In my kitchen…
…are gifts from my lovely friends and fellow bloggers, Deb of Bagni di Lucca and Roz of Taste Travel. Deb sewed this beautiful bag for me (it’s her own design, and she even matched the card to it!) and Roz sent me her vintage Römertopf cookbook…
In my kitchen…
…are homemade marshmallows, and cranberry and toasted almond rocky road, made with the aforementioned marshmallows and Callebaut 811 chocolate…
In my kitchen…
…are brochures from a new installation at the Art Gallery of NSW. The terracotta warriors were created over 2000 years ago under the realm of China’s first emperor. For anyone in or visiting Sydney in the next couple of months, the exhibition will be on display until March 13 and is well worth a visit…
In my kitchen…
…are a couple of bulbs of roasted garlic – the large one is from Di and Ian, and the little one was grown in our backyard. After this photo was taken, the pulp was squeezed out into a bowl, mixed with a little salt and covered with oil – the roasting turned the garlic mild and mellow, perfect for smearing on toast and meats (thanks to clever Joanna for this wonderful suggestion!)…
In my kitchen…
…is a stick of butter, one of two made from more than half a litre of old heavy cream leftover from Christmas…
In my kitchen…
…is a box of golden chocolate chip cookies, baked for me by Big Boy’s best mate Tim. He dropped them over, still warm from the oven, so I’ve laid them out on a rack to cool. I can’t tell you how happy I was to receive these!
In my kitchen…
…are jars of Pete’s latest jams – cherry and strawberry, and mango and lilly pilly…
In my kitchen…
…are treasures from our first visit to Alfalfa House in Enmore. Below are coral rice and purple jasmine rice, both from Thailand, organic peppermint tea from Egypt…
…organic maple syrup from Canada and organic rapadura sugar from Columbia. The rapadura is amazingly flavoured – it’s made from dehyrated unrefined sugar cane juice…
Tel me, what’s happening in your kitchen this month?
. . . . .
This is my 12th monthly “In My Kitchen” post.
Thanks for spending the past year in my kitchen with me!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
At the moment there is a big chicken soup on the stove, a chocolate and orange flour-less cake (only one slice left) and some home-made cinder toffee (also disappearing quickly). A big bowl of lemons is the most I can brag about for the fresh stuff. Those marshmallows look pretty good and I adore really good maple syrup.
My kitchen is rather mundane in comparison. I have a chicken carcass simmering for soup, a tomato sauce for pasta plopping gently on the stove, and I’ve got the ingredients for a new low-fat brownie recipe layed out, ready to put together.
We’re just munching our way through some of September’s sweet mustard piccalili and marvelling at how bright and ‘as new’ the vegetables are still. Have you ever made piccalili?
Would love to sample that sugar and your sweeties look lovely too, but I am having a serious cut back on sugar until I lose a few pounds. So I will just admire them from afar.
Really pleased you like the roast garlic paste – thanks for the mention too!
Delicious Food! How long did you roast the garlic for and what temp? I always end up burning mine which is NOT delicious.
I’ve got three green granny smith apples waiting to be made into pie.
I just put a beautiful beef briskett in the oven with garlic and onions and carrots to roast. Looking forward to a quiet dinner and lunchmeat all week from this worthy piece of meat!
Everything else is still sitting in baskets and bunches, needing to be separated and dispersed. I think I will do an “in my kitchen ” post as I get them sorted out!
I love your kitchen, Celia!
I do like your kitchen posts. I’m so tempted to give up my self imposed “no fly” ban just so I can come over and spend some time with you in your kitchen – I’m sure it’s a wonderful place to be.
I’ve used Rapadura for years as it’s meant to be a more healthful version of sugar, but it is very expensive so I don’t use it as often as I might otherwise do.
Of all the things in your kitchen this month, the one that tempts me the most is Pete’s mango jam – never had mango as a jam before, but I bet it is delicious.
In my kitchen – is a bit of a mess. We were without power for a couple of days and we brought stuff up from the garage in case we were flooded – and haven’t quite got around to taking it back. I am going to help at a sauage stand today and think about home tomorrow. Thanks for the pic of the bag.
Congratulations! It’s been a pleasure to read about. In my kitchen is the last part of a batch of (failed) brownies. But it was nice cake!
Sally, I’ve never heard of cinder toffee before! Google tells me it’s what we know here as honeycomb. I’d love a big bowl of superfresh lemons – then I could make some preserved lemons in salt! Must watch out for them at the markets. :)
Suelle, it all sounds very healthy! Look forward to reading how your low fat brownie goes.
