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With Cindy's ongoing tooth problems , we needed at least one more delicious soup to get us through the week. Cindy spent the morning poking around the Internet and came up with this winner from Pinch My Salt . I won't reproduce the recipe in full as I basically followed Nicole's recipe to the letter, with the laziness-inspired exception of canned artichoke hearts taking the place of the real thing. The process of roasting the cauliflower was pretty time-consuming, especially as the house filled with delicious roasting smells, increasing our impatience for the meal. Luckily, it was worth the wait - the mix of roast cauliflower, lemon zest and artichokes created a rich and tasty treat. It was quite similar to our previous cauliflower soup , but a little lighter and healthier. I think roasting the cauliflower first was a nice touch as well. Cindy tasted a hint of cheese, which was a little odd given the lack of any cheese in the mix, while I was more enamoured of the lit...

With my jaw and gums still recovering from a wisdom tooth removal, meals in the where's the beef? household have been less diverse than usual. Michael has been doing a stellar job at catering to my whims and fancies where possible. Here's what I've been enjoying, as best my mouth allows me.... HIT: Michael's pumpkin and shallot soup . Nourishing and slightly sweet. MISS: Michael's pumpkin and shallot soup, unstrained. HIT: King Island yoghurt . I requested any lump/seed-free yoghurt and Michael pampered me with the best. The cinnamon and honey one is particularly soothing. MISS: Attempting to eat rice pudding on day two. It fared better at breakfast on day four. HIT: Chocolate ice-cream. It's years since I've shopped for ice-cream at a supermarket and it proved difficult to find one without nuts, cookie chunks or other hazards in it. Sara Lee's Ultimate Chocolate has a strange grey-brown colour but is otherwise just what the oral surgeon ord...

The extraction of Cindy's wisdom teeth has meant that we've been on a liquid-food diet for the weekend. To make sure that she had food available on Friday evening, we spent Thursday night in the kitchen: she whipping up her Indian mango pudding , and me having a crack at a pumpkin soup recipe from Ken Charney's The Bold Vegetarian Chef . The recipe had a few quirks compared to regular pumpkin soup - not least the incorporation of a roasted pear. I was uncertain whether the pear was going to have any impact on the overall flavour (it was 1 smallish pear in amongst a kilo of pumpkin after all) and speculated that it may have just been a gimmick to make Ken's recipe sound exotic. It turns out I was wrong, the pear (along with a decent splash of lemon juice) added a level of unexpected sweetness to the pumpkin and shallots, to the point that this savoury option turned out to be a little on the sweet side given Cindy's limited food choices. The recipe also suggested ...

After more than two weeks of subsisting on meals prepared by cafes and caterers, I was looking forward to some simple, nourishing home-cooked food. Heidi (of 101 Cookbooks ) couldn't have shared her favourite tomato sauce recipe at a more opportune time. It's a simple, very quickly prepared mix with a canned crushed tomato base, the requisite olive oil and garlic, then some much-needed zing from dried chilli and lemon zest. Following Heidi's recommendation further we served this with ricotta and spinach tortellini, then for some extra vege action baked portabello mushrooms with quick brush of balsamic vinegar. This was just the hint of summer I needed to put a spring in my step! Hasty, tasty tomato sauce 1/4 cup olive oil 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 x 400g cans crushed tomatoes grated rind of one lemon Stir together the olive oil, chilli, salt and garlic in a saucepan without heat. Then heat the saucepan up to ...

Saturday was Michael's last day in Hobart, and we kicked it off with a wander through that tourist staple, the Salamanca Markets . It's dominated by crafts and gourmet foods rather than fresh produce, and I picked up some fudge and ground spices along the way. I'm looking forward to experimenting with my lemon myrtle and ground wattle seeds when I return home! For Michael's last few hours in the city, we took the advice of our friendly waitress at Kafe Kara , grabbing a bus to South Hobart and visiting the Cascade Brewery for lunch. Giving the tour a miss, the gardens surrounding the visitor centre proved a pleasant diversion instead. In warmer weather it would be lovely to sit out amongst the greenery, but this wussy northerner preferred to enjoy the view from a window seat inside. As you might expect from a brewery, the menu is full of deep-fried munchies and meaty meals, though Michael and I were both pleasantly surprised when we encountered a "Cascade Sto...

