Five times in the kitchen and once at work while absentmindedly pouring boiling water into my tea cup. Despite this, I decided it would be a rather smart idea to whip up some salted peanut brittle for small Christmas gifts.

Panforte: the ultimate Christmas gift

I’m not a neat cook by any stretch of the imagination. I leave a trail of floury, eggy destruction in my wake. I’m proficient at most things in the kitchen, except the dishes. And although I’ve spent thousands of dollars on cookbooks, I can’t manage to keep to debris off them either.

Brown paper gift bags

I’ve been in my current job since April. I manage eight pretty excellent people. They made me feel welcome from day one so for our end of year celebrations I went nutso with Christmas cheer.

2012 Christmas series

This year, Matt and I decided to take the leap. Go “the whole way”. Commit to each other for realsies.