in the kitchen

Don't think that I am morphing into some amazing culinary wonder woman.

I'm not.

I just go through phases, and at the moment the phase is cooking and baking.

I think it is some kind of evasion technique.  There is a whole house to pack and I'd rather do any thing else than make that start, so I'm hiding in the kitchen.  No one is complaining, because they are getting to eat all of my efforts, and they've been pretty good efforts.

I've ventured into the world of fruit leather, which is not kinky as it may sound.  It's basically pureed fruit spread on a baking sheet and baked on the lowest heat for about five hours.  I followed the instructions here and honestly, it was easy.  Best thing is they are 100% fruit, and you can get all creative with fruit combinations.  We made a strawberry and banana, and a banana, nectarine and cranberry.  The first one was surprisingly sour and the second much sweeter.  I used dried cranberries so maybe this was why.  I didn't strain the seeds but I did skin the nectarines.  They lasted until mid morning.

Next up was an Apple and Cinnamon cake.  Except I had no apple juice, so it became a maple syrup and cinnamon cake topped with apple slices and it was really lovely.  So good that we had temper tantrums when there was none left.

Toffee apples.  Again not much to think about here, just made a batch of Delia's toffee and stuck the apples in.  Put the left over toffee into a muffin tin. Big mistake as it is near impossible to get out.  Bashed it around the kitchen like a crazy person, and then reheated the rest in the oven for a few minutes.  Kids then played with this in its soft state and sculpted with it.  Another art medium accidentally discovered.  Obviously, they weren't playing with boiling molten toffee, I'm not that crazy/ mean.

In case you're worried about our teeth with all this sweet stuff, I also made several soups, a veggie paella and a curry which are all in the freezer.  This in itself was a pointless move as I need to defrost it in a couple of weeks so we'll have to hurry up and eat the contents, but at least I'm stocked up when I do finally get into the packing zone and need an easy tea to cook.

I'm hoping packing inspiration strikes soon, or it could all get very last-minute-panicky round these parts.

There are no pictures of these efforts.  I realise there should be, but I've got a fear of taking my camera into the kitchen.  I tried with the toffee:

But then the lens steamed up and I got all panicky, so you'll just have to take my word for it.