In my kitchen - June 2016

About a week before June rolled into town, the weather suddenly turned from the mellow days of early Autumn to the chilly wind and rain of winter.  Now we are well and truly feeling the cold.  It is weather for hearty stews and bread.  Not great weather for food photography.

Above is a frypan filled with tofu, noodles, red capsicum, carrot, kale and leek with an orange sauce similar to one I found at Bite Sized Thoughts.  My volume of noodles and veg was far higher so the sauce didn't go quite far enough but it was very tasty.  As you can also see, I have been experimenting with presenting stirfries in a more photogenic way than usual.  And I was pleased that Sylvia enjoyed the tofu and noodles.

Another blogger who continues to inspire me is Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.  She is the founder of this In My Kitchen event and continues to come up with new ideas for bread baking.  When she suggested the Wiltshire range of oven roasters for baking her overnight sourdough loaf, it was just the tin I had been searching for at a reasonable price.  I love it so much that I am now wondering if I can fit two in my oven at once!

As I have mentioned, Coburg Famers Market is now held weekly on a Saturday morning and I have been trying to go before gymnastics.  Not only is it open more often but in Autumn I love the Three Bridges apples and we have been eating helps of these.  In this photo we also have King Valley walnuts, coloured carrots, raspberry and coconut cake (vegan), sourdough bread, croissant, kale and Cocoa Rhapsody salted lime chocolate.  It has been so nice to see some of the stalls we haven't seen for a while, esp the Cocoa Rhapsody.

Though not quite in my kitchen, we have had some food at the market.  We also tried the kefir icy pole.  Sulvia wasn't so keen.  Not sweet enough.  Nor was she very keen on the chocolate caramel tarts.  Too sweet.  She thought the profertjes just right.  The other morning it was really cold and wet so we indulged in a $10 cheese toastie.  It was huge and rich but so so good.  Great for sharing with Sylvia so she wasn't starving after gymastics.

Those purple carrots were so gorgeous when chopped up.

I put the carrots into this vegie stew.  They cooked until they were falling apart.  E at first thought the purple carrots were sausages.  I also added dried mung beans instead of my usual lentils or chickpeas.  They take a little longer than dried lentils but at 30-40 minutes it wasn't too long.  I was just using them up but I loved them cooked this way so much that I might just buy them again.

The kale from the market went onto a pizza that used fast track sourdough pizza dough, potato, cherry tomatoes, red capsicum and vegan mozzarella.   The crispy kale on top was delicious but perhaps a bit much.  Unfortunately the potato wasn't quite cooked when I put it on top and it was not a success.  I was inspired by this potato and kale pizza.

At another visit to the farmers market, I bought these tortilla chips.  I found a recipe for burgers using tortilla chips in a family veggie cookbook.  The I just left them to E to eat the chips and left the burgers in the world of my imagination!

And pester power continues to bring minions into our kitchen.  Yes Sylvia asked for these minions squeezy yoghurts and then decided she didn't like them.  I am trying to look at ways to boost her (our) calcium intake lately and though squeezies are not the best option for yoghurt, it means that she will eat yoghurt.

I am sending this post to Maureen of The Orgasmic Chef for In My Kitchen.  It is an event where bloggers around the world share what is happening in their kitchens.  Please head over to Maureen's blog and visit some other bloggers or even join in (by 10th of each month).