

Maureen: This was a brilliant success.
Kirstin: I think so.
Maureen: What did you like most about it?
Kirstin: It was just really cosy, I think.
Maureen: It was all the things we love to cook most. It had Italian food, check, it had Asian food, check, and it had baked goods, check. It hit the holy trinity, frankly.
Kirstin: And the baked goods were really good.
Maureen: Maybe because it was an Australian cookbook, it felt familiar and foreign at the same time, which I liked.
Kirstin: I don’t normally do baking, but I thought her baking recipes were really good.
Maureen: The instructions were simple and they worked, for all of her recipes, which, as we know, doesn’t always happen.
Kirstin: And they didn’t have silly ingredients.
Maureen: No, though sometimes she used an Australian term, so you had to Google it to find out what it was called here. But that’s what Google is for, right?
Kirstin: Right. The pictures were so lovely. I would love to spend time in her kitchen, it would be very calm and lovely, with recipes that work, and that’s all you want.
Maureen: I agree. This was definitley my favourite cookbook in a long time.
Kirstin: This is definitely staying on the shelf. Mainly for the desserts.
“A Year of Simple Family Food”
Overall Grade (A- F): A (Kirstin) A (Maureen)
Grade for Photography (A-F): A Favourite Recipes: Dark Chocolate, Walnut and Oat Cookies (Kirstin) Chicken Karaage (Maureen) Any Disasters? No.
Bookshelf or Charity Shop Donation? Kirstin: Bookshelf. Maureen: Bookshelf. Would you give this to a friend? Yes, enthusiastically.