Interesting article, and it sounds remarkably like a good excuse to assault your message board with recipes. I shall start with a recipe I made up myself a couple of weeks ago:

Kenny’s Psuedo-chinese Chicken

Serves 4

Ingredients

Salt to taste
Pepper A generous quantity or to taste
Cumin powder 1 Tbsp
Mixed Spice 1 Tbsp
Aussie Rainforest Herb Blend 1 Tbsp (don't worry too much if you can't find this ingredient)
Basil 1 Tbsp
Oregano 1 Tbsp
Curry Powder 1 Tbsp
Chilli Powder 1 Tbsp or to taste
Sesame Seed Oil A dash
Olive Oil 2 Tbsp
Tapioca starch (or corn flour) enough to thicken
Beef stock cubes 2 cubes added to 4 cups of water
De-boned chicken thighs 1 kg
Cooking oil enough to stir fry with

Directions

Cut chicken into approximately 5cm chunks. Add seasoning and spices to chicken in a mixing bowl rub in with hands. Add both sesame (you won’t need much of this since it has a strong flavour) and olive oil and toss through chicken with hands. Allow it to marinate for an hour (optional).

Add enough cooking oil to wok to stir-fry with properly. Cook the chicken just enough to cook the surface and seal in the juices, be careful not to over-cook. Once this is done add beef stock immediately (it should cover the chicken almost entirely). Turn down heat so that it is simmering. Cook for 10 to 20 minutes (enough to cook the chicken through) stirring regularly, don’t let it boil. Near the end add some tapioca starch (or corn flour) to thicken the sauce and let it thicken by letting the mixture reduce (let the water boil off a bit). The sauce shouldn’t be too thick just not watery.

Serve with steamed vegetables and rice or alternatively serve with noodles. Serve with white wine (Australian, of course).

Notes:

Make sure the chicken doesn’t dry out; the meat needs to be tender for the dish to work well.

Pour sauce over rice and vegetables.

This dish tastes even better after sitting in the fridge overnight, a good reason to make enough to have left overs the next day.

When I say add a "dash" of sesame seed oil I mean drizzle a little bit on all the chicken pieces with emphasis on the "little"

right, so where to start........
Tegan, you amaze me how much you have changed. inspiration comes from the heart. You can't expect it to just pop up randomly each day.
Has this "lovely man" actually said to you that he wants meat at every dinner???i'm sure the heart foundation would have something to say about this. it is said that a lasting marriage is all about communication, even about the small things, like meat, how you fold his socks and whether or not you iron his jocks.
As a pointer though, creativity shows that even a vegetarian pasta sauce, can be spruced up with a little thing we like to call, cooked mince. it's not that hard. or bacon, or ham, the list continues.
What is the deal with obsessing over being the "good little house wife"??if you don't do this stuff now, what's to say that a)you will continue doing it, or that it's not going to change the person you are.
If he doesn't already know how little you believe you are capable of doing, and how little you are currently doing, then why are you getting married??
To be entirely honest, i am amazingly surprised how materialistic and self-centered you have become.
It is one thing to hope that you will receive gifts, but it is quite another to only invite those who you are almost certain would purchase gifts for you. If that doesn't scream materialistic, i don't know what does.
Now to be fair, this information that i, the Tooth Fairy holds, may not be entriely 100% accurate. The "grape vine", as you would expect, often bends and breaks.
Although you were only cooking for "friends", anyone in their right mind would have trialed a recipe first. Common sense tells us, that this is the best method to avoid embarassment and humiliation. I wouldn't be so quick to bag out your friends cooking, some of the most simplist and devine meals come from a packet. Can i ask you, are you sure you're old enough to get married, it's a big step after all. so unless you want to become one of the rapidly growing Divorce statistics, i suggest you think deep.

