It’s once again time for In My Kitchen and as per usual this is a collection of things from the past month — as seen over on Instagram — in loosely interpreted categories and no particular order, although full of holiday cheer. As always I’m linking up with Celia for IMK.
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Kitchen Shenanigans & Other People’s Food
I used to make five kinds of cookies each Christmas — but while a combination of working right up to the holidays and stifling summer heat has seen it drop over the past few years, I simply won’t do Christmas without gingerbread.
The good thing about this recipe is that if you cut the cookies small you can fit tons on a sheet and each pan only takes 6 minutes to bake, seriously limiting oven-on time.
Of course I couldn’t stop at cookies…
I said I’d bring dessert and stuffing for Christmas day, the mother-in-law said not to go to too much trouble. What she doesn’t realise is that cooking my grandmother’s recipes makes me feel a bit less far away, and it just wouldn’t be the holidays without pumpkin pie, stuffing and rolls.
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When Pepe (of Pepe Saya fame) points to the next stall and tells you to go try the Thoroughbread Bakery stollen you do it. Then you buy a loaf of pumpkin sourdough and a spicy fruit mince tart with pastry more akin to a cookie than a pie, because Christmas.
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The pumpkin sourdough from aforementioned bakery was so good we brought some home… then I ate it with a thick schmear of Pepe’s creme fraiche (seriously best thing ever to put on bread) as I flicked through the first issue of Alphabet Journal.
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We headed up to The Beaches Market for their special holiday market and stuffed my own stocking with my first Assembly Home spoon and an enamel saucepan from The Lost and Found Department.
Then we stuffed our faces with cherries from Orange, an unreal Reuben Republic sandwich and a cup of gorgeous Soul Food Tea. Now that’s a successful Saturday morning.
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How gorgeous are the wrapping ideas on these goodies I brought home from a holiday cookie swap?! Both cookies involved chocolate and salted caramel stuffed inside each other, because Christmas.
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We’ve been back in Sydney since late 2007 and have been in our current apartment since 2009 or so… the other day I found this leaking in the fridge. Seven years people, seven years and at least one move. This is real life, with flowers to soften the blow.
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Foodie Secret Santa gifts including Chivda (An Indian Street Snack) from Deepa, a savoury apple sauce from Taryn, and Cranberry Sauce and Cherry Chutney from Charlie Louie graced the table at Christmas (well the sauces did, the Chivda was all mine). Little jars of Holiday Mixed Spice and Maple Orange Spice Macadamia Nuts were sent out to my three recipients.
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Pretty Things & Feeding the Prop Addiction
Picked up this gorgeous handmade tree decoration at a market last month. Posted it in mid-December to my mom via 7 to 10 day delivery, she got it earlier this week. Good job US Postal Service, ahem.
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It’s almost like the universe rewarded me for not going into opp shops lately… the English ironstone jug was the most expensive at $6, the tray is Armetale and the enamel plates were $1 each. If #propaddiction was a sport I think I won Wednesday.
but wait, there’s more… a glass cake stand also discovered during the same stop. Jug, linens and ornament from home-store-type-shop.
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Opened drawer at mother-in-law’s kitchen during Christmas and discovered this. Turns out she hasn’t used it in years, how terribly convenient (coveting the pastel Pyrex next). In other news I think I may need a neutral linen intervention…
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The other day I went IKEAing. For fabric.
I’m not sure how this happened but there is a direct correlation between RJ staying in the car and the amount of stuff I come out with. In other news I want a whole set of these green glasses for everyday use, they are delightful.
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Santa was paying attention to my Facebook feed — you should have seen my face on Christmas morning when I unwrapped the newest book from What Katie Ate. For anyone who knows RJ’s feelings about my cookbook collection (about the same as his feelings on my prop collection) this says a lot.
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Photography & Styling
I had the good fortune to borrow an OM-D E-M10 point and shoot
The images that come from the straight auto setting are brilliant (samples below, light adjusted but no other post editing) and it has full manual function too. There is touch-screen focal point selection and it’s small enough to throw in any bag.
The E-M10 also uses a camera-to-phone wifi link to synch photos to your phone — crazy simple once I worked out that I had to download the app, ha!
There is a sensor that changes the image from on-screen to in-viewfinder (the one you put your eye up to) when it senses an eye approaching… however I’ve found that if your finger gets too close to the eyepiece when touching the screen to focus it blanks out thinking an eye is headed for the viewfinder. The zoom on the lens is also a bit counter-intuitive to me — to zoom in you turn it opposite to other lenses.
I didn’t intend that to turn into a review of sorts, but slight quirks aside I will definitely be purchasing one when I return the loaner.
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After watching Jen’s 7 Vignettes challenge each month I finally pushed aside the everyone-is-so-good-I’m-not-good-enough fear and jumped in head first. I’m pretty proud of my first go!
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A quick behind the scenes shot of number 97 of 97 recipes photographed over 6 weeks of November and December. In spite of shooting another 20 for a book over the holidays, I managed to take a couple days off before the next project kicked in earlier this week. It’s been a crazy busy few months, but the kind of busy I can’t complain about.
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…and a Partridge in a Pear Tree
It’s been a while since my window-sill gardening has featured here but look at my chilli plant all festive for the holiday season.
This is the one I planted from a seed couple of years ago, harvested a handful of properly spicy little ball chillies last year and cut waaaaay back to only a couple barely-there buds this winter. Needless to say it appreciated the trim — doubling in size and breaking into bloom the moment summer hit. Go little chilli go.
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Finally this isn’t remotely food related but I can see it from the kitchen and it’s fabulously festive. Per usual the tree didn’t go up until Christmas Eve and will most likely stay up until some time around Easter, because that’s how I roll.
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That’s all folks
Make sure to pop over to check out the other IMK posts listed in the sidebar of Celia’s site — there is always great stuff to be found.