In My Kitchen: June 2019

Yesterday a friend mentioned an event in July.  "Oh but that is months away," I replied.  You see, I am in denial about June and the looming winter solstice and the year being almost halfway done.  It doesn't seem so long ago we were enjoying some balmy autumn days but now we are huddling indoors with the heater turned up against the wet cold winter days.  It is good for the farmers and the garden.  Sigh! May not only ended with a beastly chill but with me feeling poorly with a persistent cough. So lets look at winter comforts: chocolate, citrus fruit and hot meals in my kitchen this month.

Above is a brunch of pancakes, strawberries and a homemade fudge sauce.  Sylvia got up early to make the sauce and the pancakes on Mother's Day.  She only had milk chocolate rather than dark so that sauce was very sweet.  It was delicious with fresh strawberries.

She also bought me a jar of red velvet cookies with cream cheese frosting.  I must say this was rather moreish, though not on Mother's Day.  I was too full from a mothers day lunch at my mum's (think tacos, nachos, cheesecake, choc chips cookies and profiteroles) and all the pancakes. 

There has been quite a bit of chocolate in the house, thanks to cold weather and busy times.  Above is the Darrell Lea Liquorice Block, Whittakers Coconut Block and Cadbury Moro.  The Liquorice Block was not quite what I expected.  I love the soft liquorice but not so much the aniseed chips.  The Moro Block was very nice with the caramel and nougat filling.  And the Coconut Block is an old favourite.

And here is more chocolate and crackers.  The Natural Cracker Co Sour Cream and Chives crackers were very easy to eat but I think there was a bit too much flavouring for my liking.  Sylvia liked the white chocolate and coconut rice bites but I found them too sweet for me (like rice krispie bites).  The parmesan and herb rice crackers were very nice.  I had had great hope of the Arnott's Jatz chocolate but it was disappointing.  The cracker crumbs were soft and not as salty as I had expected.  An unexpected chocolate favourite was the Cadbury popcorn chocolate.  The "popcorn" was crunchy salty corn pieces that worked really well as a contrast to the soft sweet milk chocolate.  Goodness I had to eat a lot of chocolate to find that one and am now trying to ease off the chocolate for a bit!

At Christmas I was given some dried puttanesca mixture.  The instructions said to put in 1kg of linguini.  I had a discussion with my mum on if this was too much.  We agreed it was.  Then I put in the whole 1 kg of linguini and regretted it.  The pasta was delicious but it lasted forever.  After a few days I stirred some more pasta sauce in because it had absorbed the sauce and dried out.

We had lots of amazing purple potatoes from SpudFest.  I baked quite a few of them.  The rest were roasted.  Here are the very last of them on top of a tofu besan omelet.  So delicious that were were fighting over the last slice.

We took a couple of full bags to the op shop on the weekend.  These days op shops are fancier than when I was a student and often like to present the kitchenware in coloured sections.  Sylvia was taken by the black section.  These little frypan shaped dipping bowls are pretty cute.  We needed a new eggflip and took a few extra serving spoons too.  Also in the photo is Sylvia's downball.  This is her latest lunchtime activity at school.

I took this photo because it is so unusual to have such a vegetable filled plate on pizza night.  Friday nights are pizza nights.  They are not nights for lots of energy.  But when I made a pizza with baked potato slices, garlic oil and cheese, I think it seemed in desperate need of some vegetables.

I was interested in the Harvest Snaps Black Eyed Peas with smoky paprika flavour.  They were surprisingly delicious and a little spicy.  A nice snack to eat over a few days at work.

Winter makes me sad for lacking my favourite stone fruit and berries.  Evan apples start to wane in quality.  Here is a table of wintery fruit.  I am enjoying mandarins right now.  We've had some excellent apples over May.  My mum brought me some quinces (that you can see in muffins and a tangine).  The lemon and limes are from our trees and the oranges are just there because 'tis the season.

Yes I have mentioned we have lemons and limes from our tree.  Here is a batch of limeade.  We have had it in the kitchen constantly for the last few weeks.  I should free some lime juice to make it once the trees are bare of fruit.

And here is our lemon and lime tree.  I am quite surprised just how much the potted trees can yield.  After giving away limes at work, to friends and family the tree is still fruitful.  On Saturday morning I came out to find over 20 limes on the group and still more on the tree.  And I am in awe of how many lemons we have.  I am thinking pancakes with lemon and sugar!

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 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to peek into more kitchens.