In My Kitchen a long time ago

Jan9

Here we are in winter, again. The holidays are over, thank the Gods! I have to admit that I am daydreaming of what to plant and where once the snow melts. Though I don’t get much sun anymore so not sure how that will work out. Oh well,we are still a bit away from that. In the meantime I have been instagramming a lot and have left the blog to collect a little dust. I just went poking around in here and realized I started this post a very long time ago and didn’t hit the publish button, better late than never.

Made these as a baking challenge, the chocolatiest cake pops you can imagine

We have some fancy apple cider vinegar. This will go into some sort of salad dressing

the annual Paczki, yum!

made these pesto chips for a valentines post, super easy and fast

made a large casserole, so froze a container for another meal later

We did a baking challenge in January, which was bread bowls. They turned out really well and tasted great

Pre karate training lunch

Using up leftover bits and pieces for a breakfast “pizza”

We are growing the world’s smallest terrarium, I was sceptical but it is working. I am still sceptical…

made chocolate 8 bit hearts

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.

Sherrys Pickings

Valentine’s Day Pesto Cracker Chips

Feb12

These tasty little things can pass as a chip or a cracker. Either way try them. These are super fast and easy to put together. These would be perfect for a Valentine’s Day lunchbox or as part of a cheese or charcuterie board to have with wine. You can change up the shape to suit whatever occasion you are celebrating.

Take a package of wonton wrappers and use a cookies cutter to cut out the shapes you want to use.

Place the shapes on a parchment lined baking sheet and brush with pesto and just a very light sprinkle of salt.

Bake in a 350F oven for about 8 minutes, until golden at the edges.

Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container. Lasts for a few days, but ours did not last to make it into a container.

As you can see, we tried a few tree shapes that we could use for Christmas and pumpkins for Halloween.

One note about the pesto, if you are putting in a lunchbox check the pesto for nuts. Both pesto types that I bought contained nuts. Our school is nut free so I couldn’t put them in the lunchbox. I have to find a nut free commercial pesto or make my own.

You could also just brush them with a little olive oil and sprinkle of salt to make a plain cracker-chip. That is how I will use the rest of my wontons for the valentines lunchbox.

Roasted Almond Pumpkin Seed Butter

Aug26

We always make homemade peanut butter and it was the easiest thing ever. I really like almond butter, so had to give that a try too. It was just as easy and turned out really good.

I took a couple of large handfuls (about 1 cup) of raw almonds and one handful (about 1/2cup) of raw pumpkins seeds and roasted them for a few minutes in a 350F oven. Shake them around a bit and watch them carefully or they will burn! To make it easier you can just buy them already roasted. When you take them out you will hear the pumpkins seeds cracking and popping.

Let those cool a bit, just to room temperature. Put all of those into a food processor.

While blending drizzle in some avocado oil, or any flavour neutral cooking oil. Only 2-3 tbsp. Blend until smooth, drizzling in a little more oil as needed.

Drizzle in a tablespoon or two of honey, to taste and a generous pinch of salt.

Blend until smooth

Place in a jar and keep in fridge

We like it on toast or apple slices

Chive Blossom Vinegar

Jul3

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!

Advent Calendar

Dec1

Tomorrow is December 1st! We have been planning for Advent for a little while now, to make our own homemade advent calendar. There are many commercial calendars, some just cheap and some very expensive. Anyway this one isn’t expensive and it isn’t disposable either, we will use it every year and as Evie gets older I can easily tailor what goes into it.

(picture below by Evie)

I had planned to get this ready and posted before the last hours before the start of Advent, but there is still time. The kids won’t care if you are a day or two late, they will be so excited for this.

Also doesn’t have to include treats or presents, but maybe a “fortune” type note, or the name of a book to read. Whatever works for your family.

FYI- This is not an affiliate post, we just used this stuff because it is what worked for us, we were not compensated in any way. We went to Michael’s, in the area where they have the cheap bins and got the little burlap sacks (2 for $1.50), little decorative clothespins (8/$1.50), tags (16pkg for $1.50), baking twine (large spool for $3), the 3M hooks I had on hand and I just had to buy some replacement adhesives. The treats/small gifts for the bags I got at a few different places, mostly Bulk Barn since I could buy exactly the amount I needed. I won’t say anything else about that part since Evie is helping and she cannot know what her advent treats are.

The tags were blank, we just wrote the numbers in marker. There were 16 in the package so we wrote on both sides of some.

The twine we put on the wall with the 3M hooks, like a clothesline at child height, and attached the numbered tags to the sacks and then pinned them to the line.

We are doing a week at a time, so there are the first 7 days! We will just switch out the tags next week. It really was very simple and it turned out well. She will be very excited to get up tomorrow to see what is in the first sack. She also has a little envelope from Mass on Sunday which has actions that she will do for everyday of Advent to remember why we are having Christmas. That sermon talked about that even though the Grinch stole the feast and all the presents all of the Who’s in Whoville still had Christmas. I can honestly say that is the first time ever that I have been to a church service involving How the Grinch Stole Christmas, it was very well done.

Let the countdown begin!

Homemade Peanut Butter

Sep7

Last weekend after making our crabapple jelly we made some peanut butter. It is very simple and there is nothing in it other than peanuts. No chemicals no high amounts of salt or sugar.

I just bought some roasted peanuts from the bulk food store, probably 3 cups. The nuts were on sale and I think I spent under $3 and I probably got about 2-3 cups of peanut butter, a large size jar. If I bought a small jar of natural peanut butter it would have cost me between $6-$8 dollars depending on the brand.

No need for measurement as you are adding nothing, unless you want to. We added a small sprinkle of salt just for a little more flavour and it brings out the peanutty flavour a bit more. You can add a drizzle of vegetable oil if it seems little too dry or thick. I think we drizzled in about a tbsp of oil. You can add whatever you want, salt, sugar, honey. Try it out and see what you like best.

I just put the peanuts in the food processor and blitz and whirl until you have a smooth peanut butter. Evie got to push the buttons. You can stop whirling sooner if you want a crunch version. Taste a little bit and season to taste, just until it is how you like it.

I took pictures of different stages so you will know that is what it is supposed to look alike and just keep going. The first time I tried this I didn’t let it go far enough and threw the peanuts out because I thought it was just creating chopped nuts. I wasn’t patient enough, I am usually impatient, and should have just let it go on further.

Once finished I place it in a glass jar in the refrigerator. I have done this a few times now and it doesn’t get hard in the fridge and it has never separated on me either.