In My Kitchen – November, discovering food in the Tropical North & some celebrations
Hello there, time again for the monthly recap of what’s been going on In My Kitchen & finding out what’s been going on in yours.  I have discovered the local farmers markets and have been introduced to some weird and wonderful tropical fruits of both the human and plant kind, had some celebrations and started the house renovation!  We’ve only been here 4 weeks!
Things in the tropical north seem to be super sized, take this cucumber…
each slice was the size of a piece of bread
so we decided to go royal and have “cucumber sandwiches”!
Have you ever heard of or seen a black sapote? Â I had not. Apparently it’s also known as the “chocolate pudding fruit”, low in fat and high in Vitamin C. Â It’s related to the custard apple and persimmion.
It’s ripe when it’s gone soft and you just scoop out the inside, I fluffed it up in the Thermomix to make it smooth and it was recommended to eat with cream or ice cream or with rum & vanilla or all together!  It was surprisingly nice.
A real bush character from the Burdekin sold us this “Cane Toad Egg” melon on the promise that it tastes like a cross between a honeydew & rockmelon…
and it does! Â We’ve frozen some for summer sorbets.
We’ve got a “Mango Melon” to try this week and an abundance of radishes and passionfruit. Â I’m very open to suggestions as to what to do with it all.
Being in the tropical north there are, of course, pineapples coming out our ears too.
I have made a new friend in my kitchen
not really, every time I see one I jump out of my skin, there is a lot of jumping going on!  This particular gecko seems to love it above the wine glasses, I’m keeping them upside down for a reason too! Apparently it will be a losing battle to get rid of them, for such small little creatures they are very loud.  I’m so looking forward to the new kitchen where everything will be behind doors, speaking of which the walls are going up for the new pantry.
The wall on the left side will come out (the current kitchen is behind it) and a staircase is going in with a big glass wall out to the view. Â I’m really excited as I’ve never had a walk in pantry before.
October is a big birthday month at BE&S with mine & GT’s plus GT’s parents wedding anniversary. Â I served up the platter in the top photo when his parents came over for drinks, IÂ found the recipe for the baked brie with pear and honey on a King Island Dairy recipe card – it’s so delicious and very easy.
The girls made me a cake with the help of my MIL and GT got 2 from us as well
you have to be quick with a Malteaser Ice Cream cake in the north or it will become a puddle very quickly. Â I whipped up my Lemon Pound Cake too, a pretty bundt tin always makes a cake look fab don’t you think?
On the every day side of things – our toaster went AWOL in the move for a bit so I was glad when I was sent this one to review.
My dinner link up Your Weekly Feed is ticking along. Â I’ve served up;
Nearly Peri Peri Baked Fish (no chilli which is why it’s only nearly)!
Bacon, Egg & Roasted Sweet Potato Frittata to name a couple (that was before the news came out about bacon, ham & processed meats being so bad for you, what do you think about all that?).
And then to end on a sweet note my new friend Tracey brought around these amazingly delicious florentines and she didn’t even know that they were my favourites!
Yum!
I write an IMKÂ post each month as part of Celia of Fig Jam & Lime Cordials In My Kitchen Link Up where food lovers all around the world share what’s being going on in their kitchens, pop on over to take a look. Â I’m also linking up with Essentially Jess because it’s Tuesday and I love #IBOT too and so many interesting things to read about on Tuesdays.
Love how you are embracing life in NQ. I would name my Geckos. Brocky lived on my kitchen window for a long time. You will learn the distinct smell of a Gecko that has unfortunately come to a squishy end too. ?
Brocky, love it will have to start giving them names too – first one can be Wino, followed by his friend Mitsu who lives behind an air con! I think we may have a friendly possum too – am looking forward to when all the holes in the house are boarded up!
Wow – so much! I love the look of that pantry – very envious. Those Florentines look incredible too!
