In My Kitchen July ’17
It’s July already, time for another In My Kitchen instalment. I’m linking up with the rest of the IMK gang through Sherry at Sherry’s Pickings. You’ll find us all by clicking on the image at the bottom of this page.
They say as you age that time travels faster, and judging by the speed of 2017, it’s true. In My Kitchen in July I have one of my grand daughters visiting from Melbourne. In the 8 weeks since her last visit she’s gained poise, maturity and height. Her younger sister will arrive in a few days, so busy times ahead.
Sourdough
In preparation for feeding these growing young people I stocked the freezer with sourdough bread. They girls have voracious appetites and breakfast can make short work of a loaf. As well as my workaday multigrain wholemeal spelt loaves I made pumpkin bread with toasted pepitas and savoury scrolls stuffed with tomato, cheese, herbs and olives. They’ve been a big hit so I’ll post the recipe in the next week or two.
We’ll bake together if the weather turns foul, but I hope for sunny days and loads of outside activities.
Ripening avocados
The local avocados are plentiful and cheap right now. I buy them while hard and unripe so I can get them home undamaged. After a few days in the fruit bowl they’re ready to smash onto toast, top with cheese and sliced tomato. Voila, that’s breakfast.
Yarra Valley Mainated Fetta
I’m sure homemade pizza will be requested for dinner by the school holiday visitors so I’ve stocked up on my favourite pizza topping, Yarra Valley marinated feta. It’s delicious crumbled over very thinly sliced zucchini, capers, lemon zest and lemon thyme. Thankfully the kids have much simpler (and cheaper) tastes.
After adding some deep smoky blue paint to my kitchen walls I wanted to pimp the look of the things I keep on the kitchen bench. I couldn’t resist these gorgeous brass topped copper canisters.
I recently found the cast iron rooster trivet in a local charity shop. Do three roosters make a kitchen collection?
What’s an In My Kitchen post without cookbooks.
I visited The Lifeline Secondhand Book Fair a few days ago. The volume of cookbooks for sale was staggering. It was an interesting snapshot of the transient popularity of cookbook writers. I was looking for classics. In the thousands of books whose spines I scanned, all I found was a single volume by Paula Wolfert. Great memories of the food at Blue Ginger lured me into taking home their eponymous book as well.
Click the In My Kitchen button below to find the line-up of In My Kitchen bloggers for July.
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42 comments on “In My Kitchen July ’17”
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Creative Commons Copyright Licence
Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
Wow, those breads look amazing!
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What gorgeous breads! Enjoy your granddaughter time, they do grow quickly. That pizza sounds wonderful, I’ll have to try it sometime. The canisters are gorgeous too.
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Oh your loaves!!! What lucky granddaughters!
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Thanks so much. I still get really excited each time I bake bread
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Your bread looks amazing and I bet it won’t last long in the freezer. Beautiful canisters. Agree with you on time flying by 🙂
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Thanks Tandy, it’s thanks to the generosity of the IMK community my sourdough is such a success
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Wow, your bread looks amazing! Love your containers as well 🙂
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Is it an anniversary or just like that
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It’s a monthy roundup of food bloggers
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The description of your pizza is to die for. I NEED to do this as I have all the ingredients either here in my garden and readily available in the market (except the ‘Persian’ part of the feta!). And, yes, I would say that three roosters make a collection. The one on the left looks like it comes from Portugal – specifically the Rooster of Barcelos whose legend says the rooster saves a man falsely accused of murder from execution. In Sicily, ceramic roosters are considered good luck charms, particularly in the kitchen. Looks like you have a lot of luck! And, what a coincidence, I just bought Paula Wolfert’s SW France book. Also, purchased is a wonderful book just out about her life, called ‘Unforgettable’ by Emily Kaiser Thelin. Have yet to try the pumpkin bread, but it is on the list!!!
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Spot on with the roosters. I love the jug, found it in Wales, and yes, the other is Portugese. I’m enjoying reading Wolfert’s description of the ingredients and their place in the food of the region. For the pizza, cut the zucchini super thin on a mandolin, salt it to extract the excess moisture then rinse and pat dry. I top the pizza dough with zucchini, lemon zest, lemon thyme, capers, marinated fetta and a drizzle of garlic oil. Enjoy…
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Thanks! Will let you know how the pizza turns out.
