Tag: In my kitchen

In my kitchen

In my kitchen in February was produce from the garden. Of course, being home grown, there is an abundance of the same ingredient. While it is lovely to have, you do have to be inventive to come up with different ideas!

Firstly there has been corn. I am amazed at how easy it was to grow. My vegetables grow in the front yard and I planted the corn by the side fence. It must have been the perfect spot ~ that and the Fella, who loves to make sure the area is well watered. (We call him the Undergardener, but lately he has been the one keeping everything going!)

Of course, when you have super fresh corn you only have to boil it for a few minutes, add butter and a sprinkling of salt and enjoy. A favourite of children as well!

I have made chicken and corn soup, which would have been better with proper stock, and corn fritters. These worked well. I cut the corn off the cob, added some finely chopped capsicum and chopped roquette, which is also growing well in the garden. Then I mixed in flour and an egg to bind, and fried lightly.

I am going to try a herbed corn soup tonight with the last few cobs.

After they have been pulled out the corn plants go on giving. They make great compost and I have used a couple of the stalks to stake the begonia. Gotta love a plant that gives so much!

There is an abundance of beans, super tasty when young and fresh and a treat as I picked them. Now they are becoming more fibrous. So I have been shelling them like peas, instead of cooking the pods. I have been tossing them into lots of things. I am thinking of making a dip. Any thoughts on how I would go about it?

Some of the pods are drying on the plants and I am collecting those seeds for dried beans in soups and stews.

There are eggplants too. One bush is rich, glossy and purple and the other is a heirloom variety that produces sensational stripy fruit.

Eggplant = ratatouille, of course. It’s a great dish, because it includes so many of the vegetables currently in season. I cooked up the eggplant, onion, garlic, a potato, capsicum, beans (of course!) with a tin of tomatoes and extra tomato paste. It was delicious just with a piece of toast.

Then I used the mixture the next night mixed with some cooked mince meat, added to a halved eggplant and roasted in the oven for a while. I do love these sorts of dishes, where I can just throw in a bit of this and an extra bit of that; no precision required!

Yesterday a little pot of sunshine was given to me. EllaDee, Kate and I (and the G.O. too. of course!) met up at the Botanic Gardens. We had such a lovely natter, and it was as delightful to meet these interesting, vivacious women as I hoped. EllaDee gave me a pot of honey that came from the area of NSW where she now lives. Doesn’t honey just sum up warmth and sweetness? Just like these wonderful bloggers ~ and the G.O. 🙂

I am going to leave you with photos of the rampant beans and sweet potatoes. If the bean plants had been able to reach the sky I am sure that Jack, followed by a giant, would have come skidding down. Th plants had to be satisfied with wandering here on earth. The sweet potato is growing from remnants of last year’s crop. It will be interesting to see how many tubers, if any, are being produced. The strawberry plants have stopped producing, but are still flourishing.

A big thank you to Maureen from Orgasmic Chef. She has had a horror time lately, and yet still hosts the In My Kitchen series with such dedication. I wish her all good things over the next while.

What’s happening in your kitchen this month ~ or indeed in your garden?

Tags aubergines, beans, corn fritters, eggplant, In my kitchen, sweet corn, urban vegetable patch, vegetable gardening

In My Kitchen

In My December Kitchen

Our family Christmas was early this year. We headed over to my Mum’s and all took some offering of food. My contribution was Chinese duck, picked up from the restaurant in Footscray on the way. Such an easy and satisfying contribution!

The other dishes were also delicious and varied. And we had a choice of 10 different cocktails. 🙂

Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2015

On Christmas Day the Fella and I went down to a beach house at Somers, where we met up with my gorgeous Mum. For lunch we cooked pancakes and ate them with smoked salmon, sour cream, rocket, asparagus and a few salads. Simple, but very tasty. No Christmas pud for dessert, instead we had Mum’s warm fruit salad. That is simply stewing fruits ~ apricots, pineapple, prunes, whatever you have, fresh or dried ~ and then eating it slightly warm with cream and meringues.

Oh my, the foodie presents….

Gingerbread and truffles, and rocky road chocolate straws from my nieces.

Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2015

An Indian cookbook from my brother and sister-in-law. I love cookbooks that are filled with photos and stories as well as enticing recipes. I know I will be sharing lots from this with you.

Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2015

There were lovely non-Christmas gifts from friends.

