In My Kitchen, November 2024

 What an action packed month October was! It was Mr. HRK's birthday so we dined out twice in one day, and why not? During October we included some essential kitchen maintenance and reorganising, some cooking (of course) and food blogging, gardening, talking to our son and grandchildren each week in Montpellier, France, and catching up with our daughter and lovely friends. We also played some pickleball a few times a week and I wrote up a few articles about our Mackay Indoor Pickleball Club for the local free weekly newspaper. How did we ever find time to go out to work?

In My Kitchen - April 2021

 Welcome to In My Kitchen for April, 2021. It's still school holidays here, not that this affects me much, as we're not travelling and don't have children or granchildren in town, however shopping centres and roads are a lot busier at this time of year, and thankfully the weather is cooling down. Here in North Queensland, we aren't blessed with such significant changes of season as the southern states or those of you living in the Northern Hemisphere, however here we love it when the days begin to shorten after Easter as Winter approaches and the the cooler weather is just hiding around the corner.  That's when the real cooking and dare I say it, exercise, ugh, begins.

I made this large loaf of high top sourdough bread last week, a nice change from the artisan cobs I've been experimenting with, and easier to eat as toast. Then with some of the leftover starter made a batch of sourdough blueberry muffins. I was really pleased with this bread loaf, which I proofed overnight and  was a combination of rye, spelt and wholemeal flours, and had a really nice texture. We sliced half of it and froze it, and have been eating the rest each day. 

This is a great muffin recipe to make when you have leftover sourdough starter after bread making. They freeze well, and then reheat beautifully for breakfast or morning tea. They have a distinct flavour and aren't too sweet if you are watching your sugar intake, especially after Easter. They take a while to proof and finish, but so does the bread so they can be synchronised easily with bread making.

Here's my muffin recipe:

Spelt Sourdough Blueberry Honey Muffins

Ingredients:

 2 cups spelt flour

1 1/2 cups bubbly sourdough starter

1 cup buttermilk or kefir

2 tablespoons chia seeds

1/2 cup honey

3/4 teaspoons sea salt

2 large beaten eggs

1/4 cup coconut oil (use melted butter if you wish)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 3/4 cups fresh/frozen blueberries (I used frozen) or you can use chopped apple, almonds, cinnamon & nutmeg

Method:

Soak chia seeds in buttermilk for 15 minutes to soften until translucent .

7 to 12 hours before you want to bake the muffins,mix the flour, starter, and soaked chia, until just combined. Add a little water to moisten if necessary.

Cover and leave in a warm place to ferment. I left mine all day in a warm spot on the patio. However an overnight proofing along with the bread would be perfect.

When your dough has fermented and risen, preheat your oven to 220 deg. C.

Combine the honey, salt, beaten eggs, and melted coconut oil in a medium bowl. Beat until combined.

Sprinkle baking soda and baking powder (leavening agents) evenly over the fermented dough.

Start to fold in the leavening agents, and pour in 1/3 of the liquid mixture and any dried fruit or nuts if you are using them and fold until all combined. Repeat with the second 1/3 of the liquid.

Sprinkle the blueberries over the batter, and then finish kneading with the last 1/3 of the liquid mixture, until just combined.

The dough is a bit stretchier than a quick bread dough because of the fermentation process.

When all the ingredients are mixed in thoroughly, divide the batter into 12 greased muffin cups. You might even need up to 18 depending on how risen your dough is and the size of your muffin cups. I needed 14 just to be different.

Bake them in a preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes, or until golden brown and risen. Leave them to cool and then enjoy.

During most of the cooking Locky our Border Collie dog is never far from my side in the kitchen. He's just hoping that a titbit will miraculously fall from the bench onto the floor. It's been a tough week for Locky, as he hasn't been well with a serious ear infection and a couple of skin issues and had to have a General Anaesthetic to have his ear flushed out. He's been off colour for a few weeks poor darling. Blood tests showed that he has a low thyroid problem, typical of mature, large breed dogs. So now he is on medication for the rest of his life, but the condition isn't life threatening so we are very relieved. Mr. HRK has been looking after him very well, giving him tablets and ear drops, and keeping his ears clean. We are so relieved though that his condition wasn't caused by his dog food, as the vet said that was a possibility. So his large packets of Hills Science dog food will be eaten, Locky loves his tucker. This photo isn't Locky at his happiest, as he had only had his procedure the day before. He loves bread making days though just like I do, and is quite partial to little bits of uncooked dough and flour that land on the floor. He is a lot happier now, a few days later.

