Jessica K’s “Fall off the Bone Chinese Spareribs”, for crockpot or oven.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

What do you do when you fancy Spareribs but don’t have the time to boil them first, roast them later etc.?

I have to confess that I cheated… Hey ! Shortcuts are good sometimes aren’t they? ( let’s amend that from “shortcuts” to ” efficient time management“, makes it sound so much better doesn’t it LOL? )

We were out at an afternoon Birthday party and were to bring guests home with us… so I threw everything into the crockpot (NO boiling, just meat and sauce) and left it on for the 5 hours that we were away…

It was good timing coming home, we were starving for something savoury to nibble as the only things to eat at the party were overly creamed cakes, but didn’t want anything too fussy, so this with a little salad and chicken on sticks went down a treat.

I didn’t make too much since this was an experiment and my small amount was *just* beginning to get too dark after 5 hours, and since the meat was falling off the bone, I grabbed the salad and next minute it was all gone !

I will play around with the recipe just a little as “more garlic” was muttered by more than one full mouth, but this recipe was a hit and has be a regular feature in our house.

Now that I have made this recipe for the umteenth time I decided to write a blog post about it so that more people could find this gem of a recipe. Depending on your crockpot and how much you stuff into it,  cooking time can be between 5 and 9 hours,  the more meat, the more time needed.

My crockpot has only one setting for heat, no High or Low etc and we like our ribs really well cooked and falling off the bone, so experiment a little until you get the perfect time for your ribs.
We upped the amount of garlic to about 8 cloves but we are all serious garlic lovers, so again, personal preference is everything. I’m usually pretty heavy handed with the grated ginger and sherry too LOL.

Fall off the Bone Chinese Spareribs  By Jessica K. Recipe #123438  (2¾ hours 10 min prep)SERVES 4 -6 , 1 rack (change servings and units)

Jessica’s recipe is printed here with her kind permission, if you make it and would like to leave her a review you can find the link here: http://www.recipezaar.com/Fall-off-the-Bone-Chinese-Spareribs-123438

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Ingredients:
spareribs (1 or more racks)
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons chili sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons dry sherry
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger, I use the jarred stir fry mix of garlic and ginger when i run out of fresh and tastes great, and hav
Directions
1. First before you do anything get you a really big pot and fill it up with water. I use my big soup stockpot but whatever big pot you have that’ll fit the ribs is fine. Heat on burner on medium heat. Next put a bunch of spices and herbs in there, I use garlic salt, ground pepper, thyme, rosemary, and oregano, but whatever you like is fine, this is your beef stock.
2. Put ribs in spiced up water. Now let simmer for about 2-3 hours, till meat is gray and starting to pull away from the edges of the bones. Take ribs out of pot, save liquid for recipes that call for beef stock. Put ribs in 9×13 baking dish or pan, don’t forget to grease it!
3. Mix all ingredients listed above in a bowl. Taste, if not to your liking add a little bit of whatever you think will help it out. I usually end up putting in more honey and hoisin. Now brush some of sauce on both sides of ribs and let sit on and absorb for about 20-30 minute.
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brush more sauce on both sides of ribs. Bake for 15 minute Brush more sauce on. Bake 15 more minute. Sauce on ribs should be brown and crispy looking. Serve with sauce if desired and if enough leftover.
5. Enjoy!

Mandy’s “Meatlover’s Pizza”…even with fussy kids watch this dissappear!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I’m not normally a big pizza fan, and nor are the family, but we have tried making Pizza at home and our opinion and liking of pizza is slowly rising.

This Recipezaar recipe is one of our homemade efforts and was a hit, especially with Kiwidutch Daughter. (Anyone with fussy children will totally understand how many brownie points a recipe earns when this happens !)

She helped make the Pizza’s as well… Little brother Master Four tried hard to help but got side-tracked into stuffing himself with salami instead, ah well, good intentions little man… LOL.

I had on hand: a very small amount of portuguese chorizo sausage, large rounds of salami and 2 cooked rookworsts ( = large smoked sausages, similar-ish (but better) to frankfurters), the pizza bases came from Ecoplaza (totally organic grocery) it’s the first time I tried these and they taste great!