Chilli infused olive oil. It is rich and gives a luscious hit of chilli.

From the same friend was another cookbook, from the Moroccan Soup Kitchen. This is well known Melbourne restaurant that serves simple, tasty food with love and care. I used the chickpea bake as a salad on Christmas Day. Again there will be many recipes to share with you.

Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2015

Another friend gave me this simple posy of herbs, tied with a velvet ribbon.

Other friends shared the produce from their fruit trees. I stewed the nectarines and apricots in the same way ~ honey, cinnamon, vanilla essence and five spice mix. Then into the freezer.

Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2015

I am so lucky to have such bounty in my kitchen. Such simple gifts, all given and received with love and friendship. I hope you were as fortunate over the holiday time.

In My Kitchen is hosted by Maureen over at Orgasmic Chef. She has just taken over hosting it. Drop on over to see what’s happened in her kitchen as well as kitchens around the world.

Tags Christmas food, In my kitchen, simple gifts, stewed fruit, The Moroccan Soup Kitchen

In My Kitchen

In my kitchen this month are the wonderful fruits and vegetables of summer ~ the first mangoes and avocados, apricots and other stone fruit, asparagus. There is nothing like the first tastes and scents of these delights.

These lovely fresh ingredients make great salads, simple, easy.

In my kitchen are the last of the homegrown peas, but the beans and corn seeds have sprouted in the garden. I have also harvested quite a few kilos of potatoes and thirteen garlic knobs. The strawberries are still cropping.

In my kitchen were these little treats. Actually a friend and I ate them in her kitchen 🙂 I bought them from my nut stall at the Victoria Market. The nut stall has the most delicious lemon flavoured almonds, but I digress…. I don’t know the name of these pastries. They were very similar to baclava, without the honey syrup. Very tasty once you realised they weren’t sweet.

In my kitchen is a new packet of dashi powder. Dashi is a Japanese stock and I use it to make teriyaki salmon. I love boxes of things that I can’t read. My brother is teaching himself Japanese and he was able to read some of the other words on the box. Unfortunately, while he could read them he didn’t know what they meant. I gave him the job of translating the recipe on the back of the box! 😉

In my kitchen is my yoghurt maker. Thank you to everyone last month who gave me suggestions to make it thicker. I haven’t been very successful YET, but I have been persistent! In the last batch I heated the milk, added some milk powder and was quite strict about the time I left it to set. It was a little thicker, but still a way to go. It will not defeat me ~ I am going to make thicker yoghurt!

In my kitchen is a new tap for the water filter. I broke the other one when I knocked it with my elbow. This stainless steel job should be impervious to accidental knocks.

In my kitchen is a recipe from Aunty Helen. It goes like this:

Quick Crustless Quiche

4 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups milk

1 zucchini, carrot, potato, all grated (but really, you can use whatever is lurking in the fridge ~ it is a great recipe for this)

1 onion, diced

1 cup grated cheese

Chopped parsley. Also add in thyme, chives, oregano, whatever

set oven at 200 C; brush quiche pan with oil
Combine all ingredients except 1/2 cup of cheese
Pour into quiche pan and sprinkle cheese on top
Bake 15 mins at 200 C then reduce to 160C for 20 -25 minutes until set.

Aunty Helen’s notes go on to say “I make this often ~ we have small serves and it does us 3 meals with vegetables”. She does eat like the proverbial sparrow. 🙂

This last one is almost in my kitchen…..We have watched Bob the Pigeon for a few years now. He patrols the area outside our back window and perches in the maple tree. But now he has a mate, Bobina. Sensibly they built their nest tucked under our eaves in the safety of the grapevine. I can only get glimpses but thought you might like to have a peek too. [Apologies for the terrible photo.]

In My Kitchen is hosted each month by Celia from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. This will be the last time Celia hosts the series. After five years she is handing the baton to Maureen at The Orgasmic Chef; I am sure she will do a fabulous job. So many thanks to Celia for giving us the opportunity to get inspiration from her kitchen and others around the world. She has allowed so many connections and friendships to flourish. (BTW, you must jump over to Celia’s post and check out her chocolate chess set!)

