In My Kitchen: February 2025

February started with some quieter times but worked up to being exhausting with birthdays, appointments, the start of the school year, crazy weather and heaps to do at work.  I was amused to hear that the February full moon is called the Snow Moon.  The term comes from the Northern Hemisphere and seems quite ironic given that February in Melbourne is the end of summer and brings energy-depleting heatwaves.  But we got rain too.  A fierce thunderstorm left a hole in my parents' roof.  

While Elon Musk is busy firing in the USA, my workplace is hiring a new team for an innovative pilot project.  As well I have changed my work days, moved to a new location and the VPN has been playing up on the days I work in an external office and from home.  The world is crazy!  My life is crazy!

I had my birthday lunch with Sylvia and my parentss.  In the morning, Sylvia and I got out our trolley and walked to the Coburg Farmers Market.  It was a fine weather to enjoy the welcoming stalls with such gorgeous produce.  We bought food for lunch and to use during the week: cherry tomatoes, kale, baguette, honey and walnut bread, curly zucchini, figs, strawberries, kombucha and coloured carrots.
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We also bought peaches, grapes, lettuce and cheeses from the supermarket on the way home.  My mum made a layered black forest cake and bought some amazing croissants from Paddock in Geelong.  It was a feast that seemed very simple to put together.  The criossants aren't in the above photo but you can see them sliced up in the top photo of the cheese and fruit board.  It is my nature to just whip up a recipe but I had to stop myself from doing this because I just didn't have the energy.

My parents also brought up a birthday present that my sister had left for me before returning to Ireland.  It is has the lovely title of Sylvia Plath's Tomato Soup Cake: a Companion of Classic Author's Recipe.  Celebrity recipes are always fun.  I have enjoyed dipping in and out of this book and yet again dreaming of making the eponymous tomato soup cake!  One day, Sylvia, I promise!

As soon as Sylvia saw the Barilla heart shaped pasta in the supermarket she snapped up a packet.  She loves shaped pasta.  It was lovely with a vodka pasta sauce but was far more droopy and not as pretty as when dried.

We discovered last year that all the ingredients in Smith's sausage crisps were vegetarian.  And we love vegetarian sausages.  So we checked the Summer Sausage Sizzle crisps and bought a bag when we found they were vegetarian.  They made for delicious snacking.

Last year we bough these sticks of giant spiral pasta from Geelong Fresh in Pakington St.  It took a lont time to use them.  When I discovered an Ottolenghi recipe for Zaatar cacio e pepe, it was a recipe that was simple enough and interesting enough to be deserving of the fancy pasta.  

I would not recommend using this pasta for the recipe.  The recipe involved cooking the pasta in a small amount of water so there was intensely starchy liquid to add to the cooked pasta, parmesan and butter to stir well to make a creamy sauce.  It was pretty amazing to see the alchemy at work.  I would make this recipe again but I would use less pepper - it was quite spicy for me.  I would also use a thinner pasta that is easier to stir.  It is pretty quick to make but I really needed a little more effort to make a simple leafy salad.

On a scorching hot day we went to the bask in the air conditioning at the cinema.  Sylvia was keen to see Companion but I wanted to see a Complete Unknown.  So we went to separate movies and met afterwards.  Sylvia had an iced coffee at Cobrick while she waited.  Then we got bread, salad and arancini from the Pentridge IGA to take home for lunch.  The mix of salads was Beetroot and feta, Kale and farro, and Pumpkin and couscous.  Delicious!  The arancini were not cheap but were huge and tasted amazing when baked til crispy (once the cool change came).

We are very fond of the Vegetarian meal from the Melbourne Kebab Station in Coburgthat comes with rice, salad, two dips, rice and pillowy Turkish bread.  I even keep cash in my purse just in case we want to make a purchase there because they don't accept cards.  The prices have risen to $20 for this meal but it is still so good that we are still eating it.  After all, where can you go that the prices aren't shooting upwards!  They do nice falafels but not as good as those nearby in the mall at Half Moon Cafe.  

When we got one of the meals from MKS for lunch recently I also bought some HMC falafels and did a comparison as you can see in the photo above.  The HMC falafels are much greener with fresh herbs and crispier but the MKS bread is the best.  So I am fond of both places for different reasons and wish I could eat their food more.

