I love a birthday month, not least because it is guaranteed to see lovely things creep into my kitchen. I had been coveting the Tefal Dairy Choices since I first discovered it. It's three settings make yoghurt, fresh cheeses and desserts, although so far I have only used the yoghurt setting.
I have been making flavoured yoghurt by placing a tablespoon of jam in the bottom of the pots, then adding the soon-to-be yoghurt. The jam flavours the yoghurt during the setting process, and we have been enjoying these little pots for dessert. Mini steam puddings are next on the list to try, however fresh cheeses will require more research as the details that accompany the machine are too vague for my liking.
The other shiny new appliance In My Kitchen at the moment is a pie maker. Friends raved about these last year, but as I didn't start searching for one myself until the end of winter they were completely sold out. I stumbled across new stock whilst recently shopping with my mother-in-law, and she kindly bought me one for my birthday. This will be put to good use in the winter months, so I am starting to make fillings in anticipation. Any ideas would be appreciated.
I have long struggled with shaping my loaves, and have been wanting bannetons for ages. Mr Grumpy showed that he does listen to me (sometimes) and bought me two small ones to experiment with. I have been having lots of issues with my starter of late, and my bread has suffered. However I was given a new starter last week, and between it and the bannetons I have just produced one of my best loaves ever. No pictures though, as we ate it rather quickly.
There are two large sacks of flour (25kg of wheat and 12kg of spelt) taking up prime real estate on my kitchen floor at the moment. I don't bake much during summer, so can survive on small bags of flour from the shops. Now that the cooler weather has finally arrived, the smaller bags will no longer cut it. All I need to do is find somewhere to store them.
There are two new books In My Kitchen this month. Celia gave me a heads up about the ">Fermented Vegetables book when it was on sale on Kindle a few months ago. It has fermentation recipes for almost every vegetable, so is a great resource for using up those gluts that invariably happen when you grow your own. I liked the Kindle version so much, and found it so useful, that I bought the hard copy. I am still investigating the wide world of freezer cooking, and with my latest purchase of ">The Everything Freezer Meals Cookbook on Kindle I might now have enough resources to actually start putting some menus together. Watch this space.
Short and sweet this month. Head on over to Celia's at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial to see what is happening in other kitchens around the world.