Little Miss smeared the tomato sauce onto the bases, and put the meat onto one while I did the other, and she got busy adding the cheese, more like a blizzard of the stuff then a dusting, but oh well, that’s kids in the kitchen for you.
We also added a little green pepper and these cooked up in no time. This recipe gets plus points for using leftover meats successfully, WITH organic bases successfully, for letting daughter loose in the kitchen and having fun AND getting her to happily enjoy eating the end result.
For me it was simple to make and the 2 pizzas did us great for a weekday meal in a bit of a rush.
This is recipe that is open to many variations of leftover meats as you like, leftover diced roast chicken, those last slices of ham in the packet that need using up, salami, of the sausages left over from the weekend BBQ that you put in the fridge and are now looking lonely. An excellent recipe to reduce needless food waste, and it tastes brilliant too ! Thanks Mandy!

Meatlovers Pizza

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Recipe #299560 20 min 5 min prep
By: **Mandy**

I’ve printed Mandy’s recipe here with her permission and she mentions in her recipe that she got it got it from a “Take 5 Ingredients Book”.

Ingredients:
30 cm pizza crusts, with
tomato sauce

1 cup pizza cheese, grated

2 chorizo sausages, sliced
125 g cocktail franks, sliced
60-100 g smoked ham, shredded
2 tablespoons barbecue sauce

Directions
1. Place pizza base on a lightly greased oven tray, top with half the cheese, then sliced meats and ham followed by remaining cheese.
2. Bake in a preheated oven at 200.C for approx 15 mins or until base is crisp and the top is golden.
3. Remove from oven and drizzle with barbeque sauce to serve.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Portuguese Homemade Piri-Piri (Hot Sauce) Mia’s Way…

I’m a Recipezaar.com member and have a friend there called Mia… She lives in Portugal and has a family recipe for traditional Piri Piri.

What is Piri Piri? it’s a Portuguese traditional hot sauce that comes in several forms: a sauce version and can also be bought in a dried form of pepper flakes. Both are very hot, so use a little until you get used to it and add more in very small increments until you get the desired heat.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Portuguese Homemade Piri-Piri(Hot Sauce) Mia’s Way
Recipe #336778
40 min prep
Makes 4 , one liter jars

Ingredients:

2 kg hot red chili peppers
3 bulbs of garlic
2 cups olive oil
1 1/2 cups coarse salt

Directions:

1. First remove the stems from the hot peppers, but leave the seeds in.
2. Next you peel the garlic bulbs, and the onion.
3. Add all of the ingredients into a blender, for the exception of 1/2 cup salt and olive oil.
4. Blend everything until its very well blended. Like a thick sauce.
5. Now you pour it into a bowl, and sprinkle the remaining salt and olive oil over the sauce. Leave it for 4-5 days in a dark cool place, remember to stir it 2-3 times a day.
6. Now just pour into distilled jar, add a little more oil if it looks too dry, and store away. Enjoy!

Mia said: I got this recipe from an aunt of mine years ago. You can add it to a roast B.Q. into what ever you desire. Sometimes if I have fresh parsley on hand I add that to. I usually make enough to do me the whole years, sometimes more. But “BEWARE” its very “HOT” so have the beer handy! Ha!! I hope you all enjoy it, as much as I do.

If you make this and would like to review it, you can do so here:

http://www.recipezaar.com/Homemade-Piri-Piri-Hot-Sauce-Mias-Way-336778

I used Scotch Bonnet peppers when I made this and believe me, there are very  very fiery indeed. A small half teaspoon is enough heat for an entire meal… for us at least.  The heat you will get will depend entirely on which variety of  hot peppers you use.  With this recipe you will have a decent  supply of Piri Piri, I bought my Scotch Bonnet peppers at the Haagse Markt for Euro 2,- per kilogram, so this is a very cheap recipe to make.

DO wear gloves when dealing with your peppers and take care of your eyes, even leaning over the food processor will leave you breathless, this stuff is very strong. Keep well out of reach of children. Add this to any recipe where spicy heat is required.

Thanks Mia for a brilliant recipe!

Cooking up a storm in Maine.

(photo © kiwidutch)

We are having a great time at Camp…. cooking is one of our hobbies  and we have certainly been enjoying  some excellent food. American style  cooking is very different to European style cooking and we are enjoying the temporary change and new experience of cooking on the big outdoor BBQ, and in the ” summer kitchen” at Camp.

