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 @

The Rocky Road To Love!

Not Quite Nigella — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:00:14 +0000

Not everyone loves Valentine’s Day. In fact when I talk to some people about Valentines Day their reaction is to sneer at it and talk about “crass commercialism.” I’m not sure what to answer to that because of course it is quite true and I can only offer “But this is a day to eat more chocolate! [...]

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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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Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Jelly Beans from Harry Potter

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 18:00:55 +0000

I used to work for a man who didn’t mind when I called him Voldemort, Harry Potter’s dark lord of evil. That kind of gives you an indication of how strange and twisted he was. Having said that, he wasn’t 100% awful, he definitely had moments of being kind and nice but mostly, and until [...]

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Black Crow Cupcakes

Not Quite Nigella — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:00:54 +0000

If you had asked me what my main aims were during primary school it wasn’t really to achieve great marks, be popular or become a prefect or school captain. It was quite honestly, to avoid all sport and P.E. classes. I’d rather have been in the library reading books or doing something peaceful. Having a hard ball [...]

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NQN’s Hellish Halloween Party!

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:00:29 +0000

So there I was, waiting for a batch of blood for my annual Halloween party. Not the human kind mind you, but nevertheless a batch of blood. The only problem? It was about to arrive when I was going to have a meeting with my book publishers at Penguin to discuss publicity for my upcoming book. “What [...]

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Haunted House Cupcakes

Not Quite Nigella — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:00:46 +0000

When I was a child, every day on the way from primary school I would stop off at the library. It was on the way home and I loved to pop in and make oogly eyes at the albino axolotl in the tank and borrow some books. I do like a book series-there is something [...]

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Rat Plague Brownie Bites!

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:00:01 +0000

I was standing in my kitchen basking in a wonderful mood. Sadly for those around me (the plants) I was singing off key and trilling as if I didn’t have a care in the world. “It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” I sang. And then a packet of dried red lentils, without any [...]

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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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Eyeball Cupcakes For Friday the 13th!

Not Quite Nigella — Wed, 11 May 2011 19:00:12 +0000

Hello fellow ghouls! Guess what special day is tomorrow? That’s right, it’s Friday the 13th! Never mind that nothing bad had ever really happens to people on that date. I take note of the date because it gives me an excuse to make something deliciously ghoulish. I mean Hallowe’en is soooo many months away! This [...]

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