Life is a story…

I’ve started a new blog to showcase things I have consumed or cooked in the past seven days.

Despite being active on Instagram, I often find myself stumped by captions, caught out by optimal posting times, or simply not wanting to spam everyone with endless food photos.

Also, I feel like we are handing too much control over content to social media and algorithms. People are busy and tend to scroll past lengthy captions that read like blog posts.

This weekly update may feature food that has appeared in Instagram stories or posts but will largely be new content. It will also help me find a home for some of my billion food photos.

Sunday, July 13

Who doesn’t love a Sunday roast? We had roast chook (Woolworths Macro Organic) and spuds (Tastee Taters from Stirling Farmers Market), plus a steamer full of veg that didn’t make the shot.

We started with pumpkin soup (random made up recipe, using chicken stock by Urban Forager Organics) and my never-fail rhubarb and blueberry from the Three Blue Ducks in the Country cookbook.

Monday, July 14

After having rhubarb with oats for breakfast at White Elephant Café in Gnarabup recently, I’ve started setting aside some of the Sunday night rhubarb and apple mix from the crumble. I fold it through the oats and add blueberries if I have them in the fridge. I usually have enough to last three days.

Stovetop oats are so delicious and creamy and don’t take much longer to make than quick oats. I use one third of a cup of Woolworths Macro Organic Oats, a third of a cup of water and a third of oat milk. Sometimes I will add the teeniest sliver of butter at the end.

There are dozens of stovetop oats recipes online but reading some of these recipes takes longer than making the oats.

Monday night dinner was shepherd’s pie, but it must have been ugly because there’s no photo. Here’s one from the week before. Again, this is a made-up recipe.

Tuesday, July 15

There aren’t many restaurants open for lunch in the Swan Valley on a Tuesday, so we headed to Sittella for the three-course set meu for $48.50.

I had mixed vegetable soup, minute steak and sticky date pudding with ice cream.

The three-course menu is available from Tuesday to Friday and it understandably popular with seniors given the three courses add up to about the same as one main from the a la carte menu. The Sittella strawberry basket has been on the menu for as long as I can remember (more than five years).

Wednesday, July 16

No food photos. Didn’t I eat on Wednesday? Oh, yes, after a few hours in the city, I went to the gym and then got Chicken Treat. Not my best moment, but we are all human. The chips were good!

Thursday, July 17

Dinner with friends at Sonny’s. They decided on the chef’s selection but asked for no raw fish, no oysters and no cured kangaroo. Of course, I would have added all three of those but I’m sure I will be back soon, since I seem to be at Sonny’s every other month.

We were seated inside, and the mood lighting didn’t lend itself to great photos, so here’s an average one of the always morish barbecued bread (a must order, always), a bean dish and the crudites with stracciatella.

And of course, the Basque cheesecake.

Friday, July 18

Time for the annual pilgrimage to the Good Food and Wine Show, this time courtesy of Emilie from Franklin & Clement, purveys of arguably Perth’s best artisan jammed chilli. Note, every jar of jammed chilli I have consumed, I have paid for.

I tried a few bits of cheese alone and with condiments, a few chips and not much else as there really wasn’t a lot of food sampling.

I did stock up on Jammed Chilli, a new BBQ sauce from Australian Black Limes, some gluten-free and vegan treats from Champagne and Gumboots, Sodasmith mixers, chocolate from Whittaker’s.

Lunch options at the show were limited this year and there was no coffee to be found (if you found coffee, let me know where), so I came home via Montello on Main for a chicken schnitzel roll.

Saturday, July 19

With hideous weather predicted for the rest of the weekend, it was time for a walk in the sun to Urban Grind on Royal Street, Tuart Hill.

The café introduced a dine-in menu two months ago to supplement the ready-to-go jaffles and pastries it has been known for.

We had the classic eggs benedict and the house-special, Dang Dang eggs benedict with slow- cooked lemongrass and coconut black angus beef melted cheese and steamed kale and spicy hollandaise the specials board.

A double shot of coffee using Leftfield’s Old Fox blend was a good kickstart to the morning.