For the Kiwiduch family, living in an apartment  in The Netherlands,  it’s also great for the kids to be outside, swimming in the lake and burning off all their excess energy. Since we have arrived we have had one short cloudburst of rain, and two rainy days. The rest of the time the weather has been fabulous.

We have been very lucky indeed… up until the day we arrived,  Maine had had a rocky start to the Summer, a month and a half of rain preceded our arrival, not the usual weather pattern at all.   meanwhile, back in the Netherlands  for the past month and a half, the weather has been unseasonably warm, we had been enjoying sunny days with long walks to the beach and back, frequent  walks around the city.

We liked to joke that we  packed the sunshine into our suitcases and bought the good weather with us from The Netherlands.. which would normally be a double joke  indeed  even if it were possible, as it’s usually a national pass-time of the Dutch to complain about their lousy weather!

I find cooking relaxing and enjoyable and it’s wonderful to stay with people who feel the same way, needless to say we have been having an amazing time in the kitchen together!

Here are some of the highlights of our home-made cooking frenzies… fresh green beans…

(photo © kiwidutch)

Sweet corn that had still been on the stalks in the field early this morning… my eight year old set a record for eating 7 of these !  Dutch corn isn’t half as good, if she would eat one at home we would be going well ! (or did this have more to do with beating the kids of the family were were staying with in a sweet-corn eating race? …. Kids!)

(photo © kiwidutch)

… coleslaw, a very American dish. Hubby is slowly getting used to it.  I love the stuff.

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

and of course…    pie !

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Cooking local treats,  fresh and in season and with friends… wonderful ! That’s one of the things that really makes a holiday brilliant 

Home cooking on holiday in Maine…

(photo © kiwidutch)

Of course we are not eating out all the time. In fact we cook every day when we are at the “Camp”with our friends and hosts.

Fresh corn on the cob, picked and bought the morning of our meal is inhaled by my picky children… the perfect-in-season freshness and sweet taste do more work to inspire them than any Mama cajoling to eat vegetables.

Most of the time when the weather is very hot and humid we eat outside at tables under the covered BBQ area  in the cool falling darkness of evening.

Our Hosts also have other visitors come to stay so we up the food production to cater for the crowd. Some of these visitors bring home made pies and baked goods to share too… a large outdoor BBQ cooks up meat in minutes, and we eat royally. Most of the photos were taken after the sun had set, so I did my best with the flash…

Here are a few photos of our  cooking for a crowd:

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

And now the delectable desserts…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

The photos don’t do it justice… this was all yummy!

Bacalhau – Salt Cod and how to prepare it, step by step.

Bacalhau à Gomes De Sá /Cod & Potato Cape Verd (photo © kiwidutch)

Let’s look a my Portuguese word for the day: “Bacalhau” .. or as it is known in English – Salt Cod.

It was somewhat of a surprise for me to discover that Bacalhau, one of the most important and strongly identifiable ingredients of Portuguese cuisine is not actually native/ local to the Iberian peninsula’s waters. The Bacalhau or Salt Cod as it is known in English, is traditionally imported from Newfoundland or Norway and has been a staple of the Portuguese kitchen for hundreds of years after the highly successful preservation technique of salt drying was discovered some four or five centuries ago.

In recent decades however, world stocks of cod have declined dramatically, turning Bacalhau from a cheap routine meal in the Portuguese kitchen into an expensive treat often reserved for special family occasions and national holidays.

That said, Bacalhau is a treat that in my humble opinion, and according to my own personal list of “100 must-have taste experiences before I die” must be tried at least once in your lifetime, the flavour is excellent and the curing process seems to give a strength of flavour to the fish, without it to me at least, being overly “fishy” as some more oily fish are apt to be.

The first thing to do is to track down some salt cod… depending on where you live in the world this is sometimes easier said than done, but once located it is well worth the effort. The second thing is that now you find yourself in possession of a length of fish that is hard and brittle and looks like it would make a decent substitute as a softball bat should Coach accidentally misplace the junior squads’ kit bag this week.

Your dried cod will look like this:

Salt Cod (dried state) (photo © kiwidutch)

The very first time I bought salt cod I made the mistake of buying the longest length of fish that they had in the pile, beguiled by the fact that it looked prettier than the short stubby cut pieces that were nearby.

