Annabel Langbein
Organic foods, the importance of eating together and how anyone can master beautiful cooking.
Girls Love Scooters
Annah Stretton is hankering for the fun and challenge of riding a scooter.
Money Can’t Buy Me Love
The link between money and happiness depends entirely on your attitude towards money.
her inspiration
Cooking up a Storm
Annabel Langbein
Annabel Langbein, New Zealand’s celebrity chef, has just released her twelfth book, titled Eat Fresh. Annabel is a self-taught cook and discusses why organic foods are better, the importance of eating together and how anyone can master beautiful cooking.
Annabel loves to cook, and has done for most of her life. Her inspiration for creating mouth-watering meals comes from watching her mother prepare wholesome family dinners. “My mother inspires my cooking. She always used to set the table beautifully. Dinner was an event even if it was lasagne and this had a huge influence on my love for cooking.” Annabel believes that preparing nourishing meals and eating together is the cornerstone of family life.
Annabel has a background in horticulture and is passionate about the outdoors. “In my teens, I moved up the Wanganui River with two friends to live self-sufficiently on the old marae at Ranana. We had a vast organic vegetable garden, providing the freshest produce for everyone around.” She began experimenting with different recipes and flavours when she was young. Often, she would grow or hunt her own ingredients, like crayfish and eels; she says there is nothing like fresh ingredients.
Annabel began her cooking career working as a cook for a local restaurant to help save for her OE. “I used the opportunity to save up to go overseas. As soon as I started, I realised I would not do it forever, as I can’t cook the same food every day, I like experimenting and variety.” With no real objective in mind, Annabel set off travelling the world and experimenting with different flavours.
The turning point in her career was when she got sick overseas and couldn’t come home but suddenly developed this strong desire to cook. “In South America I got sick and I didn’t want to go home just yet but I wanted to cook. Cooking is my essence. It is what I do to centre myself, it is a therapeutic process. Cooking is something I physically need to do.” Annabel’s love for what she does is the key to her success.
When Annabel returned to New Zealand she began writing for the Listener and Cuisine; this is when she realised she could write, and decided to compile her own book. “My goal was to develop and refine my recipes for the book so that anyone can pick it up and make it work.” Since then, Annabel has successfully written twelve books and sold over a million copies.
Her latest book, Eat Fresh, differs from her previous editions in that it provides a unique insight into Annabel’s personality and home life. This book is also designed around the coming spring season. “Supermarkets have changed the way we eat because you can get any food products all the year round but eating with the seasons tastes better and it is cheaper. We are in spring now and with the change of seasons your pallet changes too. I wanted to make lighter and fresher recipes.”
The book also focuses on the types of ingredients to use, and information on ingredients, for example, when avocados are in season and how you know when they are ripe. “I have a stronger voice in the book. It shares my thoughts on learning to cook and my philosophy for life.” The book also includes online support for people following recipes so that you can log onto a website and watch Annabel make the meals.
With a background in horticulture, Annabel is passionate about the way food is grown and the quality of ingredients that go into each meal. “Our parents grew up with the idea that all food was safe. It really is in the last decade that there have been a number of scares around food. Increasingly people are becoming more aware of what they eat.”
Annabel believes it is important to eat well by using fresh organic ingredients. She says cooking organically makes you more aware of your food and what you’re cooking with. “You can’t beat cooking organically and your food ends up more nutritionally dense. Not everything I eat is organic, but I try to buy organic foods when I can, especially food that may spend a long time in the ground, like carrots, potatoes or onions.”
Annabel is also passionate about sustainability and is also heavily involved in the Sustainability Council of New Zealand. “Initially, we had a mandate to keep genetically modified food out of the New Zealand food chain and we were very successful in that so now we have broadened in our work to try and keep the standards high.”
Before her children were born, Annabel founded the International Culinary Institute, where she could share her passion of food and teach others how to cook. But Annabel’s focus shifted to her family and writing. “I think there was this idea that we could be superwomen and do everything. For most people it is incredibly difficult. I nearly hit the wall once and realised that if you’re not fit and healthy you can’t help anyone. So it is important not to set your benchmark too high.” Annabel puts her family first and believes quality time with them is the most important thing.
Annabel wanted to provide a flavour of her latest book and has included her zucchini and basil bruschetta. This tasty recipe uses simple ingredients and is easy to follow. “To me, the hallmark of a good cook is resourcefulness. It’s easy to cook with fancy ingredients but to make something really delicious out of basic ingredients takes thought and imagination.” Eat Fresh incorporates simple ingredients and, with vegetarian options, there is something for everyone.
By Michelle King
her insight
Girls Love Scooters
Well, who would have thought that in my 40s I’d be hankering for the fun and challenge of riding a scooter?
