Reflecting on 2013 - considering the year past, and looking to the year ahead

With Christmas over, it's suddenly that time of year again. You know, that time, where summary posts, "best of" recaps, and resolutions / aspirations abound. I like to save my blog-related summaries for March, where the anniversary of Bite-Sized Thoughts falls. As we've seen, though, I do like this time of year for reflecting and goal setting. 

I had 10 aspirations for 2013. Let's revisit them.

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Christmas 2013

Our baby tree.

My parent's large tree.

Lentil, mushroom and walnut balls from Oh She Glows (before and after cooking).
These are highly recommended!

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New York city #3 - Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, and solo shopping

Intrepid Museum, with the space shuttle Enterprise in the centre

I have decided to divide our four New York city days into four separate posts because, well, the four days were all full. Today covers our third NYC day, which was also our second last day in America. It held exciting plans for both of us!

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Edible gift ideas {Christmas ideas 2013}

I am yet to post a savoury Christmas-themed dish, but when it comes to sweet treats and snacks...I've got you covered. 

If you're looking for edible gifts suitable for family or friends, I've got them covered too. As a bonus? Most of these ideas are vegan, but your non-vegan friends won't suspect a thing.

First: Christmas cookies

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In my kitchen - December 2013 (the birthday edition)

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

Thank you so much for your birthday wishes. It seems we are all in agreement that life only gets better with age - which is fortunate because we all benefit from that conclusion ;) I had a lovely day and am pleased to use this In My Kitchen post to showcase some birthday items!

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Vegan pumpkin pie berry pancakes {Christmas ideas 2013}

Yesterday marked one month until Christmas. Today, I am showing previously unheard of blog organisation and kicking off my seasonal posts. Hopefully by starting now, you'll have a chance to enjoy any recipes you like the look of before Christmas is over for another year.

Unlike my last post, today's recipe has also been trialed, revised, re-trialed, and then posted. You can't take risks with Christmas! These pancakes could also do double duty for Thanksgiving, which I know is almost upon you in America.

Pumpkin and berry pancakes

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In my kitchen - November 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 is new season mango. Mango prices are still a little steep, but I couldn't resist.

I am, however, resisting the $20 / kg apricots. We might see them in my kitchen in December, but probably not before.

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In my kitchen - September 2013 (featuring much carob, failed cauliflower crackers, and balloons)

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

Do you remember when I discovered carob by Carmel Valley Chocolates, when traversing the Bickley Harvest Festival earlier this year? Well, it doesn't really matter if you don't remember. I did discover it, and now I have discovered the blocks at a supermarket in the city, as opposed to a weekend stall 40 minutes drive away.

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In my kitchen - August 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 have been snow pea crisps, a surprise find in the Asian section of Woolworths. Clearly not as good for you as fresh snow peas, but a highly enjoyable crispy, slightly salty snack nonetheless.

In my kitchen, there are some pink beetroot-coloured noodles. I'm very excited to cook with them. It's going to be a beautiful dish when the time comes!

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In my kitchen - July 2013

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

I didn't do an In My Kitchen post last month and I found I rather missed it. They are certainly fun posts to put together (reflected, I think, in the number of people now doing them). I'm pleased to be back with a post for July.

In my kitchen this month, we have these raw, vegan Kitz 'Mexican buckwheat' crackers.

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Loving this week {June 2013}

I am linking this into cityhippyfarmgirl's 'loving this week' post for June.

The 'loving'this week' posts are all about the little moments in your days and weeks that have tickled your heart.

After skipping over a 'loving this week' post for May (I was in pre-holiday work chaos, and just didn't get to doing one), I'm delighted to be back with a snapshot of what I'm loving at the moment.

This week, I'm loving vegan orange cake with (soy) cream cheese frosting. It's the same recipe as the orange cake I made earlier in the year, but with the addition of the orange zest. It tastes like orange this time. It's possible I liked the other one more (orange and I aren't super friendly in baked goods), but I'm still loving the simplicity of homemade cake with tea on a weekend afternoon.

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Loving this week {April 2013} - celeriac fries

I am linking this into cityhippyfarmgirl's 'loving this week' post for April.

The 'loving'this week' posts are all about the little moments in your days and weeks that have tickled your heart.

This week, I have renewed my love affair with celeriac. We may be losing summer fruit, but with the change of season, we are gaining winter-appropriate vegetables.

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Books and films - some highlights from the first four months of 2013

It's been a while since I've talked about books and reading, and on only one previous occasion have I talked in any focused way about films. Today, I feel like talking about both. I'm hoping you feel like reading about them.

