Wednesday, March 6, 2013

In my kitchen - March 2013

I am linking this post in to Celia's monthly In My Kitchen event at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

In my kitchen, there are more non-dairy frozen desserts. I am really getting quite spoilt with the options on offer!


This So Delicious pomegranate chip ice cream initially seemed a little odd...but then I got used to the fruity-creamy-pomegranate mix and decided it was very good indeed.




Tofutti 'marry me' bars make me laugh with their packaging, especially the French side of the box. And yet - I forgive the packaging, because they taste fantastic. These bars are really just vanilla tofutti ice cream inside dairy-free chocolate, but they taste better than any chocolate-coated ice cream bar I've had before.

In my kitchen, there have been vegetable deliveries from Aussie Farmers Direct


I will discuss my (great) experiences with this company another time, but for now, I will say that I like their convenience, their fresh produce, and the fact that they are local and Australian. I also like that I no longer topple off my bike as a result of trying to carry too much home from the fruit and vegetable markets.



In my kitchen, although not from Aussie Farmers Direct, is a baby squash.



I only bought one, and I have no idea what I will do with it, but it may be the cutest vegetable I have had the pleasure of meeting.


In my kitchen, there is a jigsaw from one of our London 2012 holiday photos.



I gave the puzzle to Mr Bite for Christmas, but may have got as much pleasure from its completion as him. There is something very enjoyable about finding little details in a puzzle made from a photo you took.


In my kitchen, there is a new glass straw.




I am delighted to finally have one.

In my kitchen, there are two new water bottles. 


I feel like I am always getting new water bottles. I find the 'perfect' one and 6 months later it is leaking, or I have dropped it one too many times, or something else has gone wrong with it. The black one on the left is my new running bottle (no leak, easy squeeze system for drinking, 500ml) and the one on the right is my new handbag bottle (no leak, fancy flip-top lid, 700ml). I'm hoping for at least 9 months of use before I find a flaw.


In my kitchen, there was a block of this raw coconut and goji chocolate made by Pana Chocolate.



It is not there any more because I ate it. For my thoughts, I will direct you to Hannah's review at Wayfaring Chocolate, because it captures my opinions beautifully. I will note that where Hannah tasted fudge, I tasted chocolate truffle filling. I will also note that chocolate truffle filling in raw chocolate form is really very good.


What is happening in your kitchen this month?





On an unrelated note, I have decided to move my commenting system back to Disqus. This reflects an astronomical increase in the number of anonymous spam comments making it through Blogger's filtering system, which I just can't keep up with deleting myself. I don't want to restrict commenting and I have used Disqus in the past with success (and like its interactive nature with alerting people of replies to their comments). 


Update Friday 8th: After turning Disqus on, I have had to turn it off again due to various problems associated with the latest 2012 Disqus release. Most pressing is that Disqus is not compatible with mobile views of my blog, and if people leave a comment through their mobile phone it goes into the Blogger comment system but not the Disqus comment system and thus doesn't appear online. Not allowing people to comment with their name and URL is another challenge. I apologise sincerely for the back-and-forth shifting and promise I'll leave things be with Blogger for now (and also apologise if you encounter spam as a result of that).

42 comments:

  1. That is really cool that you turned a picture in a puzzle! That is a gift that my mom would absolutely love.
    The baby squash is really cute. It almost looks like a small pumpkin from your picture.

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    1. It may well be a pumpkin?! I am not very skilled at distinguishing between pumpkins and squashes and was more focused on the baby aspect! I guess I'll find out when I eat it :-)

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  2. Those baby squash are definitely cute!!!!

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    1. I know - I'm kind of wishing I bought more than one!

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  3. Thank you for the link my dear! And it actually makes perfect sense that you'd say chocolate truffle filling where I say fudge, because I don't generally enjoy chocolate truffles so would not associate that with a good flavour. Though I have been known to say "ganache"!

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    1. And I don't generally enjoy fudge, so it does indeed make sense :-) Although now I wish I'd had the sophistication to go with ganache...

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  4. I got rid of disqus because it wouldn't give me a link back to the website of the blogger who'd left the comment. It just created so much extra work for me. I'm glad you like it - I just couldn't get it to work for me. I would love to try those ice creams and that 'marry me' box made me smile. I'm always buying new water bottles too - mostly because we always seem to lose the ones we have xx

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    1. Oh dear, I hadn't registered that feature of the new Disqus (I'm sure the old version did allow that?!). It seems there is no perfect commenting system! I'll see how I get on with it and hope I can work things out.


      The 'marry me' box is definitely good for a laugh :-)

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    2. And it turns out I should have learned form your experience because I just had to turn Disqus off again - not so much because of the URL issue (although that was annoying) but because it wasn't compatible with phone views / comments and so I had two parallel comment systems running that weren't talking to each other!

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  5. Love the box of produce. I got one of those from a co-op farm here and loved it - but then I found myself getting a lot of veg that I wasn't gong to use so I went back to the Farmer's Market and just picked out what I wanted. The glass straw is cool- as is the puzzle from your own picture.
    Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! I was worried the vegetable box would turn out that way (and it may yet) but so far I'm having fun with the products I wouldn't usually buy and I have one that delivers the 'staples' we always get. I'm also just getting it fortnightly, which I think helps!