Interestingly enough, a scooter is not the doddle to ride that I thought it would be. Hence I found myself listening intently to the extremely focused delivery and riding instructions. Picking a helmet didn’t provide too much of a dilemma even though there was a huge choice - retro styling will always be a winner for me. Instructions over, and helmet chosen, I mount my metallic pink (yep, goes with the hair) Vmoto.
She’s off! Legs splayed, I putter around the car park, knowing that one day I’ll look a lot more glamorous, but for the time being staying on is the name of the game! Difficult for a girl like me to be at a learning stage of anything - I’m definitely a long way off scooter excellence.
Exhilarated by the thought of the ownership of something so cool, and the promise of the long summer days at Hahei, where I fully intend to make huge use of my new scooter, I return to the office leaving my daughter, Sam, and partner Tony (he’s got a black one) for the virgin navigation of our Morrinsville roads to purchase $5.00 worth of gas. Yep, that’s a full tank in Vmoto-land. In this day and age, they’ve got to be streets ahead as a mode of transport given their economics alone. They run for the same price as a latte in our Morrinsville cafes.
So I pack up for the day and head to my hairdresser’s for a long overdue colour. Imagine my surprise to see a little scooter perched beside their building. I’m not very observant apparently, as it had been there ever since the weather had enabled its riding. He’s become a convert (just like me). Hooked for the last six months it seems!
Girls and Pink Scooters! Roll on summer!
By Annah Stretton
her inform
Money Can’t Buy Me Love
You’ve heard the saying – ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’. The more people I speak to about money, the more it becomes obvious to me that the link between money and happiness depends entirely on your attitude towards money. Let me give you some examples.
One of my clients is a man in his early seventies who came to New Zealand from Holland in the 1950s with just a few coins in his pocket. Although he came from a background of poverty, Hank set himself a target of making $1million before he retired. He was a hard worker, and started in a labouring job. Soon he had saved enough to put down a deposit on a house.
Over the next few years, Hank bought several more properties, eventually building up a sizeable portfolio of industrial, commercial and residential property. When he retired five years ago, he sold his properties, not for $1million but for $7million. When Hank came to see me, one of the first questions I asked him was for what he wanted to use his $7million. He couldn’t give me an answer. Hank had been so focussed on achieving his target, he had lost sight of the purpose of money in his life. His health was deteriorating, making travel difficult; his children were doing well financially, and now he had a big problem. He had all this money, with no obvious use for it, yet he was fearful of losing it.
Mary is another client who has a very different view about money. She came to see me just before her 65th birthday. Mary had been living on an invalid’s benefit, which paid her just over $11,000 per year after tax. On turning 65, she would be entitled to NZ Superannuation, which would give her around $13,000 per year. Mary wanted to know how she could best invest her additional income, as she didn’t need it to live on! After years of living on a meagre allowance, Mary had learned to live quite happily within her means.
By contrast, Sam and Judy are a couple in their forties who have combined incomes of over $200,000, yet who live from payday to payday. They both have stressful managerial jobs. They have a view that because they work so hard and have a high status in the community they deserve to have the best of everything – a house in the best suburb, a new car, an overseas trip once a year and private school education for their children. Much of this spending is done on a credit card rather than from saving. They constantly worry about keeping up with all their bills despite their high incomes and frequently argue about money.
The point of all of this is that whether you have enough money to be happy depends, not on how much money you have, but on your attitude towards the money you have. Hank’s belief was that the more money he saved, the happier he would be –yet he had far more money than he really needed. Sam and Judy will continue to live beyond their means no matter how much money they have unless they change their belief that the more money they spend, the happier they will be. Meanwhile, the happiest of all of them is Mary, who, despite her meagre income, doesn’t have a worry in the world.
How can you have no money and be happy? I recently came across a book called The Joy of Not Working by Ernie Zelinski (Ten Speed Press, 2003), which has apparently revolutionised the lives of a number of its readers through its advice on how to achieve a better work-life balance.
Thanks to our Protestant forefathers, the work ethic is still strong in our culture. To many people, leisure represents idleness and a waste of time. Some even believe that if they work longer hours they will be held in higher regard by their colleagues and by society. Many dual income couples work long hours, not because they have to but as a way of avoiding the turmoil of family life. The combination of these factors mean that during their working lives, many people have a narrow focus of just work and family. That’s fine until they reach a time in their lives when they are no longer working. These people don’t know how to use their leisure time without feeling worthless or bored and they struggle to enjoy themselves on low or no income.
There are many reasons why you might find yourself working less or on a lower income. You might take time out to have children, suffer an illness that affects your ability to work, work less by choice, lose your job, or retire.
In my experience, those people who have a balanced life are less likely to have financial difficulties than those who don’t. That’s because they don’t need to spend or accumulate money in order to find happiness.
By Liz Koh
Financial Planner, Money Max. Ph 0800 273 847
