In My Kitchen October 2013

We are midway through Spring  I am beginning to take asparagus for granted.  The Christmas decorations are in the supermarket.  Our lemon tree is weighed down by auspicious blossoms.  The weather veers between gorgeous sunny days and howling storms that rip chunks out of our verandah. 
Over the past month, my life has been busy with Vegan MoFo and holidays as you may notice in this little peek into my kitchen.

Above are my purchases from La Manna Fresh in Brunswick near the Cat Motel where our Zinckie cat stays when we are on holidays.  While E and Sylvia picked her up, I was gathering fruit, vegies, my favourite pesto and a bunch of poppies.  Once the kitchen was well stocked, I really felt like we were home from our Port Fairy holiday.

Before the holidays, I bought a few snacks that made us happy.  On the left are purchases from Ikea.  Rhubarb cordial, chocolate spread with butterscotch pieces, and sour cream and onion crisps.  You might like to read a favouritism into the fact that the rhubarb cordial went weeks ago while the remainder of the crisps were found stashed in the back of the cupboard and the spread is still going.  But I would just eat the whole jar of chocolate spread in a night if I didn't feel that some self-restraint might be advised.  On the right is a packet of vegetable crackers from Coles supermarket that I really enjoyed.

Another snack purchased many weeks ago is this tub of sweet pickled walnuts that I picked up at the Coburg Farmers Market.  I asked what was in it and was told it was a secret recipe , though I could be told that they were pickled in honey, spices and I think citrus peel.  They are pickled when green and can be eaten shell and all.  I find it a bizarre sweet.  It would be great if I did cheese platters.  Alas, I don't and I didn't eat them all mostly because I keep forgetting about them.   (Sadly the mould got there first.)  I was even more intrigued that all the pickled walnuts online seemed to be of the savoury vinegar kind.  I did find a small paragraph about the long history of this style of pickling here.

When I was preparing to go away I was more organised with the vegetables than my pickled walnuts.  I put some in the freezer for stock, took some with us and gave my mum a bunch of parsley.  I chopped and froze some parsley by putting it into mini cupcake silcone pans and covering it with water before storing in the freezer.  I have only used one 'cake' of parsley so far but it worked very well.

We went to Port Fairy for a week of holidays in September.  There is a lovely gourmet food shop (Dariwill Farm) that I found very tempting.  I tried to resist.  We bought some Butlers chocolates that were on special.  The white chocolate with mixed berry went down well but the hazelnut chocolate was less impressive. 

I bought the other biscuits in the supermarket.  The wafer biscuits were Sylvia's choice and made me a little nostalgic (though the ones I had as a child were always in fingers).  The mint flavoured Tim Tims, I chose for E and me.  Then he told me that it wasn't his favourite flavour.  He soldiered on and ate some anyway.

On our last day at Port Fairy, we went to the community market.  I was glad we bought sourdough bread to take home with us.  We also brought home a decadent brownie with salted caramel and candied walnuts (from Treats by Bridie).  Though a little dry around the edges, the middle was fantastic.  A greeting card from the market is also included in the photo.

We also returned from the holidays with a few souvenirs.  A sourdough cookbook, red checked serviettes, a Peppa Pig pencil case, a fairy, a dog and a mermaid colouring-in page.  More about the holiday soon.

Meanwhile back at home we made this cute cat hand puppet from a craft kit.  The holes were punched for the side sewing and there was a plastic needle that was easy for Sylvia to use.  Great for young kids.  I just wish most of the face hadn't already fallen off already.

I wish we had an IGA supermarket near us.  There is one in Brunswick that we visited recently.  The range of chocolates, bread and Asian foods is amazing.  I had a choice of Irrewarra and La Madre sourdough breads.  I chose an Irrewarra bread stick.  I was excited to find Lindt chocolate with a touch of sea salt.  We had it ages ago but our local supermarket hasn't been stocking it.  I also was excited to find the Whittakers Berry and Biscuit chocolate.  It is every bit as good as it sounds.  Sylvia chose the princess yoghurts and pink bandaids.  Pester power is hard to resist sometimes.

I bought this Mango Apple and Pumpkin Chutney from Maleny Cuisine at the IGA supermarket.  The flavours really appealed to me.  We haven't opened it yet.  I hope it tastes as good as it promises.

After my trip to the IGA supermarket I made lunch with the Irrewarra bread stick.  A sandwich of avodaco, lettuce, asparagus, cherry tomatoes and carrot.  Fantastic!

Despite my purchase at IGA, I have been trying not to buy bread because I am trying to make my own sourdough.  I was not quite happy with my loaves.  So I made a softer dough and let it rise less before going in the oven.  The result (above) is my best loaf to date.  Of course when I tried to emulate it, I left out the salt and it is back to not-quite-right. I hope I am learning more about sourdough baking and will write more when I feel more confident about it.

Despite Spring being upon us, we are still having some wild weather.  (Last week we had terrible winds that ripped half our fibreglass verandah awning off and parts of it could be found on the other side of the house and even in our back lane.)  Such weather calls for warming cups of tea.  I am particularly fond of these Madame Flavour herbal teas.

Meanwhile E has started drinking Decaf tea.  Tetleys have very odd messages on the tea bags. Every time E has a cuppa I am read out a new message.

Finally to end on a sweet note, we enjoyed some Connoisseur Murray River Salted Caramel Ice Cream with Chocolate Coated Hazelnuts.  Sylvia didn't like the nuts.  E and I loved it.  The ice cream was particularly good on a Quince and Walnut Garibaldi Biscuit.

I am sending this post to Celia for her In My Kitchen series.  Check out others' kitchens or join in by sending Celia a post about your kitchen.