In My Kitchen - March 2024

February was full of travel, birthday fun for me, friends, and good food. Everyone is in now in shock that it is March already, and it's always been a big month in our family. We have two family March birthdays, which has always meant celebrating our two children's birthdays,🎂 and sometimes parties, when they lived at home. It's been hot and quite wet here in the Tropics, so bring on the beautiful change of season that Easter always brings. 

Visiting Norfolk Island for my recent birthday was a real highlight in February, and I will be writing a post about that in due course, however there are a few snippets about Norfolk which are food related later in this post. For now, I'd like to share with you some of my kitchen mischief during this past month. Our meals have been mostly low calorie recently, and I've been enjoying trying out some new ideas. 

Every month food bloggers from around the world are invited to participate in the In My Kitchen series hosted by the lovely Sherry from Sherry's Pickings, This is my contribution which showcases the month of February In My Kitchen.

We had 8 tennis friends coming for a regular casual dinner, so Mr. HRK offered to make pasta from scratch, and I made a favourite family Bolognese sauce recipe. This was one of the first recipes I ever posted on my blog.

Here's the link to the Bolognese recipe. Leftovers are in the freezer for a rainy day and there are plenty of those to choose from right now.

I cooked a low calorie version of Chicken Katsu curry. I've never eaten an authentic Japanese Katsu  before, so this was a nice surprise. It ticked all the boxes for us.

I enjoy cooking with very different types of vegetables. I was given a Snake Gourd by Ann, who follows my blog and asked me over for coffee one morning. She grows these fascinating vegetables in her very interesting and flourishing diverse vegetable patch.  Ann very kindly showed me how to prepare the gourd for cooking in her kitchen. The inner fibrous vegetable matter needed to be scraped out.

Then I chopped it up, and made a very simple Spicy Egg Stir Fry with it which tasted delicious and was oh so healthy. Perfect for a meat free Monday meal. When I can organise to get some seeds we will try growing this gourd in our garden. It will need a sturdy trellis as well.

One of our home grown chilies is in there too.

What is it about meals served in individual dishes that seem to make them taste so much better. These are low calorie Leek and Salmon Quiches which I made for a mid-week dinner. I used the recipe from the Ultimate Fast 800 Recipe Book which has so many delicious and low calorie recipes which help to keep us on track during the week. The weekend is another matter entirely.

I was really thrilled with how this Orange and Lemon Syrup cake tasted. It was from the Monday Morning Cooking Club Recipe book. You can find the recipe at this link. I made this one just before we left for our holiday on Norfolk Island.

A batch of low-calorie Beetroot Brownies were fun to make and eat and satisfied our appetites when we just needed something semisweet, gooey and chocolatey to have with a cuppa.

On our return flight home from Norfolk Island recently, we were at Brisbane airport enjoying a coffee in a bookshop which stocks an excellent range of books, sells good coffee, delicious food, and also sells some very interesting bottled condiments. These had my attention. I didn't mind that Qantas were running late as usual, there was plenty in this shop to keep me interested. 

I liked the philosophy of the company that they rescue  produce that have odd shapes and imperfections to create delicious products.

We ate some delicious food over at Norfolk Island. Here is just a sample.

Because Bush Lemon trees are prolific on the island, the Lemon Tart has become one of their signature desserts. Everywhere sells a version of this lemon tart. It was very good.

At the Boat Shed Bistro, the Pork Bao Buns were delicious. Mr. HRK says his Asian chicken stir fry was also very good.

Hilli Restaurant was where we ate scones and muffins for morning tea on my birthday. We tried to dine there for dinner one night but they were fully booked for the whole week which was disappointing. Another time perhaps. 

Warm wishes

Pauline