right, so where to start........
Tegan, you amaze me how much you have changed. inspiration comes from the heart. You can't expect it to just pop up randomly each day.
Has this "lovely man" actually said to you that he wants meat at every dinner???i'm sure the heart foundation would have something to say about this. it is said that a lasting marriage is all about communication, even about the small things, like meat, how you fold his socks and whether or not you iron his jocks.
As a pointer though, creativity shows that even a vegetarian pasta sauce, can be spruced up with a little thing we like to call, cooked mince. it's not that hard. or bacon, or ham, the list continues.
What is the deal with obsessing over being the "good little house wife"??if you don't do this stuff now, what's to say that a)you will continue doing it, or that it's not going to change the person you are.
If he doesn't already know how little you believe you are capable of doing, and how little you are currently doing, then why are you getting married??
To be entirely honest, i am amazingly surprised how materialistic and self-centered you have become.
It is one thing to hope that you will receive gifts, but it is quite another to only invite those who you are almost certain would purchase gifts for you. If that doesn't scream materialistic, i don't know what does.
Now to be fair, this information that i, the Tooth Fairy holds, may not be entriely 100% accurate. The "grape vine", as you would expect, often bends and breaks.
Although you were only cooking for "friends", anyone in their right mind would have trialed a recipe first. Common sense tells us, that this is the best method to avoid embarassment and humiliation. I wouldn't be so quick to bag out your friends cooking, some of the most simplist and devine meals come from a packet. Can i ask you, are you sure you're old enough to get married, it's a big step after all. so unless you want to become one of the rapidly growing Divorce statistics, i suggest you think deep.

right, so where to start........
Tegan, you amaze me how much you have changed. inspiration comes from the heart. You can't expect it to just pop up randomly each day.
Has this "lovely man" actually said to you that he wants meat at every dinner???i'm sure the heart foundation would have something to say about this. it is said that a lasting marriage is all about communication, even about the small things, like meat, how you fold his socks and whether or not you iron his jocks.
As a pointer though, creativity shows that even a vegetarian pasta sauce, can be spruced up with a little thing we like to call, cooked mince. it's not that hard. or bacon, or ham, the list continues.
What is the deal with obsessing over being the "good little house wife"??if you don't do this stuff now, what's to say that a)you will continue doing it, or that it's not going to change the person you are.
If he doesn't already know how little you believe you are capable of doing, and how little you are currently doing, then why are you getting married??
To be entirely honest, i am amazingly surprised how materialistic and self-centered you have become.
It is one thing to hope that you will receive gifts, but it is quite another to only invite those who you are almost certain would purchase gifts for you. If that doesn't scream materialistic, i don't know what does.
Now to be fair, this information that i, the Tooth Fairy holds, may not be entriely 100% accurate. The "grape vine", as you would expect, often bends and breaks.
Although you were only cooking for "friends", anyone in their right mind would have trialed a recipe first. Common sense tells us, that this is the best method to avoid embarassment and humiliation. I wouldn't be so quick to bag out your friends cooking, some of the most simplist and devine meals come from a packet. Can i ask you, are you sure you're old enough to get married, it's a big step after all. so unless you want to become one of the rapidly growing Divorce statistics, i suggest you think deep.

hi

i reread my article. you're right -- it came across as remarkably self-centred and materialistic and for that i'm sorry. i didn't intend it to come across that way. i didn't mean it to. i find the prospect of setting up a house from scratch a bit overwhelming, although not so much now as i did when i wrote the article. but i didn't mean for it to sound like i was just using my family and friends as an excuse to get stuff. on the contrary, i have been so amazed at just how generous everyone has been. people have just lavished on us and it almost seems unfair. i'm grateful to them.

that's the only apology i'm going to make about the post. everything else you criticised was written tongue in cheek or i was talking about the way i felt before learning a lesson -- like my friend with the meal she cooked. it was great -- that was the point. i realised it didn't matter how it was made.

when you're a journo, inspiration has to come every day.

meat in meals (big deal, by the way) is something matthew and i have talked about. thanks for the lesson in communication.

i'm not sure what you meant about only inviting people who would give gifts. the tupperware party was organised for me, i had very little part in it. and our wedding invitation list was quite small -- we limited ourselves to family members and a small group of people we are close to.

lastly, i don't know who wrote the above comment. i really don't. but words cannot describe how hurt and angry i am that you suggest matthew and i could become another divorce statistic. there's really nothing i can say that will convey it. like i said, i don't know who you are, but i'm pretty sure you don't know matthew and i and our relationship well enough to have any idea what you are talking about. how dare you.

Who knew the tooth fairy could bite so hard? I wouldn't stress teegs.

My main reason for this is to confirm that if you can truly understand the importance of meat you'll be fine for life. We're omni not herbi.