Stephanie Alexander's Blog

My family’s Christmas gathering was successful. Food was festive. Three generations all helped. Crunchy croque monsieur for breakfast before the presents. Lunch highlights were crayfish salad, bought cooked but never frozen from a Victorian fishery, my roast chicken with spiced peaches, and Harriet’s superb trifle and my friend John’s traditional pudding flamed with brandy to the surprise of my granddaughter…

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The post Newsletter 91 – and on we go first appeared on Stephanie Alexander.

The post Newsletter 91 – and on we go appeared first on Stephanie Alexander.

Jasminium Trachelospermum is such a great plant. It covers walls and fences, is evergreen and in spring it bursts with sweetly-scented flowers.  At breakfast this morning I found this visitor on the balcony rail. We all find that this tail end of the year speeds up and fills up. This will be the final newsletter for 2023. A special thank you to those you have let me know that you have enjoyed reading it…

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The post Newsletter 90 – Jasmine, jasmine everywhere and Christmas is coming! first appeared on Stephanie Alexander.

The post Newsletter 90 – Jasmine, jasmine everywhere and Christmas is coming! appeared first on Stephanie Alexander.

I woke today with absolutely no obligations to anyone. Extraordinary and rare. A perfect day weather-wise. Cloudless blue sky, temperature mid-twenties; light, warm breeze, magpies carolling, flowering sage and Rouzette geraniums offering cooling purple backdrop against silver leaves, and my smoke bush and Forest Pansy flaunting their springtime stained glass hues. The smoke bush has shapely glorious rust and verdigris leaves that miraculously become the colour of beaten copper when the morning spring sunshine lights the leaves. And alongside, in its first season, are the rich ruby leaves of my Forest Pansy, even more spectacular than I had hoped for. I am finding that these illuminated spring colours are at least as enchanting as autumn colours…

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The post Newsletter 89 – Spring stories first appeared on Stephanie Alexander.

The post Newsletter 89 – Spring stories appeared first on Stephanie Alexander.

What a month! Holiday planning. A cruise that was interrupted by Covid, a few days in France, and then the launch of a new book, Fresh, my 18th if counting new material not re-packaging…

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The post Newsletter 88 – Bursting with thoughts. appeared first on Stephanie Alexander.

I am pleased and proud to announce the publication of my 19th or is it 20thbook,

‘FRESH…Family recipes & stories inspired by Stephanie’s Kitchen Gardens’.

I founded the kitchen garden movement in Australian schools over twenty years ago now and it has become an important and well-known force for change. FRESH is intended to encourage families to cook together. It brings together recipes which have delighted young students in schools across the country, together with extra recipes that I developed as I re-cooked and re-tasted some favourites

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The post Newsletter 87 – Cook with your Kids! appeared first on Stephanie Alexander.

This beautiful picture was taken by my neighbours upstairs from their balcony. How stunning. The next evening the boys told me that there was an owl resting on the pole of my sun umbrella. I didn’t dare open the door but peeped from behind the curtain and just saw a faint shape before it flew away…

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The post Newsletter 86 – Farewell to glorious Autumn appeared first on Stephanie Alexander.

 Autumn is such a pleasure. I am loving the cool mornings and seeing how the trees glisten as the first sunshine touches the leaves. For an hour after I wake the mist still hangs over the river. How fortunate I am to have this view. Birds call loudly. Here and there in my own small garden there is wonderful colour emerging. Little skinks scuttle over the paving stones. Sadly my resident blue tongue lizard has gone to live somewhere else. It is the best time of the year to enjoy my coffee in the garden. I have perfect shade, I can enjoy watching the bees and note that it will soon be time to cut back the lemon-scented verbena, the crepe myrtles and the very leggy salvia. I watched a kookaburra this morning be chased from its comfortable branch by two very noisy magpies…

To read more, subscribe to the Cook’s Companion Club. You’ll be sent an immediate email with links to my current and past newsletters.

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The post Newsletter 85 – Welcome Autumn appeared first on Stephanie Alexander.

I am a bit ashamed that my last newsletter was just before Christmas. Does anyone else even notice? The festive season was suitably festive and as ever a little bit frantic. There was a marvellous Christmas lunch with all of the Kitchen Garden staff and Board members which can make me feel a bit emotional. I started this adventure with my then PA and good friend Anna Dollard in my spare bedroom in 2001 and now look what has happened. So many young energetic people all working with common purpose, each with great stories to tell of their interactions with students, schools and communities…

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The post Newsletter 84 – 2023 rolls on appeared first on Stephanie Alexander.

Summer has arrived with many lovely sunny days but there has also been unseasonal rain. The river is very high but we have not had any significant flooding as has happened in so many other places. One benefit is that my garden is romping ahead. Everything seems to grow about a centimetre every hour. The buddleia is a sight to behold with its waving blue spikes. The salvias are blooming, the lavender and sage all out a riot of silver, purple and blue. The wall is almost covered in flowering, scented jasmine. And my recently planted New Forest Pansy tree Cercis Canadensis is so happy in its situation…

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The post Newsletter 83 – Blue Skies must be on the way appeared first on Stephanie Alexander.

I was so honoured to be asked by The National Gallery of Australia to design and oversee a dinner to celebrate both the 40th anniversary of the Gallery on October 8th but also to coincide with the opening of a major exhibition of the works of major Australian artist Cressida Campbell.  We already had a connection. My book The Cook’s Table is bound with a reproduction of Cressida’s After Lunch on the front cover, and Kitchen on the back cover. I have pored over every detail, and been delighted over and over again. The images were so appropriate for a book that celebrated the true pleasures of the cook’s table – simple dishes, not meddled with, idiosyncratic and highly personalised table settings, fresh herbs, grapes, and of course a wine glass…

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The post Newsletter 82- Moments of connection appeared first on Stephanie Alexander.