Wednesday 13 March 2013

In My Kitchen - March 2013

In my kitchen tonight is a cool breeze that is such a relief after a 9 day heatwave!  The cool change was such a relief that I baked bread and roasted pumpkin.  I am looking forward to using the oven more.  However what I have to show you today in my kitchen is mostly kid's parties, craft and summer food.  Not much cooking!

I will start with the heart biscuit above.  Isn't it the most gorgeous bikkie you have ever seen!  Sylvia was given it as a party favour after a kid's party.  It surprised me by tasting as good as it looked.  Soft and buttery.  Not that I was given much of a taste.

I always have 100s and 1000s sprinkles in my kitchen.  I have included a picture because I bought a new packet to celebrate Sylvia's birthday.  She loves fairy bread so I made her some for her party.  For the uninitiated, it is fresh white bread, spread with margarine and sprinkled with sugary 100s and 1000s that are probably filled with unnatural flavours and colourings.  It fills me with nostalgia for my childhood.

We have also been eating lots of fruit in our kitchen.  Peaches, nectarines, plums, grapes, apricots, watermelon, passionfruit.  Above are sugar plums.  Little cloudy purple plums with sweet yellow flesh.  I bought a carton of these for Sylvia's party and was eating them for days afterwards.  At least I felt better about these leftovers than all the chocolate cake.  (The cake is still in the freezer but we are slowly making our way through it.)

A cute fork that Sylvia was given as a birthday present.  She is enjoying using this set.  (Thanks Susie and girls.)

Another birthday present for Sylvia that isn't actually in my kitchen but is worth sharing.  It is a kitchen set for her dolls house.  Glasses, cups cutlery, saucepans and even a coffee maker.  So so cute.  (Thanks Chris, Fergal and Dash)  I must confess that they are still unopened.  They are so tiny I am worried they will disappear into a black hole.  I hope the delayed gratification will make them seem more precious to Sylvia.

As well as presents we have had quite a bit of craft happening.  Today we found poppit beads in a craft store.  Boy, they brought back memories.  Sylvia took to them with glee.  We also made button bracelets once we finally found some thin elastic (not as easy to find as you might think, especially when it involved finding that the Brunswick Spotlight had closed).

Last week the kitchen table was covered in painting after Sylvia suggested she paint in a spare 15 minutes.  It took far longer and we forgot about whatever we had planned to do after 15 minutes had elapsed.

Sylvia and E have been eating lots of Yoplait Petit Miam.  Each pot gets washed and seconded by Sylvia.  (Yes, she even washes some of them if given the chance!)  They get filled with little and tiny things to go into Sylvia's shop.  Then they get knocked over and make a mess.  Sigh!

Sushi is not easy to find in our local shopping strip.  A week or two back they were selling sushi at our local pool.  I told Sylvia I would buy her some.  There were no vegetarian options.  Sylvia was unfazed.  She suggested we make some at home.  We have been making it regularly ever since.  I have tried it filled with leftover pate and uncooked tofu bacon.  As I haven't been that great as sushi in the past, here are my learnings:
  • It works best if the rice is spread thinly (with the back of a spoon) across most of the nori sheet leaving just enough at the end to seal it.
  • If there is no filling (Sylvia's preference), it works quite well to roll up the sushi in a spiral.
  • I love it with avocado, carrot, cucumber and tofu bacon.
  • It doesn't roll very well if you spread the rice on the shiny side (as I tried today)
  • The rice always sticks to the bottom of the saucepan - but less so if simmered on smallest gas flame.
  • Leftover rice in a bear mould comes out fantastically if kept in the fridge overnight

I bought this novelty dish brush at the supermarket recently.  A great way to amuse Sylvia while out shopping.  I am not sure it had cheered up E about doing the dishes.

Some time back I complained about my water bottles.  We are still searching for the perfect water bottle in my household.  The green plastic bottle has been our favourite.  It seems leakproof if you keep the lid down but Safeway seems to have stopped selling them.  The blue one was ok.  E is quite fond of the green metal one lately but says it leaks slightly so he has to carry it in a plastic bag.

I have been buying fabrics for food photography props.  Very few have made it into photos but I love their pretty daintiness.  They came from (left to right) a market, an op shop, a vintage shop and a fabric shop.   (The creases are almost enough to make me want to buy an iron but who wants that sort of clutter!)