Yes, they DID ask me in the shop if I wanted it cut, and in fact they asked twice to make certain.. but naively I said no, “no thanks, no problem, it’s fine as it is“. Wrong move, as I found out to my horror at home, faced with a dry and solid piece of fish that was easily four or five times longer than the width or depth of my largest and most cavernous cooking pot.

My dear husband, once he finished wiping the tears away from his face from laughing so hard at my dilemma, came to the rescue with a handsaw and diligently hacked away at my treasured find, while I swiftly came to the conclusion that the learning curve for dealing with this simple fish was steeper than I first imagined… or that I was indeed dumber than I liked to think.

The moral of the story is of course: buy the small bits or gratefully accept the shops offer to cut it for you, because in the end you will be picking this fish off it’s bones and not serving this as a length of fish, so it’s appearance in it’s salted form really doesn’t matter.

What does matter however, is that wherever possible you should try and buy pieces that are all roughly the same size and thickness, as this will help you to get a more even cooking time once you are ready for that part of the process.

Oh well, at least said husband knew from previous Portuguese travel experiences that Bacalhau was worth his sawing efforts, and the bonus was that our hand-saw got the scrubbing of it’s life both before and after the Bacalhau surgery so having done at least one item in the family tool kit a favour, I was ready to tackle the business of cooking my brand new finned friend.

Actually, after this shaky start it all turns out to be far easier than I had thought, in fact I liken dealing with Salt Cod to making your first pastry from scratch: you sweat about it for ages, then muster up the courage to do it and once you actually brave your fears and get into it you discover than it’s far easier than it looks and wonder what on earth you ever worried about in the first place and why didn’t you get around to doing this years ago?

The process is alarmingly simple but it does take time… and the time is something you can’t take a short-cut on, the soaking process is fundamental to the success of your recipe.

Immerse your Bacalhau in a large pot of clean cold water, and let it soak for a minimum of 24 hours, changing and refreshing the water several times during the soaking period.

Salt Cod (soaking) (photo © kiwidutch)

Refresh the water around your Bacalhau one last time and add the following ingredients to the pot:

2 lb salt cod (1 kg)
1/2 cup white vinegar
2-3 carrots, diced ( use several if they are small)
3 celery ribs
1 onion, cut into quarters.
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried parsley or few sprigs fresh parsley.

This favourite recipe is my basic starting point, but over time I have amended it somewhat in that usually I throw in some peppercorns ( only a few, if I am too lazy to pick them all out later ) and if I am better organised I make a small boquet-garni of whole black peppercorns, bay leaf, parsley and tie them into a little muslin bag that then gets tied up and goes into the pot. If your family is like mine and celery is not in their top 10 ( or even 50 ) vegetable list, then I sneak in more here, ditto the onion and I never do things by halves so I usually shove in several bay leaves. We like flavour in our house. Bring it on… the bolder the better.

Salt Cod (soaked, ready to cook) (photo © kiwidutch)

There is no salt in the recipe because of course the fish bought the salt with him, and even after a through soaking the residue should easily be enough to complete and compliment the rest of the seasonings.

Now bring your water to the boil and simmer until your cod is just cooked though (about 15 minutes for my pieces) Don’t be tempted to overcook it or the texture of the fish will not be as nice in your finished dish.

Now you have successfully “dealt with” your Bacalhau.

Salt Cod (taking it off the bones) (photo © kiwidutch)

All that remains is to carefully remove the skin and bones so that you have a wonderful pile of fish all ready to add to your favourite Portuguese Bacalhau recipe.

Salt Cod (Bones out and ready to go…) (photo © kiwidutch)

Now that you have mastered the Bacalhau preparation process, See wasn’t that easy? Usually I buy as much fish as I can get into two of my biggest pots, I soak and boil both and then, once the fish has been prepared and off the bone, I bag meal sized amounts and get what I am not using right away into the freezer. This means that when you want to make a different Bacalhau recipe another time, you can skip straight to the recipe and the most time consuming part has already been taken care of.

Soon I will be introducing you to some of my favourite recipes recipe that uses the cooked fish flakes that are before you…

Keeping all the balls in the air…healthy home cooking shortcuts.

