cookbook progress + comfort noodle soup + regular videos 🤎

Hi friends, I hope September has been good to you! It's been one of high-creative output for me. I finally started to shoot my next cookbook (all 100-ish recipes of it). That task felt like a huge psychological no-can-do (due to overwhelm) for a very long time. But I'm now 29 recipes in and I think I've found my groove.

Although, I greatly underestimated how many darn props you need for a thing like this – so wish me luck at the second-hand shops please. I shoot mostly in natural light & in natural environments so I'm in good stead to shoot over the next few months while both are at their best (in the southern hemisphere).

Spring is suiting me so much better than winter. The light, the flowers, the warm days – it just makes life feel so much lighter and full of possibilities! I really need to book a Queensland holiday (or similar) for the winter months next year. With all the housesitting I've done (for people doing that very thing!), my time might have come.

little PSA: I have one hard-copy of my second cookbook left (see pictured). It was a spare that didn't sell at a gift shop they were once stocked in. I've popped it on my Etsy Shop : ) – I ship worldwide.

It's at this point in the year (with 3 months to go....) that I start to heavily reflect on the year that's been. I haven't enjoyed living in my body very much this year – having been fatigued for so much of it. But using it to photograph my recipes, build up my strength again at yoga & pilates and just be able to have busier weeks once more is telling me there might be hope yet to turn that feeling around. My mantra for spring is to just do things for the joy of it as much as possible!

Speaking of...

CONTENT.

I'm in my groove posting 3+ times weekly on TikTok. Short-form content (for the time being) is what's appealing/doable to me. I'm posting vlogs, what i ate videos, cookbook, vegan & gluten-free, autism/adhd and craft related content. I have a big backlog of videos, so hope to see ya' there!

FREELANCE.

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I was going to have my first panel experience at the Emerging Writers' Festival this month! It went really well – it was a beautiful discussion about building a positive relationship with one's writing practice, fostering creativity, longevity and community. We got some brilliant audience questions (and I learnt that answering questions on the spot is actually so tricky!) and some really sweet feedback afterwards.

But most of all I really enjoyed getting to hear from Maggie and Roumina – I got so much out of what they shared (had to remember I was also on the panel a couple of times hehe!). Hopefully it's not the last panel I do, having done it once I think it would be a lot less anxiety-inducing the second time!

KITCHEN.

So much good food this month – from recipe testing, cookbook shooting and cooking my cravings! From left to right: comforting as hell lime & coconut tofu with jasmine rice, homemade tofu "egg" salad over bough cucumber maki (genius combo!) and lemon pepper tofu with pesto pasta.

Made sesame noodles and perfected a honey chilli cauliflower recipe. I craved kacang pool and had it with buttered toast and a fried egg (need to make it more often, so comforting). Then made a shaved greek cabbage salad which will definitely be on high rotation this summer, along with a maple mustard potato salad – which were only so-so.

Perfected my five-spice animal fries recipe, am still eating ham & cheese salad sandwiches at least once a week and I tried putting a vegan/gf spring roll inside a rice paper roll – which was an award-winningly good idea!

A deliciously comforting plate of vegan bolognese with salads, a scrumptious burrito wrap and a plate of simple recipes I made on a whim – cheesy broccoli pasta, green rice with beans and chipotle rice.

Made chocolate covered strawberries and watched Princess Diaries (highly recommend, cures many ills). Still on my cheesy kimchi rice kick and taking to eating my safe food (avocado cucumber handrolls) looking out over the water when feeling overwhelmed.

Made Swedish banana choc-chip pancakes from The Vegan Baking Bible Cookbook (Delicious! They put you in your flipping era!). Then I made a tofu katsu Onigirazu (sushi sandwich) for crying out loud – and it was everything you'd want it to be (cookbook recipe sorry!). And finally some french toast on a slow Sunday morning.

READ.

Today a woman went mad in the supermarket, By Hilda Wolitzer is a collection of essays about domesticity, womanhood and social attitudes in the 50s/60s. It grants what happens in supermarkets, kitchens and bedrooms (from the female gaze) – the seriousness and weight it deserves. The title essay was my favourite, but a thought provoking and insightful work none-the-less.

More, Please: on food, fat, bingeing, longing and the lust for "enough", by Emma Specter was enormously illuminating! I learnt so much from this author about the least talked about eating disorder and a relationship with food which is so far from my own. It was deeply personal, at times heartbreaking and searingly self-aware. Glad I picked this one up!

Woah, okay – Grace Tame's The Ninth Life of a Diamond Minor: a Memoir is big book to undertake. For context – Grace was Australian of the Year in 2021 and is an activist & advocate for survivors of child sexual abuse. This was a long, hard and often uncomfortable book to keep reading. So I'm glad I paced myself and listened to Grace read it, as she speaks so well. I don't think I anticipated such transparency in this book, but my understanding of the world is better for it. The main theme is child sexual abuse and grooming, but she also talks about being autistic, her relationship with men, her incredible family, growing up in Tasmania, her life in the states and what life in the public eye has been like.

What an enormous privilege is was to go to the bookstore and buy my once tutor – Hasib Hourani's poetry book – Rock Flight. This book is a poem on the violent occupation of Palestine. It's told through personal and historical narrative and explores themes of suffocation, confinement and resistance (among others). I read it in one sitting and highly recommend everyone to seek this one out. It's breath-taking in every beautiful and heart-breaking way.

RECIPE.

This month's new recipe to the blog is My Fave Comfort Noodle Soup – a recipe I've had on heavy rotation for the last couple of years. It's seen me through many big boo-hoo's and i can't be arsed to cook evenings. I'm certain it will feel like a big warm blanket to you too.

Thank you for reading & supporting my work!

Phoebe (they/them) x

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