In My Kitchen - April/May

Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I share everything I have made over the previous month. Actually this month, I am bringing you two months worth of post. In April we spent two weeks in Turkiye so there wasn't a lot of baking going so here's what I baked in my kitchen during April and May!

Honey Sponge Roll - This is an old favourite recipe because it tastes great and it is pretty quick to come together! I first posted this recipe here.

Apple and Marmalade Crumble - I am a member of the Lamb's Ear Cookbook club and their selection for May was a book called Home Foods by Elizabeth Hewson. They also usually select an ingredient for the month as well, and this time it was apples and pears so this recipe ticked both the boxes. I was tasked with providing dessert for a Mother's Day family lunch and this got thumbs up all round!

Vanilla Chiffon Cake with Salted Caramel Sauce - It was my husband's birthday in May and when I asked him what he wanted he said a chiffon cake and then said with salted caramel and this was the result. I cheated and used salted caramel topping but it worked.

Pear and Sticky Ginger Cake - This is another recipe from Home Foods, and it was great! It kind of served double purpose because it was light in the form of a cake but we also heated it a little and had it as a dessert!

I got two new cookbooks recently. As soon as Emelia Jackson announces a new book, I know I am going to buy it! Her latest book, You Had Me At Cake came out recently so I was excited to receive it!

In theory, I am trying to not buy every cook book that I see. I had also tried a couple of Poppy O'Toole's books before from the library and I was underwhelmed so when I borrowed her book Poppy Cooks: Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cook Book I really didn't expect to find much to cook, but we loved it and cooked multiple recipes. There were also lots of other recipes that we still wanted to try so I ended up buying this one. I wrote about this book here.

I posted about our trip to Turkiye a few weeks ago, and we have some fantastic food memories. While we were walking through the Grand Bazaar we saw lots of different things we could buy as souvenirs, but this set really caught our eye. I love that you can use it either with the individual little sections or as a whole set. 

One thing that we loved during our trip was all the Turkish tea which was usually served in tulip shaped glasses, which is a traditional shape, given that tulips are native to Turkiye. We visited a pottery factory and we picked up these cups. 

Whilst we drank lots of normal flavoured Turkish tea in Turkiye, we also had lots of apple flavoured tea and now we have picked up this apple flavoured drink. I am not sure that it is the same but certainly it's hitting the spot when we have it as a hot drink on a cold day. It is pretty sweet though.

New recipes

We tried quite a few new recipes over the last couple of months!

Beef Rendang - From Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cook Book by Poppy O'Toole

Sausage and Broccoli Pasta - From Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cook Book by Poppy O'Toole

Marry Me Chicken - From Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cook Book by Poppy O'Toole

Tomato and Paneer Curry - From Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cook Book by Poppy O'Toole. We have made this several times now! (Recipe)

Apple and Marmalade Crumble - From Home Foods by Elizabeth Hewson

Vanilla Chiffon - As requested by my husband for his birthday

Pear and Sticky Ginger Cake - From Home Foods by Elizabeth Hewson

Spiced Rice with Crispy Mince and Jammy Tomatoes - From Home Foods by Elizabeth Hewson

Ramen - From Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cook Book by Poppy O'Toole

Curried Beef Cottage Pie- From Home Foods by Elizabeth Hewson

Weekend Cooking posts from the last month

Le Assaggiatrici (The Tasters)

The Actually Delicious Slow Cook Cook Book by Poppy O'Toole

Taste of Two Continents Food Walking Tour - Istanbul

What We Ate on Holidays: Turkiye

A Midnight Pastry Shop Called Hwawoldang by Lee Onhwa

Cook the Books: Call of the Camino by Suzanne Redfearn

Weekly meals

Saturday - Italian Meatballs
Sunday - Spiced Rice with Crispy Mince and Jammy Tomatoes (new)
Monday - Ramen (new)
Tuesday - Enchiladas
Wednesday - Out for dinner
Thursday - Spaghetti Bolognaise
Friday - Curried beef cottage pie (new)

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