Tags crustless quiche, dashi stock powder, In my kitchen, summer friuts

How does my garden grow? In My Kitchen

In my kitchen, November

It has been wonderful to get back to the Vic Market this last month. There are many things to love about travelling, but it is difficult to find produce beyond the supermarkets. Then there is the issue of keeping it fresh. The fridge in the van works from three different energy sources — mains electricity, electricity from the battery and gas from the gas bottle. Each time we changed the setting we had to readjust the temperature control. Often things froze before we realised. Frozen strawberries are one thing, but frozen lettuce is not good, carrots went rather manky and cucumbers soggy.

Now the fresh produce from the Vic Market will stay in pretty good condition in the fridge. 🙂 As well I have been harvesting plump strawberries from the garden, often a decent handful at a time. That is if I can beat the snails and millipedes ~ and the little boy down the road who loves a strawberry snack!

The peas have been great too. I have been quickly boiling them with beans and asparagus, cooking them just enough to keep the crunch, then adding them to salad leaves, cucumbers and tiny tomatoes.

I have been trying to eat more fish too. I go through phases of not liking fish, but can usually always enjoy salmon. This recipe makes a tasty change from baking it.

Teriyaki salmon

Teriyaki sauce

1 cup of super dashi (I buy sachets of it and use one with a cup of boiling water)

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons caster sugar

1 tablespoon of mirin

1 tablespoon fresh ginger juice, made by squeezing grated ginger

1 tablespoon sake

To make the sauce, add all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring quickly to the boil; reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes
Place two salmon fillets into the saucepan and cook for about 10 minutes over a low heat. (The recipe actually says to fry the salmon in a frying pan for five minutes, before adding to the sauce. I prefer to put it straight into the the sauce and cook it a little longer.)

That’s it. So easy. The recipe came from Hideo Dekura’s Japanese cooking at home. It has good instructions for sushi rice too. No photos though, sorry.

In my kitchen I also have a yoghurt maker. We eat yoghurt every morning with fruit and muesli, and I had wondered about making my own. Then this one came my way. Thanks Denise!

The jars are so cute, and each one holds enough for the Fella and I to share in the morning. However, the batches so far have been quite runny. A Google search gave me some help, so I have been trying a few things. Apparently full cream milk makes a thicker consistency than skim milk, and I have added in three dessert spoons of powdered milk. So far the starter yoghurt has been shop bought, usually Greek and definitely unflavoured. I have done this because I am not confident that my yogurt would carry enough oomph to inoculate a new batch.

It’s quite edible as it is, but I would like it to be thicker. So, any thoughts would be most welcome.

What’s been happening in your kitchen lately?

The In my kitchen series is hosted by the wonderful Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. This month she is baking salmon and brownies (not together!) and her bread is as mouth watering as usual. Do go and have a look.

Tags fresh peas, homemade yoghurt, In my kitchen, teriyaki salmon, yoghurt

In My Kitchen

It is months since I have posted an In My Kitchen update. These are hosted by the fabulous Celia on Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. Jump over to take a peek in kitchens all around the world.

As months have gone by it is going to be a post about what’s been happening this Winter. It has been a cold one, with the heater going most days. So, in my kitchen this Winter has been clothes drying in the heat.

Drying towels (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2015)

It has been too cold to work in my studio (aka The Playroom!). The little heater there just couldn’t combat the cold. So I decamped into the kitchen area, setting up a working table. More clutter in the room, but warm. 😉

There were more kitcheny things happening too.

After reading of a simmer plate in EllaDee’s blog I had to get one too. My stove is old and cranky, and doesn’t like to have very gentle heat. I am hoping that this simmer plate will help to stop food sticking when I am slow cooking.

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2015)

I also bought a new drinking bottle from Aldi. I left my last one on Flinders Island and have been looking for a metal one ever since. Mine is the mint green one.

I have done some baking over Winter. Like these….the cake is a little one that I made for a friend who lives alone. We ate the other one! The recipe came from Kate, Tall tales from Chiconia. It uses apple sauce and hers had the most luscious looking fudge icing. I had to draw the line at that much sugar, but it was still delicious. The choc chip biscuits were soon eaten by the Fella and me!

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2015)

And there was some serious food in my kitchen too! The sweet potatoes were ones that I grew. So easy to grow.

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2015)

Lastly, a recipe I made up for a quick, easy and tasty one-pot-dish.

Salute some onions or leeks and garlic. Add in sliced potatoes and any other veggie that you like. You can see that I have added sweet potato, celery, including the tops and peas. I added them towards the end. Then I mixed up a miso soup paste with hot water and added that to the mix. You will then need to adjust the amount of liquid so that the veggies can boil.