My reduced focus on books stems, at least in part, from my reading exploits being available to view on my Goodreads Books page. I figure that those of you who are interested can follow along that way, and then I don't need to bore the rest of you on a regular basis. At the same time, it seems possible that non-Goodreads users might like a summary of books every now and then.

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In my kitchen - April 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 sugar snap peas snow peas (thank you, Hannah, for educating me!), another vegetable re-discovery thanks to Aussie Farmers Direct. The last re-discovery was corn on the cob.

I had forgotten, or perhaps never knew, how enjoyable these are. Crunchy, sweet, no preparation time, and good straight up, cold in salads, or warm in stir fries.

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Loving this week {March 2013}

I am linking this into cityhippyfarmgirl's 'loving this week' post for March. It's a little late, but I blame Easter!

The 'loving'this week' posts are all about the little moments in your days and weeks that have tickled your heart.

Loving...memories of Beelu National Park, where we walked a 9km loop on Good Friday.

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Loving this week {February 2013} - easy food combinations that taste really good

I am linking this into cityhippyfarmgirl's 'loving this week' post for February. Her 'loving' posts are about the little moments in your days and weeks that have tickled your heart.

For February, I am focusing on some easy food combinations that I am loving a whole lot right now.

Quinoa with apple stewed in vanilla and cardamom. Sometimes with berries too.

This is top of the list for a reason. I love it cold, at any time of day.

Vanilla soy ice cream with 70% cocoa chocolate scattered on top.

Also vanilla soy ice cream with carob powder mixed through.

In truth, vanilla soy ice cream is going pretty well right now, however it comes.

Sweet potato with puy lentils, lettuce and sweet chilli sauce. I would have used baby spinach leaves, but we were out. Lettuce stood in just fine.

Sweet potato with tahini and nutritional yeast is a pretty good mix too.

And on the topic of tahini, it turns out that fig jam and tahini is an amazing combination, even for someone who doesn't usually eat jam. When spread on crackers or dolloped on oats, wonderful things happen.

Smoothies with cereal sprinkled atop.

And on a final, store-bought note - tofu rice paper rolls, with a side of fruit.

If you took away my cooking rights for a week (and let me pre-cook quinoa, puy lentils and sweet potato...), I might just eat these in constant rotation.

What easy food combinations are you loving right now?

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In my kitchen - February 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, at long last, vegan marshmallows made up from my UK-purchased but New Zealand-made mix.

From this...

...to this. The wonderment!

After reading some of the comments on this post, I used slightly less sugar with the mix than recommended (1 3/4 cups instead of 2), and coated the marshmallows in corn flour instead of icing sugar or anything else sweet. The marshmallows are still sweet, but at the level expected for marshmallows - and I love them. 

The process of making these was also quite an adventure, and as a result, there are a few sticky spots in my kitchen too. 

This picture didn't really need to be included, 
but the unintentional posing of my right foot made me laugh.

Whipping marshmallow mix up should have been included in chemistry lessons at school. Between the heating of water and sugar to 120'C, the thickening of said sugar on standing, the change in form of the marshmallow mixture when beaten, and then setting of the mixture from liquid-gooey to solid-gooey...what more does a chemistry lesson need?

This picture did need to be included,
because this is a dish that invites one to dive in.

In my kitchen, there is a free calendar provided by a local chemist.

I am not usually one to use chemist-provided calendars, but this one is above average and the picture for February is particularly soothing on hot summer afternoons.


In my kitchen, there are soaked great northern beans and dry puy lentils.

Great Northern Beans, from Canada, apparently

These are the first puy lentils I have bought and I am looking forward to trying them.

Puy lentils, from the Le Puy region of France, because that's how they roll

They are also the first lentil variety that I am deeming beautiful. Truly, gorgeously beautiful.

In my kitchen, there is a new cereal, bought on a whim whilst on special.

I quite like it. Mostly for snacking, though, rather than breakfast-ing.

In my kitchen, there is a renewed love affair with quinoa. When I rediscovered couscous at the end of last year, quinoa seemed to drop off my grain rotation. I have now brought it back on high rotation.

Quinoa with salsa and chilli flavoured kidney beans

My quinoa love affair has also been taken to new heights by the combination of quinoa and star anise. Thank you to those of you who left advice (or just comments of enthusiasm) on my recent star anise purchase. You are all right. It is divine. I adore it.

Star anise flavoured quinoa. Oh, the deliciousness.

In my kitchen, or at least adjoining it, there will soon be a bike. This is because I am not the bike repair person in this house, and having a bike inside the house (normally Not Allowed Never At All) seems a worthwhile trade off for someone fixing my bike.

Why the bike fixing? After riding into a fence a week ago, temporarily interfering with my bike chain and with the intactness of my leg, this week I blew my back tyre about 10 minutes from home. Please note that the 10 minutes from home refers to cycling time. It turns out that 10 minutes in cycling time is more like 40 minutes in walking-your-bike-home time.

