In My Kitchen: May 2022

Time is passing so quickly! April was a difficult month as my father went into lockdown in Shanghai. The lockdown there has been insane - all shops closed, no food delivery and a huge uncertainty over how they would feed themselves. I slept very badly during April and haven't been cooking as much. But let's take a look at what happened.. 

It was the season of hot cross buns... 

This was the first batch of the season - sourdough vegan hot cross buns with a maple syrup glaze. The first batch was for the nurses on a weekend shift. 

Once I realised how good this recipe was, I tested it out again with chocolate chips - a winner! I took these to a lunch with some friends. 

In normal times I may have tried a different recipe, but I just didn't have the energy so I stuck with the same recipe a third time for when my high school friends came to visit. It was really fun making these together, even if we miscounted the number of buns! 

Also in my kitchen...

I think when I feel stressed I always want to make things with my hands. So I made this huge batch of wontons stuffed with homegrown chives and vegetarian mince. 

I also made this torta pasqualina - a traditional Italian Easter pie with spinach & ricotta. I wanted to make a pastiera but no shops were open on Easter Sunday and I didn't have eggs! I did manage to make ricotta from 2L milk I bought from the servos.. 

One of the nurses gave me this giant sweet potato! I was carrying it around on the ward round so another nurse swaddled it for me like my newborn - what a good size! 

Onto the food and music series...

Well there hasn't been much music since my string quartet disbanded - the other violinist is worried about Covid and is not doing any social events, and the violist has moved back to the UK. She came back to visit for a few weeks though and we finally got to catch up along with the cellist.. just the three of us so we played string trios.

We had a loaf of my sourdough, just like the "Good Old Days" and enjoyed it with the Beethoven string trio Op 9 No. 3 in C minor (I think that's the best one), the Op 3 string trio as well as some of the Bach's 3 part inventions to keep us grounded. 

My friend from the Gold Coast was visiting Newcastle and we had a dinner together, probably our last musical evening before I leave for Canada. We played the Mozart D major violin concerto and the first movement of the Beethoven Kreutzer sonata... It was pretty messy :) but a lot of fun! Here was the Battenburg cake I made to commemorate the occasion. 

The curveball... 

Well I have two curveballs this month - hope it's allowed Sherry! The first is the amazing bread "shop" on Bruny Island by the Bruny Island baker. He makes sourdough every morning and drops it off in these two ancient fridges. It's an honesty system - $10 for a sourdough loaf and 2 anzac biccies. What a spectacular location! I've been making a little "Australia bucket list" for my last month in Australia and Tasmania / MONA / Bruny Island was on top of the list. 

The other curveball is here - I've been wanting to share some music with you, as many of you have left such lovely encouraging comments. Here is S and I playing the first movement of a Mozart violin sonata. We had only played through it once before making the recording, so there are lots of mistakes, but I think it's obvious how much talent he has as a violinist and how much positive energy we have as a couple. It is quite extraordinary, if I may say so myself! 

Sending this to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings who hosts the monthly In My Kitchen event - thanks for hosting Sherry!