4 Editor’s letter
One of the first things I look at when we’re putting this magazine together is the food section. I eagerly sort through all the recipes searching for something new to try, because the recipes always work. I’m a very average cook so taking any interest in a recipe which has 35 steps, ingredients I have to hunt all over town for and elaborate names I can’t pronounce just isn’t going to happen. I’ve been there, done that and my family have lived to tell the tale of my adventures into gourmet cuisine, which they find hilarious but I find humiliating.
The recipes in here are all triple-tested by The Australian Women’s Weekly test kitchen, so I know when I get ready to cook as I was taught in home economics class at intermediate school – “First the oven, then the tin, wash your hands and then begin” – that in the end I will have made something delicious and edible.
I’ve made a roast pumpkin risotto using a pumpkin I grew myself (July issue), a gorgeous pear and rhubarb crumble which uses almond meal and oats (also July issue), a wonderful buttermilk chicken mac and cheese (May), delicious potted prawns (April), tasty mince slice (February issue) and from this issue I can’t wait to make Maggie Beer’s walnut flatbread (page 101). The team in the office also enjoy cooking from the magazine and often come in on a Monday recounting delicious cakes or meals they have made. So you could almost say the recipes get a fourth test before they reach you, thanks to our in-office cooks.
And I’ll let you in on a secret. Coming up in the next issue (November) is the most wonderful looking mint chocolate ice-cream cake. My 30-year-old son and I are big fans of anything involving mint and chocolate so we’re going to make this for a special treat.
Meanwhile, have a go at our recipes this month. I know you will be proud as punch and your family and friends will love them. I had to laugh out loud when reading our story about Indian Summers’ actress Julie Walters this month when she talked about how she dresses on her farm in West
Sussex: “I’m usually in muddy tracksuit bottoms and I don’t even bother washing them any more!” I have to admit that this winter at my house up north I too gave up washing my tracksuit bottoms, simply because every day they got muddy and sandy. It wasn’t like I was being seen by anyone and even if I did see someone they were equally as muddy. So I just started putting on the same pair the next day and adding to the mud. And until I read Julie’s story it was my dirty little secret!
You must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide.” Ingrid Bergman