The passed month in my kitchen has been interesting… in a good way.  Our weather cooled and dried out to glorious, for about two weeks, and so my energy for cooking returned with gusto.

My husband is a dab hand at the barbecue, so that leaves me to do things in the kitchen. It is a sharing of meal preparation that we did when first married but due to him travelling we had to abandon for many years.  Now we have returned to it and are both enjoying ourselves.  Steaks and corn on the grill are a favourite.  I usually try to buy an extra ear of corn, or two, so that I can cut it off the cob after it’s grilled and make this delicious salad.  I saw it in a magazine at the hairdresser and never got an exact copy of it, but generally it goes something like this:

•  Mixed lettuce leaves and baby spinach leaves with the following:
•  cherry tomatoes
•  cucumber
•  red capsicum (bell pepper)
•  feta cheese
•  fresh sliced chilli
•  corn, cooked and cut from the cob
•  toasted pine nuts (optional, my husband doesn’t care for them, but I love them)
•  olive oil, salt, and squeeze of fresh lemon juice OR balsamic vinegar

I made grain-free granola (which I’m pretty sure is a contradiction in terms…) cereal. (I am gluten intolerant, as well as a few other things)  It is all nuts and seeds and pretty full on and so I seldom eat it as a cereal but as a topping on yogurt or Quark/cottage cheese, with some berries, or something like that.

I revisited some old favourites, cauliflower cheese with the leftover free range ham we had in the freezer from Christmas, taco salad, layered veggie casserole and created a new version of stuffed mushrooms.  I didn’t use any packet mixes for anything in these, but they are all simple to make. I am trying to focus our diet on very healthy vegetables, protein and whole food fats.  Don loved the stuffed mushrooms. The links above are for the recipes, if you are interested.

We consume a lot of vegetables, and if you haven’t seen or tried them, I highly recommend these green vegetable bags for helping keep your vegetables fresh a bit longer.  They save me having to go to the grocery quite as often. Here in Alice I get them from Coles grocery, but you may have to hunt around to find another supplier in your local area.

I will leave you with the highlight of our month…not from my kitchen, but from the kitchen of good friends (with permission)… dinner at Casa-Lena.  Casa-Lena is named for her mother who passed away a year ago this month.  Theirs is a Mexican Hacienda style home they have lovingly built at the edge of town… in the bush, and the quiet. At night all you hear is the occasional dog barking in the distance. The stars are so brilliant you want to lie on your back and watch them appear. First Venus, then Orion’s belt, then the Southern Cross and finally the entire arm of the Milky Way unfurls above.  It is a light show, unparalleled, on a clear summer night.

The meal was amazing, grilled scallops and prosciutto, barbecued pork belly, roasted carrots and pumpkin (butternut squash) with rocket, pear and toasted walnut salad.  Died and gone to heaven, am living among the stars.

Happy days and starry nights to you.

(Many thanks to Celia at figjamandlimecordial.com for hosting the IMK series.  Why not pop on over there to read some other interesting accounts of what is going on in people’s kitchens from around the world?)