Autumn In My Kitchen

Do you love the colours of Autumn? I sure do :)
Even better when you find them in your kitchen with the autumn flavours to go with them.

Washing crab apples to make crab apple jelly. I love the red, oranges and yellows.

The finished Crab Apple Jelly is also very pretty with the sun shining on them. Had them by the kitchen window to cool.

Orange of carrots and the browns of walnuts. Getting ready to make carrot cake.

Homemade Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing. YUM! Perfect for an autumn afternoon tea (or dessert)

Also made chicken stock for tonight's dinner, more for comfort food then colours. The carrot cake I made double batch so half could go into the freezer for a day when I don't have time to bake.
Came away from the kitchen today very happy. now DH has cooked us dinner :)

Very Hot Summer Day

In the morning had to take a walk in the garden to cool down from a hot night. My sweet peas are flowering lots. Love the different colours, very cheerful.

 

Look what I found, our 1st passion fruit. I saw the beautiful flower, but didn't think it would fruit. Pleasantly surprised.

 

And look our 1st blackberries. I have to help support the vines onto the fence, as they were going exploring.

  

3 days worth of eggs (but we did use 3 for baking on Thursday). Will be using more today with baking and dinner. Our Brown shavers are laying now (those beautiful brown eggs), and with the others we are getting about 6 eggs a day. I should start recording our eggs, see how many we get per month (and year).

 

Our Waste Not Want Not Cup Cakes. They are really Banana Cupcakes, the bananas were at the bottom of our fruit bowl and starting to go brown. So we needed to use them, then some of our eggs. Also these patty cases were from a Christmas present. They were for shortbread biscuits that come in a box, (biscuits all eaten). Perfect for our cupcakes, since I had run out of patty cases. Made 12 cupcakes. I also added some wholemeal flour to them, with plain flour. Partly to make them abit healthy. But mostly to stretch our flour supply to last till I can shop next week.

 

With 8 of our eggs, and 2 of our courgettes made this Courgette and Carrot Quiche for dinner. Served with some our Butter Beans, picked this morning. Large slices were very filling. Yes we are still slowly going through our courgettes. I have a few more dinner ideas for them yet. Then I will start freezing them.

Menu Plan Last Week of September

Finally finish this week menu plan. To many choices didn't make it easy.

MONDAY: My mum had cooked us a yummy casserole (was lamb or beef?) which we had with our boiled potatoes, and steamed garlic silverbeet.

TUESDAY: Using up the gravy and leftover beef making Beef Soup served with buttered buns

WEDNESDAY: Having a bit of fun with Tray Baked Lamb Chops with Cous Cous. It's a one tray dish that is so yummy and filling.

THURSDAY: Basil Pesto Chicken Pasta. A quick easy dish, great for a very busy day with hospital trips, and school production etc

FRIDAY: I had trouble thinking what to do for dinner? To may choices :) But decided on Red Beans and Rice.

SATURDAY: We are having dinner with friends :)

SUNDAY: A good ole Roast Chicken with Roast Vegetables and homemade gravy mmmmmm.

These are all what we are having for dinner. Because breakfast is pretty much the same porridge or cereal (Sunday we might have pancakes). And lunch is normally sandwiches, snacks is home baking and fruit.

Now I have been looking at another project for our menu planning. Have found two interesting ideas that I would like to try.
I found a list of ideas here http://tipnut.com/meal-organizer/
and from the list I found the wipe off board and the DIY board to be the ones I would love to do.
I like the wipe off board because it is simple and I think I can do very cheap. Would also make a fun gift to give others. Can have it hang on the wall or stick to the fridge.
I like the DIY board because it is going that bit further into menu planning having all the meals already written and recipes on hand too. But it involves more work and costs more to make.

What do you think?

Time For A Food Challenge

The Monthly Shopping has been a big help with less time at supermarkets. Especially as the past 2 months have been very busy. But this month is the time to a stocktake and cleaning, where we store our food. As well as prepare for the coming busy months.

So $21 Challenge here we come :)

Have just finished a stocktake and with a bit of filling we have almost enough for next months dinners. Almost enough meat for each day, OH BOY!
Might need some flour and sugar for baking. With our chickens provide us with eggs and a freezer with 7 butters, we don't need much else.
We have lots of potatoes, silverbeet and oranges
So now to menu plan.
Will come back to share how that goes :)

Sun in my Kitchen

In my kitchen making breakfast and enjoying the sun shining in. Mmmmm love Spring. Hard to take photos in our little kitchen, this one is with me standing at the other end of the kitchen. If I want to get more in I would have to be on top of our oven. Now that would be a sight. But I love it, and we still get to cook and bake yummy things here.
Today is Sunday, our day of rest, and I'm enjoying it after a busy day yesterday.
Better get ready for Church, God Bless :)