Tuesday, May 15, 2018

ESCAPE ! TO THE GREAT OUTDOORS


Escape! to the great outdoors
A perfume from Saudi Arabia that evoked the country’s landscape crystallised a business idea for Tauranga couple Serena and Harold Jones – using scent to create a unique sense of place.
The result is Queenstown Natural Perfumiers, which debuted its collection last year. “Our natural environment is New Zealand’s true luxury. It’s totally amazing and often undervalued,” says Serena Jones, who has studied botany and horticulture.
“Queenstown Lakes is among New Zealand’s finest landscapes so we sought to find and express the region’s essential scents.”

After 2 years of research and development involving professional perfumiers in New Zealand and France, the keen trampers and bush walkers released four scents – Mountain Herbs, Wilderness Berries, Lakeland Flora and High Country Tussock.

The perfumes will be available to sample at the Escape! festival in Tauranga early next month as part of Scents of a Landscape on Sunday, June 3 with Harold Jones, who is also a poet (AUP New Poets 4), and award-winning novelist Laurence Fearnley, discussing the power of scent to enhance feeling, awareness and memory.
Fearnley – who has been ‘scent mapping’ her Dunedin neighbourhood for 2 years – also tutors a workshop in writing “beyond the visual” on Saturday, June 2. She is working on a book of essays on scent and a novel structured like a perfume with top notes, heart notes and base notes.

Also exploring the outdoors at Escape! is Geoff Chapple who will take his audience from Cape Reinga to Bluff across the 3000km Te Araroa Walkway of New Zealand on Friday, June 1.

Chapple, who took up the project when it became clear local authorities would not, began mapping the North Island trail, talking to every council and DoC conservancy on the route but in 1997 decided the only way to whip up interest was to walk the trail and write as he went, using the new-fangled internet and so becoming one of this country’s first bloggers.

His first national interview took place near Whangarei with Radio NZ’s Kim Hill. “Listeners could hear a mad old woman cursing me – I only had one hand on the cellphone for most of the interview in case I had to fend her off.” Blog views went into the thousands.
“I was just about a vagabond,” Chapple recalls, “sleeping in public toilets on wet nights. My family and I were made very poor by that 5-month tramp and I couldn’t have done it without the support of my wife [Miriam Beatson].”

A $30,000 grant in 2002 enabled him to design and walk the South Island trail – “and I suddenly had a credit card that worked”.
Te Araroa Walkway of New Zealand officially opened on December 3, 2011 with Chapple’s guidebook published at the same time. After standing down as the trust’s chief executive in 2012, Chapple received an ONZM.

Escape! festival is in Tauranga from June 1-4. See the full programme at www.taurangafestival.co.nz

Shared Kitchen



   

 

Time to feastIt’s still sunny at my place, but temperatures have dropped around most of the country, so the chill is on its way. I used to love coming home from school to a warm kitchen when I was child, and my kids loved it too, especially when it was full of tempting smells. Good food is like that. It draws people in, brings them together, which is why the kitchen is called the heart of the home. If you run a family home, never undervalue the effort you put in. It is always worth it to make homecooked food, to create memories for your family, to teach children cooking skills, which they often absorb by osmosis, just by living in a family where food is cooked from scratch. And to set them off on the path of being able to cook for themselves and to look after their health.
On Mother’s Day I shared a feast with my immediate family Luca, Ilaria and Remo. Roasted Onions (ridiculously good, and ridiculously easy!),  Baked Peppers with Chorizo, Fried Cauliflower with Olives & Herbs and  meatless Potato & Eggplant Moussaka.
We were stuffed after that lot (there were leftovers for 2 days!), but somehow we managed a slice of Apple & Blackberry Pie! Apple pies remind me of my own mother who made great pastry and pies, so it was a nice nod to her.
All the recipes here:
Autumn Feast
Roasted Onions
Baked Peppers with Chorizo
Fried Cauliflower with Olives & Herbs
Potato & Eggplant Moussaka
Apple & Blackberry Pie

Humpf makes a return this week. He’s got a serious problem. He’s suffering withdrawals and packing a sad. Send him a wish if you’ve got the time and tell him to hang in there. Biccie addictions do pass ... Humpf

Okey doke,  nothing for it but to get cooking. Cauliflowers are a reasonable price again. Onions and potatoes are cheap, and that all helps balance the budget.
Julie

Friday, May 11, 2018

EAT YOUR BOOKS


Weekly Round-Up | 
 
     Recipes | Books | Blog      Weekly Round-Up
Dear BookmanBeattie,

EYB wants to make your cooking life easier. Our main focus has always been indexing cookbooks and magazines so you can efficiently search your own collection instead of paging through individual indexes. We also aim to keep members up to date on the best new titles being published. Our latest feature, EYB Book Preview, allows you to view an extract from a growing number of titles, sometimes in advance of publication date. These Previews are full pages that give a great "feel" for each book. They are shown exactly as they appear in the physical cookbook including layout, style, font, photography, and, of course, a sampling of recipes!

Below you’ll find our latest EYB Book Previews, plus GIVEAWAYS, and more!


The team at EatYourBooks
 

Member Photo of the Week:
 
Littleneck Clams with Green Garlic Butter and Leftover Wine from Dining In: Highly Cookable Recipes by Alison Roman

Photo submitted by Maefleur.  Have you uploaded any of your own photos yet? Learn more!
 

Featured Online Recipe:
 
 

EYB Book Previews For Pre-Release Titles:
A selection of full sample pages are available for the following cookbooks soon to be published. Click the book cover or orange EYB Book Preview button to view.
Learn more about EYB Book Previews
 
3 recipes from The Cultured Club: Fabulous Fermentation Recipes by Dearbhla Reynolds
Available for pre-order. Release date: May 29, 2018
 
 
3 recipes from Cauliflower: Over 70 Exciting Ways to Roast, Rice, and Fry One of the World's Healthiest Vegetables by Oz Telem
Available for pre-order. Release date: May 31, 2018
 
 
3 recipes from French Grill: 150 Refined & Rustic Recipes by Susan Herrmann Loomis
Available for pre-order. Release date: June 19, 2018.
 
 
3 recipes from Chefs Eat Melts Too: A Pro's Guide to Reinventing Your Sandwich Game by Darren Purchese
Available for pre-order. Release date: August 7, 2018.
 
 

More EYB Book Previews:
A selection of full sample pages are available for the following cookbooks. Click the book cover or orange EYB Book Preview button to view. Individual recipes from already indexed titles can be added to your EYB Bookshelf now.
Learn more about EYB Book Previews.
 
3 recipes from Happy Food: Fast, Fresh, Simple Vegan by Bettina Campolucci Bordi
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Cookbooks with GIVEAWAYS!
Each of these featured titles has a current giveaway. Click the blue button for more information on how to enter. For titles that also have an EYB Book Preview, click on the orange EYB Book Preview button to view the available full sample pages.