Sunday 9 November 2014

In My Kitchen: November 2014

In my kitchen are signs of summer.  The days are getting hot enough to want to avoid turning on the oven.  Berries and stone fruit are coming into the stores.  Strawberries are at the farmers market.  We ate them as they were.  We bought more last week to eat with butterscotch and gingerbread ice cream!

In my kitchen are new bowls.  They were a $2 each from the bargain shop down the local high street.  Expect to see them in a photo on this blog soon.  If they don't all smash like the one yesterday morning.  We served a lovely pumpkin, chickpea and rice soup in them last week. 

In my kitchen we have the remains of a packet of Halloween marshmallows.  They are not vegetarian.  I prefer vegetarian marshmallows but they are hard to find and E and Sylvia love them so.

In my kitchen are Stand 'n' Stuff Tortillas.  They are almost like a soft taco - much smaller than I expected.  You can see a photo of them alongside my Mexican corn gnocchi.  I still have half the packet and it seemed fresh enough days later in a plastic bag but with the hot weekend just passed I really need to use them up.

In my kitchen are oaty bites.  They are great little healthy snacks with minimal sweetness.  (They also come in apple and sultana.) I thought they would be great for the lunchbox.  Sylvia disagreed.

In my kitchen the lunchbox is filled five days a week.  Sylvia loved having the chocolate-covered Girl Guide biscuits.  When I was young these were often in our kitchen.  Never covered with chocolate.  I bought these for nostalgic value. Oh and I also gave her some pear and a home made focaccia sandwich.

In my kitchen are some great vegan goodies from a visit to the Mad Cowgirls Vegan Bakery.  I bought some vegan marshmallows.  E and Sylvia are banned from them so that I can use them for baking.  Hope they don't melt in the heat now I have opened them for the monster cake.  Bio cheese is the best - see melty picture with a recent burger.  Tofetta is pretty good - used in this gnocchi.  But I was most excited to find Australian liquid smoke.  It is made by Misty Gully who I have now discovered are really all about smoking meat.  But isn't Outback Campfire a great name for Liquid Smoke!

In my kitchen are many easy meals thrown together without recipes or notes for the blog.  Here is a sort of stir fry flavoured with old bay seasoning, tamari, mirin and maple syrup.  It was really good with rice.

In my kitchen is this gorgeous melamine daisy plate from Mozi in Melbourne Central.  I love their homewares and their hand creams too.  I admired this plate quite a few times before I got worried they would sell out and had to have one of my own.

In my kitchen is a new brand of jam I spied in the supermarket.  I have never heard of Henry Jones before but apparently it is an old company related to IXL whose jam is quite common in the supermarkets near me.  Much as I love making chia seed jam, it does not last long.  So I was interested to see a commercial chia jam.  It is made in Australia, low in sugar and tastes great.

In my kitchen is a new and old salt hog.  You may remember I had one exactly the same and smashed it a few months back and had to replace it with a soulless salt keeper.  In one of those moments when world feels like a warm and fuzzy place, the lovely Veganopoulous found one the same as my old one in an op shop and gifted it to me.  Isn't she generous!  Aren't bloggers the nicest people!  Isn't blogging great!

I am sending this post to Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for her In My Kitchen event.  Head over to join in (by 10th of each month) and/or check out what is happening in other bloggers' kitchens.   

27 comments:

  1. I'm fascinated by how products differ here and in Australia. Different branding (except Old El Paso which is American), different feel. Yet the ingredients are similar. Obviously, strawberries coming in season in November is a major contrast between the hemispheres! I like your salt holder.

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    1. Thanks Mae - glad you enjoy seeing the products - I enjoy seeing the ordinary grocery items of other countries because they seem so novel to me. It is a little weird seeing the different seasons though as it does fill me with seasonal envy!

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  2. Is it terrible that I'm wishing for signs of summer already and late fall/winter is just starting?!

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    1. Thanks Joanne - I understand - all your lovely pumpkin fall recipes make me wish it was autumn

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  3. What a lovely gift from Veganopolous - definitely the sort of thing that makes life seem warm and comforting and worthwhile. I love your new bowls too, and would certainly be happy to see some of those oat bites in my lunch. Girl Guide biscuits have a twang of nostalgia for me too, but for some reason they didn't come around often when I was a child. Fundraising chocolates were more common.

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    1. Thanks Kari - I don't think we had that meany fundraising chocolates when I was young - it was more girl guide biscuits and lamingtons (I loved lamington drives!) Yes v kind of Veganopoulous - couldn't believe it when she sent me the photos!

