In My Kitchen December 2016
November in my kitchen has swung between two extremes. It’s been crazily busy and it’s been deathly quiet so In My Kitchen during December I hope to find some balance, some peace.
My eldest daughter Leah, the face behind the blog “Sharing The Food We Love” married her long time partner three weeks ago. She chose to be a unconventional bride and dress in colours. The dress of fine embroidered Japanese cotton in muted floral tones was perfect for the hot and humid wedding day by the beach. It took me many hours to draught the initial block, make the pattern, tack, fit, sew and fine tune her dress. She had the insight, I had the skills and together we made it happen. I am very proud to have been entrusted with such an important task.
Leah was a beautiful bride. Together with their young son Will, she and Mr G are blissfully happy.
For 24 hours I had in my fridge this Swedish smörgåstårta. It was a joint effort between Leah and I and Leah’s Swedish Mum from her student exchange days. Essentially it’s a great big club sandwich constructed to look like a cake. We used layers of prawns and eggs and smoked salmon and mayonnaise and dill and cornichons. After a good while resting it had melded into total deliciousness. It’s a fabulous way to serve sandwiches to a crowd. Vary the fillings to suit yourself.
For time out during the build up to the wedding I read “My Year Without Meat” by Melbourne food journalist Richard Cornish. It was an easy read, but it brought some huge issues to the surface for me. I recommend it to anyway who cares about their food sources. I was prompted to write a whole post in response, but the upshot is we’ve been eating a lot more meat free meals. I don’t know why it’s been so long since I’d served Sicilian Baked Eggplants. They not only look good, the flavour is wonderful.
A couple of times a week I feed my sourdough starter and make bread. Because of the fickle nature of our lives recently, some batches of dough have fermented for up to 20 hours before being shaped and baked. Stretching out the time has had no detrimental impact on the bread, at all. I did make a serendipitous discovery though. I’ve been baking in a covered roasting pan all year. I’ve been misting my unbaked loaves with water and sprinkling them with seeds too and just recently I put two batard together in the one pan. After 20 minutes at 225C I was greeted with a cloud of steam when I removed the lid. The crust on those two loaves was outstanding, think Parisian baquette, so now I’m liberally spraying the inside surface of the lid and the base of the pan before I add a seed encrusted loaf for the oven. Who needs a steam oven…..
from starter to bread
And then there are books. This month I have freebies from Miele, a bonus gift for having installed one of their dishwashers into my new kitchen. Maggie Beer’s Autumnal recipes are beautiful, now I want to see the other three seasons from this series.
I’m joining in the monthly In My Kitchen series hosted by the lovely Liz at “Bizzy Lizzy’s Good Things” Bloggers worldwide contribute. It’s friendly, informative anf fun. Why not join in?
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27 comments on “In My Kitchen December 2016”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
Sandra how wonderful the dress looks on your gorgeous daughter. How talented you are. Congrats to the happy couple 🙂
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Wow, the dress AND sandwich look amazing. Both great works of love. 🙂
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Thanks, you’re right, love is always the magical ingredient.
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The wedding dress is beautiful, what an amazing, loving undertaking! The Swedish sandwich cake looks scrumptious, what an inspired treat.
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Making a wedding dress for your daughter — impressive! Your sourdough is fun to see and hear about.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
my kitchen here: http://maefood.blogspot.com/2016/12/december-in-kitchen.html
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Thanks Mae, i never ceased to be amazed by sourdough bread. I’ll be over to visit your IMK post shortly
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I was just thinking about Sicilian eggplant dish the other day and that I must make it again!
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We love that dish Josephine and I’m glad to hear you do too…
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Yes, yes, I agree – Leah is a beautiful bride! Love that smörgåstårta. We’ve also been cutting down on meat as there are so many wonderful vegetables out there to sample. I’m inspired every time I visit the market.
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Thanks Debi. Seasonal changes inspire me too. I now have a quinoa free pantry, don’t know what all the fuss was about!
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that’s a lovely dress you made sandra. i love the look of that eggplant dish too. is there anything more delectable? and your loaf looks so pretty. and how about that smorgastarta? oh yum. i do feel guiltier by the day when i eat meat. but i guess if it is possible to find ethically killed meat?…if there is such a thing.
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Thanks Sherry. If you can find a farm – plate meat source you’ll be on the right track.
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What a gorgeous dress! So glad she is happy and did it her way. What a fantastic way to serve sandwiches to a crowd, great presentation. The eggplant looks incredibly delicious.
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Thanks Gretchen we love that eggplant dish…
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Oh, Leah and the dress are just divine, what lush fabric. Well done! All of our family have ‘done weddings’ our own way too, then they are a true reflection of ourselves and our values. I look forward to your thoughts on Shannon Bennets book. I am about to go help the Yak put up the Chrissy lights, no peaceful December when you live on a ‘Christmas Tree Light Street.’ Crikey.
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Thanks Cheery. Our new SIL is also a Kiwi/Scot. I remember your post from last December about the lights, hope you can find a niche to hide away….
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I’m really in awe of your sewing and cooking skills Sandra. I love that your daughter did her own thing. We are hoping our daughter will do the same. That Sicilian Eggplant recipe of yours is one of our favourites and we have it about once a month! I’m trying to find that life balance and peace too–a work in progress!
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Thanks Ardys, shame “domestic” skills are not held in higher esteem! Glad you like the eggplant dish too, I served it last night again, it really is a winner
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Just Leah’s photo would have been more than sufficient for this month’s wonderful IMK! With a v special guy and a son to boot, I would not have thought of a white floaty dress and a face-covering veil [Lordy: did not have one of those decades ago!! When I first got married.] The Swedish sandwich cake – wonderful, gorgeous, oh so palatable!!!! . . .
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We are not a family that easily conforms. The wedding was informal, relaxed and meaningful without spending big dollars, Leah never harboured Cinderella dreams
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Great post Sandra, I just love yours and the other “In My Kitchen” participants posts.
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Leah looks absolutely gorgeous in her wedding dress made by you. you are a very talented woman. and she also looks a lot like you! It’s nice to have a few new cookbooks around- always inspirational and a way of relaxing after all your effort and chaos.
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Thanks Francesca, Leah did look gorgeous!
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Beautiful bride, and clever momma!
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Thanks Joan 😄
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Awwwww, hearty congratulations to Leah, her Mr and the mother of the bride, Sandra. That’s exciting news. Thank you for sharing. Thanks also for the lovely shout out. Happy December to you xx
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Thanks Liz, and you’re most welcome 😀
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