Tart case:
I use a sweet short crust pastry but substitute one cup of walnuts for flour.
A blender is perfect for this, but it can be made by hand.
Blitz one cup walnuts till like it’s like breadcrumbs. Add 125 g chilled butter cubed and 1½ cups plain flour (your choice, I use gluten free).
When the mixture comes together, turn out onto a floured surface and work a little. Shape into a rectangle and chill in refrigerator till firm.
Gently roll out and … Read more »
reviewed by Wendy Tucker
by Richard Osman
In 2020 forty publishers bid for the rights to this first novel by television presenter and producer, Richard Osman. It has become the biggest selling adult crime novel since records began and Spielberg immediately purchased the film rights. Osman has since written three more novels in the series with equal success: The man who died twice in 2021, The bullet that missed in 2022 and The last devil to die in 2023. … Read more »
by Mark Evans
Garden Tetris is a lot like the video game, but instead of trying to arrange falling coloured blocks, it’s plants you are trying to fit together efficiently within a limited space. Like the game it can take some practice. That supposedly short plant you stuck in on the edge turns out much taller than you expected, the one you put in the shade needs more sun (or vice versa), … Read more »
Reviewed by Wendy Tucker
by Tony Birch
Tony Birch is an author, activist and academic. This is his fourth novel. He is best known for his award-winning novel The White Girl and his short story collection Dark as Last Night.
Women & Children has just won the 2024 Age Book of the Year for Fiction and will probably win more awards. It is set in 1965 in a poor inner-city suburb of Melbourne. Our protagonist is Joe Cluny, ‘a wide-eyed, … Read more »
by Mark Evans
Winter is the perfect time to select and plant a deciduous plant in your garden. Deciduous plants are dormant during winter, making them easy to transport and plant and, at this time of year, nurseries tend to have the best selection including bare-rooted varieties that can make for a more economical purchase.
Deciduous plants drop all their leaves as an adaptation to conserve water and energy, avoid physical damage from snow and ice, … Read more »
Ingredients:
250g Anzac biscuits
100g butter
500g cream cheese at room temperature
150g caster sugar
¼ lemon – zested
4 truffled eggs – separated
100ml cream
30-50g black truffle – grated
Instructions:
Crush the biscuits, add melted butter and stir through. Pour the mix into a cake tin or spring-form pan, compress the mix evenly around the base. Allow to sit in a … Read more »