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  4. Aww, how wonderful to get your same salt dish back. What a lovely thing to do. You've got delightful things in your kitchen. I agree with the oatcakes in the lunchbox. :)

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    1. Thanks Maureen - if only the oaties in the lunchbox got eaten!!!!

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  5. A cute glimpse of your kitchen. Nice bowls and plate, and I'm so glad for you that you have your favourite salt hog again!

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  6. I love nosing round other people's kitchens....... There is some lovely stuff here..... so good that you were gifted a replacement salt hog.... how kind is that?!

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  7. wow love that salt pig. i saw some very similar ones this past week on our travels back from sydney to brisbane. great little bowls too.

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    1. Thanks Sherry - strange I never see salt hogs but maybe now I have mine back I will start to see them again - sod's law

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  8. I really want that tofetta, biocheese and liquid smoke! Sylvia's lunchbox looks great- focaccia is a good idea. I've tried buying a few healthy snack type things for my Sylvia's lunchbox but she hasn't been impressed either...

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    1. Thanks Kate - the focaccia is the overnight one I sometimes do with rhubarb but these days more likely without (especially when sylvia suggests I do it with rhubarb just after I have stewed a bunch!) And why is it so hard to find agreeable healthy snacks when kids are so easy to eat the unhealthy ones - just made ang liddon's glo bars so will see how these go in the lunchbox

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  9. awww fanks for the mention! The salt hog looks happy :D Would you believe I can't even find the recipes I bookmarked for "when I get Old Bay Seasoning"! I can't even remember if they were online or in my cookbooks! Love the daisy plate and I have some Misty Gully, I bought it years ago (maybe pre-vegan days) when I googled liquid smoke in Australia and this online shop was the only result that came up. Then I was told liquid smoke is sometimes sold in Aldi!

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    1. Thanks Vegnaopoulous - any time at all!!!! I know what you mean about Old Bay Seasoning - it is good in vegan crab cakes and chips and seasoned roasted nuts. I have been using it instead of salt or pepper in seasoning stirfries, soups and anything at all. It even worked well in fajita vegies. I've never seen liquid smoke in Aldi - often get mine in Carlton but it does seem to be becoming easier to find - hurrah!

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  10. Butterscotch and gingerbread ice-cream, ooooh licking my lips and I say this with a hot water bottle on my lap! Halloween did not feature in my home this year, in fact we were so badly organised that we didn't even have sweets to give the trick and treaters, ending up opening a box of chocolates that were gifted to D as a thank you gesture, still better than nothing.

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  11. those strawberries are GORGEOUS!! bundled in my winter coat (it's freezing in NYC) seeing those strawberries make me long for summer again! enjoy the hot weather! :D

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  12. I need one of those salt hogs. I love your new bowls. I'm also filling lunch boxes five days a week. When I was growing up I used to love it when the Girl Guides would knock on the door selling round wine, vanilla wine and ??? (I can't think of the third variety) biscuits xx

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  13. G'day You got me at the strawberries and Thx for this month's warm and welcoming kitchen view also!
    Cheers! Joanne

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  14. I love my salt pot. I think I get a little bit over the top with salt but it just makes everything better. Yours is so cute! I narrowly avoided Halloween nearly all together this year. Apart from going out to a bar and being bombarded by people covered in fake blood. Those strawberries are stunning. I need to go get myself some for breakfast I think!

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  15. Rather jealous right now ;-) In my kitchen there are the signs of the cold months creeping up: chestnuts, a pumpkin..... But I am sure one of these fabulous granola bars could cheer me right up :-) PS: For some strange reason I keep on getting an error when trying to post this comment via my wordpress account. Hugs, afracooking

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  16. I am so excited to devour these little beautiful strawberries and all the stone fruits! Right now it’s freezing here in the Pacific Northwest (US). Do you have a favorite Farmers Market in Melbourne? I would love to check it out in December. $2 for a bowl set - love great deals like this! And what a great vegan foodie collection, I will check out the grocery store - it looks like a mere 21-min drive from the area I will stay in. Awww, how sweet of Veganopoulous - yummmmm on that jam!

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  17. Love your new little salt pig, isn't Faye kind to send it to you! And your little Japanese (?) bowls are very sweet indeed. I'm trying to figure out how they make vegan marshmallows - I've never seen them made without gelatine?

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  18. Your kitchen sounds so fun!!!
    I love the plates especially =)

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  19. Lots of variety in your kitchen this month :-)
    Yes I think bloggers are the best, especially foodie ones, Celia recently sent me some sourdough starter in the mail to encourage me to start.... So generous! Thanks for sharing! Liz x

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  20. Yay for summer coming - I do not like the cold weather at all!
    We also tried the stand and stuff soft tacos - but we thought they were huge lol!!!!

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