In My Kitchen: September/October 2013

As good as it was to be off on another adventure it is so very good to be back in my own kitchen and eating veggies on a regular basis. I contemplated doing a collage of the food we ate while we were away but there is just too much of it… I’m not even kidding.

Most of the fun things from our holiday ended up on Instagram so if you are looking to waste time, plan an eating holiday, or just make yourself hungry go for it.

In the meantime here are a few things from before we left, things that made up our traveling kitchen while we were away, and some recent bits and pieces too. Linking up of course with Celia’s October In My Kitchen post.

Before we left…

After a mammoth August IMK post there wasn’t too much left to talk about, but a glass cake cover turned upside down into a little dish makes for the perfect fruit bowl for end of winter oranges. Terribly crafty, aren’t I?

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This cocktail set* was a cute goodie bag inclusion from the Samsung Sparkling Refrigerator launch event. I had to giggle at everyone who went crazy at the pics of sparkling water dispensing from a fridge door, but it was pretty cool.

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Saying that I was head-down-bum-up during the last few weeks we were home (and the first few weeks of our trip) to get Truly Malaysian done and dusted is an understatement!

In a massive effort to style and photograph 11 dishes in roughly 5 hours of daylight Jackie came and played prep chef in my kitchen.

RJ now loves saying things like “You know that chicken curry Jackie cooked in our kitchen? I want that for dinner.” Cheeky bugger.

The e-mag app was finally finished somewhere in early September (New Orleans perhaps?) and submitted to the iTunes store!

It’s available on iPad for just $.99 during October.

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Up up and away…

After eating–our–way–around–LA for 36 hours or so we headed to Cape Cod to spend time with my extended family.

My aunt’s cottage on the Cape is the perfect beach house and the open kitchen did a wonderful job at juggling roughly 20 adults and 6 toddlers for almost a week.

(we were however spread across three different houses for sleeping purposes!)

Amongst other things there was lots and lots of watermelon. I do love summer.

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An adult cousins night out led us to a pub somewhere close by — what is important about this pub was not just the Pumpkin Beer but the fact that the edge of the glass holding the Pumpkin Beer was rimmed with cinnamon sugar. Yeah, that.

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Next stop was Mom’s farm in Western NY, at harvest time nonetheless.

Grapes were heavy on the vines…

and pears were heavy on the trees.

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There was lots of time spent in mom’s kitchen — such a sweet space. Note my takeover of the island for a makeshift office. That orange bucket? Filled with grapes of course.

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I had a few things waiting when we arrived and among them where these lovely blue vintage-style jars from Ball Canning*.

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Mom and I went antiquing one day, as you do, and of course I returned with a few lovely bits and pieces that were then toted along in my carry-on for the remainder of the trip (what?! yep, really).

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Sooooo, this is what happens when you are out in the vineyard and the thumb rest falls off your camera and gets lost in the grass. Enter pear leaf. Yet another reason to get the new camera I want…

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Next stop was NYC but both of us had been struck down by an evil cold… lemon and plastic knife from the corner store, honey from a coffee shop, chilli flakes from a pizza joint to cure the lurgy.

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That plastic knife sure came in handy to work through our goodies from the Union Square Green Market but more on that later!

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After having no luck in LAX, Logan, Buffalo or JFK, the Nola airport delivered in spades and I found a copy of The Bloggess’s book Let’s Pretend this Never Happened. If you don’t read Jenny’s blog you should, unless you offend easily then you shouldn’t.

Needless to say I have not laughed so hard for years as I did reading this book and it spent many hours amusing us as we road-tripped through middle-of-nowhere-Texas (how fitting).

New Orleans flew by in a haze of shrimp-n-grits, fried chicken and beignets before we drove through roughly 10 hours of the most insane thunderstorm to reach the glory of Austin Texas.

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I’ll definitely cover the Kimber Modern in more detail later on, but look at this kitchen and common area — swoon.

