In My Kitchen, May 2025, and looking back on April

Welcome lovers of food, to my kitchen, and to what's been happening this month in my world. April is always a busy month in our calendar. As the weather starts to cool down here in Northern Queensland, it's time to bake, make soups and stews, and plant some Spring seeds and seedlings in the garden. I've planted Baby Spinach and Pak Choy seeds already. 

Once again it's time to be sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the monthly In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by the 13th of the month. Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens. Thanks for hosting this event once again Sherry, it's a lovely initiative and unites all of the keen bloggers and cooks around the world.

To finish the month beautifully and I am mentioning this at the beginning of my post, Mr. HRK and I celebrated our 48th Wedding Anniversary, on the 30th April. Ok, so I will work backwards. To make our Anniversary even more special, I made a Chocolate Chiffon Tart for dessert. I thought this tart might still be in the food testing stage, but because it turned out so well, I might just post it as it is, very soon. Only, next time I make it I will make the pastry from scratch. Recipe for this is on it's way. Mr. HRK loved it, as did Julie who visited for coffee, and the chocolate filling is so light and like chiffon. 

This tart recipe was given to me by Robyn, a lovely friend of ours, who worked with Mr. HRK when he was teaching at Pioneer High School, many years ago. Robyn was a Home Economics teacher, and her cooking  knowledge and her recipe collection are very impressive. The plate that I have served this tart slice on is a Shelley Fine Bone China plate called Daffodil Time, and is one of a set of two. These and the cake server belonged to my Mum, and are quite precious to me.

So last night we ate in for our Anniversary, as also this last week I needed some surgery on the back of my leg, so I didn't relish sítting in a restaurant for a few hours, which is very unlike me. We ordered a delicious Asian take away from a local restaurant, Mr. HRK bought a bottle of Chandon, and we had this Chocolate tart for dessert. It was a lovely evening.

Here are a couple of wedding pics from our Wedding photo album. 48 years ago, it's hard to believe. 

I've had some meaty beef soup bones in my frig for a few months, 1.2 kg, so I decided it was time to make some good quality beef stock with lots of gelatin from the bones, and then make soup from the stock. Home made is definitely best. The stock is still in the refrigerator, with a nice layer of beef fat or tallow on the top, which I will keep for cooking, frying and roasting. I usually make my own chicken stock, but my Mum used to make delicious Beef Soup from scratch, so I hope mine lives up to hers.

To the bones I added the usual suspects, onion, carrots and celery, plus coriander seeds, bay leaves, fresh thyme from the garden, peppercorns, apple cider vinegar, and  a tomato for colour and sweetness,  and covered the ingredients with water. If I still had parsley growing in my garden, some of that would have been thrown in too. So I added a sprinkling of dried Les Herbes de Provence as well.

 

I bought these dried herbs in France when I was there visiting our family. The stock cooked for 6 hours on the stovetop, and then I transferred the stock to my slow cooker for an overnight slow cook. The aroma coming from this stock as it was cooking was so good. There was no gelatin left in those old bones.

On the Sunday of the ANZAC Day long weekend, we drove from Mackay through the lush sugarcane fields of the verdant Pioneer Valley to a wonderful little village called Pinnacle, famous for it's Pinnacle Pub and it's pies, oh yes, the pies. The Pioneer Valley is known for it's waterfalls, volcanic boulder formations, and extensive sugar cane fields. It's a beautiful drive through there.

This is the Pinnacle Family Hotel, a country pub. On Sunday, the day of the market, all the chairs and tables at the pub were occupied by people drinking a cold beer and eating a hot pie with peas and chips, with a long queue out the door. It was bursting at the seams with people.

 The main reason for our destination though was the monthly Pinnacle markets that were on, held at the back of the pub. The markets are a showcase of local arts and crafts and locally grown fruit and vegetables as they should be. Mr. HRK was a happy chappy as he found a tool he's been looking for over the years, and I bought some very unique pieces of jewellery for family gifts from our talented Pickleball friends who have a stall at the markets. No photos of the jewellery yet as the fam might be reading this and it would spoil the surprise. Our friends Ann and Greg are also keen rock and gemstone fossickers and have some lovely examples for sale at their stall. Well worth a visit.  I learned though to take more cash to these country markets. Many of the stall holders only accept cash or do direct debit, as their credit card machines don't always work up there in the valley. So I was rather limited by this and the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables I could buy. However, the pub takes credit card for purchase of their pies, so we took two pies home to eat. I reheated them in the Air Fryer and the beef pies were amazing, full of chunky beef and gravy,  although I was disappointed that they forgot to include the mushy peas with our order. Mushy peas just top the pies off beautifully.

Always with Worcestershire Sauce, and an interesting shape. Not the usual shape for pies.

It was ANZAC day on the 25th April, and the crowds at the ANZAC marches and services were inspiring. I've already posted heartfelt comments about the importance of honouring the ANZACS, when we remember the soldiers and family members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and soldiers who also fought during World War II, the Vietnamese War, and others who bravely went away to war to defend our freedom.  Many of us also bake ANZAC biscuits as our way of remembering them, Lest We Forget. I could bake these delicious biscuits every week and never tire of them. These biscuits must not be called cookies. This was my latest batch that I baked on the 25th April. Crunchy on the outside, and a little bit chewy on the inside. In  our Northern climate they can become a little too chewy after a couple of days, so when reheated in the Air Fryer for 2 minutes at 200 degrees, they are perfect again.

Here's the recipe for my ANZAC biscuits if you fancy baking some.

I baked this Pumpkin and Ginger Slab Cake which was delicious. You can find the link to this recipe here.

Our daughter Shannon visited over Easter, and she made this stunning Emelia Jackson cake , a Coffee and Walnut Streusel Cake with French Coffee Buttercream which was absolutely delicious for us to enjoy over Easter. My post and recipe for this cake can be found here. It can be found in Emelia's recipe book, First Cream the Butter & Sugar.

I also made this Moussaka ( a Greek Lamb and Eggplant Lasagna) while Shannon was at home, and it was delicious, and lasted us a couple of nights. Thanks to Nagi Maehashi (Recipe Tin Eats) for the original recipe.

  
One evening early in April, I needed an easy traybake to make, it was one of those busy days, so I layered some vegetables into a baking tray, zucchini, Japanese eggplant, capsicum, lots of herbs but mainly tarragon from our garden, added chicken thighs, bone in and skin on, sprinkled with sweet paprika and ground black pepper, and called this my Tarragon and Eggplant Mediterranean Chicken Traybake and it was delicious. I love a good traybake. Whilst I was making this, I was thinking about my Oven Baked Ratatouille recipe,  minus the tomatoes, so it is reminiscent of that recipe.

My tarragon is quite mild in flavour, so I always need to add quite a bit of it as you can see.

Hope May is a good month for you all, wherever you are. The seasons are in transition, so it's an interesting and inspiring time in the kitchen.

Warm wishes, 

Pauline