This recipe is from Tim Allen’s Book - The Ballymaloe Bread Book and it will put you off store-bought buns forever. It’s a little bit of work but well worth the effort.
Hot Cross Buns
Ingredients
25g fresh yeast
1 Tablespoon castor sugar
50ml warm milk
450g bakers flour (assume high grade flour here)
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1-2 teaspoons [...]

This is our own recipe based loosely on the DYC vinegar recipe with some extra (not so) secret ingredients.
Lifeboat Farm BBQ Sauce
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
2 big tablespoons of caramelised onions
1/4 cup malt vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
1 cup of tomato puree
1/4 cup of tomato paste
1/4 cup of finely [...]

The best shortbread recipe I know is in the Edmonds Cookbook.
Shortbread
250g butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar
1 cup cornflour
2 cups plain flour
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift cornflour an flour together. Mix sufted ingredients into creamed mixture. Knead well. On a lightly floured board roll out to 0.5cm thickness. Shape into a circle [...]

For those wondering “what the heck is a paddock vac for”, well it’s a vacuum for the paddocks - more specifically the manure in the paddocks. This one is powered by a Honda 4 stroke 50cc engine and stores about a half a cubic metre on board.
The two main reasons for using it are: we [...]

These are ridiculously tasty considering the healthy ingredients. They are great as an appetiser but if you double the recipe they can be a filling main meal if you feel the need for a healthy fry-up.
Pea Fritters
2/3 cup frozen peas, blanched
1 400g can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons chopped chives
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon [...]

I love ciabatta (pronounced Cha-Bata) for its crusty outer and soft, chewy interior. It is fantastic fresh and toasts up a treat. My new part time bakery job inspired me to try making some at home. I’d always thought it too tricky for home baking, but while ciabatta is a bit fiddly, it’s not beyond [...]

We were at the farmers market yesterday and picked up some Irish sausages. Karen decided to try a French-ish recipe for sausages and lentils and it was fantastic.
Rustic Sausages and Lentils
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup diced carrot
1 medium onion, decided
5 cloves garlic, roughly minced
1 cup green lentils
2 bay leaves
a handful of parsley
2 sticks of celery
2 [...]

Karen has a BBC recipe book called Delia’s Vegetarian Collection. We have so many cookbooks that I’ve only just discovered this one. The first recipe I tried is an absolute winner for those cold Winter nights. The creamy pumpkin soup and nutty toasted corn combo is great.
Pumpkin Soup with Toasted Sweetcorn
700g pumpkin peeled, deseeded and [...]

Friday nights have become our “bad food” nights but with the nearest takeaway a 30 minute round trip we’ve adapted to making our own (not a bad thing really). One of the few things we really miss about Auckland is our beloved Dante’s Pizza. While my humble efforts don’t measure up to Kev and Tanya’s [...]

We found some Jerusalem artichokes at the farmers market this week and Karen had fond memories of them in soup. We found this recipe in the Cook’s Companion and it’s now one of my new favourites. Jerusalem artichokes are actually part of the sunflower family, not artichokes and they grow from tubers, like potatoes. August [...]