This little family is growing. It seemed the original two on the left, wanted a sibling. Can you see the family resemblance? If we find space in the cup cupboard, we may have to add a fourth.

 

 

Also, this month, there was an unexpected guest that came calling around dinner time.

I saw him, from my kitchen window but didn’t invite him to tea…inhospitable though it may seem. A deadly Western Brown snake may not eat much, but they can certainly ruin a meal!

This was a baby, but they are still deadly. The snake handler came and captured it, to be released out bush. We’ve had a few of them over the years, the largest of which was IN the house. We are grateful for good snake handling services here.

Most of the kitchen activities at the moment are focused around a food elimination diet I’ve needed to pursue. Don’t the food Gods know I’m part of the IMK group and still need to eat well?? A challenge is usually a good thing, and my challenge has been to enjoy life and eat well, despite the elimination program. A recent post explains a little further, if you care to read here.

 

 

It’s not my first brush with food tolerance issues, so I do have some skills in this area. Keeping one’s diet simple and pure is really the challenge. Being able to make things like almond milk, to replace dairy, and mayonnaise to replace the store bought one, have both been necessary. Though the first almond milk recipe was rather ghastly, I learned an important thing. When you soak the blanched almonds, drain and rinse them. Don’t be tempted to use the water in which they’ve soaked to make the milk. Bleah. The recipe said to do this and even when I used bottled water the taste was still rather bitter. That’s because the bitterness leaches out of the almonds when you soak them. Duh. The stuff nearly drove me to quit drinking coffee–but I’m stubbornly holding on to my one cup a day! The recipe I later adopted and slightly modified to my liking is here. It doesn’t moo, but it’s not bad.

The mayonnaise was such a fast and magical creation I forgot to photograph the process, but I have just learned that Celia has a very similar recipe and post, complete with photos, so I will refer you back to her for that one. It sure beats the old, laborious way of making mayonnaise! Who thinks up these things? Home cooks like us??

 

 

 

 

While leaving out a number of entire food groups it is wise to pay careful attention to the intake of whole food fats, as well as healthy vegetables and proteins. So we consume nuts. Such a burden, but someone has to keep the nut industry healthy. We do our part. I like to spread the support around, so I help the avocado industry as well.

I love paté, and, made properly, it is good for you; but I can’t eat the commercially prepared ones so I bought chicken livers and made my own. So nice! We had a ‘deli dinner’ one evening, with homemade paté.

Our wonderful butcher who provides grass fed beef loves to cut anything to suit your needs, so we had the most delicious slow cooked beef ribs you can imagine. And the neck bones they had made a delicious bone broth— look at that gelatine! (very good for the tummy!)

My favourite stewed, slow cooked chicken has been on the menu twice. Organic, free range chicken is just so tender and delicious. I use the broth to make vegetable soup, and put a few pieces of chicken in the top of it for a delicious and nutritious autumn meal.

Pssssst, you have to promise not to tell anyone… I’m sharing with you my very special secret to cooking salmon fillets on the grill. Fresh salmon with stir-fried or steamed vegetables is one of our favourite meals. Thanks for stopping by.

Life is good. And Celia’s monthly hosting of In My Kitchen posts, makes it better. Have a look here at some of the other kitchens around the world.

–Ardys