Tags cooking, In my kitchen, simmer plate, sweet potatoes

In My Kitchen

In my kitchen

In my kitchen there is a lot of delicious, fresh, seasonal food — avocados and mangoes, crunchy cucumbers and peppery rocket. We have fresh fruit every morning and the peaches and nectarines have been juicy and delicious. I am picking little tomatoes and green beans from the garden. And yes, more silver beet!

In my kitchen there has been a lot of baking and roasting this month. That’s because our normally hot, summery January has been chilly and grey. More oven work, less salads and BBQs.

In my kitchen I have been trying out new recipes and really enjoyed this one ~ oatmeal, spinach [or, in my case, silver beet 🙂 ] tomato and feta cheese tart. It came from the kitchen of the Lady with Red Specs and can highly recommend both her blog and the tart.

Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2015

You can see that I managed to save a portion for my lunch.

In my kitchen I made a similar dish, one that I call That Eggy Pie Thing ~ so similar I almost mixed up the photos! It doesn’t have pastry. Instead the flour seems to fall towards the bottom to create a firmer base. I don’t know if that is what is meant to happen, but it does, and I like it. It’s great because you can add anything you like to it. The original recipe included chopped ham, but I don’t usually have any. Bacon would be good to.

2 cups milk

4 eggs

1 cup grated cheese

3/4 cup plain flour

1 onion (I cook the onion before I put it into the mixture)

2 bunches of asparagus (but this time I used tomatoes)

You can also add capsicums, mushrooms, or whatever you would like to experiment with.

Preheat the oven to 200 C or 180 fan forced. Grease a 6 cup ovenproof dish. Whisk together the milk, eggs, cheese and flour until well combined. Pour into prepared dish and arrange the asparagus on the top. Bake for about 35 minutes or until set. [In my crummy oven that is longer than 35 minutes 😦 ]

Can’t get much easier than that!

In my kitchen were some helpers. Miss C and Miss B came over for lunch. While the Fella BBQed the chicken thighs we got the inside things ready. Miss C is 10 and did a great job of cutting up the capsicums and carrots for the salad. Meanwhile Miss B set the table, arranging everything just so. They both love vegetables and were dying to eat the little tomatoes we had picked from the garden just before.

In my kitchen were other guest who came over for dinner. Denise brought a delicious salad made with oranges and I made a roast vegetable one.

Chop up a range of vegetables. In my mix were capsicums, sweet potato, zucchini, a leek and potatoes. Put them in a bowl, add olive oil, salt and pepper and mix to coat the veggies. Roast. When they are soft and the edges beginning to brown, take them from the oven, place onto a pile of rocket and pour over a dressing of balsamic vinegar and oil.

For dessert I made Celia’s ricotta slice. I have spoken about this before, and just love it. So did everyone else!

Lastly, In my kitchen was a roasted eggplant for tonight’s dinner. Again super easy, and surprisingly quick.

I halved the glossy, firm eggplant [aubergine], scored the flesh and salted it. Leaving that to one side, I opened a tin of tomatoes [but use chopped fresh ones if you like], added finely chopped spring onions, capsicum [must win Ingredient of the Month for January!], zucchini, salt and pepper. It was way more mixture than I needed, but will be handy for other meals this week.

After washing the salt from the eggplant I fried both halves for a couple of minutes. While that was doing I thinned down some soya bean paste with hot water. This is my secret ingredient. I love the Japanese dish nasu dengaku ~ eggplant and miso paste ~ and though why not combine the miso with the tomato mixture? So I painted the cut side of the eggplant with the paste.

Spooned on the tomato mixture

Added cheese, of course!

Into the oven for about 20 minutes ~ could be even quicker in non-crummy ovens. And there it is. You can probably tell I am not a food stylist 😉 but boy did it taste good!

So, what’s been happening in your kitchen this month? Head over to Celia’s blog at Fig Lime and Jam Cordial. Each month she hosts In My Kitchen, and it’s almost as popular as My Kitchen Rules!

Tags cooking, egg recipes, eggplant, fresh produce, In my kitchen, recipes, ricotta slice, roast vegetable salad

In My Kitchen

In My Kitchen ~ December

In my kitchen in December were way too many delicious things. So in my kitchen, without photos, were….

chocolates from my niece who works in Koko Black. Heaven!

delicious rumballs made by another niece and beautifully bagged and tagged. I even managed to taste a few, because nothing sweet is safe from the Fella!

the Christmas ham that kept us in sandwiches and salads for quite a few days.

