At Last

At last (which happens to be the title of one of my all-time favourite songs by Etta James) our kitchen is finished.  I say at last because we embarked on our renovation at the end of October last year when the tiles were ripped up and replaced with jarrah floorboards. Today, a little over five months later, our new kitchen was completed with the addition of two open shelves and some hooks to hang our aprons on.  The living area has now joined the house and no longer looks like a pod added on the side.  The kitchen has gone from this:

To this:

                                      

What a transformation.  Thanks primarily to the fantastic work by Travis (owner and designer), Clay and Riley at Bunbury Designer Cabinets and Furniture, who built our beautiful new kitchen.  Thanks also to the crew who did the stone bench tops, Naturaliste Timber who laid the floors and Kim Evans who pulled up the tiles and prepped the pad.  Both the kitchen and floors look way better in real life than they do in the pics.  You'll just have to come for a visit and see for yourself.  

In truth, it has been a lot longer than five and a half months to get the renovation finished.  My lovely sister did a preliminary design of a kitchen for us.  She included a free-standing island bench and, without that I don't think we'd have been brave enough to go with the final design that Travis came up with.  My sister's initial design was way back in 2023 when we also bought our appliances as our oven had died and the cooktop was definitely starting to decline.  But life well and truly got in the way of all our plans (one could say it smacked us all in the face several times) so it wasn't until early 2024 that we started looking for quotes.  Travis came up with the best design by far (the other two used exactly the same footprint we already had, which wasn't working for us) and we felt his quote was fair.  Plus, we felt really comfortable going through the ideas and selections with him. Albeit I was slightly alarmed that he laughed at R's puns!!  

Anyway, I digress, after the new floors were laid and treated and the electrician and plumber had left the carcasses of our cabinets were finally installed:

                                        

                                        

They don't look like much but I, for one, got really excited seeing them in place because I got a real sense for the first time of the layout and how the kitchen was going to work for us.  But I almost excited myself inside out when I saw the shelves at the end of the island, even though they were in their raw state and Travis said I wasn't allowed to photograph them because they were not finished.  They were there just to allow the bench top guys to do the benches properly. But look at that curve. So beautiful. 

                                       

We then had bit of a wait for the crew doing the bench tops to come out and measure up and then install the benches.  

We chose white because we didn't want to make the living area too dark.  But it's not bright white and it's not flat. It has a little bit of pattern through it which can barely be seen but helps to make the benches interesting and warm rather than sterile.  At least I think it does. 

Travis installed the shelves just ahead of the counter tops going in. He popped down to our bedroom (the one room in the house we could actually live in) and asked me to come and take a look.  I said I was in the middle of paying his invoice (for the first stage) and he just looked at me and said, "Maybe come and look at this first, you might not want to pay that".  We duly went down to the kitchen and of course, the first thing I noticed was the shelves which had the beautiful, hand turned spindle added.  "Just perfect" I said.   Travis said he had stayed awake for three nights worrying whether he'd got the spindle right.  All he had to work on was a description from us and a few pics of spindles from art deco stairs we'd provided to go on.  And he nailed it.  Or rather Clay (who turned it) did:

I really love the double curve that Travis designed:

  

                                     

Next the appliances were installed and then came all the drawers, cupboards, rangehood and shelves.  The rangehood was installed by Brett Robinson who, coincidentally, used to live just down the road and enjoyed revisiting the area.  Big thanks to Brett who made the installation go nice and smoothly and was really helpful as we sorted out a new flu to replace the one that came with the rangehood (it was too short).  The flu was made by Elite Stainless Steel Fabrication in Bunbury.  

                                                          

                                                         

                                                   

                                                                     

                                    

You might have noticed there is an abundance of cupboard doors and not many drawers. Instead of drawers I have pull out shelves in the cupboards:

I know, I know. That's the same as drawers, only you have to open a door to open the drawer.  I get that. I also get that it wouldn't suit most people.  But it doesn't bother me at all and, I think banks of drawers is a very modern look. Which is fine if you live in a very modern house. Which our house isn't. It's a federation house, or at least a federation style house (it was actually built in the 90s we're told).  But I still wanted the kitchen to sit comfortably in the home.  I think we've achieved that. 

I love all of my kitchen but there are some parts that I love more than others (don't tell anyone). One of those is the bookcase.  I was very excited about this because, after five years of doing without, I finally have easy access to all of my cookbooks and magazines again.  Oh, and that's the pared down literature.  I had twenty years of Delicious magazines, thanks to a yearly subscription gifted to me by my much-loved mother-in-law.  I had to get really tough and only keep the magazines which had more than a dozen recipes in them that I want to try.  I did really well and narrowed them down to a small pile. BUT I made the mistake of going through them for a second time.  Luckily, they still fitted in the shelves. 

