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.