In My Kitchen December 2014

10/12/201410/12/2014 Moya18 Comments

The year is drawing to a close and of course this will be my last In My Kitchen post for 2014, hopefully I will have lots of kitchen treasures to show you next year. Had these pretty plain blue and polka dot cupcake/muffin liners in my kitchen cupboard for ages and thought these blueberry muffins would look good in them. Dusted over a little powdered sugar and some very sparkly edible glitter a friend had given me. Actually, the photograph does not do justice to the sparkle. The blue cupcake decorating turntable… well I guess I needed one of those.
These are our amazing lemons (green ones) from our lemon tree, and already hoping for a bigger quantity next year. I was waiting for the lemons to turn more of a yellow color but a few showed signs of being eaten by bugs and starting to rot, so decided to pick them from the tree. Wanting the home-grown lemons to last longer, decided to preserve six of the lemons …. which have now decided to turn yellow! I love using fresh bay leaves in my kitchen and keep a plant near a window. I tried keeping a bay leaf plant outside, it struggled and eventually died. The bay leaf plant has grown a little bigger and came all the way from Ireland in my suitcase (without the soil), did wonder if it would survive… and it has 🙂

In my kitchen I have a favorite heavy-duty baking tin for cupcakes, which I also use for baking smaller muffins in. When out shopping and spot nice cupcake/muffin liners I usual buy some, handy to have in your store cupboard.

A few times a week we have fresh juice and as our weather is so lovely at the moment, we sit outside and enjoy the morning sunshine. Carrot, apple and celery… not a bad way to start the day.

This was our school of fish for lunch before hubby pan-fried them. Maid is a seasonal local fish and one of our favourite, very oily with a thick skin, absolutely delicious and with a squeeze of lemon, so tasty.

Looking forward to continuing the In My Kitchen Theme and join our lovely host Celia from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial and other blogger from around the world in 2015, all showcasing their kitchen treasures.

In My Kitchen November 2014

09/11/201417/11/2014 Moya33 Comments

Do you remember as kids how you loved getting fancy pen sets. Recently these cool and elegant culinary plumes (there is also a larger one) were given as a gift by a thoughtful friend. My hand writing skills are somewhat rusty these days and a bit of practice is needed. Doodling in my kitchen this October with zig zags and dots of cream and pomegranate sauce. Continue reading “In My Kitchen November 2014” →

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Pickled Garlic and in a bit of a pickle!

18/08/2013 Moya6 Comments

I could never imagine cooking without garlic… I love it and thankfully so do the rest of the family. Eating garlic in its raw state is way too strong but eating pickled garlic is a different matter altogether. Pickled garlic is very mild in taste and does not leave your breath reeking of its pungent flavour… keeping everyone at arm’s length or even further. While in France visiting friends they always served pickled garlic with an array of pickled olives, cheeses, pâté and freshly baked crusty bread, all bought from local farmers markets.

Bringing back some heads of garlic I thought I would have a go at pickling garlic at home. I enjoy making preserved lemons and some jams but I have never pickled garlic before and googling recipes it all looked very easy. Over a week ago I started the pickling process and now I’m in a bit of a pickle… I thought I could tell you that it has been a great success and post about the delicious results! Some recipes suggested that you could eat the pickled garlic as soon as 48 hours, some a week (which quite a few stated) and others a month. After a week I tested a clove of garlic… very, very garlicky, the taste was so strong and not pleasant at all. As with all recipes on this blog, I will not post a recipe that I am not comfortable with… and this recipe needs further maturing, hopefully achieving results that I can share.

All is not lost… if you have never tried pickled garlic look out for some at your local deli or supermarket. Serve pickled garlic with drinks before dinner, sliced into salads, sandwiches or use finely chopped in salad dressing… a few uses to get you started.

FIY... thought I would give the blue silicone garlic peeler a little mention, quite handy for quickly removing the skins from garlic cloves. This kitchen gadget came free with a cooking utensil bought some time ago. Pop a few garlic cloves into the silicone tube and roll it back and forth, this usually removes the skin.

Meanwhile, if anyone out there has an easy recipe for pickling garlic, I’d love to hear from you. 🙂 Let’s see after a few weeks how the pickled garlic progresses, I will keep you up-dated.