Crockpot chicken of turkey stock Recipezaar Recipe No.55282 by Pets'R'us (photo © Kiwidutch)

O.K, I work full time and I have two kids… but how on earth do you juggle everything and still find time to make your own spagetti sauce, taco sauce or meat or veggie stocks? How do you keep meals tasty, and healthy without spending 6 hours in the kitchen and only getting 3 hours sleep? The simple answer is ” sometimes you don’t“. Well, at least not quite 100%.

Am I the only Mama who steps in the shower in the morning and sometimes has to pick a few pieces of pasta out of the drain cover because one of my kids was soooooooooo sloooooooow eating that they finished their previous evening’s meal in the bath?

In the end a lot of this comes down to one very simple piece of advice: Pick your battles!

Jobs and commutes mean that sometimes even with making my own sauces, etc it all just can’t all successfully be squeezed into the day. Tonight after work I made two slices (bars) (Daughter helped crush the biscuits/cookies) for an event at work tomorrow and a Summer Fair day at creche on Saturday… right now as I type Daughter is reading her homework out loud… Son is cuddled up sleepily while listening at my other elbow (ain’t laptops grand?)

Hubby is working in the downstairs office on stuff for a client who needs it urgently… we were all home late , the kids were starting to flight themselves stupid in the car (hunger pangs = NO patience) so dinner was plain boiled pasta, barely boiled head of broccoli and sugar snap peas (we like them crunchy) and then fresh pineapple and cherries for dessert.. we were too tired , hot and today even too lazy to get the pasta sauce I thawed from the freezer out of the fridge and heat it up, so I slapped a few slices of deli ham on each plate, : Dinner on the table for hungry whining kids about 15 minutes flat !

Tomorrow’s menu? sorted! … use the pasta sauce up …. and think hard about what to put into lunch boxes tomorrow because we just ate the ham I was intending to use. My second piece of advice follows tonight’s reality; be prepared to be flexible and to improvise when you have to.

No, you can’t juggle all of the balls all of the time… but you can make life a little easier on yourself, and here are a few ideas about how:

*when you make lasagna, if at all possible make two at once, cut into chunks when baked and freeze for easy home made meals another day…
* If you roast a chicken, throw cold bones into a bag and freeze them.. when you have time and a bag full, throw the bones with celery, onion etc into your crock pot before you go to bed… the next morning you will have home made chicken stock, cool it and freeze and freeze in cups….
* Make pasta or taco meat or tomato sauces in bulk .. freeze in portions… one easy meal per week from your stash will free up time for learning to do all the other things you want to achieve.. it IS possible.

Crockpot chicken of turkey stock Recipezaar Recipe No.55282 by Pets'R'us (photo © Kiwidutch)

But lastly if it all slips out of your hands for the day, try not to sweat the small stuff … there are usually options even small ones, to help you out – can the kids help out? even small kids can fetch and carry something suitable, pick up laundry etc…

Can you recycle unused food into the next days meal? can you freeze something fresh that you see that you won’t get used today, or tomorrow, so that it doesn’t go to waste?

Come on, you know that if you don’t just transfer it to the freezer whilst it’s still good now, then you will find it in the back of the fridge in a week smelling evil and growing a small green bio-hazard lifeform. Even the smallest points can make large differences in managing the busy lifestyle choices of today’s society with less stress and more smiles.

Grandma, and her legacy that changed my life…

Potatoes with Roast Recipezaar Recipe No.152029 by Chris Reynolds. Photo © Kiwidutch

My Kiwi Grandma may have been an average cook, but she was a baker par excellence…

As a child I was fascinated with her kitchen: she had a row of old fashioned drawers, built into the cabinet at the end of her kitchen. The handles were unusual, they were recessed into the drawers, with a little metal loop that also recessed into the handle itself. Everything stayed flush with the cabinets when they were closed. I adored those handles.

The draws that were extra special were at the bottom of the cabinet ensemble, they were longer than they were wide and when you pulled each of the handles at the top, the drawers would tilt forwards towards you, the top of the drawer would be nearest to you and the bottom staying flush with the rest of the cabinets, so when pulled out it made a triangle shape.