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Unforgettable is a fantastic book! It was our cookbook last month for an Instagram cookbook club. The recipes were incredible and the biography aspects enlightening.
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Hi Sandra, I am always on the look out for “classic” cookbooks but like you say, you don’t often see them cheap.
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Hi Glenda, hope life is treating you well. You’re right, cheap and classic seem mutually exclusive terms, but I live in hope
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Oh, those canisters! I have storage jar envy. Your bread looks delicious too. Have a great time with your granddaughters. Lx
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Thanks Linda, I’ll need a holiday by the time they return home….
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😀
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Snap! Yes to chickens. I love those canisters of yours – just beautiful Have fun with your granddaughters – that will keep you busy Look at all your beautiful breads. I can smell them from here :). Btw A friend tried your marmalade and said it was the best she has ever had in her life – so there you go. Thanks for joining in again this month X
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Thanks for passing on the lovely compliment Sherry. I’d forgotten what a challenge a 13yr old girl can be, whew, it’s hard work. 🙂
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I love that dark smoky blue and also yes, surely 3 roosters a collection doth make?
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I need to exercise restraint before I end up with a whole barnyard. x
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Your observation about the glut of not-so-great cookbooks is interesting — I think that’s a worldwide phenomenon. Lucky that you found a Paula Wolfert one, she really is classic, though her recipes are a lot of work. Great roosters !
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
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Thanks Mae. I love the social history that comes as a bonus with the older cookbook writers and this edition of Paula Wolfert’s is no exception. Remains to be seen whether I reproduce any of the recipes
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What a lovely post. Smashed avocado on toast – that’s my idea of a perfect breakfast too.
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Great minds think alike then, cheers Tracey
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Three roosters do indeed make a chicken collection, Sandra! Lovely post. Happy July. (I’m still in Budapest, so not sure if I’ll get around to doing an IMK this time). xx
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Budapest must be amazing for you, enjoy it to the max. 🙂
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Thanks so much love. We are indeed! Pop over and see my postcards xxx
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Love the rooster collection!
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Thanks Michele
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Darn it: the weather is never foul in your neck of the woods at this time of year!! After 13 years up north I can still remember!!!!! Love your canisters, just have to find your Yarra Valley cheese and must check my favourite AbeBooks for the ‘blue ginger’ volume . . . and Lord knows how it happens but as far as time goes I seem to have progressed from a sedate walk to a 4-minute-mile in no time at all . . . damn annoying . . . 🙂 !
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haha, you’re right about Brissy’s winter. You can forgive the cold nights when the days are so glorious.
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Three is certainly the beginning of a collection. The canisters are lovely, they will give a warm glow to your kitchen. Love the sound of that pizza. Great IMK.
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Thanks Liz. The copper canisters give a nice warm glow to a very cool toned room
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Nice roosters! Your bread looks beautiful. Am having big difficulties with grain in general at the moment so it’s off the menu…hopefully not forever. Isn’t it amazing how quickly young people can change? Enjoy the visit and your cooler temps. x
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Thanks, I think I have a chook thing happening, I realised I have another couple. Kids grow like weeds, it’s true. Having a dodgy gut really throws out it’s challenges, hope you get on top of it soon Ardys 🙂
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It is amazing how many cookbooks go cheaply these days. I can’t resist them either. Do you think it maybe due to the popularity of internet recipes? I know my kids rarely use cookbooks now, but I still prefer them.
Love the chook collection- there will be more coming now. And those little brass canisters are rather special.
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I think there will always be people like you and I that prefer cookbooks to online recipes, but clearly books are still being bought in large numbers and discarded on whim. Lucky for us they’re not just going to landfill.
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Hear hear. Discarded books and library books, Can’t quite manage kindle cookbooks.
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When I opened your post from the email notification, I was unable to click through the IMK link. Thinking it could be an anomaly with Chrome, I visited through the WordPress App. Unfortunately, it does the same thing for me. Would someone please check and let me know if they are having the same problem? Thank you!
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Thanks for the heads up about the link, I’ll try and sort it out, stand by…
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