Riding my bike into a fence was the consequence of trying to re-arrange fresh produce in my bike basket while riding. After my tyre difficulties this week, our fruit and vegetables were purchased with a car, and came home in a box.

And so, in my kitchen, there is also a box worth of fruit and vegetables and a fridge filled with watermelon, rockmelon and grapes.

What is happening in your kitchen?

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Loving this week {January 2013}

I am linking this into cityhippyfarmgirl's 'loving this week' post for January. Her 'loving' posts are about the little moments in your days and weeks that have tickled your heart.

Here are my recent loves for January.

Agapanthus on my walk to work.

Pink smoothies from frozen watermelon (also pineapple, rockmelon, banana and almond milk).

Les Misérables, again! With Mr Bite! 

Who ever knew that would happen? 

After much convincing, Mr B accepted this might be one musical he really should see. I watched it a second time with acute awareness of all the things he might not like (but still loved it myself), so was relieved when he gave it a 7.5 / 10 rating. The earlier scenes were deemed "slow", but the latter half with barricade excitement made the film scrape through as acceptable overall.

Groupon present deliveries, thanks to the Groupon voucher I won late last year from Cassandra at Food is my Friend (thanks again Cass!).

My new items include a cake / icing decorating set (complete with letter stencils) and a measuring bowl that does volume as well as weight.

The best vanilla frozen yoghurt ever.

This isn't vegan, but it is really, really good. It has the tartness of natural yoghurt with the sweetness of vanilla, and it is hands down the best 'hard' frozen yoghurt (not soft serve) that I've had.

Lemon juice in water.

I'm not sure why it took me so long to catch on to this. I'm not concerned with the putative health benefits, but love it for the taste!


What are you loving this week?

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In my kitchen - January 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 two limes, waiting to be used in a recipe in Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Meals.

After enjoying the TV series of the same name, Mr Bite bought me the book for Christmas and I love everything about it. I love that I may actually be able to make the recipes within half an hour (something I never managed with Jamie's 30 minute meals!), I love the approach taken to fresh, nutritious and enjoyable food, and I love that even the 'meat' dishes include decent vegetable sides and/or so many vegetables you can take the meat out and still have a meal.

In my kitchen, there is another cookbook, by one of the owners of the Leon chain of restaurants in the UK. We ate lunch at a Leon in London and the (unphotographed) food was superb. Mr Bite rated his vegetable soup and flat bread as 10 / 10, and I enjoyed a 'superfoods' salad with broccoli, peas, cucumber, avocado, quinoa, mint, parsley, and toasted seeds. Super indeed.

When I found the book online, I couldn't resist buying it as a joint Christmas present for both of us.

In my kitchen, there are brown rice crackers with black pepper and sesame. I like them a lot.

In my kitchen, the grout has recently been scrubbed (I have bruises on my knees to show for it), and there are clean windows, a clean microwave, and an externally clean fridge. I have yet to get to cleaning the inside of the fridge...

Inside that fridge, there is a whole shelf taken up with chocolate. With the weather being warm, and bonus chocolate appearing over Christmas, we have reached new territory in chocolate storage difficulties. Fortunately, those are the sorts of difficulties I don't mind.

In my kitchen, there are new spice jars to try and streamline the chaos that can be my pantry.

Before - shelves installed November 2011

After - twice as many small jars in the same amount of space

The small jars now hold, moving across each row from the top left, crushed peanuts, pinenuts, dessicated coconut, crystallised ginger, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, carob powder, poppy seeds, dried ginger, dried basil, cumin, sea salt, chile chipotle powder (still thanks to Mel!), and dried parsley. Goji berries sit between the dates and raw almonds on the right.

In my kitchen, there are also new large jars, to hold, amongst other things, the dry legumes that form part of my 2013 resolutions.

On the bottom level are dried chickpeas, barley, and black eyed peas; in the middle are yellow split peas, cashews, and great northern beans; and on top are currants and sultanas. 

I have been enjoying the chickpeas this week, and have taken delight both in the process of cooking them and in their larger size relative to tinned chickpeas.

In my kitchen, there is a rare box of commercial icey poles - Frosty Fruits in lemon, lime and bitters flavour.

 The ingredient list may leave a bit to be desired, but they are enjoyably lemon, lime and bittery.

In my kitchen, there is also real frozen fruit, of the watermelon, rock melon and pineapple variety. These complement my freezer staples of frozen bananas and frozen berries. It turns out that frozen watermelon with frozen banana gives a surprisingly delicious smoothie.

What is happening in your kitchen this month?

Thank you to Celia for hosting this event.

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