In My Kitchen - October 2015

We are back from our Echuca holiday with October heralding that Spring is well and truly here.  It is 30 C today.  Hot enough for suncream, for the garden to need watering and for our white cat to need to stay indoors.  My cooking mojo is low with the post holiday slump.  However term 4 starts next week.  Once we are all back to school, to work and into routine, I am sure more cooking will be happening here!  Meanwhile let's see what has been happening in my kitchen.

Recently, I made Mars Bar Slice.  It has been a long time since we indulged and how I missed this slice.  It was a wedding anniversary treat.  I used a mixture of milk and dark chocolate on top and managed to overcook the chocolate.  It still tasted great but the chocolate didn't look as glossy and smooth as it should.

I made these crackers with some leftover sun dried tomato butter from recipe testing.  The butter had been in the freezer for ages so it needed to be used.  I had about 1/2 cup of butter, added almond meal, wheatgerm and self raising flour until it got a little crumbly.  Then I added a tbsp or so of water until I could bring together and briefly knead into a ball.  Then I rolled it out and cut it into squares.  I baked it at 180 to 200 C until golden brown.  They were so good that I wished for a proper recipe.  They were short, a little crumbly and full of flavour.

This is my favourite eggflip (spatula).  It is made of melamine and I am very attached to it.  When it cracked I kept it.  E recently dropped it and one of the prongs has broken off but I have not yet had the heart to stop using it or throw it out.  I have one or two alternatives but I need to look out for another like this.

When I visited the new Coburg North Coles with E and Sylvia there was very little holding back in the chocolate aisle.  The banana jelly blast chocolate was disappointing because it was not terribly good milk chocolate and I didn't find any decent sized pieces of banana lollies that I had expected.  The grape twists were ok but I have always found grape flavour quite odd and overpowering ever since tasting hubba bubba grape bubble gum as a kid.  E took the orange chocolate to work and of the little chocolates I much preferred the jam doughnut one.  They had unexpected creamy fillings.

I was swayed by the combination of sesame, poppy, sunflower and mustard seeds in a rice cracker.  Just my sort of thing.  They were very lightly seasoned.  I thought it would be too many seeds for Sylvia but she enjoyed it just as much.

I bought a bag of sweet potatoes and baked them up with good intentions of making Kari's Stuffed sweet potaotes with tahini, sun dried tomatoes and paprika.  Time got away from me and I used them up in sandwiches, stews and pasta.

We had paper chains around the house from our Christmas in July lunch but when Spring arrived, we needed some decoration to welcome the warm weather and made these daffodils out of egg cartons, yellow paper and green pipe cleaners.  They are up around the loungeroom window but we need more so I consider it a work in progress.  As we haven't bought eggs for weeks I haven't had any cartons but now that a neighbour has given us some, we will need to make some more.

Once day I will write more about the amazing Smith and Deli but for now I will just share my Foghorn Legless sandwich with crumbed tempeh, facon, tomato, lettuce and dressing.  I was such a fan of a chicken schnitzel many years ago before I became vegetarian that I was really excited about this.  Until I found the crumbed tempeh was cold.  So I took it home, fried the tempeh and bacon, toasted the sandwich with some biocheese and it was really truly amazing!

This was a recent lunch.  Leftover beetroot stew (made with quinoa), toasted bread, and salted caramel popcorn.

I had lots of cheap strawberries before we headed off for holiday in Echuca.  I had a notion to make strawberry jam but I was too tired and many of the strawberries were past it.  However I made a simple strawberry sauce.  It was really good with yoghurt and muesli the next morning.  Sylvia had some with her ridiculously sweet three grain cereal.

We couldn't finish the sauce before our holiday so I mixed it with vanilla yoghurt and froze it.  Mixing strawberries and vanilla yoghurt has been a great way to save quite a bit of yoghurt and berries from the bin.  Most have gone into icy pole moulds and are a great healthy snack for Sylvia.

While on holiday in Echuca, E bought four different fudges.  (Jam doughnuts, chocolate and caramel, malteser and butterscotch.)  I think this is the reason that the packaged steamed puddings he bought were never used and still are sitting in our kitchen.  This fudge is so sweet but rather good.  We really enjoyed eating it on a seat in the Port of Echuca.

I couldn't resist this Victorian floral plate at one of the second hand shops in Echuca.  The shopkeeper estimated it came from the 1880s.  I'd love to know its story.

Finally here is some of my shopping from this morning at Preston Market.  As it is the school holidays, we don't have gymnastics this morning and I had a notion to go to a Farmers Market.  There were none near me that I could find online so I went to Preston Market instead.  It is a market I could probably get used to if I was a regular but as I have only been a couple of times before, I find it very overwhelming.  I did love the bread with its name on it though.  I came home with lots of lovely fruit and vegies which we need after being away.

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.