In My Kitchen, December 2023

 

I'm in the mood for Christmas now, which is great, because it's nearly here and the stunning colours of Christmas are naturally occurring in our garden. Bring it on. It's been a big morning today. The fruits for my Christmas Cake and my Christmas Plum Pudding are now macerating, and the Rum Ball mixture is chilling in the refrigerator. I'll roll these traditional little festive balls in coconut tonight. I needed to start all of these preparations early at 6.30 am this morning, before the heat of the day set in, and I am so relieved that I have made a start. Hopefully the cake will be baked and the puddings made by the end of this week. I am usually earlier than this making the Christmas cake, but I've been fairly casual about it all this year, and they will still taste great and make it feel like Christmas, even if lunch is fairly simple. 

In My Kitchen:

A big shout out to my blogging friend Sherry at Sherry's Pickings who at the beginning of every month hosts this In My Kitchen event, which all of us at home Food Bloggers love to be a part of.  I've been cooking a nice mix of Sweet and Savoury recipes this month.

Sweet treats:

I made a batch of Portuguese Custard Tarts in our Pie Maker. This is a much easier way to cook with pastry in our Tropical Summer heat. The tarts were delicious for morning tea, and afternoon tea. The cup of tea was for the photo, but then we both decided to drink one of Mr. HRK's coffees with the tarts. Good decision. 

These beautiful Coffee Mugs from the Byfield Pottery near Yeppoon in Central Queensland, were a lovely surprise Christmas gift from our friends J & D. Mr. HRK is the barista behind the delicious coffee within.

I baked a delicious and quite healthy Pear and Almond Tart, a Donna Hay recipe.

A Spiced Pumpkin, Orange and Prune cake, decorated with Nasturtiums from our garden

Scrumptious Savoury things:

Mini party pizzas with puff pastry are always tasty when I'm asked to "Bring a Plate ".

Rosemary Flavoured Focaccia, straight out of the oven for brunch with smashed Avocado, Goat's cheese, and Gourmet Balsamic dressing.Simple and delicious.

I was thrilled to find these nested Baker Scrapers at a local kitchen shop. My bread and cake baking will

be a lot easier now, and I will look quite professional when making bread and baking cakes.

We also baked a batch of Beef Pies in our Pie Maker. The Beef filling was delicious. Here's the recipe for my Slow Cooker  Beef and Red Wine  filling, which is perfect for filling pies. I'm really enjoying using the Pie Maker this Summer and what's not to love about Beef Pies.

It really is just too tempting and easy to buy a cooked chook for dinner from the Supermarket when we're doing the weekly shopping, don't you think? So instead I baked this chook, after I bought two fresh chickens for $14.00, a real bargain, as a cooked chook costs $13.00 these days. It really is so simple to bake a chicken, and it was absolutely delicious. Mr. HRK asked me if anyone really bakes chickens at home anymore these days. Well I do, I said. I made a sourdough bread stuffing flavoured with chopped fresh sage and parsley, and added a chopped onion, an egg, a little butter and a little white pepper. The stuffing tasted amazingly good. Mr HRK couldn't get enough of it. I stuffed as much parsley as I could under the skin of the chicken, massaged her with butter, and finished dressing her with a sprinkle of Provence mixed herbs, which I brought back from France with me earlier in the year. However any dried mixed herbs would work. I'll  replicate the method I used here when I cook  the baked Christmas chicken this year and make a chicken gravy as well.

Individual low calorie Salmon Quiches were delicious made with fresh wild caught salmon that I cooked.

A bowl of Prawn Taglierini was delicious.

 So I made a Chicken Taglierini the following week, using my homemade Tomato Pasta Sauce again.

My beautiful fragrant and delicate Vanda orchid pictured below has been flowering for a couple of weeks now. She is at least 15 years old, and is still in the original pot but is now hanging from our Lychee tree. I brought her up from Rockhampton when my Mum passed away. Mum loved her orchids. I think she would be really thrilled at how well this one is still growing and loving the Tropics. 

The African Blood Lillies are also in flower bringing the beautiful red colours of Christmas to our garden.

As you can see I've been quite busy trying new dishes that we will enjoy this past month, the biggest challenge has been finding the time to post all of the recipes, but that will happen. I hope you are all enjoying your time in your kitchens as well and looking forward to Christmas. 

Have a wonderful Christmas festive season everyone, I hope it can be a relaxing, refreshing, peaceful,  and enjoyable time for you all. See you in January.

Warm wishes,

Pauline