In my kitchen, with photos, were…..

biscuits that I baked for gifts

mince pies. I did mean to bake my own this year, but we all know about good intentions!

cute little Christmas puddings. So easy! I have included the recipe below, and many thanks to Denise for showing me. File it away for next Christmas and impress everyone. They make an excellent finger food dessert.

Cooling down in the fridge (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2014)

Buy a ready made pudding or cake from the supermarket. Cheap is fine.

Mash up the pudding with orange juice so that it clumps together. Brandy would be pretty good too. Roll into balls about the size of your palm.

Melt white chocolate and dribble that onto the top of the pudding balls. You can see in the photos that some of my attempts were more successful than others.

Add little bits of chopped jube-like lollies. I used red and green snakes. They were a great size, but use whatever you have. My advice is to have them chopped before you melt the chocolate. In my second batch I put three holy berries with two leaves. That appealed to me more than just one berry. 🙂

Then all you have to do is pop them into the fridge for a little while.

And the first of my home-grown strawberries, only a little eaten by snails.

Lastly, in my kitchen there were big messes! Luckily I have my very own washer-upperer. My Fella does all the dishes at all times, and only grumbles occasionally about the mess I make. 🙂

What deliciousness was in your kitchen this month? The In My Kitchen series is hosted by Celia. Jump over to her blog to take a peek into kitchens around the world.

Tags biscuits, Christmas cooking, Christmas puddings, cooking, In my kitchen

In My Kitchen

In my kitchen over November

Post author By anne54
Post date December 8, 2014
32 Comments on In my kitchen over November

Hmmmm, yummy! (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2014)

My silver beet tower and broad bean mountain are so much smaller than last month — phew! Thanks to everyone who visited last month — so many silver beet lovers out there! However I may have a similar tower and mountain problem a little way down the track. I had sworn off silver beet [chard] plants and the broad beans were ready to be cut down when lo and behold, there was a neighbour with spare tomato and silver beet seedlings. I couldn’t refuse them, just had to plant them and the broad beans are reshooting…..

Anyway, out of the garden and into the kitchen. This month I have made a couple of recipes from other bloggers. So lots of yumminess 🙂

Firstly there was Celia’s Cranberry, Apple and Walnut Cake. I would recommend making that one. Jump on over to her blog, Thekitchensgarden. Even if you don’t want to make the cake, her blog is a joy to read, full of wit and wisdom.

Celia's apple, walnut and cranberry cake (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2014) — Celia’s apple, walnut and cranberry cake (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2014)

Then there was another cake from our other wonderful Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, who hosts In My Kitchen. It was a seriously delicious ricotta slice. And her site is an inspiration to bake and share! The cake was so good that I had to ban the Fella from eating the last slice before I photographed it!

I will make them both again. However, in my usual fashion I did muck around with the recipes a bit (“Whoops, I don’t have any of that, I will try this instead”) so they could well be different.

At this time of year we go to parties and get-togethers where we are told ‘to bring a plate’. I love to do this. Not only does it mean the hosts don’t have to provide everything, but you get to sample lovely goodies from a range of people. Yesterday I met up with friends and came away with a few new recipes to try. My contribution was a beetroot salad.

I roasted the beetroots, par boiled some green beans, toasted some pine nuts. I put it all on a serving platter, tossed around some feta cheese and drizzled over olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Colourful and tasty.

Lastly I want to show you another staple in my kitchen. It is a drawer for the compost. You can see from the photos that it is a simple arrangement and the plastic box is easy to remove to dump the veggie peelings into the compost bin out in the garden. It is also easy to clean and tucks away out of sight. My architect suggested it when I had the kitchen renovated many years ago. It is one of the Best Things, and I would highly recommend it. 🙂

Just a hole cut to fit the plastic dish (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2014)

Easy to remove (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2014)

Tucks away, out of sight (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2014)

What’s happening in your kitchen this month? Don’t forget to pop over to Celia’s blog and take a peek into kitchens from around the world.

Tags Anne Lawson, apple and cranberry cake, beetroot salad, broad beans, In my kitchen, recipe for beetroot salad, ricotta slice, silver beet, walnut

In My Kitchen

In my kitchen….

