Weekend Cooking - In My Kitchen - July

Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I usually share everything I have made over the previous month. After barely doing any baking during June because I was sick, I started July with a lot of baking and it continued from there. What I wasn't good at was taking pictures of said baking before it got eaten

Lemon Poppyseed Crinkle Cookies - I have made these before but they are so good so I made them again. This is a recipe from Emelia Jackson's Some of my Best Friends are Cookies cookbook. (pictured bottom right)

Dutch Pancakes with Salted Caramel Pears - This is a recipe from the Coles magazine. I was impressed with the pancake part. Not so much with the pears which needed a lot more cooking. 

Brownies  - We had family come around for dinner so I made brownies using my trusted Bill Granger recipe which can be found here. 

Mixed Berry Clafoutis - This is what I chose to make for my Cook the Books post which you can find here. (pictured at the top)

Banana bread - we had bananas so I made banana bread. Whilst I quite like adding icing, or choc chips into the batter or other variations, my husband just likes plain banana bread that he can add a lot of butter to when it is sliced up, so that's what I made. This is the recipe I used, without the banana on top.

I picked up a couple of bits and pieces this month. The first is from the magical world of the middle aisle of Aldi. I went looking for a sheet set and came home with new pot holders. I love the colours so couldn't resist.

The second thing is a plate from the Reject Shop. They have had some really fun pieces come into their home wares range over the last year or so. 

I go back to work next week after several months off so have to work out what my new normal looks like when it comes to baking, books and blogging. To celebrate/commiserate my last day as a lady of leisure we went for a drive to the Yarra Valley which is around 90 minutes away from us and had a lovely lunch at a winery and then went to the nearby Yarra Valley Chocolaterie. Needless to say we did not need dinner that night.  And we most certainly didn't need to eat the Dubai chocolate that we bought that day either. Maybe we will get to it this weekend.

One of the other fun things we did this month was to visit the French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston exhibition which is currently on at the National Gallery of Victoria. You can read more about the exhibition here.

There was a room filled with still life paintings. Some were flower and some were fruit and vegetables. This quote from Cezanne made me smile so I though I would share it here. 

As to flowers, I have given them up. They wilt immediately. Fruits are more reliable.They love having their portraits done.

The painting below isn't by Cezanne but it was in the same room so it fits!

52 Recipes Challenge

Here are the new recipes we tried this month.

Dutch Pancakes with Salted Caramel Pears

Clafoutis

Weekend Cooking posts from the last month

Weekly Meals

Saturday -  Out for dinner
Sunday - Bacon, vegetable and risoni soup with mini meatballs
Monday - Lasagne
Tuesday - Lasagne
Wednesday - Out
Thursday - Nothing
Friday - Nothing

I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page