In My Kitchen – September 2013

Remember back when the Celia from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial started her In My Kitchen series and folks from around the world were joining in?  I said I didn’t think I could participate because I never had anything much in my kitchen that was new.  This month you might agree with me.

I must stay out of op shops.  This month I dragged home the cake stand in my previous post and along with it this cute egg basket-y thing.  John looked at it and said, “Just one word.  Why?”

“Because it’s cute,” said I.  “I will put it in the background of a quiche or something.”

“Or something,” he said, looking over his glasses.  “WHERE are you going to keep all this crap stuff?”

I still think it’s cute.

I received this package of Marion Grasby’s Malaysian Curry and I was going to make this big post about National Cook Curry day (last month) but we had Rob here and the death in the family and life got all overwhelming.  So the package sat.

I don’t normally use a package but we’re going to eat this and offer our apologies to celebrity cook, Marion Grasby.  We’ll sing her praises as we eat her Malaysian curry with chicken.   You can see all Marion’s recipes from her TV show on Lifestyle Food.

Last month a fellow named Jeremy Purt who lives in the northern part of Queensland wrote to me and said he had just created a website to sell his chilli jam and could I please give him some pointers on blogging in exchange for a jar of his chilli jam to try.  Never one to shy away from a challenge, I did both.  Jeremy’s website, Chilliseekers.com is very new.  His blog has only one post so you see how new that is.

The jam is spicy and sweet and full of flavour.  I thought I’d have a play with it and mixed some of this chilli jam with some fig jam and served it with cheese.  I was pleased with myself.  Rob thought it was too spicy (he doesn’t eat anything spicy but at 92, who does?), John didn’t think it was spicy enough.  I’m Goldilocks and I thought it was just right.  I also served it with some fried chicken and all thumbs up.

Jeremy makes 3 heat levels of his chilli jam and I got the mild.  He’s in the very early days and only produces a few products but I think he’s got a wonderful future.

I like popcorn – we both do.  I had seen a few popcorn posts on the net and decided that shaking a pan on the glass cooktop wasn’t a brilliant idea.  The toss-up was whether to get an air popper or one of these Whirley Pop thingos.  I decided I’d get the whirley because it just reminded me of the really heavy popcorn pan we had when I was a kid.  There was a crank thing on the top that you turned around and it made great popcorn.

Enter the Whirley Pop.  It’s so light that the directions say not to use it on high heat or the metal will melt.  I kid you not.  Any thinner and I’d be making popcorn on aluminum foil.  You can only use it on medium heat but it works just fine.  I’ll make something for you soon.

Have you ever promised someone you were going to do something and kept forgetting?  That’s me in spades.  I have great intentions and then I end up with so much going on.  If I don’t write it down and organize a time, out the windows of my brain.  I bought these sea salt flakes from the Great Barrier Reef for an American friend and I haven’t put them in the mail yet.  I have no excuses and only sincere apologies for being a twit.  Maybe embarrassing myself publicly will get me to the post office.  🙂

And that’s it for what’s going on at my house in the kitchen.  As I wrote this I remembered I had two other things in my kitchen but I’ll save them just in case I have nothing in my kitchen in October.  I will have tomatoes in my kitchen in October.  My nifty tomato plants are covered in tomatoes.

What’s in your kitchen?  I’m dying to know.  I have a case of EKE.  Extreme Kitchen Envy.  Every peek soothes my soul.  🙂   If you join in and I hope you do, please link to Celia’s blog Fig Jam and Lime Cordial and she’ll add you to the list.