Jo, jinx, I’ve just tried my first ever batch of piccalilli using a Pam the Jam recipe. And in my kitchen, right now, in my oven in fact, is your/HFW chocolate cake, using the rapadura sugar in the post above!
Maz, I must defer to Jo to tell us how she does it – I had the oven on for something else, so I wrapped the bulbs in foil and tossed them in at the same time. I think the foil helped prevent burning?
Heidi, I’d love to see what’s in your kitchen – looking forward to the post! :)
Choc, the rapadura is crazy expensive here – I bought it more just to see what it was like than anything else. I don’t think it will become a kitchen staple – it’s about 10 times the cost of regular sugar! The mango jam came about because I purchased a bag of frozen mango when we were last buying frozen berries, and it needed using up. It was a nice combination with the tart lilly pilly berries from our tree!
Deb, thank you for you the bag! I hope it’s not all too crazy there at the moment..all the best. xx
Sue, thank you! And good on you for reusing the failed brownies! :)
Don’t defer to me, tell them how you do it Celia! I can’t remember, I think the bulbs went in as a whole object not broken into cloves, so the skins protect the bulbs from burning. They just got roasted along with a pile of butternut squash and other veggies in a little olive oil, took the same time as the butternut squash.. 170 C Fan? I can’t remember x
Hi Celia!
I enjoy reading about your kitchen. The jam looks delicious.
In the kitchen right now is a loaf of brown bread baking. A jar of canned pumpkin waiting to be made into bread, 15L of milk to be made into cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, or gouda), a few dozen eggs to make into noodles, some cookies, and the last mandarins left from Christmas. So much to do and so little time in a day!
Celia, those marshmallows look perfect: light, white and fluffy.
With a house full of flu, my kitchen is full of 7-UP and painkillers :-( Hope to be back in action next week but until then I can swoon over your kitchen.
It’s mother hubbard zone here!
[…] Celia – whose delightful In My Kitchen posts inspire many a […]
Mmmm, I’m loving some of your kitchen bounty Celia, my kitchen is overflowing with BBQ makings & tropical fruit – the family are coming by for dinner for a pool party, fun times :)
Manuela, pumpkin bread and cheese making! It does sound like a fun time in your kitchen!!
Oh bugger, Gill, I hope you’re all feeling better soon! Stay warm…
Frances, hopefully the cupboard won’t be bare for long.. :)
Anna, perfect weather (at least in Sydney) for a pool party!!
I’m unpacking bounty from the markets at the moment, my benches overflowing with apricots, white nectarines, yellow nectarines-all @ $2kg, lamb and beef organic sausages, lamb ribs, goat ribs, chicken drums and wings@$2.50kg, lamb leg steaks, goat blue cheese, sheep cheese, and heaps of bits and pieces to turn into yumminess. I just have to find somewhere to put it all!
Treasure!! It all sounds wonderful, have fun with it! (Goat ribs? I’ve never tried those before..) :)
Celia, you know that’s a really special thing for your son’s best mate to make you biscuits right?… What a lovely young man!
Your kitchen happenings sound lovely.
My kitchen is about to see a little pasta action, but not before I tidy up the mess of some tiny hobbits.
Brydie, he really is a wonderful young man – thank you for understanding what a big deal it was (even though Tim probably wouldn’t think so!). I was really very touched! :)
I love your kitchen updates. I wish someone would deliver fresh baked cookies to my house!
In my kitchen yesterday and today are hundreds of sandwiches, choc-chip cookies, tea cakes and donated baked goodies to help feed the hungry volunteers cleaning up Brisbane.
I wish I had something to write about in my kitchen. After a Christmas of macarons, merangues and gingerbread, then making a small batch of ice cream with the left over egg yolks, which we’ve just finished eating, I’ve had to put myself on a self imposed baking/sweets ban for a bit..
But Hubby’s b’day is at the end of the month, so I’ll be champing at the bit for baking by then!
Wow what a bountiful kitchen you always have Celia! In my kitchen are the leftovers from an Ethiopian Duck Wat from dinner last night under the new veranda. I also have an oven sized hole that is finally going to be filled this Thursday (I made a decision and finally purchased one today).
If Tim is one of those boys you have been feeding all these years with chocolate slab cake, marshmallow cookies and all those other things you bake in bulk and send to school with your boys…then he would have been secretly very pleased with himself for being able to bake something for you Celia. Such an honour…for both of you!