From my kitchen window, I can see my lovely orchids that are in flower at the moment. They bring me a lot of joy. This old water pitcher was my Mum's and has been repaired many times, but I still love it and it is a nice pot stand for this pretty Oncidium orchid.

LC Little Suzie x Chocolate Drop is like an old friend. She keeps flowering every year, and I now have a few pots of this one, all broken up from the original plant. She comes into my kitchen for special occasions, but she prefers to live on the patio where I can see her from the kitchen when I'm cooking. That's when she is flowering. Otherwise they all live in the orchid house.

Cattleya LC Little Suzie x Chocolate Drop

It's a lovely time of year for orchids, the cattleyas are flowering.

I am very excited though that my Tillandsias are also flowering this year, perhaps the heat has brought them on. These delicate purple flowers are quite fragrant, and the plant has been producing flowers for over a month now. They are growing quite happily in a hanging basket, although they are epiphytes and will also grow on trees.

My Cooktown orchid is also flowering nicely on the potted Fig tree.

Easter was time for a few treats, and we love these dark chocolate ginger balls from Buderim in Queensland. They also produce a lot of naked ginger in packets, a kind of crystallised ginger which is brilliant in cakes and biscuits. I often place a layer of it in the middle of my ginger syrup cake.

I bought Silvia Colloca's inspiring book before Easter, and my regular readers will have already seen the Chocolate Ganache cake I made from it for Easter and a friend's birthday. It was delicious.

Here's the cake.

You can find the recipe for my Chocolate Ganache cake here at this link.

I bought this new book about Posh Tarts for $3.00 today at a book sale, as if I need anymore cookery books, but I read them like novels. Mr. HRK spotted it on my desk, and I said we are going posh. Then he realised it was about cooking and seemed disappointed. Can't imagine why! Oh well, I'm sure I will get my money's worth. Looking forward to trying a few recipes from this one when it is cooler for pastry making.

Then there was a batch of vegetable stock to  appease the guilt after Easter.

On a sunny note, this yellow gerbera is quite the star of the show in my garden.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event, that was started by Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial,  If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to read more In My Kitchens. 

I have just reached the deadline for this IMK. Hope you enjoy it. 

Warm wishes everyone,

Pauline

Winter Gardening in Tropical Mackay

Delicate Tropical orchids are bringing some bling to our garden at present. May and June seem to be the flowering season for Cattleya orchids and this beautiful Village Chief Armani is no exception. I bought this one two years ago from a local orchid grower, MnS Orchids, and it has surprised me with three beautiful blooms. It is a show stopper.

 This is a glimpse of Gardening Mackay during a tropical Winter, it's not quite Gardening Australia, however the weather has been so mild and beautiful that we have been spending quite a lot of time outdoors. Can this really be Winter? Minimum temperatures of 7 degrees last week, and maximums of 23 degrees had us reaching for our doonas at night however the days were perfect. It has warmed up slightly now, but it is still OK to be in the garden at midday. This is very different to our summer scenario when gardening and walking are over by 9am. 

I took time to wander around the garden with my camera and thought I would share with you some of the flowers and colorful plants I discovered which are the highlights at present. Some plants are dormant in Winter, however there are always flowers to be found somewhere in our garden. Whilst the individual flowers are nice to look at in photos, gardens are more than the sum of their parts and when appreciated as a whole, the colour, form, balance and structure of the garden come together to give each garden it's identity. This is a just a glimpse of our eclectic garden. Year round colour can be a challenge in gardens, however in the Tropics it's not difficult. I hope you enjoy a wander around our garden.

Meet Little Suzie, growing wild on the Golden Penda tree as she should be doing. She is a food loving and food lover's orchid, with the full name of Lc. Little Suzie x C. Chocolate Drop. I broke up this orchid at the end of last year and tied a couple of pieces to the tree as I was in a hurry to relocate it and she has flowered already. She is healthy and happy in her natural habitat. Orchids also respond very well to being fed finely chopped banana skins, believe it or not, and used coffee grinds. What's not to love.

