Classic Slow Cooker Tomato Pasta Sauce

This is a classic homemade tomato pasta sauce recipe for the home cook which I find is one of the best sauces to have on standby in my kitchen for a quick and simple meal. Everyone needs quick dinners in their recipe repertoire, and with this sauce most of the work is already done. 

Spiced Pumpkin, Orange and Prune Cake

 
This cake is full of golden pumpkin, aromatic spices, orange juice and half a cup of our home produced honey. Whilst we don't really celebrate Thanksgiving here in Queensland, we are planning for Christmas already, and we know that it will be Thanksgiving in the Northern Hemisphere very soon. This cake will be nice and comforting to bake and have on hand as part of the Thanksgiving celebrations. The aromatic spices combined with orange juice and honey are wonderful flavour enhancers in this cake, and nobody will even guess that the cake contains pumpkin, well perhaps at Thanksgiving the adults will, but the children won't. Pumpkin is such a versatile vegetable.

In My Kitchen, November 2023

What a varied month it's been, and as always, the cooking I do in my lovely kitchen reflects what is in season, my use of any produce gifted to me, what I have the time to cook and those recipes which I love to cook. So, I'm excited to be sharing a few new recipes with you this time, although regular readers of my blog may have already seen them. However, that doesn't mean I'm not excited about bringing you some old favourites as well. I suspect that like me, your cooking repertoire contains those recipes that are on high rotation in your kitchen and contains some old and tried but true recipes which feel like a big hug from faithful friends, which always feels so reassuring. With Christmas well and truly on the horizon now, some nostalgia is creeping into my cooking as well.

Crispy Teryaki Chicken Wings

 

Crispy Teriyaki chicken wings at a party or a casual get together with friends are always delicious served as finger food.  Or cook them for your family and serve with some rice or noodles and stir fried vegetables, and they will love you for serving up a real treat. It's now officially November and here in sunny Queensland the weather is warming up. It's the season for BBQ's and outdoor eating, not to mention that Christmas and all the festivities associated with that are only 4 weeks away.  

Gochujang Chicken and Seasonal Vegetable Traybake

I've been wanting to use my red tub of Gochujang Korean paste ever since we went shopping for it in Sydney at an Asian Supermarket a few weeks ago. I was so excited when I bought it. This is my first experience cooking with this fermented soybean and chili paste, and we love its unique umami flavours.

Birthday Celebration Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

This is the perfect chocolate cake for a birthday celebration. It really tastes like chocolate cake, not all do, and this one has the softest crumb and is incredibly moist. I've made many chocolate cakes in my lifetime, but none of them have stood out above this one. 

In My Kitchen, October 2023

 Dear Readers, It's time for my monthly In My Kitchen review, which surprisingly is for October already, can you believe it, I can't. However, this is mostly about happenings In My Kitchen for September. It includes a recent fabulous trip to beautiful Sydney, in NSW, some food foraging, and links to some of my favourite recipes that I have made recently. It's Black Friday today, the 13th, and this post needs to be submitted by close of business. I'm not superstitious, but I think I should try and submit this one as soon as I can, just in case.  So here it is, and I hope you enjoy reading about my latest culinary exploits and adventures, and other highlights as well.