As school kids we would play a memory game. One person would start "I went to the shop and I bought an apple." Then the next kid would say "I went to the shop and I bought an apple and a stick of butter." On Monday, I woke a bit dusty after catching up with a mate I haven't seen much of lately. So I did what any self-respecting woman when suffering the after effects of a big night - I went ...
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how to make mock fish | the good, the yum & the ugly
Blokes love ugly food. So on Sunday morning faced with nine hungry (and hungover) fellows, I dusted off a classic ugly food recipe and made mock fish. Mock Fish is an old fashioned term for potato pancakes and were a great (and economical) way to feed a family. But I love mock fish because it brings back memories of boozy nights and slow barbecued breakfasts with two of my best girlfriends ...
chicken and camembert pot pies
Preface: yesterday I read this article about the 25 ridiculous phrases people use at work. I don't work outside the home anymore, so just for kicks I've tried to cram as many buzzwords into this post as I can. You know me, I like to think outside the box. See if you can pick all seventeen! I'm busy, you're busy. Come three o'clock the crossing supervisor is busy. On the Monday after ...
the very best gifts I’ve ever received (and how to help the people of Nepal)
Bearhands and I have reached that stage in our union that our marriage has outlived many of our wedding presents. The red non-stick frypan my Aunt gave us is now decidedly stick. I broke one of the crystal wine glasses from a work colleague while washing up. One of the feet has broken off the sandwich press Bearhands' cousin gave us. These presents have seen wear and tear, but nothing like I ...
The Great Australian Fish Pie
I have an app on my phone that tells me what I was up to on that day in years previous. It's fun to see how much the kids have grown, remember family holidays and past accomplishments. On Friday it reminded me that three years ago, I stopped writing this blog anonymously and came out as the bird behind Cooker and a Looker. I've deleted many of those old posts because the photographs were ...
what does Mum do for fun?
Last week I asked readers to help me put together a project for Mothers Day and I was overwhelmed by the response. Each mother asked their children "What does Mum do for fun?" Their answers were unexpected and hilarious. A massive thank you to everyone who contributed, your kids made this video! Happy Mothers Day! ...
Adventures of the Broccoli Whisperer Episode 1: cream of broccoli soup
Sunday started as an average day for Amanda, the alter ego of superhero The Broccoli Whisperer. She woke with a hangover. At an early Mothers Day lunch, she enjoyed a few glasses of hair of the dog and regaled her husband's family with hilarious anecdotes. Then amused her husband with witty banter all the way home from Brisbane. The football finished and darkness descended over the farm. Just ...
baked chocolate rum cheesecake
Every morning my girls phone my folks from the “school bus” aka the backseat of my car. They chat to Nan and Pop about what’s planned for today and generally shoot the breeze. Last month, we invited Nan and Pop up for a belated birthday celebration. The girls were chatting excitedly with Poppy in the backseat. What kind of cake would you like ...
Children are keen observers but poor interpreters.
I hadn’t long been a parent when I discovered a quote from Rudolf Dreikurs, an Austrian psychiatrist, who said “Children are keen observers but poor interpreters”. It stuck with me and as the Big Sister becomes more aware of world events, I’m once again reminded of the quote. Just what does she make of the stories she sees on the news ? This week we've had numerous conversations about ...
crispy skin salmon with wasabi coriander butter
I'm not used to being in the hot seat, but lately I've been on the receiving end of some big questions. My latest interview was for Inspired: top 100 food bloggers who have been kind enough to include me in their list of fabulous food bloggers from around the globe. I know, ridiculous huh? I can't quite believe it either. I'm a notorious over-thinking, so most of the questions took (too) ...
sausages in tomato and onion gravy
when my husband and I married, my best friend was less than impressed. Don't get me wrong - she loves Bearhands, but she thought that two keen cooks marrying each other was a waste. She'd spent her adult life sustained on toast and takeaway, then married a bloke who couldn't boil water and found herself cooking every night. The thought of two capable cooks in the same household seemed ...
baby massage is bullshit
I did not find the transition to motherhood easy. It may sound conceited but before motherhood, if I tried/practiced/studied really hard at something, I could get the hang of it. Being so crap at parenting came as an enormous shock. It didn’t matter how many books I read or techniques I learned, I could not for the life of me get the Big Sister to sleep. I felt like a failure. Failure turned to ...
taking stock, April 2015
taking stock is one of the many brainchildren of Pip Lincolne from Meet Me at Mikes. Making: plans for Mothers Day. Cooking: sensible meals to make up for the holiday excess. Drinking: tea. Reading: emails. Wanting: new kitchen knives. Looking: at photos from my week at Fraser Island with the girls. Marvelling: that I did all that four-wheel-driving and didn’t get bogged ...