Nothing exciting in my kitchen at all at the moment as we got back from a few days of camping today.
Wow!! All of that stuff!!! What treasures from Enmore – and the warm cookies and the rocky road and the jams – wow!!!
What will you do with the rices?
We have Mont d’Or cheese which I bought at our local farm shop. Must be eaten warm – and with a spoon. We had duck confit and lentils in a jar from the shop too – only had to warm them both up and was the easiest dinner in the world. Can you tell it is winter?!
Wonder if they are the same warriors that we saw here last year and they are doing a world tour? I was expecting thousands so was a little disappointed on the numbers front but they were still amazing.
LOTS of interesting happenings in your kitchen this month! LOVE your coloured rice.
In our kitchen, my daughter has been busy and this week we have choc chip cookies, coconut ice and white chocolate fudge cake (somewhat of a disaster, but tasty all the same!). I really want to get in there to do some baking but would like the small people to eat up what’s already there first..
I really like your jars. Do you buy them in bulk?
I love these visits to your kitchen! As always you have some interesting things to show us…thanks for sharing!
I can’t wait to see what you do with your Alfalfa House goodies! The coral rice looks amazing, is it fragrant at all? :D
Thanks for the pointer to Alfalfa House, Lorraine! It was a treasure trove, albeit an expensive one! :)
Cindy, thanks for always stopping by! :)
Chris, isn’t the rice interesting! We’ve used the purple rice, and it was a vivid purple when cooked, with quite a nice, almost nutty flavour. I buy all my jars at Plasdene – http://www.plasdene.com.au. Not sure what the current price is, but the salsa jars (with lid) were about 75c each when I last stocked up.
Anna, cheese you eat with a spoon! Duck confit and lentils! Wow! Yes, I suspect the same warriors, there was only a dozen or so figurines in the exhibit, but very interesting nonetheless!
SG, see, you understand too, wasn’t that lovely of young Tim? :)
Sarah, very exciting, looking forward to seeing your new oven! Which one did you choose in the end?
Toni, it sounds like you could use the rest – Christmas was a busy time in your kitchen! :)
Claire, good on you for all the hard volly work you’ve been doing in Brissie!
Hi Celia,
I always love the posts on what’s in your kitchen. Mine’s filled with white and yellow peacheswe bought from sydney. Can’t wait to go tothe farmers markets this weekend for more fresh produce.
Do you use the Römertopf alot? Have only heard good things from a friend that does roast chicken in it.
What a lovely post, it is the first one of your “In my kitchen” posts that I have read and you certainly have a lot of great things in there. Thanks for sharing.
In my kitchen there is only the memory of Mulligatawny soup. We had friends over and they wiped out the entire pot. It is a chicken soup made with curry, ginger, and red pepper in coconut broth with tomatoes and spinach served over coconut lime rice topped with apple/mango salsa. Add fresh bread and wine. Oh, yummy.
Soy, peaches! We had all of two white peaches from our little dwarf peach tree this year, but they were delicious! I use my Romertopf a lot – I’ve written about it a few times on the blog – first post is here. Lately I’ve been using it to roast duck! The best thing is that the oven stays nice and clean, and then the whole pot goes straight into the dishwasher! :)
Natalie, thanks for dropping by! :)
Carol, sounds amazing! Mulligatawny is one of those soups I’ve only ever read about, never made. Heading off to read more about it now..thanks! :)
RE: Mulligatawny Soup. I like the recipe in the Splendid Soups and Spectacular Sides book by Cuisine at Home
http://www.cuisineathomestore.com/books/soups.php
Thanks Carol! :)
Thanks for the reminder about butter – I have a pint of yummy cream left from a project last week that definitely needs to be used! I also have a head of roasted garlic – my very last bulb from our garden. I’m hoping to make it last just a little longer by roasting and hoarding it. ;>}
The last time I was down at my parents home in L.A. I helped my mom begin the process of cleaning out her cupboards and we found a set of butter paddles. I used them today for the first time when kneading the liquid out of my homemade butter – they are smaller than your gnocchi paddle but did the job.
I wish I had everything in your kitchen! I have some satay chicken that i made last week defrosting in my fridge at the moment, ready to be turned into a pie!
Lynn, there’s something extra delicious about homemade butter! :)
Susan, satay chicken pie sounds fantastic – perfect fusion food! :)
Celia, I just love your In My Kitchen posts! And I followed your link for homemade marshmellows ~ bookmarked and must try soon! My little ones love marshmellows, and I love rocky road, so must try that too. You’re an inspiration. =)