When we went to see Macbeth in the Botanic Gardens, I made a variation on my overnight sourdough bread rolls, by adding Red Leicester cheese and fried leek.  They were so tasty that most of them got eaten without anything spread on them, though I regretted making them without as much salt as usual.  I thought that the cheese would mean less salt was needed but I don't think that was the case.

Sylvia has started to do a couple of shifts at an op shop and loving it.  But she finds it tiring so I try and make sure she has a decent breakfast before heading there.  On here first shift I added matcha to a batch of Fluffy pancakes.  They were very satisfying.  I cooked up some blueberries with lemon juice and maple syrup to top the pancakes and then added maple syrup and yoghurt.  Excellent!

We have a craft project on the go to paint a box and a a shelf for the backyard.  It is going slowly but at least is underway.

A few weeks back I wanted a quick but satisfying lunch.  I fossicked around in the freezer and found peas, corn, spinach and pineapple.  I thawed them in the microwave. 

The I added brown rice, tahini, soy sauce, lime juice and seasoning.  I heated it all up in the microwave and took it to my desk where I was working from home.  It was a great change to heading to a loaf of bread for sandwiches when I wanted a quick lunch!

Another working-from-home lunch was a great sandwich of Chickpea flour (besan) scramble with lettuce and mayo in dark rye bread.

We've been eating lots of stone fruit.  It's summer peak is over but there is still plenty available in the shops.  When I discovered a simple Peach tarte tartin on Not Quite Nigella, I could not resist.

It was not my finest moment.  I was impatient and did not cook it long enough.  It was not charred like on Not Quite Nigella.  I would have liked longer cooked crispy pastry too and next time we might even try a sugar and butter caramel rather than the golden syrup as the base for the peaches.  I am very grateful to Lorraine for inspiring me to bake my first tarte tatin.  I hope it is not the last!

In the past I have enjoyed Easy Cheesy Vegetarian Cheesy Bean Bake.  While on Easy Cheesy Vegetarian, it is made by cooking a risotto-style rice that is mixed with lots of beans and tomatoes, I do it with pasta so there is a lot less cooking.  I just fry some onions and, in this latest version, a couple of zucchinis,  Then I added them with  fridge fresh tortellini and everything else (with slightly less water and seasoning adjustments such as adding smoked paprika) to the casserole dish and baked until the cheese topping is pleasingly crispy.  

This time Sylvia was happy to try sesame seeds on top.  I love them for extra crunch and she is feeling friendlier towards them because she has been loving seaweed salad with sesame seeds!  There are a lot of beans in the casserole which was a bit much for Sylvia but I was happy to have lots of meals in the casserole.

Another bake we had was this excellent Mac and Cheese which we make with cauliflower and fried leek.  It was made on the weekend before Sylvia's birthday because I worked on her birthday and did not have time to make it.  It is a rich dish fit for a celebration.  On her actual birthday we ordered pizza from Heaven as a treat.  You can read about more birthday fun at Juniper Eatery and cake painting at Meeya Cafe.
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We also had a  lunch at an Italian restaurant with Sylvia's grandparents and dad.  My mum brought along a birthday caramel tart.  This is such a nostalgic dessert for me.  We loved it when I was a kid and still love it at family gatherings.  So it was quite special for her to bring us one.  Sylvia call sit banoffee tart but for me it is what I had before I ever heard of banoffee and so much better because my mum makes it!

 Here are a few of Sylvia's presents.  I ordered the silver swirl from an independent artisan in USA and E ordered the special perfume but most of the rest of these presents were bought on op shop outings around Sylvia's birthday.  She also got new piercings on her birthday.  Note that the Vegan Stoners Cookbook is bought for the cute illustrations (for collaging) rather than the recipes.

 I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. 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 visit more kitchens and her gorgeous hand drawn header.  Thanks to Sherry for continuing to host this even that brings together some wonderful bloggers who share glimpses into their kitchens.

