About Annabel

Annabel's Diary

After three very busy weeks working in Europe – launching the French edition of Eat Fresh in Paris with our co-publisher Larousse, and then heading across the Channel to the London Book Fair to put on cooking demos and hold meetings – it was just great to come back to New Zealand and chill out with the family at our little lakeside cabin in Wanaka.

It wasn’t hard to get into holiday mode – but is it ever? Lazy starts in the mornings saw us emerging at around eleven or twelve each day. Whoever got up first was in charge of breakfast – stacks of pancakes and maple syrup, fresh berry muffins made with autumn raspberries and wild blackberries, or maybe a big bowl of stewed apple with some of Rose’s home-made muesli – and lattes with fluffy milk for the oldies and hot chocs for the kids.

After breakfast, we often took a walk to enjoy the crisp, clear air and the stunning colours of the season. Wanaka in the autumn has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world – poplars blazing like golden fire torches, and in the garden every hue of orange and red as smoke bush, cornus, amelanchier, maple, liquid amber, sorbus, oak and sumac all show off in their preparations to disrobe for the winter.

The nip of winter in the air (including a few minus zero mornings) saw me dig out the soup pot for our late lunches. On returning from an afternoon trip collecting pine cones or walnuts, or from a walk down the river track, it was wonderful to come home, light the fire and dip into a hearty, warming stew washed down with a local Pinot noir. I have just become a convert to slow cookers – wow, is that easy cooking!

For easy and delicious, it was hard to go past the fresh watercress in the creek. I love being able to walk down the path and pick a bunch for a soup or a salad. Watercress soup is so simple to make. I just sauté some chopped onion gently in butter without colouring, then add a big bunch of washed watercress leaves, some chopped potato and chicken stock to cover. Simmer until tender and season well before giving it a good blitz with one of those hand-held torch blenders – et voilà, you have a superb soup. Watercress is also especially good tossed in a salad with roast chicken, caramelised onions and beets, then topped with a fresh walnut dressing.

We celebrated Rose’s fourteenth birthday in a relaxed style: heading up to the hut at the back of the farm with thermoses of soup, some nice lamb chops and sausages for the barbecue, a banana cake and some candles. Sitting with my family around the fire in the clear stillness of autumn, I thought back to my last day in London, which involved five meetings in entirely different parts of the city and an interface with at least a million people along the way. It’s only once you experience the cheek by jowl existence of cities like London that you realise just how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place where we can so easily access and interact with nature.

Here’s to living in New Zealand!