So there ends a peek around some foodie and not-so-foodie bits and bobs in my kitchen.  I am sending them to Celia for her In My Kitchen series.

24 comments:

  1. Such lovely things! I love the way you combine your foodie things with your crafty things...

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    1. Thanks Louise - craft usually goes on in the kitchen so it seems part of the kitchen activity

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  2. Happy belated birthday to Sylvia! I have so many posts to catch up on... The kitchen set for her dolls house is so cute, I can't believe it has a coffee machine!!! I do love the sound of tofu bacon in sushi, I must try this.

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    1. Thanks Mel - the kitchen set is so cute and yes highly recommend uncooked tofu bacon in the sushi

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  3. Love the rice in the bear mold!
    The cut out cookie is really feminine and sweet- and I'm always happy when things taste as good as they look!
    My favorite is Sylvia's shop- love that she washes out the yogurt cups to keep tiny things in. I had two boys and they never washed anything out- ever.

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    1. Thanks Heidiannie - that makes me laugh about your boys not washing up - sometimes I wish Sylvia wouldn't as she is very splashy and ends up wearing the sink of water - I asked her to wash the sand off the toys in her sandpit yesterday and you should have heard the glee in her laugh

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  4. I had lots of fun reading this post :-) I'm really impressed with your sushi rolling - I'll have to follow your tips but part of me thinks I just don't have the capacity for neat sushi in me. And that heart biscuit looks a bit like the biscuits we had for guests at our mini-wedding! Your fabrics are beautiful and Sylvia's crafts are very impressive.

    On the weather front - thunder! lightening! rain! 16'C at 2pm! I am delighted and just a wee bit cold (and delighted at that too) ;)

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    1. Thanks Kari - I am still learning about sushi rolling - thought of a post on sushi but still need to get it better before I do - but nothing like practice. I've enjoyed having to wear a cardigan at night here and will be very pleased when our garden gets a good soaking from some rain

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  5. How cute is that rice bear!! And what a fun month you've had, Johanna, especially with all of Sylvia's parties and her birthday. It sounds like she received some wonderful gifts! And that heart bikkie really is the cutest I've ever seen - I love the lace icing! Thanks for sharing! And hopefully the cool change sticks around for you for a while!

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    1. Thanks Celia - it has been a busy time lately - I would love to be able to do that lace icing and have it taste so good too. I think the temperature might hit 30 C next week but nothing like the heatwave

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  6. Johanna, you are right, that is the most gorgeous bikkie I have ever seen!!

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  7. Looks like you have been busy as always. Thanks for the sushi tips. I've tried making my own but never been that sucessful. I'll have to give it another go

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    1. Thanks Katie - Making the sushi isn't that hard for me until it comes to the filling - I confess that because sylvia loves it plain I sometimes just make it without filling for myself as well

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  8. Thanks for the peek in your kitchen. The little heart cookie is so sweet. I like that Sylvia has a rich imagination.

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    1. Thanks Cakelaw - I really love how Sylvia (and most kids) love such crazy home made stuff rather than the plastic stuff that looks so real that they sell in toy shops.

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  9. hehe your kitchen looks very much like my kitchen this month! We've been going crazy over the sugar plums. They're SO delicious! :D

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    1. Thanks Lorraine - those sugar plums are so yummy - so sad that we are reaching the end of stone fruit season but the plums might last a little longer

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  10. What lovely thing to share! I do like Sylvia's new fork, very stylish. Lovely sushi too. Looks like you've had lots of fun.

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  11. Thanks Caroline - the fork is stylish and also lots of fun - it is part of a rock-scissors-paper set so this one is the "paper" hand.

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  12. I'm reading your post with snow falling outside my window, so your talk of a 9 day heatwave makes me just a tiny bit envious!

    I love all the focus on crafts and children's things. It really takes me back to those days.

    A lovely happy family kitchen.

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    1. Thanks Pat - I am a little envious of your snow falling outside too. I love all the crafts with Sylvia too - it takes me back to my childhood

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  13. The first time I ever heard of fairy bread was when my niece asked for some in January. I wonder if it's an Australian dish?

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  14. Fairy bread for birthday parties in Melbourne in the fifties - only seems yesterday

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