Road Trip: Tower Hill , Warnambool, Colac, Winchelsea 2019

When sorting old photos recently, I came across photos of the road trip to and from a Port Fairy holiday in 2019  .  It was an interesting trip home.  I always meant to share these photos so now is as good as any time.  My manager had suggested that I take a week of leave because life was pretty stressful.  It was a welcome break.  We drove without many stops on the way to Port Fairy but we meandered home with a few stops.  It might have been reluctance to go home or maybe we started on the road earlier or it could have been I needed more stops because my back was sore.  Whichever, the trip offered quite a few pleasant surprises as well as one that was not so pleasant.

Before I tell you about our first stop at Tower Hill on the way home, I will share the lunch we had on the way to Port Fairy.  We stopped at Winchelsea where we went to the local market that I think was along the main street.  For lunch we bought a fantastic Zeally Bay sourdough baguette and some delicious soft brie that we ate a small table.  It was a lovely simple rustic meal without cutlery.

 

 

We had a quick look at the shops.  There is a small shopping strip in Winchelsea so it does not take long.   One store had some really nice sustainable items.  I bought my bread bag that I still have today.  Since then it has housed many loaves of bread.  It is much more stained and frayed around the zip than in this photo. 

 

 

Possibly the highlight of the trip was a stop at Tower Hill soon after we left Port Fairy.  We had enjoyed a trip to Tower Hill in 2013.  Six years later it was just as delightful to be out in the bush inside the crater of the dormant volcano.  As we made our way to the start of the walk, we saw a fluffy koala in a tree.  They always look like they would be great to cuddle but once I have heard a koala growling, I am not so sure.

We had a gentle walk along one of the paths through the bush.  It was soul soothing to walk among the towering gum trees in an crater of a volcano dormant for approximately 25,000 years.  A great way to put one's life into perspective.

I enjoyed seeing the wildlife.  Some of the flowers like the above thistle were lovely and it was very entertaining watching a willy wagtail (bird) darting among the trees.

As we returned from the walk and were almost at the carpark, we saw the most amazing thing.  The koala we had seen earlier had a little baby (or joey as they call infant koalas).  The mother just sat and watched as the joey played in the crook of the tree.  It was so cute.  This is not a common sight in the Australian bush.  I think it might be the first time I have seen a koala joey.  I can't even remember seeing one in the zoo.

Tower Hill is a huge expanse of bush (a lot of it reclaimed from cattle grazing).  There is a road to drive down into the crater.  I really love all the layered rock walls that you can see on the top photo with our car. that we had back in 2019.  The above photo is of the view as well drove out and looked back.

At the top of the drive out was a paddock of emus.  This fine chap was not at all shy in parading his feathers in front of us. 

Then we drove onto Warnambool, which is the second largest town on the drive from Port Fairy to Melbourne.  The largest is Geelong!  In Warnambool we happened to drive past this wonderful Ngatanwarr (Welcome) Mural by Adnate.

While the first photo of the mural shows the detail, the one above shows the impressive scale of the artwork.  I was so amazed by the street art that I stopped to take a photo.  I don't know Warnambool this well but this artwork and the cafe we visited for lunch gave me a better impression of the town than other times we have driven through on the way to and from Port Fairy.

We had a fantastic lunch at Day Kitty Cafe (52b Kepler Street Warrnambool).  I am really pleased to see that it is still open according to the internet.  When browsing Day Kitty Cafe's instagram, it looks like they are still serving beautiful healthy vegetarian and vegan food.  I would definitely return if I had the opportunity.

It was at Day Kitty that I first had this lovely Jiva Pomegranate Jiva.  It was so exciting to find such good kombucha back then!  Since then kombucha and other adult sodas have become more common but in 2019 the choice was far more limited if I could find any.  Sylvia was happy with a juice (probably apple, maybe freshly squeezed).

Another revelation was Sylvia's experience of scrambled eggs on toast.  She loved it so much that she was inspired to try making her own scrambled eggs on toast at home.  You can see one of her home versions of scrambled eggs on a 2019 post. 

As for me, I had was very pleased with my Nourish Bowl.  It was vegan and gluten free.  This was a full satisfying bowl of kraut, avocado half with mixed seed topping, pumpkin, greens, dukkah, pickled vegetables, kale chips, green goddess pesto, cashew turmeric hollandaise, herbed lentil salad & lemon on the house grain mix.  All for $16.50.  This was a wonder of a rural town where my expectations were so much lower than in the city of Melbourne. 

