In My Kitchen this September

Posted on by

 

September already?!

My kitchen has been busy, my life busy and bustling.

School has started which is consuming me from early to late hours. Thankfully my evening class is now over. Grades have been posted and it is time to move on to other projects such as the upcoming shoot for my TV show, Charlotte Cooks.

September heralds changing weather; last night a blue moon!Full Moon HDR

I hope you all got to catch a glimpse of the second full moon in a month. The next blue moon will occur in 2015.

August life caught me in between my parents in California and the earthquake tremors (news reported over 400 in one day; they said it was ‘down below from them’) and my son being slapped around by TS Issac in Florida. I must say he holds his cool much better than I do. For anyone keeping track, his apartment renovations have been extended for an additional 4 weeks due to “discoveries” during the current re-model. They need to replace all duct work, pipes and ventilation, carpeting, appliances etc before they get to move back in.

So his cooking skills are on hold as are the “How To Cook” posts until he gets back into his apartment.

Some gifts to my kitchen this month are:

Anaida returned and brought me a wonderful carving kit from The Carving Academy in Moscow so this is new in my kitchen this month.

About a hundred German chocolate cupcakes marched through my kitchen last weekend. I am writing a post on baking from a box that will be out in a few days. A friend bought an expensive mix and wanted to know if it was worth the money.

We delivered the cupcakes and mini-cakes  all over the neighborhood to the delight of lots of children.

The most delightful Thank-You for German Chocolate came from our neighbor Suzanne. I found this hanging on our door.

What a delightful bunch of fresh herbs! They smell so good!

This August has my garlic chives in bloom. Every time I cut any of my fresh herbs, I always say thank you. Bumblebees visit the flowers every day, I like this photo. It was one of those surprises when I downloaded the photos to my computer.

I have cooked a lot this last month buy didn’t document much of it at all.

Does that make me derelict?

September has me looking forward to Fall and cooling temperatures. Hurricane Issac brought tropical humidity to the area which makes it muggy and sticky outside.

I feel like making some brightly colored macarons and more lemon curd this afternoon.

It would help me to finish the lemon curd post I started in July.

Charlotte is hosting the Democratic National Convention the next few days. We expect total chaos around the immediate area.

I plan on taking my camera and going for a walk uptown to see how far I can get with steel barricades blocking streets and helicopters in constant motion overhead. I wonder how many pictures they will allow me to take in the name of security.

If you see all my photos coming from my i phone, you will know my camera has been confiscated.

So that catches you up with In My Kitchen this month.

Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial is the creator of this great idea. Thanks Celia!

I feel as if we have been out of touch.

Related articles

 

In My Kitchen August 2012

Posted on by

Besides being hot in my kitchen this month, there are a few things I would like to share with you.

White Dinner Desserts Table

In honor of our kick off event for White Dinners in Charlotte, we did a White Dinner Dessert gathering.

So a friend of mine, Joanie, and I decided to make French Macarons and I think they turned out pretty good.

We made:

Vanilla Bean with Mango Curd Filling,

Blueberry with Lemon Curd Filling and

Lime green one with Chocolate Hazelnut Filling (We were playing with color)

We discovered the almond meal we used, which was made with almond skins on the nuts, made all the colors duller than we wanted.

They tasted great and our macarons had feet.

Pierre Hermes says to make and fill them, set in the refrigerator for 24 hours before serving. We did and Man-o-man.(Yup I said ‘man-o-man’)

Did they taste great; the mouth feel was so hard to describe! Love, love, love these tasty morsels.

I had heard each macaron had roughly 100 calories in it so you can guess they didn’t stay around here too long. I threw away what was still around this morning , easier than wearing them on your hips.

It was so much fun making them, I look forward to making more. The best part is giving them away before they get stale.

Also, In my Kitchen this month

some Fresh Figs; shared bounty strikes again. I traded some pickles.

The first dish created with the figs was a chicken dish with rosemary, garlic and figs. The pan was de-glazed with red wine and finished with a splash of balsamic vinegar. It was delicious but no pictures, sigh.

The intention is to make an almond fig tart with the remaining figs but, as you can see from the bowl, they are disappearing fast.

I adore fresh figs.

A dwindling bowl of fresh figs, that tart better hurry up and get made!

Lastly, in my kitchen this month is a glimpse into my spice cabinet.

I try to use things up quickly so I can either make more or buy more. I keep dried, sliced and minced garlic on hand for emergency back up units when fresh garlic isn’t around.

Any lemons we use get zested with a fine microplane. The zest is dried to be used in shortbread, fish, pasta or soup dishes. Why just use the inside when the zest has so much flavor?

A standard unit of Montreal Steak Seasoning holds a permanent spot in the cabinet.

Those square jars are so wonderful, I use them over and over again. The brushed stainless steel tops make them perfect for storing spices and seasoning concoctions I create and often share.

The Spice Cabinet

So much food moves through my kitchen it is hard to believe we are only two. But I feed everyone who comes by. Even the UPS man gets cookies.

Hey, it makes me happy.

So that is what is in my kitchen this month. I can’t believe a month has gone by already.

A BIG thanks goes out to Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for hosting this marvelous idea!

August? Really?

Guess that’s why this post is late!

Related articles

Favorite Things From My Kitchen

Posted on by

Mandy over at The Complete Cook Book in South Africa has a wonderful idea of sharing some items in her kitchen each month. From what I understand, Celia from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial started this idea so head over to their blogs as see what they are sharing this month too.

An “In My Kitchen” post is supposed to be posted on the first of the month, at least within a few days of it.

Here are a few of my favorite things in my kitchen this month.

In my kitchen: is a tall vase full of beautiful sunflowers a friend brought as a thank-you for dinner.

Sunflowers from a friend as a thank-you for dinner.

“Mac Tonight” always makes me grin, especially when he sings.
(He has had a hard time finding other work after this, hope the royalties are good! See below for his resume.)

There was an art show this weekend that had some very nice art work. Since our old sugar bowl has a cracked lid, I saw this mans work and couldn’t resist buying this wonderful new sugar bowl. Although made of stoneware, it is thin and lightweight. He has details inside and out that make such nice finishing touches. Rogers other work of bowls, vases and receptacles are all very high quality and very well made. Check out his Etsy store here : RStrom Pottery

The new sugar bowl

Sugar bowl lid detail

Sugar bowl inside lid detail, notice the corner seams. Nicely done!

Outside detail of the sugar bowl.
I just love it!

Russian Spoons

A student of mine is from Russia. She brought me a gift one year of these delightful spoons. They are hand painted. The small spoon is for salt and the larger one is for sugar. And yes I do use them all the time.

Will you share some of your favorite things in your kitchen?

Just in case you don’t know who “Mac Tonight” is, here in a compilation of his work with McDonald’s. For some crazy reason, this guy makes me giggle, snap my fingers and sing. (Watch out!)

The second song is my favorite! They had to keep revising the lyrics due to copyright infringements with the original song.

This is all so odd because I don’t eat this kind of food, but adore these commercials.

So Mr. Mac gets an honored spot in my kitchen. He is responsible for spontaneous outbursts of song and snapping fingers.

Related articles