In my kitchen - November 2013

In my kitchen is light, colour and much ordinariness.  Yes ordinariness.  Sometimes it seems that I spend more time writing about the exotic in my kitchen and ignoring the ordinary.  Hence my enjoyment of focusing on the every day.

I start with my fruit bowl.  For all that I wanted to enjoy the ordinary in this post, I can barely see the apples and tomatoes for my excitement at the gorgeous white peaches on sale in the supermarket.  The first stone fruit of the season is appearing in the stores.  There is nothing like a juicy peach to make it feel like summer.  We are almost there.

A bit less ordinary is agave nectar.  It is one of those ingredients I go on and off.  I don't always have it in the kitchen but it is nothing terribly new for me.  The reason I took a photo of this bottle is that I love the glorious green design. 

Whereas I do usually have sugar, butter (or more often these days, margarine) and chocolate in my pantry.  I took this photo when I was buying up on these ingredients for my dad's birthday cake.  We don't usually have white chocolate but it was for the cake!  It is best to use these ingredients in large quantities when baking for a crowd rather than for my small household of three.

Above is our regular Vitasoy calci-plus soy milk.  We started to buy it when Sylvia refused to drink dairy milk but seemed to enjoy this milk.  It offered both enhanced calcium and Vitamin B12. 

When we were in Scotland last year, she went off soy milk because the ones we were buying were in different cartons.  Hence I was a little concerned she wouldn't drink the milk in the new carton (right) but it must be similar enough to the old carton (left) and she hasn't rejected it. 

I am unsure if the old green Hi-Fibre cartons are the same as the new Low Fat cartons.  (They seem to be high in fibre and have B12) as we would buy those occasionally too.

Here is a not quite ordinary picture of my garden.  The thyme and bay leaves have been there for years.  The blueberry plant at the front is new.  I am still a little nervous about keeping it alive.  (Especially after spending time cutting gall wasp out of my lemon and lime trees this week!)  My mum brought it because Sylvia was keen on having blueberries in her garden.  Who knew they could grow in such tiny plants!

I bought this Lipton Mojito Iced Tea on the sale shelf out of curiousity.  I love a non-alcoholic mojito.  The drink wasn't as exciting.  It was low on flavour and sweetness and I could taste the tea a little too strongly.  Yes, I know it is tea.  I have enjoyed some other flavours in the iced tea range but this one just didn't appeal to me.

Not quite everything in my kitchen at the moment fits in the ordinary category.  This is a pie from Natural Tucker bakery in Nicholson Street, Carlton.  We were in the area for other purchases and this was a little bonus.  I love Natural Tucker baked goods and loved visiting their own bakery rather than finding a limited range in other shops.  This takeaway vegie pie topped with tofu was very satisfying.

I bought this Mild Harissa from Palma's Pantry.  So far I have only used a small spoonful.  Then my mum was having a dinner party with a middle eastern theme for the mains.  So I gave her the jar.  It is a really lovely fragrant sauce.  Hopefully I can buy more of it next time I am at the  Fitzroy Market.

We have corn chips at home from time to time.  I have seen these blue corn chips about and even had them before.  I was really pleased to find a packet around Halloween in Whole Foods in East Brunswick.  I am sure I have looked for them before and not found them.  They are great for Halloween food (such as the bat toast I made with them).

Lastly I leave you with an unmistakable sign that there is a four year old in my kitchen.  Sylvia loves Peppa Pig and so we looked for a Peppa Pig showbag on our trip to The Melbourne Show last month.  No luck.  Luckily for us, my mum went to the Geelong Show with my nieces and bought a showbag for us there.  I was quite impressed with the contents: a plate, bowl and cup set, gardening set, sunglasses, hairclips, toothbrush and backpack.  It has brought a little extra colour to our kitchen.

I am sending this post to Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for her In My Kitchen series.  Please visit to see what Celia and others have in their kitchens.