Heather is the gardening and cooking guru behind the blog The Tasty Gardener which just happens to be my secret blog for this month's Secret Recipe Club.
One of the things I loved about wandering through Heather's blog was all the amazing tips and tricks she offers regarding both gardening and cooking from building a veggie patch through to cooking suckling pig. I was gobsmacked!
Read MoreFennel: You're either a lover or a hater. I'm a devoted lover and have been for a very long time, and as I've been slowly learning about the health benefits of this brilliant veg...I'm even more head over heels in love.
Not only does it help in the relief of indigestion, flatulence and constipation, it's also brilliant in the treatment of anemia.....something that my mum is currently experiencing . Not only is fennel high in iron, but the amino acid (known as histidine) found in fennel helps stimulate the production of hemoglobin.
So from me to you mum....it's cooked and packaged up ready for delivery.....
Read MorePerhaps chocolate is a more sexy choice for cupcakes and perhaps vanilla would be my normal, personal choice, but somehow the humble root vegetable known as carrot was all I could think about.
So on a glorious Saturday afternoon I grated, sifted, stirred and baked.
This recipe is gluten and refined-sugar free, but I didn't notice.
Read MoreBarley. A fibre superstar, with just one cup providing your body with over half of your daily recommended intake. However for me personally, my interested in barley is because of its high selenium content - an essential trace mineral that is lacking in many of our diets. Not only is selenium needed for antioxidant defense and immune function, it is also needed for your thyroid (and my thyroid needs all the help it can get!)
Selenium has also been shown to stimulate DNA repair in damaged cells.
I've been eating barley for years and was first introduced to it as a thickener in hearty Winter soups made by my mum and it was at her request, that I whipped this batch of soup up. I've always loved barley's soft texture and nutty flavour and would often eat it as a replacement to rice.
Read MoreBerries are on their way and I'm super excited. I know you can get them all year round, but there is something a little special about the fresh, in season ones grown locally. I could OD on them if I was that way incline....hold on a minute, I'm a Taurean! Obsessive is my basic human nature.
Maybe that also explains why I can't just make the ONE strawberry mousse? Hunh?
Read MoreSpring.
I certainly wouldn't class it as my favourite season, but it's still a beauty, don't you think? I love the very beginning of it, when the leaves just start to show themselves and splashes of colour can be seen everywhere you look as the flowers begin to bud. I love that I still need to carry a jacket with me and that I can still rug up under a blanket most evenings.
I also love that Christmas is not too far away!
But probably my most favourite thing about this season is all the yummy Spring vegetables that begin to show themselves. How can you say no to their petite size and beautiful colours?
Read MoreI'm in experiment mode...getting ready for a gorgeous little girl's 3rd birthday party in a couple of weeks.
The experiment is to find a strawberry mousse that's light and fluffy, easy to whip up in advance, but contains no raw egg white.
Mousse Part I = is super simple to prepare and contains only 4 ingredients. It turns out a very light and fluffy mousse (which ticks my box), however it does contain a bit of a "cheat" ingredient which I'm personally not 100% keen on (only because I don't eat them in normal circumstances).
But for a 3 year old birthday party...well, I'm guessing they'll be very happy....
Read MoreFood for Thought: Carrots.
Did you know that the second most popular vegetable (after the potato) can help promote beautiful skin? Being super high in Vitamin A and antioxidants, carrots help prevent premature wrinkling, acne, dry skin, pigmentation, blemishes and uneven skin tones. They can also protect us against macular degeneration of the eyes, some cancers and heart disease.
The Vitamin A will also help your liver flush out toxins from the body - which can only be considered a good thing in my book!
Maybe you're a smarty pants and already knew all that...but I bet you didn't know that the nutrition in carrots are encased in tiny little protein sacs that have to be broken for you to gain these benefits (this could be through cooking, grinding, juicing or plain old simple proper chewing).
I cooked AND pureed mine....
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We're slowly coming to the end of parsnip season here in Australia. Even though it's available all year round, it's at its best from Autumn to Spring (perfect for those of you in the Northern hemisphere!)
It takes only a handful of ingredients to make this wonderful soup, and I guarantee you'll love the aroma coming from the oven as it bakes, the burst of sweet roasted garlic as you puree it all together and then the taste once you dollop your sour cream on top. Oh my.
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Rebekka is from Nashville Tennessee. She is the wonderful, talented lady behind Camellia Fiber Company and one of the hosts at the Slow Living Workshop.
And what a workshop it was.
Throughout the days we worked on our styling, photography and visual story telling. We ate! We spoke about building a portfolio and creating a social media presence (something I personally run from). We ate some more. And in between all of the styling, photography and eating, we delved into the natural dye process with Rebekka using local, foraged plants and flowers to brighten rustic kitchen linens - something I'd never heard of before but feel in love with......
Read MoreThat wonderful fruit we call the strawberry.
Filled with antioxidants, they have amazing anti-inflammatory properties helping prevent chronic illnesses caused by excessive inflammation in the body. This includes cardiovascular disease, heart disease and several types of cancer. They help lower your cholesterol and blood pressure and help improve your blood sugar regulation by stopping blood sugar spikes, leaving you feeling energized and full, and not tired and hungry like most sugars do.
Does this mean they counteracted the sugary goodness that lay peacefully underneath them in this tart?
Read MoreKatie is a forager and a florist. She is the talent behind Katie Marx Flowers and she is the owner (along with husband Greg) of the mind-blowing beauty that is Butterland - our home base for the Slow Living Workshop.
Based in the Victorian country town of Newstead, Butterland was the perfect place to feel inspired from the inside out. Katie's flower arrangements were the cherry on top and her outfit made me feel I had one foot in Paris and the other in the Australian countryside.
Two of my favourite things!
Read MoreRaspberries: Research has shown that these little red rubies can actually help with obesity, regulate your blood sugar levels, keep your digestive system nice and healthy AND help lower your risk of developing chronic disease. Geez....I simply ate them cause I loved the taste of them!
Did you know that just one cup of raspberries gives you a third of your daily intake of fibre, helping to keep you full for longer?
So with all of this information I’ve now put in your head, and the fact that I can tell you for a fact that they taste bloody good – the little recipe that I'm providing you with today is so worth trying.
Read MoreIt doesn't take much for me to feel giddy, but it does take a bit of effort for me to swoon, and I was swooning all over the place when afternoon tea was layed out before us at the Slow Living Workshop.
I touched briefly on the splendid beauty of Fig and Salt here, but this is no longer a little girl crush.
I'm seriously in love.
Read MoreFood Styling, I've just discovered, is actually a foreign concept to me. Go figure?
I cook a dish, I photograph it, and then I devour it.
The problem with this little method of mine, for me personally, is that I'm usually so hungry by the photographing stage that I give no time to styling the shot or developing the story. I simply take a few quick snaps and Bob's your uncle. Voila!
Thank God this workshop and Beth came into my life . Not only is this simple little step so necessary, it also puts the biggest smile on my face. I'm a long long way away from producing anything even vaguely close to Beth's level, but that's ok. I figure the journey so far is what has brought me inquisitively to this point in time, and I've loved every minute of it!
Read MoreI have that wonderful Nina Simone song playing over and over in my head.... Tomorrow is My Turn.
And in particular, the line "We all like the right to find the key to success". It's a theme that's been personally turning around in my head for a little while now and I can tell you with complete and utter certainty that the talented people behind the catering company Fig and Salt have already found it.
This pie was my proof!
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