new tricks
as a student at an all girls high school I grew up on a staple diet of “girls can do anything” propaganda. Somewhere along the way, I replaced the mantra with my own “just don’t muck* it up” Last weekend an opportunity to take my girls on an impromptu holiday to Fraser Island presented itself. The only thing between us and a week on Orchid Beach was fear. I had to four wheel drive the length ...
tuna bake | the good, the yum & the ugly
Before I start extolling the virtues of tuna bake, may I just say I am loving this ugly food project? The very best recipes are timeless. Long ago, in the time before food blogs (gasp!), these kinds of recipes were hand written on recipe cards and either shared or fiercely guarded. Things aren't too different these days I guess, I'm still not sharing my prize-winning pickle recipes. Tuna Bake ...
the darkest hour is just before the dawn
Ever noticed how things are less scary after first light? Sure, your brother is still dead. Your daughter is still lying in a hospital bed. But when the sun comes up, things seem a little more manageable. Those first rays of light appear and it dawns on you that you might just be OK. The Big Sister gave us an almighty fright in the early hours of Friday morning and I drove her to hospital. ...
the weekend rewind: confessions of a would-be food blogger
Hello there! I’m very chuffed to be the guest host of the Weekend Rewind this week at the invitation of Maxabella, Life Love and Hiccups, Sonia Styling and Kelly Exeter, aka the Rewind girls (sounds like an eighties band, right?) If you’re visiting from the Rewind, welcome. I’m very glad to have you aboard. Cooker and a Looker is supposed to be a food blog, but I can think of at least ten ...
20 superb seafood recipes
there's a hundred reasons to be grateful to live in our neck of the woods and access to delicious, fresh seafood is one of them! This week we were lucky enough to buy some prawns and Moreton Bay Bugs directly from the trawler in Mooloolaba. Last night we tucked into a feast of fresh seafood, lemon wedges and white (!) bread and butter. It was a simple dinner, but one we'll remember. I don't ...
mince and macaroni casserole: the good, the yum & the ugly
thanks for the warm welcome you gave the good, the yum & the ugly last week. I'm glad you love ugly food as much as I do. I must admit I was surprised at a common theme in the feedback: apparently salmon rissoles aren't ugly enough. Well fear not, ugly food lovers, this week's recipe has ugly in spades. Not only is my mince and macaroni casserole seriously unattractive, the recipe includes ...
the folly of privilege, the immunisation debate + a story about a sick baby
In 2004 I travelled to Madagascar as part of a group researching lemurs. Each morning, we would leave our basic camp (no power, no running water) and hike through the hills to the rainforest. When we got there local Malagasy trackers, who’d been up before dawn, would meet us and direct us to the troop of lemurs and we’d spend our day studying their behaviour. We were about a week into our visit ...
the honeymoon crashers
Being a wedding crasher is all well and good, but if you want to have real fun, crash a honeymoon. I crashed my first honeymoon back in 2003, I flew to Vancouver to stand next to my beautiful friend Chrissy as she married her Canadian groom. Then I joined them on their honeymoon in Whister - doing trapeze school at the bottom of the mountain and later, at the top, marvelling at kids taking ...
pink lemonade scones
How is it that in the three steps from the kitchen bench to the door the Big Sister will forget that I asked her to put her school shoes on, but promise to bake with her on Sunday and she'll remember that the whole week? At a weak moment at some point I'd promised to make a cake with the kids, but come Sunday more pressing jobs took precedence, so we compromised and agreed to make scones. After ...
new additions
Ever wonder if your family is complete? Whether you could brave the sleepless nights that the varicose veins in your va-jayjay once more? I've been thinking about new additions a lot lately (for the record, I'm blaming BabyMac). In campgrounds across New Zealand we watched families jamming port-a-cots and prams into station wagons and smiled because we're passed that now. Each holiday our ...
salmon rissoles: the good, the yum & the ugly
I stopped buying magazines years ago. One day as I flipped though the pages, it occurred to me that everything in the beautiful book had been plumped, coloured or enhanced. The highly stylised shots that spread across the slick pages were of settings I didn’t even aspire to. If I attempted to recreate the glossy contents, I’d likely be disappointed when my efforts didn't resemble the magazine’s ...
happy is the bride that the sun shines on
a quick note before we get started. This post comes with a warning: its sole purpose for me to show off my ridiculously good-looking family of whom I am incredibly proud and share some photos from Erin and Rachel’s wedding in Auckland last Friday. Down with that? Great! Let's go …. There’s an old Irish proverb that says Happy is the bride that the sun shines on and I’m very pleased to report ...
how to make the world’s best sandwich
we spent the day at home yesterday, readjusting to normal life. Spreading out after our week living in close quarters in the camper van. Unpacking, snoozing, preparing to return to reality today. Every time we return home I count my blessings that we live a life that we’re happy to come home to. That we have safe comfortable beds and tank water that tastes better than anywhere else on ...