                                                              

Then there is the spice drawer.  It is so good to have them in alphabetical order, and all laid out neatly in a single layer.  As opposed to in various tubs and spice racks in the old pantry.  And, in the same vein, the utensils drawer.  The utensils were spread over three drawers previously and it used to drive me nuts trying to find the tool I needed, which never seemed to be in the same drawer I got it from last time. 

                                            

Surprisingly the bin drawer is a real winner.  Who'd have thought disposing of waste could be so exciting.  Actually, it's the wee inner drawer above the bins that floats my boat.  I've been able to store clean cloths, bin bags and mitts nice and neatly for the first time ever in a proper spot made just for them. 

                                 


Along with the kitchen, our pantry has also been refitted by Travis and his team.  It now looks like this:

   

I wasn't totally convinced that all of our pantry supplies would fit into the little cubicles that Travis created. Our previous pantry had big, wide, open shelves and we could fit a bunch of stuff on those.  That said, there was a lot of space in the corner that wasn't very useful and I had to keep searching around the shelves to find what I needed.  Travis' design solves all those problems.  Each cubicle contains like produce; all the vinegars in one, pickles in another, oils in a third and so on.  And there are drawers in the dead corner, longer shelves (where I've stored stuff we don't use a lot) and a shelf for the microwave (which currently has a basket sitting on it). It does need a little tweaking but, overall, it works really well.  And how about the hanger that Travis made for our aprons and bags. How cool is that. 

One of the best things about the new kitchen is that we can both cook up a storm.  There is plenty of room for us to both spread out at the same time.  And we've both been cooking up a storm.  R has woken up his sourdough starter from hibernation and made some fantastic bread and I've also been busy baking and preserving.  I've also made two types of fruit leather. Now I head a rumour that was supposed to keep for months. Epic fail in our house. It's all gone!! I think there are some previous posts about  our kitchen exploits.  Most recently I've made passionfruit cordial (thanks to my lovely sis who supplied the passionfruit), preserved an abundance of tomatoes from the garden and today I made cinnamon scrolls for the first time.   

These are buttermilk pancakes topped with peaches, nectarines and raspberries from our garden.  And maple syrup from a garden in Canada.

We have been cooking proper meals too of course. We've been enjoying cooking fish without stinking the house out.  We've even had a dinner party where we were able to conjure up a pretty decent butter chicken and a lamb rogan josh.  Suffice it to say we are very, very happy with our new kitchen and we're looking forward to many joyful hours trying out new recipes, preserving the produce from our garden and entertaining friends.  

Now, on to sorting out the laundry and painting the house.  No rest as they say. 

Plums, Plums and More Plums

One of the things I love about gardening is picking our own fruit and veg and finding various ways to preserve it. I'm enjoying this even more now that I don't have to cram preserving into evenings after work and weekends.  It's certainly a more delightful aspect of gardening than raking the leaves from the forty plus deciduous trees we have here.

This year we've had bacterial canker in a lot of our fruit trees.  So, we got very little fruit off our late apricot (thankfully the early apricot didn't get infected), no peaches or nectarines and only a few prunes (darn it, that tree was loaded for the first time this year).  But the plum trees escaped infection.  We have two, one is a Satsuma and one is a double graft of Satsuma and Santa Rosa.  The Santa Rosa is the cross pollinator for the Satsuma. Without the Santa Rosa there would be no Satsumas.  This year we had an abundance of both plums.  The Santa Rosa came in first and we picked about 15 kilos.  We'd just finished those when we started picking Santa Rosas. We've picked 30 kilos of those, not counting the ones we ate.  That's a lot of plums to preserve. Thankfully we had our lovely family for lunch and were able to persuade them to take plums home with them.  And we didn't even have to twist their arms.

I have very fond memories of bottled plums prepared by my lovely Mum from a Satsuma tree, owned by my equally lovely aunt, which was a heavy fruiter.  We had luscious plums to enjoy all winter.  As I have a properly functioning stove top now, I decided I'd preserve some our plums using my Vacola preserver, which I had to find from the place it had been stashed while the kitchen was being renovated.  Bits and pieces were stashed all over the house and, being of a certain age, my lovely husband and I couldn't quite remember where the preserver ended up.  Thankfully we found it, the jars, lids and rings without too much time wasted.

As with all preserving, the first step is to wash and prepare the fruit. I prepared the fruit and filled jars as I went along. Mainly because I didn't know if I had enough jars for all the fruit.  In the case of plums the preparation means halving them and removing the stones. Or so I thought. Eight jars and five kilos in I remembered eating the plums that Mum had bottled and discarding stones on the edge of the bowl.  Doh!!  Needless to say, the plums for the remaining four jars were simply halved.