Day Kitty Cafe also had a small groceries section of fancy and healthy groceries.  We bought this coconut and vanilla flavoured Serious Popcorn.  The photos is taken on our stop in Colac where I had a quick walk at the Colac Memorial Square.  The trip was at the end of Spring (November), hence all the daisies among the grass.

At the centre of the Memorial Square is the impressive sandstone Colac War Memorial that was unveiled in 1924 in memory of the local soldiers who had enlisted in World War II .  Since then, more names have been added.  We had the added pleasure of seeing the roses in bloom that are planted in front of it.

Our last stop was to look at this street art on a signal box in Winchelsea.  Above is an orca and below is a seagull.  In the background of the gull photo is the sign of a petrol station.  These are so important when doing a long drive.  It is not the cheapest petrol but they are an essential stop when the tank is low and you know it could be some time before you have the opportunity again.

We then drove on to Geelong where I was stopping to see my parents.  Before we got there I was pulled over by the police because my car was unregistered.  I was so certain that I had paid the registration that I convinced the police officer to let me drive on to my parents to check on the their computer rather than paying on the spot.  When I checked in Geelong, I found I had not paid so I instantly deposited the money online with VicRoads.

The holiday had been so relaxing and wonderful that it was such a shame to end on a low note.  However I have great memories of the holiday and the trip back.  The unpaid registration saga ended with my doctor kindly writing a letter to support an appeal and the fine being waived.  

The sadder end to the story was that the Orchard Cottages where we stayed at Port Fairy in 2019 (as well as twice previously) were a casualty of the Covid pandemic and have now closed.  I have yet to find another holiday accommodation at Port Fairy to rival it but I still hope I will and that we will return in the not so distant future.  Six years since our last trip to Port Fairy is too long!  It is such a wonderful place for a holiday and the drive there and back has lots of interesting places to stop.

Juniper Eatery and Meeya Cafe cake painting, South Melbourne

For her birthday this year, Sylvia chose to go across town for lunch at Juniper Eatery followed by DIY decorated cakes at Meeya Cafe in South Melbourne.  It was a fine way to celebrate.  The drinks were excellent, the food great and who doesn't love to paint a picture on their cake like an artist with a paint palate.

Before cake painting, we stopped at Juniper Cafe for lunch.  It was busy.  I had not noticed how close it was to the South Melbourne Market until I started to look for parking.  It was crazy.  And so busy on leafy Coventry Street.  When we arrived at Juniper, there were people waiting in the alleyway by the entrance.  We were told that there was about 15 minutes wait and we could hang out in the cool design shop next door rather than outside in the sun. 

By the time we browsed the design shop and noticed that the wait staff took dishes in and out to the outdoor seats via the shop, we were called in.  And we hadn't even finished going through the swatches of fabric colours for the couch!  Our seat on a long bench in front of a mirror.  Juniper isn't a big cafe but they use the space well.  Bench seats, mirrors and window seats.

To drink, Sylvia had a difficult choice between the frappe and the matcha latte.  She chose the latter.  It was an iced sweet milky coffee  with a creamy coffee froth.  Sylvia assures me it was very different to the milky foamy froth that is on a latte or cappuccino.  As well as lots of regular ice blocks, the drink was topped with an unusual oblong ice block that Sylvia thought might be made with a shaved ice or crushed ice.  It was certainly not ice as we know it.  She hadn't had a frappe before but loved it and looks forward to more.

I ordered the Yumbo blood orange soda.  The staff were great.  When I asked for the soda, I was told that the blood orange Yumbo was not chilled but I had an option of having it over ice or choosing the lemon or grapefruit flavours.  I went with the room temp blood orange over ice.  The ice melted so much quicker with the room temperature drink that I asked for more ice.  The staff quickly brought a cup of ice.  So I was very happy with my Yumbo.

The Juniper menu the waiter handed us seemed quite light on for the sort of food I wanted (ie too much meat and eggs and sweet dishes).  Then I noticed that there were sandwiches written on the mirror and considered the Roasted eggplant, stracciatella, gremolata and crispy shallot sandwich.  

