Welcome to my Kitchen for the month of October. Spring has sprung, the grass is ris, I wonder where the birdies is? My dad says this all the time, throughout the entire 3 months of Spring, every time someone mentions Spring. Is your dad one of those dad’s with the “sayings”. My dad has a lot of sayings, and I find myself repeating these sayings to my kids. The older I get, the more like my dad I get. Much to the dismay of my Significant Other. He’d much rather me be more like my mum; she’s a doer, a list maker, a “get in and get it done” woman. My father is a Gunna. So am I. We’re Gunna Marshalls. We start stuff, with all good intentions and then remember there was something else to do, perhaps something else we started a week ago, that really needed finishing, so we move our attention to the older task. We get stuff done. Eventually.
The good thing about this, is that my mum and SO are very similar. They get shit done. That’s just what they do, they’re doers. So, frankly, they need people like my dad and I, so they have “stuff” to do. Otherwise they’d be bored. Or become crazy cat people. This is our selfie at Floriade.
In My Kitchen this October…
…is some fruit that required alcoholic soaking, and jarring. The jar on the left contains spiced brandied cumquats, and on the right are chartreuse soaked dried fruits – pears, apricots and apple. These will be turned into fabulous Christmas treats. Of which treats I speak, I know not of. Yet. If anyone has any recipes that will make good use of these, feel free to drop me a line, as I seriously have no clue. BTW is it cumquat or kumquat?

…is my new spice container, a traditional Masala Dabba. My Indian friends have seen the state of my spice drawers and, suitably horrified, gave me this for my birthday. The harderst part about this gift was deciding which spices to put in the little cans. I chose those that I use the most, cardamom pods, mustard seeds, masala blend, star anise, cloves, a curry powder and fennel seeds. I’m sure to change them around.

…is my new teapot. Tweenie and I have decided that we are going to start drinking leaf teas, and can you believe it, I’ve never owned a teapot! We have quite a few different tea bags, but we’re ready to become Ladies and think we need the proper stuff. Now I’m trying to source the matching teacups to this Kimono pot, as they’ve discontinued this pattern. Why, I wonder, it’s gorgeous. But at 50% off, what a bargain!

…is the tea we bought before we bought the teapot. It’s so damn hard choosing the teas at T for 2. Far too much to choose from, but since we’re both partial to Chai and Tweenie’s majorly partial to chocolate, we bought a box of this to get us started on our loose leaf tea journey. A cup of this last night whilst we watched Divergent, was lovely. I’m really looking forward to starting our tea traditions, and experimenting with the thousands of tea types that are out there.

…is this cake stand. I took Buddy to the shops yesterday for a bit of one on one time and we ended up at Sauvage Urbaine. That was an exercise in wont-ever-do-that-crap-again. Have you even been into this type of store? Everything breakable is piled up on top of each other, with glass this that n everything else, precariously balanced, creating a mothers worse nightmare. To his credit, Buddy did alright, not a single breakage. Although, when his sight alighted on this, his eyes widened and he screamed out “Oh My God! This is beeeuwdiful, mum. You HAVE to buy it!!!” How could I not? When a 4 year old boy squeals with delight over a cake stand, you buy it. Every woman in that store would’ve throttled me if I hadn’t.

..another view of the had-to-have cake stand, and yes, my Christmas snow globes are out! They were tucked away in my wardrobe, but when swapping over from winter to summer, this long weekend, they begged to remain out. And so they shall. If I can make the Christmas period start early, so we can enjoy it longer, then I will. By God, I will.

…are two items I ordered (read: got for free off the hostess as she scored a stack of free stuff!) from one of those Your Inspiration At Home parties. I’m not a huge fan of these types of things, being that I like to prepare all my recipe bases and mixes from scratch, but this was fun. They have some really yummy stuff. Tweenie came with me and she helped me choose these two out of the hundreds of things we looked at/tasted. We use the vinegar on strawberries (YUM) and make Chilli hot chocolate by melting chocolate, adding heaped tsp’s of the powder and mixing it through hot milk. Seriously good stuff.
…This is Tweenie’s fruit break at school. Can you spot the Foodie’s daughter?
…is a bottle of marinated feta that my dad made. Lot’s of herbs from his garden, chilli’s and EVOO, hence why it’s solidified in the fridge. Looking forward to using this in as many dishes as I can during the upcoming warmer months.
And last but not least, in My Kitchen this October are a number of packets of Jerky, Stockman Sticks jerky. My dad’s shop, Brew Your Own at Home stocks this Jerky, and we’re in there “buying” packets of it at least once a fortnight. My kids are fans of jerky, or Turkeyio, as Buddy calls it. Why? Who knows, what an odd thing for kids to be just a little bit obsessed about. The last packet that is left on our shelf, after getting to sample the entire lot recently, is the Whip Cracker. Seriously hot stuff. Tweenie loves this one, Buddy and me not so much. Our favourite is the Beach Bull, there is a distinct seafood smell to it, but the taste is really mild. It seems to be the softest of the jerky’s and is the first packet off the rack when we’ve run out. Why can’t they just like chips?

