Australia's Favourite Recipes

Book excerpt: Australia's Favourite Recipes is the cookbook by Australians for Australians: more than 70 treasured recipes collected from families all around the country. Collated and edited by journalist and television host Leila McKinnon, and with a foreword (and pavlova recipe) by Margaret Fulton, the book features the stories and memories of everyday Australians and their favourite dishes, while celebrating the wealth and diversity of the food we hold dear.Each recipe has been photographed with a sense of evocative nostalgia – native wildflowers decorate the Christmas table, and pages from historical Australian cookbooks are interspersed with collages of the labels and other food memories from our collective childhoods. Every recipe features a charming introduction describing why the dish is of importance to its contributor, how it came to be a special family dish or perhaps a little story about the contributor's grandmother and how she introduced them to the recipe. It is a collection of treasured memories. From the perfect chewy Anzac biscuit and Mum's no-fail spaghetti bolognese to the ultimate lamb souvlaki and lemon delicious, Australia's Favourite Recipes showcases our national cuisine – the dinners, cakes and slices we crave – and shows how the food we eat has changed over the years.Note: Part of the proceeds from sales of the book will be donated from author and publisher to Legacy Australia, a charity that provides services to Australian families suffering financially and socially after the death or incapacitation of a spouse or parent during or after their defence force service.