Saturday 2 September 2017

In My Kitchen, September 2017

This month's peek into my kitchen starts with a daffodil that Sylvia picked from our neighbour's garden a few weeks back.  It was a bright patch in a rotten month.  I can't say that I am sorry to see the end of August.  We had lots of illness - Sylvia hung on just long enough to go to school camp before coming down with the virus.  Lots of sniffles, coughs, aches and shivers.  Finally at the end of the month, our stereo seems to have died.  Just what we need like a kick in the head!

Here's a selection of what was needed to get through our patch of illness.  Ginger beer, peaches in juice, jelly, cold and flu tablets, tissues, good books and winter woollens.  There was very little cooking or baking.  After a few days of toast for dinner, I made pea soup and then a few days later thought it tasted off.  So I binned it.  Then I had a tinned soup which also tasted off so I am not sure if it was just my taste buds.  My mum brought us up some soup and curry to keep us going.

I spent quite a bit of time just resting and reading when I wasn't sleeping in the afternoons.  I highly recommend the Call the Midwife memoirs by Jennifer Worth to anyone who has watched the tv series (or even if you haven't).  It is the tales of life in the East End that the tv series was based on.  I also enjoyed a P D James novel, Cover Her Face.  It was a little outdated but P D James writes so well.

There were some casualties of our illness in the kitchen.  I really loved this Damona vegan brie that I used in my Avocado, rocket and brie scone.  So soft and melty when warmed up.  Then I got sick and could not face the rest of it.  I wrapped it in its paper wrapper in the fridge and when I returned to it a couple of weeks later, it was covered in mould.  Very disappointing.

These purple sapphire spuds that I used in my vegan pasties were also ignored in illness.  I had intended to use them in a favourite chickpea, potato and tomato stew.  By the time I got around to finally making the stew last week I had to throw out the last few potatoes who had even more impressive sprouts than in this photo.

I did get to use some of the purple potato in these fritters.  They also had carrot, almond meal, nooch and lime juice.  I fried them up one lunchtime at home with intentions to have leftovers for work sandwiches.  But again, due to sickness the mixture never got used.

Crackers are a great small something to eat when you have lost your appetite.  We haven't eaten lots of sweet food lately.  (We didn't even manage to get through the doughnuts that were brought home from the Donut Fest.)   We did get through quite a few crackers.  Sylvia really loved the Margherita Pizza and Nacho Cheese shapes.  I preferred the latter shapes.  I liked the idea of the cheese and rice crackers but sadly Sylvia was not a fan.  And I like the cracked pepper and sea salt crispini but did not enjoy them as much as Always Fresh's Hommus Crisps that I mentioned in last month's In My Kitchen post.

More unusual in our kitchen is any fancy peanut butter.  I usually have it 100% peanuts.  This dark chocolate and sea salt crunch intrigued me.  It isn't really sweet and is a nice change to my regular peanut butter.  However I think I would have a little less of the sea salt flakes, given that I don't usually eat peanut butter with salt in it.

This unicorn birthday cake was almost another casualty of illness.  My sister ordered it for my niece Stella's birthday.  Isn't it gorgeous!  It is every little girl's dream cake.  I took home a few pieces.  Luckily I put these in the freezer for when we are feeling in a cake sort of mood.  They are still there waiting.

And lastly, today I made my regular overnight sourdough bread.  Some nights it just does not rise.  This morning that dough was left for a good 11 hours but still did not rise as much as it usually does.  The nights are still chilly.  I had a friend's dance party to get to so I made one loaf and cut the other half of the dough into 6 pieces and made bread rolls.  I baked a couple on a tray and the rest in a casserole dish for 20 minutes and then on a tray for another 20 minutes and they were lovely, though quite crusty.  (And better than the ones on the tray that were baked less.)  They weren't much quicker to bake but could be eaten quicker than the hour I usually wait for a loaf to cool.  I ate one for dinner with leftover mac and cheese in it.  It was that sort of night.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event, that was started by Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial,  If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 10th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to peek into more kitchens. 

12 comments:

  1. Ooh you guys really do sound to have had quite a virus Johanna, i trust you're all feeing 100% now. The Unicorn cake certainly is impressive, such lovely colours in the 'mane' of it too.
    Angela x

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  2. Hi Johanna
    Yes we had a terrible august too. Sooo sick. Still not great after 3 weeks. I had to go back to bed this morning. Everything tasted horrible when we were sick. Not that we could eat for days. It all tasted bad and really metallic. Hope you are well now. Thanks heaps for joining in IMK Cheers sherry

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  3. Sorry to hear you have been ill. I am not sorry to see the back of August either. The fritters look delish!

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  4. You certainly have been poorly Johanna, do hope you are on the path to wellness now. The autumn season in the UK fills me with joy as its my favourite season, but it also the season i become unwell - so I am not looking forward to that. The Unicorn Cake is truly amazing, I have seen some here recently that are nowhere as impressive as this one. Such as shame about the vegan brie cheeze and the purple potatoes, but its not all bad as you did get to use some of them.

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  5. The bread looks fabulous. Sounds like lots of IMK'ers have been struck down with flu though, not good!

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  6. How annoying that illness ruined a lot of your August, I hope it'll get better now. Nevertheless you have loads of lovely things in this post. I would love to try those fritters. :)

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  7. I'm hoping you're really truly on the mend now, and that the next month is going to be a little less taxing. I'm really sad to hear about the brie!

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  8. I hope you are feeling better. I have experimented with proving my sourdough in the fridge with some success, often leaving it 24 hours. Persevere... Sourdough is great!

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  9. I adore fancy peanut butters! I have a few in my pantry and I love the clever flavours. I haven't seen this brand before!

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  10. It sounds like you were all very unwell - I am sorry August was such an unpleasant month in the end. Here is to September! You still managed some good food and that peanut butter looks amazing. That cake is incredible too! I hope you enjoy your defrosted slices.

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  11. Sorry about the illness, it has clearly wafted over to my household this week! I did laugh at your purple potatoes: guess what I have sitting out on the kitchen bench right now (though my spuds are in worse shape!). That unicorn cake is lovely but your rolls look splendid!

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  12. I'm just catching up on blog posts now but glad to get to read your "kitchen" post. I'm sorry you had to deal with that illness in your house. Hopefully everyone is better now.
    PD James is one of my favorite authors. I think I read The Murder Room a few times already. :)
    Gorgeous unicorn cake!

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