Not Quite NigellaThe cooking, eating and travel blog of a hungry blogger from Sydney, Australia featuring original recipes, interviews and articles on all things food @

A Christmas Feast: Ham In Root Beer & Chocolate Pomegranate Cake!

Not Quite Nigella — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:00:31 +0000

Over the years Mr NQN has had to get used to me. When we first started dating he used to say “Do you have to get so dressed up?”. He is a country boy after all and there were mutterings of overdressing and I suspect too much makeup (although he was smart enough not to [...]

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Easy Eggnog Fudge

Not Quite Nigella — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:00:56 +0000

My family were rather strange eaters when we were growing up. My father wanted nothing more and nothing less than Cantonese food whereas the rest of my family and I craved other things. We’d watch ads on television where families sat down to roast dinners and vegetables and wistfully gaze at the images of families [...]

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Turducken: The Method To Some Sort of Madness

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:00:04 +0000

It is sitting in front of me face down, haunches up, goading me. I pry the legs apart but they modestly snap back together. It is a beautiful specimen and I hold up a knife to the goose fleshed skin and it retracts and follows the sharp blade. “Aren’t you a pretty one?” I say [...]

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Welcome To Our Very Merry Finnish Christmas!

Not Quite Nigella — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 18:00:38 +0000

Merry Christmas my Dearest, Darlingest Readers! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas full of love and laughter and that you have had a chance to rest and recuperate from the crazy year that was 2010! In previous years I haven’t really written much about our Christmasses as we were often away without an internet [...]

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Cinnamon Cookie Christmas Wreath

Not Quite Nigella — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:00:12 +0000

As you read this, I will no doubt be frantically preparing for Christmas. It will be an onslaught, self induced, of the familial kind. Mr NQN’s eccentric family will come crashing into my own eccentric-but-in-a-different-way family in our annual Christmas celebration. Somewhat foolishly, we had volunteered to have the dinner at our place as I am attempting [...]

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Surprise Gift Pavlovas

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 18:00:38 +0000

When I was young, all I wanted was a surprise party and to this day, I have never had a surprise party. My parents didn’t really fuss much about birthdays and celebrations. To them, it’s an excuse to eat great food and give a red packet of money to a child. That was much easier [...]

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Swiss Roll Christmas Cottages

Not Quite Nigella — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 18:00:32 +0000

My Dearest Readers, this week I unwittingly gave myself an early Christmas present. I finally got my Provisional Driver’s License after over 30 years of age! I was of course going for the title of oldest person on their Ls and imagined swerving back and forth in a large vehicle at age 80 and only [...]

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Cherry, Almond & Coconut Christmas Stollen & a Melbourne Visit!

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:00:38 +0000

It’s easy when busy to take things for granted but this year has been a year of fantasy. I have no idea what the next few years will hold so I want to remember this feeling of excitement and anticipation of things to come. I do appreciate every lesson that I’ve learnt and everyone that [...]

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A Candy Cane Gingerbread House – Daring Bakers December 2009 Challenge

Not Quite Nigella — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:01:05 +0000

This month’s Daring Bakers challenge was an exciting one for a couple of reasons. Two of my favourite bloggers were hosting: Anna from Very Small Anna and Y from Lemonpi and they had chosen something that I had been dying to make for quite a while: a gingerbread house. This year Christmas crept up on [...]

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Salted Pretzel Toffees – Domestic Goddess Fakery for Christmas

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:00:28 +0000

I first saw this Salted Pretzel Toffee recipe on my lovely blogger friend Faith’s fabulous blog Thought 4 Food. I already have a slew of recipes of hers that I’ve bookmarked but the moment I saw this recipe I knew that I had found my Christmas Baking gift. Yes this year Christmas totally crept up [...]

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