Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I share everything I have made over the previous month. It's been a busy month. I've had a couple of fun foodie experiences and tried some delicious new recipes! Let's start with what I made during the month of July!
Caramel Miso Apple pudding -Do you ever just randomly pick up one of your cook books looking for something and then find something else and go I have to make this? I was looking through Around the Table by Julia Busittil Nishimura for something (no, I can't remember what!) and I saw this recipe and through that looks appealing, especially given how cold it has been here. It was also very simple, and very tasty! Definitely a make again recipe.
Chocolate Orange Cake - Rather than having a specific cook book of the month in Lambs Ear Cookbook Club, we had an author. Valli Little was the long time food editor for Delicious Magazine. I chose to borrow the book Delicious: Love to Eat - Around the world in 120 simply delicious recipes, and this was one of the simply delicious recipes in the book! This is a version of the whole orange cake, so started with boiling whole oranges for 2 hours and then blitzing them up in the food process.
Traditional shortbread /Pistachio, sour cherry and white chocolate shortbread - The featured produce for the month was nuts, so I couldn't resist the urge to make these again. The recipe comes from Emelia Jackson's book Some of My Best Friends are Cookies.
Sticky date pudding ginger cake - This is another recipe from the Delicious cook book. We hosted Christmassy in July on 25 July and this was what I served for dessert! Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Well, yes, there was chicken but there was also pork and other deliciousness.
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Earlier in the month we had a very European weekend where I visited the Bastille Day French market at Queen Victoria Market near the city. We have been for the last few years and every time we pick up some of this delicious pate. This year I also picked up some truffle butter and these interesting flavoured French chips/crisps. Of course, there was also can can dancers, jazz and so much more.
We also visited a German Christmas Market which is in a small country winery about half an hour away from our house. We have been before and it is a lot of fun. This time, we had hot chocolate with Baileys which was a delicious surprise and I picked up the gingerbread above.
One of our highlights in July was going to a Bastille Day dinner which I posted about here. 5 plus courses, can can dancers, French wines and cafe style music! Fun night!
I have mentioned Christmassy in July! What do I mean by that? My sister always hosts Christmas and she used to do the same meal again for Christmas in July. We decided to host this year but didn't go the full Christmas experience. I put on my Christmas jumper (which it is usually way to hot to wear on actual Christmas day) and put on a Christmas music playlist. We served roast chicken with champagne sauce, air fryer roast pork, broccoli and cauliflower cheese, roast potatoes, cider gravy and more! Oh, and the Sticky Date Pudding Cake. Everyone went home having eaten way too much, so I guess that was a success then!
We did visit a new to us Korean café after we went to see an exhibition about ancient Rome at the museum. There's a few cafes doing these style of patisserie so I wanted to try one. I tried the pear version. It looked amazing and tasted very peary! So good!
I managed to only buy one cook book this month, which I think showed tremendous restraint. The book I bought was Tender by Lucy Tweed, which was last month's cook book of the month in the cook book club. The good news is I already own the August cook book!
New recipes
We tried a few different recipes for the first time this month!
Slow Cooker chilli - Poppy O'Toole - It is very cold here so it is perfect weather for slow cooker meals.
Caramel Miso Apple Pudding - So good!
Chocolate Orange Cake - Another winner!
Air Fryer Pork Roast - This is now our go to method for cooking roast pork. The crackling comes out really crispy and it is super easy to do.
Truffled Chicken with Champagne Sauce - This was a bit fancy, but oh so good, and the champagne sauce will go with roast chicken, whether it is truffled or not! We made this sauce a couple of times this month.
Weekend Cooking posts from the last month
In My Kitchen: June
Paris in July: Piglettes by Clementine Beauvais
Paris in July: Eva Longoria: Searching for France
Cook the Books: Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J Ryan Stradal
Summer at the French Bakery by Jo Thomas
Weekly Meals
Sunday - Leftovers
Monday - Tomato and Paneer Curry
Tuesday - Salad Dressing Chicken and Rice
Wednesday - Mac and cheese
Thursday - Out for dinner
Friday - Chicken stir fry
I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings.
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My mother loves chocolate and orange desserts and I love sticky toffee pudding so I should look for that cookbook! I was in Ireland last week for a wedding and travel, and was very proud of myself for some of the things I tried (given I am a very cautious eater) - two versions of duck were served at the wedding dinner and there was black pudding at the brunch the next day. I wouldn't say I was enamoured of either but I did eat them. Earlier in the week while traveling with a friend, we visited a beautiful garden which has a restaurant that uses mostly vegetables grown on the estate, which we liked very much.
ReplyDeleteIt all looks good! I collect photos of different types/flavours of chips/crisps. My mother always did Christmas in July, but it would be so hot out. Tender is not at our library. But I did borrow a Valli Little that I will read this week.
ReplyDeleteUmmm Truffled chicken with champagne sauce... you're talking my language! Also, I've heard good things about the Lucy Tweed book. What's your verdict?
ReplyDeleteThose desserts turned out beautifully!
ReplyDeletethanks so much for adding my link and IMK logo. Looks like a fab food month in your kitchen. Christmas in July is a wondrous thing! Have a great august and see you in september. where is the year going?
ReplyDeletecheers
sherry
What a delicious month! Love your French goodies and those sweet treats - they all look so good! I used to love Christmas in July when we lived in Australia - all our birthdays are in July and we used to put the Christmas tree up and everything. Your Christmas in July menu sounded delish! I am definitely going to check out the air fryer pork....
ReplyDelete