I was glad I remembered that there seemed more at the counter.  They had salads and sandwiches and pastries.  So I chose the salads after all: Pearl couscous zucchini, asparagus, sun dried tomato chilli & lime crema, Tomato, cucumber, olives, nigella, herbs, lemon & maple dressing, Runner beans, snow peas, ricotta salata, mint & red wine vinegar.  I love a mix of salads and was happy with my choice. 

Meanwhile, Sylvia found her meal easily on the menu we were given.  She had the soft eggs on sourdough toast with an optional side of pickled mushrooms.  She was delighted with it, and described it as seeming quite Scandinavian.  The soft boiled eggs were quite pretty on the toast.

I rushed Sylvia out of Juniper because our 1 hour parking metre was expired and we drove to park the car elsewhere, even though we could have easily walked to Meeya Cafe.  As I parked the car, the thunder rumbled and the heavens opened.  Fortunately I had umbrellas in the car because we walked to the cafein incredibly heavy rain.  I arrived at Meeya with a wet back and wet sandals.  Then the sun came out again once we sat in the corner with a cute Miffy and flowers.  The weather was back up into the 30s and made photography slightly challenging.  Classic Melbourne weather!

We were at Meeya for the cake painting but Sylvia wanted an iced strawberry matcha.  She had read that they were worth trying and loved it.  The brilliant green with pink strawberry was a wonderful sight.

For the cake painting we paid $17 for a vanilla sponge cake with vanilla frosting.  It came on a wooden paint palette with red, blue, yellow and vanilla blobs of frosting, paint brushes, a palette knife and forks.  We asked if there was black paint but there was not.  Though I was told if we needed more frosting, we could ask for it.  We also had a the blue cup of warm water to wash our brushes and serviettes that I used to dry off the brushes and palette knives after washing them.

The object was to paint or decorate your cake with frosting and then eat it.  It was harder than it sounded.  If I tried to paint with the paint brush the icing was unwilling to part with it to be styled on the cake.  Sylvia was pretty savvy and showed me how to scoop some frosting up with the back of the palate knife and spread it on the cake.  She was also wise to start with mixing up the primary colours - orange green and purple.  There was quite a bit of colour mixing to be done as we started with quite basic colours.  Sylvia did a simple but gorgeous design of coloured flowers.

As we entered Sylvia suggested I do a mushroom and so I ran with the idea.  Getting the frosting on the cake was doable with the palette knife but shaping small shapes was still quite hard.  My fingers and the paint brush could be useful in shaping.  Fine lines were still very challenging.  I think that this is where piping would be useful - although I can also find piping frosting challenging. 

Here is my finished cake.  I was happy with the decoration.  I enjoyed experimenting with different sorts of flowers., though I might have tried to balance the colours a bit more.  (At the end I was concerned about colours being too similar together and did an impatient darker green stroke by the base of the toadstool that I regretted - it was  not the fine line I had envisaged though I should have known better than to expect it at that point.)  Mixing up the paints was fun.  I had expected to need more white or yellow but managed to just use the paint I had been given.

Once the our cakes were decorated, we then had the pleasure of eating them.  Sylvia had decided she did not need to wash her brushes in the water we were given.  Instead she just licked the frosting off her brush when she wanted to change colour.  I was impressed that the frosting was not too sweet.  The made the light fluffy cake all the more enjoyable.  And there was great satisfaction in having decorated our own cake.  

It was such a fun activity.  The cafe was full of people with their heads down like serious artists at work.  I wondered if it was only me who struggled to achieve my vision.  On the way out we chatted to the women at the neighbouring table who were working out how to use the equipment and I felt like maybe we weren't alone in being on a big learning curve.  I would be keen to return and have another go at cake painting with the experience of one completed "canvas" under our belt - in more ways than one!
 

Juniper Eatery
269 Coventry St
South Melbourne VIC 3205
Open: 8am-3pm, 7 days a week
https://www.instagram.com/juniper.eatery

Meeya Cafe
191 Clarendon St
South Melbourne VIC 3205
Open: Mon-Fri 8am-4pm, Sat-Sun 10am-4pm
https://www.facebook.com/MeeyaCafe