down tools
Hello there! We're having such a great time holidaying in New Zealand. I've stepped away from the keyboard to spend some special time with my little family. Seeyou when we get back. Kia Ora! Amanda ...
six things I love about New Zealand
Yesterday we arrived in New Zealand. It’s the girls first overseas trip and as we drove away from the airport the Big Sister said to be in an awed voice “New Zealand is beautiful, mummy”. She’s right. New Zealand is beautiful and we’re only just getting started. This morning when the kids woke at the respectable time of 8am (that’s still five at home, but it sounds much nicer) I started ...
the hole hog
It's only Wednesday and already its been a week of ups and downs here. On Monday I travelled to Brisbane for the culmination of six months of (often painful) dental work and healing: the fitting of my new front tooth. Not only am I now free of the denture that I’ve hated this whole time, but the dentists have done a wonderful job in the restoration. I was so thrilled at the result I felt like ...
as the days go by…
Yesterday morning, I found myself sitting in the back of a stretch limo, sipping a glass of Chandon* being whisked away to a secret location. Just your average Sunday really. My sister-wife Susan had arranged the surprise for our birthdays and teased us with clues for the preceding two weeks. I was completely clueless about our destination. The limo driver even got in on the act, ...
sports stars are not heroes
This afternoon Australia is awash with talk about photos of Glenn McGrath, an esteemed former national cricketer, posing with his trophies. Ironically, these trophies have nothing to do with sport. Rather they are animals that McGrath shot for entertainment. All across the inter web, folks are lamenting the demise of a hero. To them I say, Glenn McGrath was never a hero. Nor was Karmichael ...
clueless
I'm headed off to a birthday celebration tomorrow. Every year, three of my girlfriends and I celebrate our February/March birthdays together. This year is a bit different though. My sister-wife Susan has planned our day and we no nothing except a time and a dress code. These past few weeks she's been sending us obscure clues about what we're going to get up to. So good ...
make your own muesli bars and ten things I know for sure.
these things i know for sure: If it’s going to rain, it will rain at 8.25am and 2.50pm. School pick up and drop off. If I’ve hung clothes on the line, the likelihood of preciptiation doubles. My nose will be come itchy the moment my hands are covered in raw meat, chicken manure or (in days of yore) human excrement. My children will have pressing needs and furious arguments the moment I step ...
rum and raisin ice cream and the best bits about being an adult
Sometimes I find myself in adult situations and am completely stunned that I am actually a grown up. In these moments, it’s like someone uprooted the shaky foundations of an insecure sixteen-year-old girl and transported her into adulthood. How did I get here? Sometimes the situation is innocuous like covering the Big Sister’s school books and being surprised that they’re not mine: that I’m not ...
taking stock. the Christopher Pyne edition.
I deplore the C word. Won't stand for it to be said in my ear shot. Over the years, we've had a few employees that have been quite fond of it and I've told them they're only allowed use that particular word on their birthdays. I imagine I shocked the socks off a mate when I quoted Christopher Pyne in a text this week. (It was obviously his birthday when he appeared on the Today Show recently.) ...
eleven valentines day ideas (that won’t make you barf)
Valentines Day means different things to different people. Hell, it means different things to the same people over time. Bearhands and I have had our fair share of Valentines ups and downs. We very nearly broke up one Valentines Day and were engaged a few Valentines Days later. Since the kids were born, we've had failed attempts at Valentines Day. This year will be more a celebration of the Big ...
quinoa tabbouleh and a few things you don’t know about me.
Last week Robyna from The Mummy and the Minx had a few kinds words to say about me on her blog. As part of the same post, she wrote a list of things her readers didn't already know about her. We've been mates since high school, but there were a few surprises amongst the list even for me. So in the interests of full disclosure (and having something to chat about) here's five things you don't ...
flourless chocolate pear cake
You know what the world needs more of? People who wave when you let them into traffic. And cake. Especially chocolate cake. This flourless chocolate pear cake is rich and dense and fresh all at the same time. Served with thick cream and blueberries, it makes a decadent finish to a dinner party. Because it's made with almond meal, it's ideal choice if you're entertaining gluten-sensitive ...
this is my brother David
This is my brother David. Today is his thirty-third birthday. Except he's not. David will be 29 forever. Sometimes I imagine what he’d doing now, if God had taken me up on any of the deals I frantically tried to make with him while we waited for the search team to reach the crash site. I wonder about where would he be working. What he’d look like now. If he was here I imagine he’d be ...
the time of my life
Ever get the feeling the universe is trying to tell you something? A few weeks ago, while Bearhands was overseas, I settled into watch Dirty Dancing. It was just getting to the climax when Foxtel put Baby in a corner. The recording finished just as Johnny was sorry to interrupt (but he always does the last dance of the season). Since then, the universe seems to be trying to fill my ...