First, something new: Machine Laundry . As the name indicates, this is a laundromat. But it's also a brightly decorated, retro-fitted cafe where hipsters with angular haircuts serve breakfast and lunch. There are the usual breakfast suspects, but also a substantial number of off-beat vege-friendly dishes: savoury muffins and pancakes, fruits poached in vanilla, and below the DIY eggs and toast list, this message: "Don't want eggs? You can order any combo of sides". Could anything make me feel more at home here? (Answer: perhaps my own new angular and slightly pretentious haircut.) I was determined to eat lightly and a little more healthily, choosing the "machine-made granola" ($9, rolled grains toasted with slivered almonds & honey, topped with banana and yoghurt). Unfortunately it let me down, more chewy than crunchy, with too much honey and not enough fruit for my taste. Michael fared much better with the impressive "machine-packed roti bread...

Thursday brought four notable food experiences... 1. A tour of the Cadbury factory. It took us longer to travel to and from the factory via the suburban bus system than it did to embark on the 50 minute tour. At $12.50 per person, the tour is quite reasonable but it's more a demonstration of the moulding and packaging of Cadbury chocolates than the actual tempering/production. Each person receives a 95g box of Favourites on the way out, and there are discounted seconds available from the gift shop. I was mightily pleased that they've recently been making runs of Turkish Delight, scoring 750g of the stuff for $5. 2. Brunch at Kafe Kara . We were very restrained in our early morning chocolate consumption and keen for some real food by 11:00. Kafe Kara was the perfect fit, with a few unusual items on the menu and all the gluten-free, vegetarian and convertible dishes clearly marked. Michael's poached eggs on toast with spinach, KARA relish and sweet potato rosti (...

I've been lucky enough to spend the last week attending an almost-all-expenses-paid workshop located at Freycinet Lodge in Tasmania. It's been an intense, productive and inspiring time shared with about 30 other scientists - a rare opportunity to tap into their creativity and the challenges they face, and to emerge with some exciting new ideas and collaborations. Such progress has been aided by: (1) the incredibly comfortable and luxurious environment the lodge provides; (2) the equally decadent catering; and (3) the stunning surrounds of Freycinet National Park, guaranteed to clear the mind and make space for your own personal "Eureka!" moment. What with this being a food blog, how about I give you a run-down of the catering? On our arrival at lunch time on Monday, we were greeted by a large deck with 180 degree views of sparkling Coles Bay and two chefs barbeque-ing us a gourmet lunch - charred and chunky vege skewers with dukkah and lemon juice for the vegetaria...

With Cindy heading off to Tasmania in the afternoon and nothing much planned for the morning, we decided to wander up to East Brunswick and find ourselves some breakfast. I was particularly hungry, so by the time we were in the cafe-heavy area of Lygon Street, the choice of venue was all down to whichever came first. Luckily, the winner was Small Block - a well-regarded cafe that we'd yet to visit. Thanks to our fairly early start, there was plenty of room available and we slotted into a corner table and studied the menu on the wall. The savoury options aren't particularly veg-friendly, with just a couple of non-bacon (or salmon) choices, while the sweet section of the menu was rich and varied. Of course, I stuck with my savoury preference and chose the 'summer breakfast' - poached eggs with beetroot relish, avocado, spinach and feta ($14). The beetroot relish was an interesting addition to a fairly standard brekkie - it provided a nice flavour contrast with the sa...

This weekend heralded the arrival of yet another Mike, this one a colleague from the US. To welcome him to Australia and Victoria in particular, Jane took us all on a half-day tour of the Yarra Valley. I packed a few super sandwiches and some fruit to line our stomachs as we travelled, since the main attraction would be wine tasting. It became apparent quite quickly that Mike knows a lot about wine, so the expedition proved to be as educational as it was enjoyable. We managed to cover five of the smaller vineyards, encountering a variety of hosts, almost all of them chatty, and Michael amassed a substantial collection of reds to take home (lucky Jane had a kombi, rather than a little hatchback, to fit them all in!). The added bonus (for Mike especially) were encounters with a laughing kookaburra, a small flock of galahs, and about a dozen kangaroos, one with a joey in its pouch. As the clock ticked past 6pm we decided we needed something more substantial than even the local shira...

Update 31/12/2014: Casa Farro has closed down, replaced by another Italian restaurant, Guseli . When Cindy and I got a menu from Casa Farro in our mailbox with a Nicholson Street address, there was some confusion. I decided that the place we'd sampled at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival must have moved closer to us. It turns out that that place was called Pizza Farro, not Casa Farro and it seems as though Casa Farro has been on Nicholson Street for at least as long as we've lived here. Weird. Anyway, what both 'Farro' pizza shops have in common is a focus on spelt flour pizza bases. I guess it's good for people who have problems with wheat (although apparently not for people with gluten intolerance - I don't really understand the difference), but the difference isn't really noticeable. At least to me. Anyway, having sorted out that Casa Farro was just around the corner from us, Cindy and I decided to give it a shot. We wandered in at 8:30 on a Fr...