Every tropical garden has a hibiscus tucked away somewhere. Ours is slightly dormant at present but I though this individual flower was quite spectacular.

Hibiscus

This one is the first purple Zygocactus in flower. It is in a hanging basket framed by some Button Orchid, which is somewhat of an epiphyte.

I brought back a Medinilla sp Thailand (below) from Cairns in May 2016. The Friends of the Botanical Gardens in Cairns hold regular fund raising plant sales where plants can be purchased at very reasonable prices. This one has just started flowering and grows well in a hanging basket. I have another different species of Medinilla growing in the ground which is still to flower. My friend and gardening guru Ann, asked me to bring her back a couple of Medinillas during the 2016 Cairns visit, and that is how I discovered them.

Pure, white and simply special is the first flower of this Eurachist Lilly this Winter.

Eurachist Lilly

This deep pink flowered plant below, came as a cutting from my Mum in Rockhampton many years ago and is now a very large plant in the rainforest section of our garden. It often needs to be pruned back. I've forgotten it's name though. Can anyone help me with that?

Purple Salvia bringing beneficial insects including bees, and honeyeaters to our garden. A gift from Ann.

A holly Bougainvillea above

Red trumpets sparkling in the morning sunlight

Bromeliads

A large leafed Caladium growing next to chillies. They are scattered throughout the garden bringing Winter colour.

A Delicate Cooktown Orchid, growing on a potted Fig Tree

Succulents in a bonsai pot

This is such a resilient pink gerbera, an old variety still seen in cottage gardens. Other gerberas are taking it easy during Winter, however this one keeps flowering.

Ground orchids need to grow in full sun which isn't a problem in our garden and they make a beautiful colorful border. The pink and white ones are also pretty and available now from most nurseries. We had a small yellow tomato bush growing as a weed through this front garden when I took the photo. We pulled it out though, as it was taking over and climbing up into the mandarin tree.
And it's back to my garden.

Until next time, happy gardening. Thanks everyone for visiting my blog. I would love to hear from you in the Comments box  if you have time.

Pauline

Ginger cake with Lemon Icing and Delicate Blue Bromeliad Flowers, and So the Day Goes

It is an amazing phenomena how a fairly ordinary Bromeliad plant on a tree, can suddenly transform into a bird attracting and beautiful specimen by producing these delicate blue and pink flowers. Yesterday morning during a garden meander I noticed these flowers, but I wasn't fast enough to grab the camera and snap the sun bird which was burrowed into the blue flower lapping up the nectar. I've learned from that as our garden is always full of wonderful surprises that I need to have my camera or phone on me at all times. It makes me realise how patient and prepared nature photographers must be. Birds don't hang around to be photographed. 

I think that a large part of my gardening enjoyment are  the memories of who gave me what. Mr. HRK's cousin Judy, who lives on a lovely property in Maleny in Southern Queensland,  gave me this bromeliad around 8 years ago.  I attached a piece to our Golden Penda tree, which it has now completely encircled and it is now flowering. We always called in to see Judy when we travelled through to Brisbane, and as we don't drive to Brisbane much now, we haven't spoken recently. When I saw the sun bird and the flowers I was so excited that I called Judy on the phone to tell her about it. She is a real nature lover and a keen gardener so she was really thrilled to hear from me. Communicating with like minded friends and relatives is just another dimension of gardening. Judy doesn't think this brom has an actual name, so if you know it and it has a name I would love to hear about it.

My day progressed into icing a cake that I made the night before, as the Mahjong ladies were coming that afternoon. I made my favourite ginger cake recipe, as it looked like rain and what is better on a wet day than ginger cake. This time I decided to ice it with a lemon icing rather than use a ginger syrup and that worked well. Here is the recipe if you haven't already seen it. It is such an easy cake to make and I always add about 6 chopped up pieces of crystallised ginger to the batter  for extra oomph.

The cake was delicious and so was the lemon icing.

