CHRISTMAS is here and hopefully you are organised and ready to enjoy a stress-free time with family and friends. Why not tingle the taste-buds on Christmas Day (or New Year’s Eve) with this delicious prawn and mango salad ? I prefer to buy raw prawns and cook and cool them quickly for this dish, however [...]
FOR a lot of reasons, the typical family no longer grows any food at all, unlike earlier generations of the Depression and War years, for whom the provision of their own vegetables and fruit offered families “food-security”. One of the results is that many children barely understand where fruit and vegetables really come from, let [...]
PICKING your Christmas cheer at the local does NOT mean heaps of beer, the odd cleanskin red and white, and a bottle of “sparkling spumante for the sheilas”. A bit of thought in advance means a whole lot more fun and smiles all round from your guests. “…The night before Christmas…” With the rellies in [...]
LAST week we looked at the style of wine that was best suited for a birthday or wedding. This week let’s look at functions at home. Dinner parties Offer guests on arrival sparkling wine, beer, or a lighter white wine. Resist the call for a glass of red at that time, if you can, but [...]
MORE and more homes have courtyards. With our busy lifestyle they become a well-used and important part of the garden, used as play areas and for entertainment. Rarely is lawn used as a flooring. They usually have a hard surface of tiles, gravel or pavers, and this needs to be softened. Water features help make [...]
I OCCASIONALLY come across a unique breed of wine lover – the person that will drink absolutely nothing else other than a particular style of wine. For many this is health related, with adverse reactions to sulphites (white wine) or histamines (red wine) not being uncommon. But others have a “one-track” palate. Whatever the occasion [...]
ONE of the healthiest Christmas gifts you can give to family or friends this year is a box of locally grown fresh cherries. Look for them now at farmer’s markets or farm gates where some cherry farmers let you pick your own. Ruby red sweet cherries are one of the delights of summer and are [...]
GARDENERS must be among the easiest of people for whom to shop! There are so many products with which they will be happy, apart from another plant. A gift need not be for the actual garden. Anything botanical, like soap or another body-care product with a floral scent or derived from a botanical base, is [...]
MOST gardeners have their preferences when developing their gardens. Some are plantsmen, pure and simple. They love their plants, and design principals usually end up going out the window as they discover yet another plant which they simply must have! Other gardeners love to create a design and these usually include hard landscaping features such [...]
WINE is a living thing. Like humans, it can lose its vitality and start to tire with the passage of time. Aussie wine lovers very often keep their precious bottles for far too long. Even lots of my savvy wine friends admit to have some “dogs” in their cellars, which they bitterly regret not having [...]