The breakfast included some of the best fruit I’ve eaten in ages, perfect for lining the stomach prior to tacos and bbq and all sorts of other waistline expanding food. It was pretty much constant eating to tell the truth.

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A trip to Austin isn’t complete without a stop at the headquarters of Wholefoods, and a stop at Wholefoods isn’t complete without at least a couple samples…

Love Bean Fudge is made by an Austin local and is simply perfect chocolate and coconut spread.

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While we didn’t get any fudge I did come away with a bottle of Buddhas Brew Kombucha. I’m a perpetual ingredient reader and all the other kombuchas had sugar (or honey, or agave) added for sweetness — really??

This one is another local Austin product, has no added sweeteners after fermentation, and was stunningly good.

I think I need to try my hand at making Kombucha but it kind of scares me…

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When one drives across the middle of Texas to get to New Mexico and one passes a stand in the middle of nowhere proclaiming ‘PEACHES!’ one must stop and buy said peaches.

They were possibly the best peaches I’ve ever eaten.

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When we finally reached Santa Fe all I wanted was waffles… It took a couple days but these blue corn waffles with pecans at the Santa Fe Baking Co where simply perfect in every way. They will be appearing in my kitchen often.

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Home again home again jiggity jig

Phew! So we managed to pick up a few souvenirs on the way and not surprisingly most involve food and are therefore now in my kitchen.

Cookie cutters from Texas and New Mexico, some letterpress numbers from Uncommon Objects in Austin and ceramic spoons from Pearl River Mart in NYC.

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A cat-shaped ginger grater also from Pearl River Mart, a knife from New Orleans and two extra long forks from Uncommon Objects because I needed long forks.

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Two kinds of Joe’s Stuff seasoning blends from New Orleans and some chilli powders (including Chipotle!!) from Santa Fe.

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A packet of blue corn meal which has already been used to make waffles — now I just need to get my hands on one of those deep Belgian Waffle makers…

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And then there’s the tea — there is always tea.

My fave Tazo Green Ginger, some Green Zen (green and mint) and very minty Refresh Mint. Plus a box of Chocolate Mate that I became obsessed with at Cape Cod after pilfering the kitchen of another aunt.

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Finally the prize pint from The White Horse pub in Austin — we collect pint glasses everywhere we go and this is one of the best in recent years.

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When I got home there was a little present from Williams Sonoma waiting for me. The pan* is part of the signature range and it is fully clad — not just the base — so the heat distribution is fantastic. Also, it’s really pretty and shiny.

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I love that the goodie bag from the Australian Mushroom Growers lunch included a jar of mushrooms* — lunch fixings and a prop, woohoo!

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I ended up coming home from the Bean Supreme lunch with a full set of their products*. Most of them have soy which I don’t tend to eat but the soy-free koftas are a great thing to have on hand for fridge surprise lunches and the mushroom burgers are a good alternative for barbeques if you don’t have time to make your own.

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There is a good chance we have been home for almost two weeks and are yet to shop for little other than bananas and milk and lettuce, ahem, but we did stop at Salt Meats Cheese last weekend and stocked up on a few salts. The jars are recycled from vanilla paste for those keeping score.

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I went to a Think Act Change meetup event during the week and after hearing all about this small batch passata decided I had to buy a bottle to bring home. I’ve yet to open it but can’t wait.

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I laughed out loud when I opened the package with this Kenko Matcha Green Tea* — they had seen my Instagram pic of the tea from our trip and the comment that I was told I couldn’t buy any more.

Gotta love a company that not only pays attention but has a sense of humour too. Well done Kenko, well done.

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So that’s it for now! Don’t forget to pop over and see all the other linked up IMK posts. Is there anything good in your kitchen this month?

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* Some items listed above were gifted to me in accordance with my editorial policy. Nothing here is sponsored. All opinions are fully my own. Supercalafragalisticexpialadoshus. Beam me up Scotty.

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