in my kitchen...

Huz has been demolishing. We had a little low bench around the windows. It was too small, too low to be practical (unless you are an owlet), so Huz took to it with a drill and hammer and there was room for dancing! Then we looked at the old kitchen table. The one that was the kitchen table my sister and I grew up with. The one I've been wanting to have as a kitchen table since forever. It fits perfectly, and has a new comfy home in the kitchen. We use it for cooking, eating breakfast, working and looking out at the garden. I love having company in the kitchen when I'm cooking and there's something about this table that's so homely and inviting... The chairs have finally found a comfy place too. They were found on the side of the road one hard waste collection weekend and they could do with a bit of sprucing up one day, but for now they are fine. As for the garden, well a lot of sprucing up needed there. We're thinking we may just start again with some raised beds. The weeds have won this round.



In my kitchen we've been whipping up sugar free treats. Last year we did the same thing, but I dropped out when morning sickness and cravings got the better of me. I was a bad influence on Huz too, so he fell off the wagon not long after. So with a new year and healthier habits in mind, we are finding joy in natural, fresh foods. No refined cane sugar and much less wheat. Its surprising that it has been much easier this time. Fave treats are berry or banana and maple syrup muffins, baked honey custard, smoothies galore and Sarah's 'troffles', a real treat for the chocolate lovers among us. The owlets have taken a fancy to the jar of mountain lilac raw honey on the table and run past with a teaspoon from time to time. Its too strong for us with Victorian honey palettes, but their tasmanian tongues seem to love a strong flavoured honey. We've been enjoying jugs of water with a slice of lime, fresh herbs and all the gorgeous fruit. We're eyeing off the apricots on the tree for when they'll be ready. Also, wandering the neighborhood, foraging for this delicious bowl of cherry plums! I wondered why there were so many on the tree, so sweet and ripe and perfect. Then the woman that lived in the house behind the tree came and told me they were inedible. The council had warned her they were not good for eating. She prunes the tree as high as she can reach to stop passing children from an unknown, terrible fate. Forty years she has lived there and never tasted one. Its the same tree we had in our garden as kids. The one we used to climb up to guzzle fruit. I think I might make her a jar of cherry plum jam to thank her ;)

What's been happening in your kitchen? If you happen to be in Queensland, and you are fortunate, like we are, to have a kitchen above water, perhaps you might like to bake something for the SES volunteers? I know I'd like to, but we'll be cooking up other ways to help. There's a great list over at Pip's if you need a place to start. x