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lifefoods a whole-foods kitchen

Cooking with whole ingredients in a New Zealand kitchen: what things are, how to use them, what a normal portion looks like, and where the evidence runs out. The newest pieces sit at the top of the shelf.

  1. 01

    Everyday cooking ·

    Timber benchtops, chopping boards and borer

    Oiling and re-oiling, lifting water rings, the damp corners where trouble starts, and what borer dust looks like when it turns up in the house.

  2. 02

    Everyday cooking ·

    Wasps at the outdoor table in late summer

    Why wasps turn up at barbecues as summer wears on, how to keep food and drinks covered, where nests hide around a house, why a nest is not a DIY job, and how to tell a bee swarm from a wasp problem.

  3. 03

    Everyday cooking ·

    Ants in the kitchen: why they come back and what actually works

    Following the trail, why baits beat sprays, the bench habits that make a kitchen less interesting to ants, and when a trail is a sign of something bigger.

  4. 04

    Whole foods ·

    Pantry pests: weevils, flour moths and mice in the cupboard

    What to throw out, what to freeze, why glass beats plastic bags, and how to tell a cleaning problem from a building problem.

  5. 05

    Everyday cooking ·

    Fruit flies, the rubbish bin and the compost bucket

    Why a warm kitchen suddenly fills with tiny flies, where they are breeding, and the emptying and cleaning routines that stop the next generation.

  6. 06

    Nutrition basics ·

    Where the sugar in your day comes from

    Added sugar and the sugar that comes with whole foods, the drinks that quietly add up, and how to read the per 100 g column without a calculator.

  7. 07

    Nutrition basics ·

    Smoothies, juicing and greens powders

    What a juicer takes out of fruit, what a blender leaves in, what a sensible glass looks like, and how to think about greens powders as food rather than medicine.

  8. 08

    Everyday cooking ·

    Coconut oil in the kitchen

    What coconut oil does well, how hot it can go, how to swap it for butter, and its saturated fat stated plainly, with no scare stories and no wonder stories.

  9. 09

    Everyday cooking ·

    Cacao nibs, cocoa and everyday chocolate

    Nibs, cocoa powder, drinking chocolate and eating chocolate all start as the same bean. Here is how they differ in fat and sugar, and how to swap them in baking.

Every piece, in one ledger