In My Kitchen: August 2019

I feel like I say this every month lately but goodness, July was a busy month.  We had school holidays, so so busy at work, Christmas in July and last week just finished it off with an extra dollop of craziness.  Like missing the train to take my bike to get a puncture fixed then not having enough time before book club instead which was cancelled when I arrived.  Like the dentist drilling the wrong tooth.  Like rushing to get ready for a cake stall that wasn't one.  I have hopes for less craziness in August.  It promises some fun with White Nights, International Scone Week and International Cat Day.  Let's have a look at my winter kitchen

I bought these maple corn snacks at an Asian Grocery in the city.  As I love maple syrup, I was intrigued.  I asked an Asian worker if she could read the ingredients for me.  She said she did not read Korean.  I felt shamed at assuming all Asian people can read all Asian writing!  The snacks were a little sweet for me.  Perhaps too weirdly sweet as they looked like a savoury chip like cheezels but were sweet.

These were the purchases I made at KFL to get some cash out to pay for my Vegan365 lunch.  I am yet to use the young green jackfruit.  The milk cocoa wafers have disappeared.  I confess to having a bit of a thing for little wafer squares lately.

I bought this cheese and olive fougasses at the Coburg Farmers Market a few weeks back when we were busy rushing about to a doughnut party and shopping and cooking.  It filled the hole nicely to keep us going.  I hope the Q Le Bakery comes back to the market as they had very fine baked goods.

Sylvia made this vegan coconut ice (with coconut condensed milk) for the cake stall that wasn't on.  I am not sure how I got the date in my head but was glad I hadn't put too much effort into baking.  Then I took it to bookgroup which was cancelled.  So I took it to a work morning tea even though I wasn't on the roster.  It got eaten.  Finally!

I have been trying so hard to avoid buying cookbooks.  Then I found myself browsing this Lunchbox Express by George Georgievski and had to buy it.  I think I liked it as it just had lots of simple visual ideas for lunchboxes rather than recipes.  Sylvia loved it and has been inspired in her lunches and dinners.  A green capsicum has been a little basket for cucumber and tomato a few times.  At the top of the post is one of her regular lunches (with charcoal bun with vegemite - a bit less regular).  I recently bought her a new lunchbox so we will see how that goes.

Aldi is the source of E's latest tea bag love.  I quite liked the retro packaging on this box.

These freeze dried strawberries and coconut activated charcoal are from Terre Mardre in Northcote.  I have only used the charcoal in one batch of bread so far. So I am glad I only paid about $10 on this bag rather than $60 at a large jar I saw at a health food store a few weeks back.  The strawberries are surprisingly tart.  Sylvia has enjoyed snacking on this.

Here is my loaf of charcoal bread with a big pot of stew.   I am often making stews that will get me through the week with work being really busy.  This stew was a bit lacking.  so I added some small macaroni.  It was delicious.  After a few nights I added some leftover gravy.  Not such a great idea but it was ok for another night or two.  Lots of beans and vegeies.

I made this pizza with fast track sourdough base, tomato sauce, cauliflower cheese and olives.  It was fantastic.  A great way to use up leftover cauliflower cheese.

I recently wrote that I have been doing some knitting.  This scarf was made out of some remnants that a friend gave me.  (Thanks Kerin!)  It is wonderfully warm and cheery to wear around on our winter mornings.  While there are a few little rough links, it is great to know I knitted it and that it is indeed one of a kind.

When knitting my scarf, I had the challenge of doing the tassles.  I haven't done this on scarves before.  I had to look it up online and dig out some old loom hooks to help drag wool through a loop of knitting at the end.  I also had to sort the wool to have some sort of pattern.  I did this last weekend before picking up Sylvia from a sleepover.  When I left, I locked our cat out because I feared he would have a field day with the tassles laid out on the kitchen day.

This photo is from making Smitten Kitchen's Mom's Apple Cake.  It was an excellent way to us up lots of apples.  I have also posted a photo of the finished cake.  It wasn't perfect but it tasted great.

Although I had many old apples to use up for the apple cake, I feel we are doing ok with fruit considering we are now in deep winter.  We have been enjoying Granny Smith apples, the occasional orange juice for breakfast and some kiwi fruit.  Above is a photo of blood oranges from Coburg Farmers Market.  They certainly are strange looking fruit.

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.