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“If your grandmother wouldn’t recognise it don’t eat too much of it.” This is one of the teen-speak gems on ‘It’s my turn to cook’ – an e-cookbook launched this week by Claire Gourley and her mum. It could be just the thing for a last minute Christmas present for that hard-to-buy-for teen. It has simple recipes, demos of the difficult bits, healthy eating tips and all the techno stuff that teens are into. Who knows… it might help them into the kitchen and out of the burger bar. As Claire says, “Fact: too much junk food gives you a big bum”!

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On the second day of Christmas… make biscotti as gifts.

Today I made biscotti, or to be precise, the Provencal version called croquettes. When I hear the word ‘croquettes’ my mind conjures visions of some oblong, crumbed, deep fried nibble so I prefer to call them biscotti. They make a healthy alternative to most cakes and biscuits because the only fat comes from the almonds (and a tiny bit from the egg yolk) – and it’s ‘good’ fat. This recipe, adapted from ‘Patricia Wells At Home in Provence’ uses honey instead of sugar. I added dried cranberries for a more festive look. It makes about 50-55 biscotti.

Am I the only one who is constantly tidying up recklessly discarded shoes from the front entrance? Here I am again picking up my son’s grubby, child-beaten school shoes. I open the shoe cupboard and am hit by the most awful stench. I sniff the shoes in my hands. Boy, my son’s feet must have stunk at school today. But no. The putrid smell isn’t the shoes; it’s coming from the cupboard. Oh no – it’s the rewena bread!

The other night I boiled a potato in unsalted water, just like the my Nanna’s rewena recipe said. I mashed it and added a teaspoon of sugar and some flour, then put it on the hot water cylinder to ferment overnight. Unfortunately the hot water cylinder is in the stinky shoe cupboard. Goodness knows what sort of spores are floating around in there. Whatever they are, they are NOT GOOD. One night in the stinky shoe cupboard and my innocent potato water, sugar and flour has fermented into a thick, stinking cheesy mass – gross.

It’s spring-time in New Zealand and the flowers are so pretty. I just had to show you what I see each day as I walk up my street (you’ll need Adobe Flash to see the pics above). It gives me a daily hit of happiness!

Here’s a yummy Spring Lamb Salad to put you in the spring mood. Asparagus and new season’s potatoes have just arrived in the shops so I tossed them with some baby spinach leaves, roasted tomatoes and the barbecued lamb. I had some pomegranate molasses sitting in my fridge so dolloped it over the cooked lamb. It tasted delicious with the olive oil, garlic and lemon juice dressing. Try it!