Tagged: new zealand

2005 Food Blog Awards 2

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2005 Food Blog Awards

For anybody with more than a passing interest in food and/or blogs, check out the 2005 Food Blog Awards at the Accidental Hedonist‘s own blog. As Kate points out, the list of nominees is one of the best ways of discovering blogs that you might not have come across otherwise, such as the five-times nominated The Travellers Lunchbox and Gluten-free Girl. There’s also tried-and-true names such as the inimitable Chocolate & Zucchini, 101 Cookbooks and the new, improved Too Many Chefs. Voting is open now and continues until 18 January so, if you’d like to have your say or even if you’re just interested in discovering new food blogs, click over to Accidental Hedonist.

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The Boyfriend's bagels

The Boyfriend's lovely bagels - ready to eat! Before we took off for our year in New Zealand, the Boyfriend was really getting involved in bread-making. There was an ongoing, sporadically successful, sourdough project but where he really hit his stride was in making bagels. A birthday present of Bread by Ursula Ferrigno and Eric Treuille (never let it be said that I didn’t encourage him!) inspired him to try their recipe. Do you know how they get the holes into their bagels? You take a small ball of dough, stick your finger through the centre of it and then work your finger in a circle to stretch and widen the hole. It’s rather like doing the hula hoop, but with your finger instead of your waist! We were in fits laughing that first morning that he tried the recipe as our fingers hula hooped their way through eight bagels.

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Do

The Boyfriend’s bagels

The Boyfriend's lovely bagels - ready to eat! Before we took off for our year in New Zealand, the Boyfriend was really getting involved in bread-making. There was an ongoing, sporadically successful, sourdough project but where he really hit his stride was in making bagels. A birthday present of Bread by Ursula Ferrigno and Eric Treuille (never let it be said that I didn’t encourage him!) inspired him to try their recipe. Do you know how they get the holes into their bagels? You take a small ball of dough, stick your finger through the centre of it and then work your finger in a circle to stretch and widen the hole. It’s rather like doing the hula hoop, but with your finger instead of your waist! We were in fits laughing that first morning that he tried the recipe as our fingers hula hooped their way through eight bagels.

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Bake

Baby Jesus in His Blanket: Caroline's Kerstkrans or Baby Jesus in His Blanket

My sister's idea of Baby Jesus in His Blanket I was home down the country last weekend and, when I was investigating the fridge, I discovered a chunk of almond paste. It had originally been made by my little (in age, not so in height) sister to cover the Christmas Cake and the leftovers got abandoned in the fridge. I couldn’t pass it by – I must admit I love almond paste. When I was a child, I’d take a piece of Christmas Cake just for the almond icing and try to trade the cake part off against someone else’s icing. Many’s the Christmas Cake, much to my mother’s annoyance, that was denuded of its tasty almond coating ever before the royal icing came near it!

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Bake

Baby Jesus in His Blanket: Caroline’s Kerstkrans or Baby Jesus in His Blanket

My sister's idea of Baby Jesus in His Blanket I was home down the country last weekend and, when I was investigating the fridge, I discovered a chunk of almond paste. It had originally been made by my little (in age, not so in height) sister to cover the Christmas Cake and the leftovers got abandoned in the fridge. I couldn’t pass it by – I must admit I love almond paste. When I was a child, I’d take a piece of Christmas Cake just for the almond icing and try to trade the cake part off against someone else’s icing. Many’s the Christmas Cake, much to my mother’s annoyance, that was denuded of its tasty almond coating ever before the royal icing came near it!

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Cookery Books / Read

Fresh and Wild Cookbook by Ysanne Spevack

Undeniably healthy and often intriguing British organic and Fair Trade food chain Fresh and Wild teamed up with organic expert Ysanne Spevack, editor of online organic food magazine organicfood.co.uk, to produce this cookbook. It’s both worthy and worthwhile, but sometimes Spevack’s party political broadcasts on behalf of Fresh and Wild do get a little tiresome, especially when there’s only a limited amount of the shops to go around.

The Fergusons of Gubbeen 3

Do / Return to Ireland

The Fergusons of Gubbeen

While looking at the RTÉ website the other day I came across a piece on the Nationwide programme about the Ferguson family of Gubbeen, outside Schull in West Cork. Tom and Giana Ferguson have worked Gubbeen Farm for more than thirty years, starting to produce their delicious prize-winning Gubbeen Cheese in 1978.