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  6. Funny, I don't much like fudge either, but I've eaten it more often than truffles! :P

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    1. I need someone to make a raw vegan fudge and then i'd probably love it ;)

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  7. Really cool products! I am loving that ice cream, where can I find that! Also the coco goji chocolate looks interesting, I bet its delicious..

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    1. It is delicious indeed :-) I have found the So Delicious ice cream turning up at small independents supermarkets - IGAs in Australia, particularly the 'fancy' ones. Hopefully you'll see it soon near you!

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  8. That tofutti packet is hilarious and the jigsaw is clever and I have looked at Australian Farmers Direct and considered it. Re the comments - I am a bit sad you have gone back to discus because 1) I understand why because spam is so annoying and 2) because I don't find discus intuitive and it has stopped me comments sometimes because I just can't quite get it right. (Just looked - I can't work out how to do my blog url here without logging in - am I missing something?)

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    1. Oh dear, I think the commenting system is doomed to never be quite right. I do wish there was another system I could use that ticked all the boxes. You are right in that you can't enter your URL unless you sign in with an account; Google or Twitter or Facebook or create a Disqus one. That is the major flaw. Last week I tried turning off unregistered comments in Blogger but then got an email saying that removed the name/URL option and thus restricted comments from people not registered with Google or Wordpress! I am really sorry for the inconvenience to you now.


      On a more positive note, I'm glad you like the jigsaw and tofutti packaging and I will be discussing Aussie Farmers Direct more so hopefully my experiences can be of use :)

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  9. My Kitchen StoriesMarch 7, 2013 at 11:57 AM

    so many great things. Id like to try something like farmers direct. Spam is just so boring , good luck Kari

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    1. Thank you! It is proving quite tedious at present!

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  10. It's not "real" fudge, per se, but... http://wayfaringchocolate.com/2011/04/18/vegan-chocolate-coconut-hazelnut-fudge/

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    1. I adore that recipe - I think it's one of the first you posted after I found your blog, and i must have made it half a dozen times since then! Which just proves that if you change up the ingredients, I do indeed like fudge, even if I don't think of that being true!

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  11. Sunnie@ModernGirlNutritionMarch 7, 2013 at 1:44 PM

    That baby squash is too cute! And that chocolate sounds amazing as well:)

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    1. Thanks Sunnie - the chocolate was pretty incredible :)

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  12. What a gorgeous baby squash! Your home delivered fruit and veg look very good too, and definitely not falling off your bike is a good thing. :) We've moved to stainless steel Cheeky water bottles, and have been very happy with them - they seem to cope with the dings and dents from school bags being thrown around. And I can imagine whiling away time staring at the detail of that jigsaw puzzle! :)

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    1. We spent a *lot* of time staring at details in the puzzle, as well as searching for those elusive pieces! Quite a meditative process, jigsaw puzzling :) Thanks for the Cheeky water bottle recommendations too, that's helpful to know.

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  13. Oh I love the little pumpkin!! So cute, I used to buy these at the markets when I loved in Sydney and then stuff them with a spicy vegetarian lentil mixture and bake covered in foil. For the last few minutes in the over I would grill cheese over the top and serve with a sambal!! YUM!!! Oh I am so hungry now...

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    1. That sounds like a great serving suggestion! You may have given me the inspiration for what this will be used for :)

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  14. So much good stuff! I am like you RE drink bottles.... and that reminds me, I need a new one ;) Pana Chocolate is AMAZING - I think you've started me on a craving now. I have always wondered about Aussie Farmers Direct - would love to read your thoughts on the topic.

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    1. I will write them up soon, promise! (But in brief - good things :-) ).

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  15. that raw chocolate brand is rather lovely isn't it. I like the orange one...a lot.
    Now the jigsaw Kari, thank you so much for reminding me I can do this! Now to decide which photo to do.
    Lovely happenings in your kitchen :-)

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    1. I haven't had the orange one! In fact, I don't think I've seen it. I shall have to investigate ;)

      And, thank you!

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  16. Is it a tiny pumpkin, or a giant hand?!

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    1. Ha! Let's hope the former, for my hand's sake ;)

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  17. I love food bloggers. Only we would ever call produce "cute" :)

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  18. Ooh, pomegranate chip sounds awesome! And what's with the 'marry me' bars, ha ha, that's awesome. And glass straws are the best, I miss mine!

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    1. I am really loving that straw - and the ice creams!

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  19. I'd never thought of having a jigsaw made from a photo - my husband has a jigsaw every year for Christmas so I'll try that.

    Having a box of veg that you like must be wonderful. The boxes I've looked at don't give us enough veg for a few days. Luckily, we have a good farm shop which also also has a good butchers,

    I love the little pumpkin. I buy things because they look pretty!

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  20. Delicious pomegranate chip ice cream looks really delicious. I was looking for it in the grocery store and it's hard to search. Where is it exactly available?

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