In My Kitchen - April 2013

The last few months of In My Kitchen posts have been quite fancy with contributions from travel, Christmas and birthdays.  This month sees us return to business as usual with the change of season being the feature of the kitchen.  We have had lots of warm days this Autumn but the weather is noticeably cooler.  This weekend is gloriously warm, all the more welcome because it surely can't last.  Let me take you through my kitchen.

In my kitchen is artwork.  Sylvia draws and paints and draws some more.  As more and more of her pictures are blue takked on the cupboard doors, the kitchen becomes more like a gallery.  Houses are her favourite thing to draw.  You might also say that Dolly is pretty as a picture in her pink nightie and pearls!

In my kitchen is my new pretty doorstop.  Bought at our visit to CERES Harvest Festival.  E didn't understand why a rubber wedge isn't good enough.  I don't bother telling him it doesn't even hold the door open because the gap is too big.  This doorstop makes me happy.  Sadly we are not keeping the doors open as much now that it is finally cooling down and feeling like Autumn.

In my kitchen are icy poles.  I made them for the warmer weather.  These ones were inspired by Pinterest and contain a 400g tin of pineapple, a 400g tin of coconut milk, 2 bananas, a nectarine and a kiwifruit.  I liked them but not terribly so.  We still have a few in the freezer.  It is forecast to be warm this week so perhaps they will not be there much longer.

In my kitchen are the final tomatoes of summer.  They have been magnificent (though hard to photograph).  Now they are going up in price and soon will be replaced by those hard anaemic tomatoes that can only dream of being as juicy and flavoursome as these beauties.

In my kitchen is a bowl of fruit.  It demonstrates the change of season.  Stone fruit and berries are giving way to plums and apples.  Limes have been deliciously cheap.  We have been drinking limeade.  I am particularly excited about fresh crunchy apples.

In my kitchen are breakfasts of fruit and yoghurt.  This bowl had peach, plum and kiwi fruit with some Gippsland yoghurt.  We love the new snack size yoghurt twists.  This one was flavoured with blackberry and pomegranate.

In my kitchen is a grubby pizza stone.  The cooler autumnal days mean more baking, more bread and more pizza.  Hurrah!  I love my pizza stone so much that I recently bought a new one.  It showed up just how loved my old one is.  These days I often bake two pizzas at once so two stones make it so much easier to have a crisp bottom.

In my kitchen is Oxfam organic drinking chocolate.  'Tis the weather for warming drinks.  I am not a big fan of hot chocolate and even less so at home.  This one has been going down very nice.  (Great choice of gift, Penny!)

In my kitchen is soy milk in a cup with a straw.  We buy Vitasoy CalciPlus.  Sylvia loves to drink it in a cup.  It has lots of calcium and B12.  E and I don't drink it straight.  He adds a splash of it to hot chocolate.  We love it in porridge and smoothies.  My sister Susie gave me this cup with a straw a year or two ago.  Sylvia has recently discovered it and loves to drink her milk out of it at the moment.

In my kitchen is sushi seasoning.  I bought it because there was no rice wine vinegar when I needed it.  I have got used to using this seasoning without having to adjust the sugar and salt.  It is so easy.  Most helpful while we are making sushi for lunch regularly.

In my kitchen are lunches at home.  So often they are leftovers or on the run.  Despite good intentions of making better lunches.  This is a rather good combo of a quinoa and brown rice salad with a pumpkin and beetroot salad brought home from Sumo Salads.

In my kitchen is my Cath Kidston glasses case.  I picked up my first pair of prescription glasses yesterday.  They still feel a bit odd but it's nice to be able to read without the words blurring into each other.  Best of all, my new glasses fit this case that I bought at John Lewis in Scotland last year.  I love Cath Kidston's designs and this makes me happy about having glasses.

I am sending this post to Celia for her In My Kitchen series.