These bins were lined and filled to the brim with flour, various types of sugars and ingredients that she used often in her baking. No plastic containers in sight. Her baking bowls were a thick plain crockery and Gran could beat up cream that came in the short, solid glass bottles in no time flat with her solid hand egg beater. It had a smooth easy action that even kids could manage and an even smoother wooden handle from constant use. Modern experts in kitchen gadgetry should take note: this was my favourite utensil in all Grandma’s kitchen. It may have been called an egg beater but I think it actually spent most of it’s working life creaming butter and sugar and whipping umpteen half pints of cream.

Cake, biscuits (cookies), slices (bars) in this home were made and stored in large metal tins with airtight lids that had faded pictures from various advertisements or floral arrangements. Wonders emerged from those tins.. delectable delights of cookies topped with homemade marshmallow, chocolate chip cookies, muffins lighter and tastier than any available in shops nowadays were among the vast rotation of delights that she made regularly . Scones emerged fresh out of the oven were light as air and were to die for. … served warm, dripping with lashings of strawberry, raspberry or apricot jam that came from the laden garden that started a few steps beyond the back door and cream freshly whipped with my favourite egg beater.

The fruits and veggie garden were pretty much Granddad’s domain, the flowers ( mostly roses) in the front garden were Grandma’s pride and joy.

Granddad was of the generation who enjoyed a solid but monotonous menu of meat and three veg, the latter severely overcooked by todays standards, and items like rice contributed to maybe 10 % of the years diet and pasta pretty much never. Potatoes, boiled or mashed were the mainstay of the week and he took a packed lunch every day of his working life : sandwiches with home made corned beef, cheese and homemade pickles, bacon and egg pies, mince pies ( ground beef ) or chicken pies: home made and hearty fare.

I spent many happy hours in my Grandma’s kitchen and having one of the few working mothers of my generation, I learned many a thing there that I never had the opportunity to learn at home. Most of all, I learned a love of home cooking and a delight in producing food with your own hands that people adore. I learned that “simple” ingredients can produce magic when treated well and that the difference between fresh picked garden produce and what’s on offer days old at the supermarket is massive.

These days I live on the other side of the world in a large apartment with no garden… I dream that one day I will have a garden like Grandpa’s… one day, it’s a dream at least. On the other hand I try daily to have a kitchen like Grandma’s … o.k., yes with some rather major differences: I adore cooking with an international selection of ingredients, if it’s not offal, then we have probably tried it (or will one day). We try and eat healthily and encourage our children to too… so the baking is far less than in Grandma’s day. I also work full time so the practicalities of time are also a factor… but most of all, Grandma’s spirit is alive and well in my kitchen, I learned from her one of the many legacies that I hope most to instill into my children: a love for homemade food.

Grandma’s best advice: ( the bakers amongst you will especially understand) ” the most important things you will ever need in your kitchen are: clean hands and strong arms.“

.. and if only I had been wise enough then to have added: …. ” and a brilliant egg beater” .

Marshmallow Shortcake Slice Recipezaar Recipe No. 128032 by Jen T. Photo © Kiwidutch.

A Blog is born (yeah, yet another one)

Baked Zucchini Recipezaar Recipe No. 27480 by Sueie, Photo © Kiwidutch

So Who is Kiwidutch? a food obsessed, cooking crazy, attention-to-detail craftwork , travel freak who happens to love photography of all of the above. A multi cultural, multi lingual product of what’s fast becoming a typical 21st century family, i.e. spread out between the Northern and Southern hemispheres due to marriage, job, kids and wider family tree ties.

I’m interested in supporting local products, business and people, but also love to encourage a wider International way of thinking, learning and communicating so the ” Local Heart, Global Soul” title of this blog completely sums up my thinking on Life, living abroad, my love of travel and how I want to be as a human being.

I follow nzedge.com to keep up to date with what the small population of Kiwi’s ( New Zealanders) are doing as they venture around the world and ” Local Heart, Global Soul” was a phrase from nzedge that I connected with so instantly that I asked permission to thieve err ….borrow it for my blog name. Permission was duly given and credit where it is due: kudos Brian from nzedge for conveying such an insightful thought in such a succinct way.

I have taken all of the photos in this blog myself… and they are not for free use or to be downloaded or copied: if you are interested in any of them please contact me via the comments box.

This is a blog about my passions… cooking, craft, art, photography with snippets of how my family and I live and interact in the culture and country we live in or the one that we are currently visiting.

I hope that if you too have a Local Heart and a Global Soul, that you will join me in my sojourn…