Real recipes from our home to yours

Our retirement villages are full of talented cooks and bakers who have been putting their recipes to the test for years. Pakuranga Park’s new cookbook is the project of Kirsten Bell and Christine Bull, the new Activities Coordinators at the village. They started their new roles at the beginning of August and when lockdown hit a couple of weeks later, it became the perfect opportunity to develop their idea.

Village Manager Christian Pulley is very proud of Pakuranga Park’s new cookbook, knowing that it could be a perfect Christmas present for the residents and their families.

The cookbook provided some meaningful entertainment for the residents during the Level 4 lockdown, and it allowed Kirsten to meet lots of people and settle down in her new role. Kirsten and Christine asked the residents to suggest a title for the cookbook and the winner was Elaine Flashman with “Tried and true”.

Kirsten and Christine organised a bake-off day where the residents cooked their recipes for the book’s photoshoot. All the meals were then “tried and tested” to make sure they were as delicious as they looked.

The book includes recipes from other countries such as Beigli, the Hungarian Christmas cake, or Lavosh crackers from the Middle East. With over 60 recipes, the book is currently on sale for only $20.