In My Kitchen: January 2025

 

Phew!  January was so much busier than I expected.  It seems that we only survive the December festive craziness by promising ourselves a leisurely relaxing January.  Who am I kidding!  We had my sister visiting from Ireland, a high tea for my mum's birthday and a holiday to Walhalla. Plus life admin was so draining trying to sort out all our finances and activities.  Not a lot of cooking was happening in our kitchen.  Often it was too hot and we were too tired.  You will see a lot of easy meals here from the last month.  One amazing easy meal that I never even photographed was Turkish bread with hummus, falafel and salad.  We must make it again.  More about being out and about in January to come in My Monthly Chronicles.

The above sandwich is typical of our meals.  This was a rye bread loaf with cheese, leftover slaw salad from coles with chickpeas, plus tinned beetroot and lettuce and mayo.  Just the thing for a scorcher of a day!  It's the way to get through a run of days in the high 30s (celcius) followed by some heavy rain.  Not all of us are weeds that thrive on such weather!

This is our new years eve leftover nut roast (based on this nut roast).  I had tried a nut roast sandwich with lots of salad in it.  I didn't get it near my mouth before it collapsed.  So my next nut roast sandwich was simply made with just cheese and chutney.  I also loved a nut roast, cheese, lettuce and mayo sandwich.  We have been buying quite a bit of cos lettuce.

This new fridget magnet was bought at Readings bookstore in Carlton at the end of December.  It took me a few days to get it onto my fridge.  I really love this "make soup, not war" picture!  The mushroom was a present to Sylvia and I was amused to see I still have a coronavirus helpline magnet on my fridge.  I am not sure anyone would answer this these days!

We made our fave Recipe Tin Eats broccoli fritters again.  I tweaked it slightly but cannot find my notes.  I think it had peas and miso but maybe that is just my plan for the next batch!  The leftover fritters were great in a salad sandwich with lettuce, cheese, tomato, tinned beetroot and mayo.  So good but so hard to keep together before I photographed and ate it.

After a busy day in Geelong at my parents and a visit to Paddock bakery at Federation Mills I was so happy to have bought a fancy focaccia at Paddock and have bought a packet of Coles superfood slaw mix at the supermarket.  Note that those nails are Sylvia's not mine!

For dinner I made my fave easy salad of the slaw mix (cabbage, carrot, beetroot, kale, daikon and celery) which I mix with a tin of chickpeas, chopped almonds or other nuts (hazelnuts here), 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp seeded mustard and seasoning.  It was so satisfying with the focaccia.  The salad was also great for a quick work lunch on quite a few occasions. 

We have had a good haul of tomatoes in January.  The cherry tomato plant in the pot grew so well that it reached the top of its stake but it has withered somewhat in the recent hot weather.  I had tomatoes with salads but mostly on the run.  They are best rosy red eaten warm off the plant while pottering in the garden or just passing to take my bike out.  Also in the photo you can see the lovely pink gerbera flowering on the plant my mum gave me.

You can also see the black blob is the cat, Shadow.  He is easily startled by strangers but had an especially huge reaction when the neighbour had a medical transport arrive.  Shadow bolted inside at such a speed that he broke the flap off his cat door.  Thank goodness my dad has put in a slot for a wooden cover so we can stop him going out on a warm night when we want the screen door open but the cat flap in it shut.

The cherry tomatoes from the garden were great with cheese on this sourdough flatbread.  The flatbread was a couple of days old so I heat it on a greased cast iron frypan and then put the cast iron frypan under the grill so the cheese would melt and the tomatoes cook.  It was so good.

I was so impressed by my quick lunch that I think it could go in this list of recipe hacks from the Guardian.

A few day before my mum's birthday high tea I had a cuppa with my friend.  The next day she let me know that she had tested positive for Covid.  This meant I needed to test for Covid before the high tea.  All the tests I had got for free at the height of the pandemic were now well over a year out of date.  So7 fir the first time ever, I had to pay for a Covid test.  The ones in the picture were the cheapest in the shop at about $7 each in a 5 pack.  Youch!  But after my family had a super spreader Boxing Day lunch, the last thing I wanted to do was to bring Covid into their midst again.

I was busy the day before the high tea making Vegetarian sausage rolls and Miso maple banana bread and a collage birthday card.  We love a bit of whimsy in the collages we make with images from children's picture books and printouts from the internet.  If I had had the time, I would have included a retro teapot as a vase for a bunch of flowers in place of the present.  As it was with my limited time, I was pleased with the dog and chicken celebrating with a birthday cake on a bookshelf. 

I made the Spicy Kimchi Udon for dinner on one of the hot nights.  We had made Kimchi fried rice the week before and had kimchi to use up.  The noodles were fine but a bit spicy for my liking.  I prefer the fried rice for using kimchi.  I know both have the same amount of kimchi.  I can't explain it but I prefer the fried rice.

On one of the cooler days I made a simple broccoli soup with broccoli, potato, celery and four bean mix.  I added tahini to mine and Sylvia added cheese and pasta to hers.  It was so good.  I took a photo of it with some paintings by Sylvia that she did at an art workshop (does anyone recognise the album covers?) and a Monica McInerney novel. Upside Down and Inside Out was a fun quick read.  Just what I needed given my recent reading drought.  Then I followed it up with the charming Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aitken.

For my birthday treat I made Walnut cheatballs.  They are a riff on the nut roast I was making over Christmas.  I had cottage cheese leftover so it was a good way to use it up.  Then I heated a flatbread with cheese on top so it melted and then I placed cheatballs, rocket and relish on the cheese and wrapped it all up.  It was very satisfying.  The leftover cheatballs were used in vegetarian spaghetti and meatballs.

Here are a few of my birthday gifts.  The sushi socks are gorgeous and I still looking forward to using the corn dudes (to hold corn on the cob), the cactus shaped taco holders and the Asian soup spoons.  The rest is going to the garden.

I have written a few posts about our lovely long weekend holiday at Walhalla.  I bought a new tea towel when we went on the Walhalla Goldfields Railway.

Here are some more purchases from the Walhalla holiday.  The postcard andlittle train shaped pencil sharpener is also from the railway.  The cat card is from the cat cafe in Traralgon.  The purse, picture frames, metal jewellery, small chest and cute little green dipping bottles were from the Garfield second hand shop.  The green beads, scarf and purple top were great bargains from the Traralgon op shops.  Though the clothes aren't as cheap as those from mum's wardrobe.  Yep that means Sylvia is finally at the stage where she is raking through my wardrobe for clothes she wants to wear. 

And finally here are a few more bargains from the op shops and Garfield shop.  The little gnome with the face mask and "wash hands" sign is in the bathroom to give me a laugh.  Sylvia has hung the jewellery holder with necklaces and earrings.  She has plans for the cast iron lantern candle holder that involves plants.  And I hope to use the lovely casserole dish with green leaves that was a bargain at $2.  I am sure we will find some interesting food to bake in it that you might see some day.

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.