You can find them online, on Facebook and at the Old Bus Depot markets in Kingston.
Thanks for dropping by and checking out what’s in my kitchen. Head over to Celia’s blog Fig Jam and Lime Cordial to see what everyone else is up to. See you next month 🙂
I love your spice container, and also that there’s someone else with jars of preserved things for some future unspecified purpose 🙂
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I love jarring and preserving things, with not a clue in the world as to what they’ll end up being turned into 🙂
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Love your Masala dabba..ive been looking for one with a see through lid and finally managed to get hold of one. Still have yet to fill em up with my spices.😊
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Will be interesting to see how often I still go back to my spice drawers instead of my masala dabba. Old habits die hard. I’d LOVE to see your spice drawer/pantry, I’m sure Id be in awe of it!
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oh my i do adore that cake stand. it is great. and i am with you on xmas things. tho i prefer them not to be out in shops yet. there should be a law that no shop can have xmas stuff out till Dec 1! and that tea pot is gorgeous. so pretty.
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Thanks Sherry. Isn’t it adorable? I do think my 4 yr old has a little bit of style about him. I think there’s nothing wrong with having s little bit of Christmas cheer out now, just as a reminder of the fun to come 🙂
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Funny each to there own. I dread the Christmas stuff and you are welcoming it. Its a wonderful world. i wish I had your spice dubba. Yoiu have seen nothing till you have seen my arrangement of spices! Do not…wish for kids that just like chips….just sayin’
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Oh, how can you not love Christmas, I’m part of a Christmas Facebook page and thousands of members want Christmas all year long 🙂
Will have to check out your spice range. I’m such a nudey Parker, I love peeking into other people’s pantries.
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Oh I have nothing for you to see in the spice area. Just letting you know my cupboard is completely disorganized and aint no one gonna see that….
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Stunning teapot- perfect for those special brews.
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Thanks Francesca, now to find the teacups and we’ll be set.
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Fran, your Christmas stuff is out already? Oh dear. You really do need to get to Costco and buy that Advent Calender bear.. 🙂 Love the teapot and masala dabba, and the very cute cake stand that Buddy picked! And I believe we say cumquats, but all my American friends find that terribly risque.. 😉
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Celia, I don’t “need” to go out to Costco to get anything. I’m banned from Costco, cos it costs hubby bucketloads every time I go out there! But, wait, what, there’s a bear advent calendar out there? I adore Costco at Christmas time. And Halloween time. And Easter time.
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Spiced brandied cumquats?!! Now those sound brilliant 😉 Thanks for the peek at all your goodies this month!
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Thanks for visiting. What to do with the spiced cumquats, I’m not too sure…
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I love peeking into your kitchen, Fran! The masala dabba is such a beauty and so organized. I didn’t even know about them, but now am determined to get one. I recently just started drinking loose leaf teas, but have only used a single serve tea basket to prepare it in my teacup. One day, I will upgrade to a real teapot. Your teapot and the cake stand are both lovely!
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Hi Ngan, it is pretty cool, the masala dabba, isn’t it? And I’ll probably pick up a tea cup strainer ball thingy, as my daughter likes to have a cup of tea on her own and it’s pointless filling up the teapot just for one up. She’s really into the fruit teas and wants to try them chilled. Hopefully I’m setting her up for a life of tea drinking, not coffee, like me 🙂
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Hi Fran, Great post and such a nice selfie! Love the teapot, I love the taste and aroma of loose leaf tea. Masala Dabbas are great, but it’s so difficult to choose which spices to include, I had so much trouble with that…so I have a few haha!
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Thanks Emily, he’s a handsome lad, lol. We love smelling all the teas at T 2, there are so many to choose from!
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G’day You got me at your selfie and thanks for this month’s kitchen view also!
Cheers! Joanne @What’s On The List
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