Celebrity Masterchef is about to hit our airwaves, and we have to admit we’re kind of excited.  We loved the first series so much, and we are hoping that this version manages to keep the brand going. Surely it can’t fail when it combines two of our favourite things – food and celebrities. (Yeah, and you thought we were all about political philosophy and nuclear physics, didn’t you?)

We particularly love food. So much so that a few years ago we wrote Keep the Table Laughing – A cookbook with a twist. Our cooking mantra is a little different to that of Gary, George and Matt. They judged the flavour, appearance and “Wow” factor of the food produced by the home cooks on Masterchef. Our motto is “the heart of the dinner party is not the dinner, but the party”. We believe that enjoying yourself around the dinner table is more important than creating works of art every time. In Keep the Table Laughing we interspersed some of our favourite easy recipes with tales of cookery and family life, and the kinds of conversation we were having over coffee and homemade chocolate cake.

It should be noted that the other kitchen creed that we live by is that any dish can be improved by adding at least one of three key ingredients – bacon, cheese or chocolate. Yes, we have a cardiologist on speed-dial.

What are your kitchen rules and cooking mantras? Does everyone pitch in or do you like to fly solo in the kitchen? Perhaps you only use home-grown vegetables and herbs.  Do you have the latest fancy equipment or scorn anyone who can’t create a four course meal with just a knife, a whisk and the wits God gave them?  Maybe you’ve never met a TV dinner you didn’t like.

We have two copies of Keep the Table Laughing to give away. To enter just leave us a comment below with your kitchen creed. Tweeting the competition will result in a bonus entry.  Competition is only open to Australian residents and will be drawn the day of the Masterchef finale. You can also enter at our book blog Reading Upside Down.

Make sure you include your email address when you leave a comment (addresses do not appear online) and include our twitter name, @thinkthinkers, in your tweet so that we don’t miss your extra entry.

Bon appétit!

I was woken up at 6.30am by my son who wanted to tell me that the sky was all orange. “Yes, we call that sunrise” I mumbled as I rolled over.

“No, I think it might be the end of the world… or a dust storm.”

So I decided to get up and have a look (after all, I’d hate to sleep through the end of the world). And what do you know, the sky really was orange.

Further research (thanks, Google) tells me that this is a once in a decade dust storm that has brought Sydney to a standstill.

I can imagine that there is already chaos in Sydney with the airport and city traffic obviously affected by the low visibility. Here in Newcastle it will probably be just starting to have an effect now. I know my kids are already trying to work out whether it will get them a day off school.

Is the sky orange where you are?

We  attended our 20 year high school reunion recently. It was a very entertaining evening. Relaxed conversation, queues at the bar reminiscent of the end-of-year pub crawl, lots of squeals of “Ohmygod! It’s YOUUUU!”.  We had a great night, which is a shame because we had a whole Romy and Michele scenario planned, should things go pear-shaped.

So sadly we never got to tell people that we invented Post-It notes, no former-geek-turned-billionaire showed up to interpretive dance with us and whisk us away in his helicopter, and at no time did we have to excuse ourselves from a stilted conversation by saying “I cut my foot before and my shoe is filling up with blood”.

Teen years have always been filled with fun, tears, love and drama. Despite our disappointment in not being able to channel our inner Romy and Michele, I guess we can take consolation in the fact that twenty years after leaving our teen selves behind, we are now comfortable in our own skins – owning our wrinkles, grey-hairs and extra-pounds and proud of where we have ended up in life. Wow Sooze – this must be contentment. Who knew?

Anyone else have a reunion recently? Found an old flame on Facebook or just caught up with a former classmate around the traps?