Ingredients:

120 g unsalted butter
250 ml golden syrup
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
2 heaped teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon mixed spice
220 g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
250 ml milk
2 free-range eggs, beaten
2 cups of icing sugar
juice of a large lemon



Let's Cook

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.
Grease and line a medium sized square cake tin. Melt butter and golden syrup over low heat; remove. Sift flour, ginger, mixed spice, sugar and salt into a large bowl.
Add milk and egg and mix until smooth. Gradually add butter mixture and stir.
Pour batter into tin; bake for 50-55 minutes or until risen and firm to touch.

Allow to cool before icing.

I often make this  cake with a Ginger syrup instead of icing, less sugar, I wish.  This is a link to my original post with the recipe using Ginger syrup which is also absolutely delicious.

https://happyretireeskitchen.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/ginger-syrup-cake.html

It is nice to eat cake with proper cake forks, especially when I have friends over so I cleaned them and some of the other silver cutlery I own. There are still droplets of water on the cutlery in the photo.

It is almost cup of tea time, it was an early start. I hope you find time to put your feet up today and enjoy a nice cuppa.

We are supposed to receive significant rain today so here's hoping. So far we have only had about 15 ml. Fingers crossed.

Best wishes

Pauline

Our Fraser Island Creeper flowers to celebrate Australia's inaugural National Gardening Week

This week is Australia's inaugural National Gardening Week from the 8th-14th October, 2017, and to celebrate it in my part of the world, I would like to share with you  a few photos of the first waxy pink, bell shaped flowers from our beautiful  Fraser Island Creeper, "Tecomanthe hillii".  We transplanted the plant from a pot last year to a strong trellis at the back of our property which faces North and now has a dedicated sprinkler system and it is flourishing. Location and water are everything. It is a native and quite rare plant, endemic to Fraser Island situated off the Queensland Coast, which is the largest sand Island in the world and World Heritage listed. Amazingly rainforest grows in the sand on Fraser Island and so does this spectacular woody climbing vine, which flowers along the length of the vine. The flowers are pollinated by native bees, insects and honey eaters and seem resistant to pets and diseases. It is also very suited to climbing up a well established tree. We are so thrilled that it has decided to flower, and each morning we visit it to check for more blooms.

National Gardening Week was launched at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show this year, to highlight the associated environmental, social and health benefits of gardening, and the improved mental and physical well being that gardening brings. Is it a coincidence then that it coincides with Mental Health Awareness Week as well? What a wonderful synergy that these two events can bring to a lot of people.



Most people who are avid gardeners will tell you that despite the physical benefits, they feel so much more relaxed and at peace with the world when they step out into their gardens and start gardening. I know that I do.

So that we can continue to enjoy our garden, and so that it doesn't become a burden, Neil and I are starting to be mindful this Summer of the need for low maintenance plants, water wise plants, plants that attract the birds and beneficial insects, and less vegetables which require a lot of attention. However I still need to have lots of herbs growing in Summer, as these are quite easy to maintain and with all the cooking I do they save a lot of money by being easily accessible from our garden. I also gain a lot of pleasure from flowers in the garden and they are also essential for attracting the bees so that they can pollinate our Passionfruit vine and other herbs and vegetables.

My tropical orchids are a nice interest and will still survive if left to their own devices for a while, as long as they are watered in the hot months, however I try to give them lots of TLC. An automatic sprinkler system is essential in that regard. I try to fertilise them every two weeks throughout the Summer months.

Just a couple of my orchids flowering out on our patio.

Dendrobium Farmerii Thrysiflorum "Colette"

Lots of the very old-fashioned Lilly bulb are planted throughout our garden so the flowers just explode at this time of year. They don't last long, so I enjoy them whilst we can.




This is Blue Salvia which the Sunbirds hang from daily whilst drinking in the rich nectar. I have just pruned the bush back and because it is such a strong plant, gifted to me by a very generous former neighbour, I have taken cuttings and  potted them hoping that some of them will strike. We fertilised it after pruning it, and already it is shooting.

Last but not least, this is the flower of the spring onion, or eschallot. I allow it to flower as it attracts the native bees which are so important for pollination in the garden. I hope that one day they will decide to build  a hive nearby.




This is a slightly shorter post as I am finishing here because our WiFi and Internet are off and on at the moment pending the imminent installation of the NBN. I really hope it all goes smoothly as we are all so dependent on WiFi these days and if it works at a faster speed as promised that will be wonderful.

Enjoy the rest of your week everyone,

Happy gardening,

Pauline