                           

I used Size 20 Vacola jars which hold enough fruit for two really hungry people or two less hungry people and a friend.  They're a great size but the top is too narrow for me to put my hand in.  Which makes getting the fruit in tricky.  It has to be layered and tightly packed. I can reach my fingers down almost to the bottom though which helped. As long as the first piece of fruit I dropped into the jar fell onto the cut side all the other pieces layered themselves nicely.  Thankfully. 

Once the jars are filled the next step is to add in some sugar syrup.  Mum used to make a sugar syrup (equal parts of sugar and water cooked until the sugar is dissolved) which she used to fill the jars.  Vacola have modified their preserving method.  It isn't hard to make a sugar syrup but I decided to give the new method ago.  This involved filling the jars of water and adding some sugar, ergo, one less pan to wash up. Vacola provide some useful guides to help determine how much sugar you need for the size of jar you are using and the level of sweetness you want.  I added two tablespoons of sugar for each jar which seems like quite a lot.  The taste test will tell I guess.

                                                   

Once the jars are nicely packed, and the sugar and water have been added, the next step is to make sure there are no air bubbles (I'm not sure why this step is important, but it is) then to put on the rings, lids and clips.  Putting the rubber rings on can be tricky but after the first one or two I found a technique which meant the rings went on smoothly without any twists. It's tricky to describe but basically, I held the jar with one hand, making sure my thumb was over the lip, and then stretched the rubber ring across with the other hand.  Going over my thumb seemed to stop the ring twisting. Next, it's just a matter of putting all the jars into the preserver (making sure you've put in the false bottom first because that stops the jars breaking), filling it with enough water to cover an inch above the jar and turning the gas on.  Make sure you put the preserver on the stove before you place the jars in and fill the water. It's way too heavy to move once it's full.  Then leave them on the stove until the temperature reaches 92 degrees Celsius on the thermometer and for another 45 minutes after that.  

                           

Once the 45 minutes at 92 is up, turn off the gas, remove the lid and carefully remove the jars.  It is important to take the jars out of the hot water straight away.  If you don't have some jar tongs, I recommend getting some as they make taking the jars out of the preserver way easier. If you're very lucky your preserving pan will have a handy tap on the side so you can remove the hot water and leave the jars in the pan to cool.

                                                        

It takes a bit of time to preserve fruit but just look at the end result.  Yum.  Plums to last the winter.

Satsumas are R's favourite plum and he is really looking forward to eating them right through Winter until the tree produces more next Summer. 

Now, what to do with the next ten kilos of Satsumas. And the strawberries. And peaches. And cucumbers...

Great Excitement

After two years of baking in this benchtop oven......

...which was too small to accommodate many of our baking pans (imagine no muffins, cup-cakes or slices, alarming!!), we've finally had a new kitchen installed in our little patch of paradise.  It's not quite finished (I will post some pictures when it is) but the ovens (yes, that is two ovens) and cooktop are both up and running.  

Why two ovens I hear you ask?  So we have more flexibility and don't have to heat up a large space when we don't need it.

It's fair to say that after two years of constrained baking we went a wee bit silly with all this new space.  Our freezer is now stuffed full of baked goods because we baked way more than we can actually eat or share with others. Between us we baked stuffed chicken thighs, gingerbread cup-cakes, mango muffins, buttermilk scones, sourdough bread, bread rolls, an apricot cheesecake, puddings and a pear and brie tart.  

The first thing I made was chicken thighs stuffed with pistachios and apricots.  This was for a a dinner party we had with our good friends, J and G on NYE.  I served it with a couple of salads. The asparagus and avocado salad was definitely the star of the entire meal but the chicken thighs were pretty good too.  Many of the recipes are from Dish magazine (I love their recipes, you'll see a theme) like this one for the chicken:  https://dish.co.nz/recipes/chicken-thighs-pistachio-and-apricot-stuffing.  

The asparagus salad is also from Dish but I couldn't find it online, probably because it's in their latest magazine. Being a retired person I have a bit of time on my hands, so I've typed it out for you. It's a seriously good salad and worth the effort to share.

Asparagus and Avocado with Sesame Dressing

2 bunches of slim asparagus, stem ends snapped off

1-2 avocadoes, thinly sliced (I used two)

2 tablespoons kewpie mayo (I didn't have this and used a whole egg mayonnaise instead)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Dressing

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon maple syrup

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes (I used 1/4....it wasn't enough if you like chili)

1/4 -1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes

To make the dressing, put all the ingredients in a jar and shake well.

Cook the asparagus in a well salted pot of boiling water for one minute. Drain and immediately place into iced water (this will keep them nice and green) then dry on paper towel. Layer the asparagus and avocado on a nice platter. Drizzle generously with the dressing.  Mix the mayonnaise with the sesame oil.  Place in a small plastic bag (or you could use an icing syringe if you have one), snip off the corner and drizzle over the salad. Then....enjoy!! 

