21st August 22

Our Weekend Cooking Retreats at Little Norfolk Bay Events and Chalets are the best use of the property, especially in the cold winter months in Tasmania. While hail was blasting at the front door over weekend we had 8 guests, myself and my amazing helper Maggie, inside our Event House all very toasty warm between the wood heater and the stove, cooking up a storm of beautiful seasonal food.

Although there is a huge variety of food cooked over the weekend, it is not excessive, there is not any waste, apart from a few scraps for the chickens. We cook good wholesome food making all our own stocks, pastas, breads. Starting with mostly meats, fish and veggies and turning them in to delicious meals suitable for special occasions. I also try to incorporate food for the normal weekday meals. So my guests don’t just leave the weekend with only knowledge of fancy ingredients they may never use again and recipes they’ll never actually cook! I actually want to help and inspire people to cook more. Lets be honest, cooking the family meals can become a chore, as it is so important for health, it needs to be a priority so whatever can make it more enjoyable helps I believe!

In my book Packed I make the claim that ‘cutting out wheat and dairy is not hard when you are cooking with real foods like meat, eggs and veggies’. My claim was put to the test with a dairy free and gluten free guest scheduled to attend.

I do believe that the commercial ‘packet food’ industry has run off with these allergies and cashed big time, and the list of the ingredients on some of these products the commercial food industry makes is freaky!! Using a packet of GF whatever, is not always healthier. Yes, they can be a nice and probably handy substitute for those who NEED it but not always healthier for everyone. Some recipes need gluten or dairy to be successful, I would say white fluffy bread is one example, if you are not going to achieve what you want it is probably easier to eat something else. There is so much other beautiful food to choose from!

So I simply choose the dishes that didn’t contain gluten or dairy or the could be substituted for a similar or even better flavour combination, and it really is not hard when you are starting with real food. I was not going to attempt gluten free pasta as structurally that would need something added as the gluten is an important part, however we easily submitted some corn and rice flour into gnocchi. And I am absolutely make a coconut cream clafoutis with almond again as they added beautiful flavours! Here are our menus and photos from the weekend:

Arrival Drinks of Bream Creek Sparkling, Ashbolt Elderberry and lime spritzer & Crayfish Pate (recipe Seafood Everyday) with
cheeses and Quince paste (recipe The Tasmania Pantry)

Dinner Friday
Oysters parsley and lemon (recipe seafood Everyday)
Garlic and herb Pizza Bread (with a GF version made with quinoa, rice and corn)
Scallops in Noodle Broth (new recipe for TSIC)
Rannoch Quail, Quinoa and citrus salad (Tasmania Pantry 2)
Wallaby, pumpkin and Goats Cheese and cherry chutney(recipe Tasmania Pantry 2)
Caramel Macadamia Pie (New recipe for soon to be released Celebrate) Gf pastry sub with quinoa, rice and corn.

Saturday Breakfast

Caper Tart, Tassal smoked salmon and red onion Jam (recipe Seafood Everyday- with a GF pastry sub Quinoa, rice and corn)
Baked Beans and Eggs (Tasmania Pantry 2)

Saturday Lunch

Octopus, pumpkin and Fetta (we used the delicious soyoyoy un-fetta) (recipe Packed)
Prawns and broccoli and honey mustard salad (recipe Packed)
Lamb Kofta (recipe Packed) pantry hummus (recipe Tas Pantry 2) my fermented olives
Spiced Cauliflower (Tasmania Pantry 2)
Baked Tassal Salmon noodle salad (recipe Seafood Everyday)
Quinces baked with Blue cheese and Vino Cotto (recipe Tasmania Pantry 2)


Saturday Dinner

French onion soup (recipe Tasmania pantry 2)
Baked Squid (recipe Tasmania pantry 2)
Smoked Quail and honey mustard (recipe Tasmania Pantry)
Oyster, fennel, Gnocchi Bake (new recipe for the TSIC)
Venison carpaccio (recipe Tasmania Pantry)
Twice cooked Beef (recipe Tasmania Pantry with a red wine sub for the stout)
Plum and lavender Creme Brûlée (new recipe Celebrate)

Breakfast Sunday

Coconut almond Clafoutis
Congee corn and mushroom (Packed Cookbook)


unfortunately no photos of Sunday breakfast as I was having Credit card issues. Honestly, tech anything and I have a bad relationship at the moment! I have been hacked and booted off facebook and Instagram so I have started new pages.

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This year I have not been advertising my weekends as much due to all the chaos covid has created. But in 2023 I am hoping to work towards having quite a full winter calendar. Please get in contact if you have a group interested and a date in mind. Or if there is just yourself or a few of you interested get in contact anyway as it helps with the planning if I know someone is keen for a particular date. There will be a price adjustment for next year to take in consideration of rising costs, of well EVERyTHING, but I doubt it will be drastic and I will do my best to keep it extraordinary value.

Buy copies of the books from my website and in other exciting news I am hosting another cooking challenge the month of October, a great way to get some cooking inspiration!







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