Weird Weather and life in the Kitchen

It was soooooo very cold for the earlier part of this week that we have to put an extra duna (thick down blanket) on the bed since we were not getting warmer with three of our body huddled together. It even got down to as low as under 1 degree Celsius out our way just a couple nights ago.

And now, instead of having to put on three layers of warm clothing, the weather just took a warm turn. At the moment, it feels more like in the 20's range (i.e spring temperature). Guess that might be a hint to start packing away the winter clothings and to take out the sleeveless and light wear.

I'm kind of sad that winter is leaving actually. 'Cos with the arrival of spring and then summer, it also means the increased appearance of my "favourite" friend -Mr Crocky and all other yucky stick-like or bug like stuff. And over this winter, as some of u can see on my facebook photos, I'd spent quite a fair amount of time in the kitchen getting warmth from the oven and making yummy stuff with Tasha at the same time. Talking about baking, she simply luuuvvves to bake. I would just have to ask her, "Tashy, do u want to help mummy bake bake?" And she would be right at the spot she always take whenever we have our baking bonding session.

Besides the usual muffins that i bake for Josh to take to work, we had baked

-Self saucing lime and semolina pudding (which we baked heaps of this winter as we had about 10kg of lime from the fruit and veg market, and we are still not sick of it yet. Its that good.),

-Cinnamon hazelnut scrolls (which i need to experiment more with since mine came out a bit dense once its cooled)

-Cream Puff (which i was inspired to make since it required a different preparation method) and making the pastry cream was fun too. It was just amazing to watch how a lump of ugly dough turn into a golden and crisp puff in the oven.

-Turkish bread (which was a bit bland since I didn't thought of adding salt. Must make it again.)

-Orange and almond cake (which had to be left aside for a couple of days to let it get a bit drier and for the flavour to develop).

-Rustic free-form berry pie (one of our fav too since the pastry is not too greasy and the polenta in the crust adds some grittiness to the juicy and tangy filling)

-Basil and Feta Pull apart which Tasha enjoyed punching the dough and eating the feta which was supposed to go into the bread.

-Baked Custard (had a silky and melt in the mouth texture which tasted better once its lukewarm. It was not too sweet and had a nice vanilla taste. Very important to use natural vanilla in this recipe)

-Home made mixed seeds and fruits museli bar which Josh takes to one to work everyday every so often when I come around to making it. Its actually cheaper than getting those commercial ones and prob better for him.

-Homemade vanilla extract which I add into most of my baked goods and is still brewing in my pantry now. Been there since the end of autumn, so prob a few months. It has a nice deep amber colour which i hope would get even darker by the end of this year.

Think these are all the stuff that I can rembr spending time researching and making for now. Don't worry that its only desserts that i'm feeding my family. I actually been making a few more Moroccan and Mexican meals every few weeks just to try something different. They actually taste really good with the combination of spices used, especially Moroccan cuisine. Kind of similar spices to Indian cooking actually. But not as much. The addition of fresh citrus fruits with meats was also an interesting taste dimension that calls for more attention.

Not so sure why I babbled about my culinary life here since I never reali do. But thats reali what I'm doing most of the time so I thought, Why not? Anyways, till next time ....