The brie and pear tart is one of Belinda Jefferie's recipes.  If you've not already discovered Belinda's recipes I recommend you give them a go.  They're all really easy to follow, always work and taste amazing.  My lovely Mum loved this tart.  I miss being able to share it with her but it is lovely having the memory of having done so.  I've not included a link to the recipe but it's pretty easy to find online, albeit not on Belinda's own site.  It hasn't photographed all that well and was way tastier than it looks. 

R has had his sourdough starter for at least ten years now. It was gifted to him by our good Scottish friend, E.  The starter definitely improved when we moved from the city to the country and sometimes blows the lid of its container because it is so active.  The bread has also improved.  Plus, R has been tweaking his recipe along the way, seeking that perfect loaf.  He was able to bake a loaf in the benchtop oven, but the temperature wasn't reliable so the results were a bit mixed.  His first loaf out of the new oven was a corker.  I love a slice of bread from a still warm loaf with lashings of butter and sometimes some homemade jam.   

 

These are Walnut, Herb and Parmesan Brioche rolls I made using a recipe I found in Dish Magazine:  https://dish.co.nz/recipes/walnut-herb-and-parmesan-brioche-wreath-pull-aparts.  This recipe included a technique called tangzhong which I'd not heard of before.  So naturally I had to try it.  Basically, tangzhong is cooking a flour paste which gets added to the dough when you start kneading.  Pretty easy.  You'll see in the recipe that the balls of dough are rolled in olive oil and then dukkah before the final proof. I didn't have any dukkah on hand so I made my own.  These rolls are seriously tasty and reheat from frozen really well.  

I had some leftover fruit mince from Christmas and didn't want to make another batch of fruit mince pies.  So I made Chocolate Fruit Mince Puddings using this recipe which I found online:   https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipes/chocolate-fruit-mince-puddings-custard-strawberries-recipe/n9wabpvp?r=baking/ig340uqk&h=baking.  I did have to tweak the recipe a wee bit because my fruit mince was already made and the recipe uses dried fruit that gets soaked.  They turned out very tasty but rich. Oh, and they stuck to the non-stick muffin pan even though I greased it really well before hand. So not the prettiest but hey, it all goes down the same way right.  Oh, and as it's mandatory in our household to do so, I served these with custard and ice-cream.

There are plenty of butter milk scone recipes online and we've found this one from Taste to be pretty reliable:  https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/buttermilk-scones/fe8b5646-f2f5-4443-98f1-09709ad5d163.  We had these with butter and homemade mulberry jam.  When we lived in Greenmount, we had a fantastic mulberry tree that produced kilos and kilos of fruit.  This is our last jar of the jam I made using the fruit from that tree.  We sure do miss that tree.  We have planted a cutting from the Greenmount tree here but it is likely to take a good ten to fifteen years to be as productive.   The one in Greenmount was about 25 years old when we moved down here.

We picked about twenty kilos of apricots this year, which was very exciting, and I wanted to make a nice dessert for R's Mum using them.  I know she loves cheesecake so I found this recipe in Dish Magazine :  https://dish.co.nz/recipes/mascarpone-apricot-tart.  The filling is really light and not too sweet and the apricots are a little tart.  A really nice, balanced dessert that J really enjoyed. 

We're still not over the excitement of the new oven and no doubt will be trying out lots more new recipes and some old, cherished ones as well.  Roll on winter when we can do some slow roasting!!

Rose Mallee

One of the first plants we put in our garden here in our little patch of paradise was a rose mallee. We both love them but just didn't have room to put one in when we lived in Greenmount.  We really love the form of the mallee and the incredible flowers.  So, you can imagine how excited we were when buds formed on the tree this year.  Super excited.  But that tree sure makes you wait to see the flower.  The mallee is planted in the bottom paddock, and we've been going down every week to see if the flowers have opened.  For about the last three months!! Finally, we got to see some of the buds open.  It was definitely worth the wait.  I'm not sure the photos do the flowers justice, but it will give you an idea at least.

This is the bud.  They're huge and impressive to look out. Who needs flowers to show off!!

                                                    

If the parrots and cockatoos don't get to them first, this is how the flower opens:

                                                    

Once it's shed its cap, it takes few days for the flower to full open.

                                       

We also have a grevillea in the bottom paddock which has flowered nicely this year.  Its flowers are on the end of a very long stem, which is unusual.  I can't remember what type of grevillea it is.  But I love it.  Like all grevilleas.

We have lost about a quarter of the plants we've put in over the last four years. Overall I'd say we're pretty happy with our progress though.  We've still got plenty of room to put more plants in.  And now we've plenty of time to do planting too.  We just need to be patient and wait until Summer is over.