Tag Archives: chives

In My Kitchen July 2017

July! Summer is in full swing, though it hasn’t really felt that way. We have had a lot of rain and it hasn’t been very warm either. I hope that means we will have a long warm fall. Please gods let it mean that.

We did a little travelling, close to home these past couple of weekends, so I have a peek into my home kitchen and travel kitchen as well.

If you follow us on Instagram @cookswithevie you would have already seen some of what we have been up to. We have been eating a lot too!

Made lilac water, very fancy

Used up some of our chive blossoms to make chive blossom vinegar 

Very rough looking calzones

And pizza

More of my fave cheese

This is Evie’s treat. She likes it straight up on tortilla chips. She doesn’t get that it is for putting on other food. Her aunt let her try it on a tortilla and now that is how she wants it, 😂 

Raspberry pie

And a little walk rewarded us with some wild strawberries, so tiny and so sweet 

And a chocolate fondue 

Night #2 a marshmallow roast, we made s’mores 

The first radish from the garden patch

If you like something, just order a case…I love this coffee

And found these beautiful dates, have a stock of those too. Awesome stuffed with almond butter.




The “In My Kitchen” monthly theme host is Sherry, from sherryspickings.blogspot.ie If you would like to know what is happening in other kitchens or join IMK head over to Sherry’s blog and check out all the other IMK participants and join in.

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Chive Blossom Vinegar

Chives are the easiest home garden herb to grow and they come back every year without fail. They taste great and also bloom into lovely little purple blossoms. It is these lovely little Lorax style blossoms that we use to make this garlicky flavoured vinegar.


Snip just the blooms from the chives wash and thoroughly dry. I washed and then patted dry with a paper towel, then lay out on a dry paper towel for a few hours until totally dry.  Put cleaned blossoms in a clean dry mason jar.



Cover with vinegar of your choice. I used apple cider vinegar, that was all I had at the time, but I think white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar would be really nice too.

Press blossoms down with a spoon to submerge and make sure they get covered in vinegar.
Place the lid on the jar and store in a dark cupboard for about two weeks.


After two weeks you have this pinkish purple liquid, when you take the lid off it will smell like garlic chives. It does smell really good! Strain vinegar through a cheese cloth into a clean dry bottle or jar.

Use in favourite salad dressings, vinaigrette or any recipe where you would use vinegar.

Now go grow some chives!

Pork Dumplings with Ginger Soy Dipping Sauce

Well, I am doing a little catching up! This is a recipe that we made back in the winter and I never got around to posting, there are a few more that I still have to post.  My summer to do list is catch up with all of the posts that I have sitting in draft.

These are so easy and fun to make and they are delicious also. Evie had fun pinching the seams together, it was like cooking and crafting all in one! You can even prepare a big batch and freeze them. I have done that and it worked out well.

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For the Dumplings (also known as potstickers):

1/4 lb ground pork

1Tbsp finely chopped chives

1&1/2 tsp soy sauce

1&1/2 tsp dry sherry

1tsp minced fresh ginger

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp cornstarch

20 wonton wrappers

1Tbsp vegetable oil

In a bowl mix pork, soy sauce, sherry, ginger, chives, sesame oil cornstarch and 1Tbsp water.

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Mix this really well.

Place a tsp of the pork mixture in the centre of a wonton wrapper.  Lightly wet the edges of the wrapper and fold over, press to seal. Do this until all of the mixture has been used.

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Cook dumplings (in two batches) in a large pot of boiling water until cooked through, about 5 minutes then transfer to a plate with a slotted spoon (you do not want much water left on them). Be very gentle as the wrappers are delicate.

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Once all of the dumplings have been boiled heat a large skillet with vegetable oil, cook about 1-2 minutes per side until they are lightly browned.  Again I usually do this in two batches so they are not too crowded in the pan.  As you can see mine were a little to crowded, I was impatient in a hurry, and did not brown quite enough to my liking, but they were still good.

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For the Ginger Soy dipping sauce:

In a small bowl stir together 1/4 cup soy sauce, 3 Tbsp rice vinegar, 1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger, 2 tsp sugar and 1/4 tsp sesame oil.  I give this a whisk and it is done.

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Dig in!

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NOTE :  I have prepared these and frozen the raw dumplings in ziptop bags. Once you have prepared the raw dumplings place them on a baking sheet to freeze. Once frozen transfer to tiptop bags and freeze.  When you are ready to eat, cook from frozen.  Just pop the frozen dumplings into the boiling water and cook as above.

Source: The original recipe was found in Everyday Food magazine.

Bacon Cheese and Chive Quiche

Reposting this as WordPress seems to have lost my original post and I am looking for the recipe!

Watching an episode of Madeline made us decide on quiche for supper.  Probably not the one they had at Le Hotel Riche, but I had all of the ingredients in the fridge so we just made this one up.  The chives were added because we had alot growing in the garden and Evie has been desperate to go cut some and carry them in her basket, so we added chives!

I didn’t have time to make the pastry so I just used a frozen store bought one.

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Preheat oven to 350F.  You will need:

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1 & 1/2 cups grated cheese, I used half mozzarella & half cheddar)

3-4 strips bacon, chopped and fried to well done

1-2 tbsp chopped chives

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

whisk eggs with milk and add other ingredients, stir to combine.  Pour into pie shell and bake for about 40 minutes until done.

It turned out really well, very tasty.  I was unsure if Evie would eat it or not but she devoured it, and asked that we make it again soon.  I guess this recipe will go into the recipe book.ImageImage