In My Kitchen is a wonderful monthly series hosted by Celia from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.  Head over to her blog for a full list of the participants, and find out what’s happening in kitchens across the globe.

I’ve travelled to my parents’ kitchen and garden this month, so this post has a rather lusher and more tropical feel than wintery Canberra.  In our kitchens (and gardens) this month…

I was cooking down the fridge ahead of our trip away and there’s always a bit of stress associated with that, but I managed to make quite a few useful and yummy things from the bits and pieces in the fridge this time.  It always makes me happy to avoid waste!

I dried out bits of my old sourdough bread (not just from the last week I hasten to add!) and whizzed them up for homemade breadcrumbs;

turned some leftover porridge into pikelets;

made apple butter with slightly bruised apples;

roasted a few small parsnips to nibble on;

grilled slightly wrinkled eggplant and capsicum to top pizzas that made dinner, plus lunch on the way;

roasted the last two tomatoes, also for our pizza;

and made Irish brown bread to take with us on the trip…

I also took with us some organic eye fillet from our lovely butcher at Eco Meats at Belconnen Markets, and prepared some truly delicious beef carpaccio which the family polished off four platters of…

I’ve brought back some beautiful macadamias from my parent’s garden.  Here is the tree…

The clever dehydrator that sits on their deck…

and some beautiful, almost dry, macadamias…

I also bought some macadamia products from nearby Nambucca Macnuts – macadamia oil and macadamia honey spread…

I bought some delicious local north coast yoghurt made with local fresh fruit and other ingredients – I got mango, and coffee and macadamia, but they also had lemon myrtle, passionfruit, coconut and pineapple crush, and lots of other yummy combinations…

Unlike my little baby trees, mum and dad’s citrus trees are loaded with fruit, so I’ve come back with bags of mandarins, limes and lemonade fruit from their wonderful orchard…

I also spent a very enjoyable hour browsing through some of their old cookbooks that I remember being fascinated by as a child, including the incredible L’Art culinaire moderne, (not looking quite so modern today!)…

And its incredibly elaborate platings…

It’s been lovely to spend some time with family, enjoy great food, and have some warmer weather too!

What’s in your kitchen (or garden) this month?