Here is my festive offering! As the kitchen has been somewhat hectic I had to keep it simple: shredded wheat, chocolate and mini eggs. They still look cute though.
So this is what the kitchen looked like before we started on it. To be fair to it there wasn't really anything wrong with it, so much as it was quite worn out, and the layout wasn't really the best use of space. For example, the fridge was behind the door so if you had the fridge door open and someone came in the fridge door, you would squash them between the doors!
There was also some space for more cupboards and storage areas and it was a pain that I couldn't reach the top shelves of the cupboards. So actually there were quite a few things 'wrong' with the kitchen!
For a the last week we've been redecorating our kitchen! Well, I say we, but I have been more of a dogsbody/observer. DIY isn't exactly something I am competant at but I will give it a go. I'll post some pictures of the finished room when it's a bit more finished.
The best thing about the new almost finished kitchen is new oven. It is a real giant! In the guidebook it says that you can cook 4 roast chickens at one time in each oven. Since there's only 2 of us and a cat I am not sure how many chickens we can eat but it's good to know I suppose! I've really missed having a functioning kitchen but in reality it's only been out of action for a week. We're lucky that so many people have given us a helping hand.
Yes today I celebrate my silver birthday: I'm 25! Officially in my mid-20s. Oddly it seems only yesterday I turned 20 but my parents always told me that time goes faster as you get older.
I spent a few happy hours going around the Japanese food shops and treated myself to some nice delicaces. I ended up coming home and attempting to make shabu shabu style pork. It's traditionally a broth which is heated at the table and people cook meat, fish and veggies in it, rather like the European fondue. Sadly I do not have a flame for the broth so instead I cooked the veggies beforehand and then the broth was so hot and the meat SO fine that it cooked in the residual heat. We had mushrooms, purple sprouting broccoli leaves, glass noodles (made of sweet potato) and TOFU! Yes, tofu was back on the menu. It was so tasty.
However I felt it was time to expand my tofu eating habits as it's so good for you and it features a lot in the Japanese cookbooks I've been reading. On Sunday I bought a piece of fresh tofu and cooked it as a tofu "steak". It was divine! Just rolled it in some seasoned flour and then shallow fried it in garlic oil. We ate it with spiced miso soup, steamed rice, pickles and stir-fried veggies. Honestly, it's a wonder I bother with meat at all, it was so tasty. I never knew tofu could be so scrummy.
I made this pumpkin pie with a squash because, to me, it tastes so similar in something like this. I cooked a squash a few weeks ago and didn't manage to eat it before it went bad, so I was determined this wouldn't happen again. I cooked the squash, let it cool and then pushed it through a sieve to make it really smooth. Who wants lumps in their pumpkin pie?