In my kitchen are broad beans and silver beet leaves. [You might call it ‘chard’.] While I was away the garden grew at a wild rate and now I have a tower of silver beet and a mountain of broad beans. Look at the size of the silver beet leaf. That’s a dessert spoon beside it!

So I have been investigating, and inventing, recipes to use up the tower and the mountain.

Firstly I made a pesto with the silver beet. I used the fresh little leaves that were growing on the stem going to seed. I added in some parsley, because that is going wild as well; tossed in a handful of roasted almonds that were too stale to eat fresh, some pine nuts and some lemon zest; blitzed the lot and stirred into warm pasta.

With the pasta was a broad bean salad. I blanched the beans and put them with some salad veggies that had travelled around South Australia with us. I made a quick dressing with some of the lemon infused oil that I learnt how to make from some of you.

Last night I made a different broad bean salad. I based it on tabouli, but used quinoa as well as parsley and the beans, lemon zest and lemon oil. For this one I hulled the beans after I blanched them. I wanted the vivid green of the inside beans with the parsley and quinoa.

Silver beet makes a good soup too, although it does look rather like a science experiment gone wrong!

Cook up an onion, potato, garlic and silver beet in stock. You wont be surprised to know that I also blanched some beans and more silver beet, pureed that and added it to the soup for extra thickness. The feta cheese crumbled in gave it a good tang. You may be curious to see that my secret ingredient was…….

Yep, Vegemite! The jar was empty, but the scrapings were just too good to leave. I sluiced in some hot water to make some extra stock.

Spanakopita is the classic dish to make with green leafed vegetables like silver beet and spinach. I used the recipe on the back of the fillo pastry box and it turned out a treat.

Steam the silver beet. [How much is a bit difficult, as a large amount of leaves cook down to not much. The recipe says ‘a bunch’. I use as much as will fit tightly into the saucepan.] When it is cooked, let it cool and then squeeze out the moisture.
Cook an onion.
Add the leaves and the onion to 100g of feta cheese and 500g of ricotta [although I think my tub might have only been 250g]. the recipe says to add mint leaves too. They would have added a nice freshness, but my mint hasn’t grown wildly yet, so I didn’t have any to add. It also called for nutmeg, which I don’t really like. I didn’t put it in. Mix it all together
Then layer the fillo pastry sheets into your baking dish, spraying with oil as you go. Spoon in the mixture and smooth it out.

If you leave some of the fillo over the edge of the dish you can then fold it over the mixture. Scrunch up a couple of other sheets of pastry and add as a flamboyant top to the pie. Spray that with a little more oil.
Bake for 30 minutes at 220 degrees C.

Doesn’t that look fancy! Delicious with my glass of wine.

Of course, the silver beet tower and broad bean mountain continue to grow. Any suggestions for recipes?

Thanks, as always, to Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for hosting In my kitchen….It’s the perfect place for food ideas and inspiration. Make sure you check out Celia’s recipe for her hazelnut, pecan and almond sourdough loaf. Oh my!

Tags broad bean salad, broad beans, chard, In my kitchen, recipes, silver beet, silver beet soup, spanakopita, Vegemite

In My Kitchen

In my kitchen

In my kitchen this month was a collection of odds and ends.

Often there has been washing. July has been so cold, grey and wintry, we have been using the heater to finish the drying.

But also there have been jonquils and daffodils to brighten our days.

In my kitchen there was mess created because we have a new caravan. That meant taking all the things out of the old one before putting them in the new. Of course it happened in my kitchen!

However, there has been some food in my kitchen! These brownies were given to us by a wonderful man in Sydney. His cafe, Twenty8Acres was right next door to the apartments we stayed in, and the delicious food drew us back a few times. Good coffee too. On our last visit — breakfast before the plane home — I told him that it was my Mum’s birthday. His response was to say “You can’t have a birthday without cake!” and wrapped up three brownies for us to take away. How sweet was that, and they were sinfully luscious!

But I did cook a cake for Mum’s birthday lunch. I was impressed with my fancy decoration! The slightly burnt edges were a cunning way of keeping the lemon syrup from running down the side of the cake. 😉

Here’s the recipe. It was so simple I may even be able to remember the recipe for next time.

http://allrecipes.com.au/recipe/4679/simple-vanilla-cake.aspx
In my kitchen there has been proper food too. 🙂 I cooked goat for the first time, slowly and in lots of extra liquid.