I read Donna Hay cookbooks like other people read novels. Total sucker for fabulous styling. Glad to hear the recipes are good... LOL!

The way you cook at home is the way I cook at home!

(and I'm delighted to learn that you eat gnocchi out, too: it's fine if you're making it for 10 or more people, but for just two? Ludicrous.)

My new favorite lunch, dare I admit, involves rosemary & olive oil triscuits. They're addicting!

I just read a very moving story, "The History of Baklava" that inspired me to make homemade lebne and lamb shanks and couscous and all other kinds of middle eastern foods." It was a novel that included recipes. hard to put down!

Changing what you are cooking mid-saute .... that is EXACTLY what I do. Half the time I don't know what I'm going to be eating when I start cooking.

For anyone who is interested, Donna Hay also has her own website: http://www.donnahay.com.au

When I owned my little shop, customers would think that each and every evening our family feasted on gastranomy but alas, no. "You wanna make your Chicken Fried Steak Honey?" Ahh... a night off. Sometimes I'm just brain dead and that's ok.

Planning dinners at my house consists of the FW asking "Ok so what's for dinner tonight?"followed by my reply"How would you cook this and at what temp again?". LMAO Thank god she can plan for more then one household!

I'm a planner by nature. My dinners for the week are planned on Saturday...I shop on Sunday (and inevidable throughout the week - damn my list making abilities!) then prepare as planned. I'm not good on the fly, unless it involves Ramean Noodles.

thanks so much for spotlighting Donna Hay's books - i am in pantry/kitchen/LIFE organization mode right now, and have been wanting to stock up on essentials, and don't always know what those should be! i am going right out to get one (or all!) of her books.

and sweet potato gnocci? wowee. i may have to try to make that one!

I also like the occasional quick meal involving a can that says "Bush's Homestyle" and part of the contents of a plastic bag labeled "Oscar Meyer".

And then there's the one involving random vegetables and two plastic bags marked "Nissin".

And sweet, delicious frozen pierogies...

Good books, good food, good friends, and a good cat. That's the good life in a nutshell for me, and your blog is right up my alley. BTW, I write cookbooks that get published, and encourage you to keep the dream alive....

http://mindycooks.blogspot.com

I am also a huge fan of Donna Hay, I have her Entertaining cookbook and was lucky to have a subscription to her magazine for a year. All of her recipes are simple and use fresh in season ingredients. I just have to keep in mind that since she lives in Australia (I was also lucky enough to live in Sydney for a year) her seasons are opposite of mine.

I've never heard of Donna Hay but now I will seek her out. I'm in total agreement with your philosophy of cooking at home--simple, good quality ingredients well prepared. People thing because I'm a "gourmet" cook I must be eating fussy food all the time; one friend was shocked to find out I was trying different church's fish fries every Friday during Lent (some even cut their own French fries!) and I felt so misunderstood!