The florentines were delish. I’m very excited about the pantry too. Thanks so much for stopping by. x
Wow super sized fruit – so jealous of the abundance of pineapples! Oh your kitchen pantry is going to be amazingly large, how exciting!! x
I’m a bit worried I may have supersized the pantry too but we will see! Can’t have too much storage. x
That cucumber?!? WHAT THE HECK! Those cucumber sandwiches were a great idea though, and very cute. Oh, and I can’t wait to see the finished pics when your pantry is done – I loved your recent post with the before and afters of the house. I’m such an interiors tragic!
Everything is supersized up here. I think bedroom reveals next if the blinds ever arrive! x
What, what a round up… love all those photos… and what about that cucumber…
The cucumbers are absolutely enormous my girls won’t eat normal sized ones now!
It’s a wonderful time of year, with all the tasty fruit coming into season. I have to say that some of yours were unfamiliar to me, like the sapote. Is it always black? It’s the good thing about being able to peek into other people’s kitchens!
They were unfamiliar to me too. I think there are yellow and white sapotes too but they have a different flavour.
I had black sapote ice cream when we were in Cairns and it was delicious! So many delicious fruits up here, have fun with them! And wow – that is a seriously huge cucumber!!!
Seriously huge! I’m not usually a big fruit eater but I’m loving giving everything a go. x
Pantry envy! I love geckos but not necessarily in the kitchen. Someone else had an IMK toaster to review and I thought at first it was a reference to Celia, hoe ironic is that? Love the tropical feel, thanks. Maree.
Yep, there’s no way to get rid of those geckos. Welcome to Queensland 🙂 I can’t get over the size of that cucumber. I would love to have a sandwich like that!! #teamIBOT
I’m slowly coming to terms with the geckos! x
That is the daddy of all the cucumbers. I know Jo from Quirky Cooking cooks a lot with those black sapotes! What an awesome round up – time really must fly by when you’re having fun, I can’t believe it’s been four weeks already. Hope everyone enjoyed the birthday bonhomie and that no one got a gekko in their wine glass! You’re a braver woman than I , Vicki! I can’t wait to see the walk in larder!
I’m not sure about brave but I have to pick my battles – if it was a spider it would be long gone with every can of spray on it possible! The pantry is even bigger than I expected!!!
Jealous of your pantry. I never did try the chocolate pudding fruit or some of those unusual melons when we lived in Townsville. Sounds like it is quite the adventure already.
Seems like lots of people have lived in Townsville! I’m putting the melons into juices and smoothies. Thanks so much for stopping by.
Hehehe I love the gecko on the roof! So many cool thing to eat in FNQ! AND I am totally jealous of your new pantry!!
I’m a tad excited about the pantry I have to say, not so much with the geckos!
Florentinmes are my fave too. A very nice gift indeed. I am looking at your pantry skeleton with envy and trying to figure out how I can re-jig my kitchen to incorporate a sensible pantry. All the tropical fruits are lovely- you bring the heat of the north into our kitchens in the south.
We were lucky that there was some empty space to put the pantry in so I’m going for it! I’m keen to try all that the north has to offer while we are here (could do without some of the bugs though!).
Wow. Your kitchen is chock-full of goodies. Green with envy at all your lovely fruit.
I was never a big fruit eater before but now I’m willing to try everything!
Oh wow look at you up there in the north becoming a Queenslander. Life does look very tropical indeed for you. Some great discoveries this month and some exciting building.
It is very tropical, quite a different way of living which I wasn’t fully expecting but am embracing it!
I love farmer’s markets. I suffer withdrawals if I can’t get to me local, and always search out framer’s markets whenever I travel. I love the sound of the quiche. I’m not getting too stressed about the bacon thing. Got to die of something. May as well be bacon 😀
I agree and bacon is too good to miss out on! Thanks for stopping by
Hi Vicki, what a wonderful tropical bounty you have in your kitchen. But I do love that gecko the most 🙂
Have just discovered a visiting possum too. It also likes the tropical fruit!
Wow those are some wonderful fruits, many new to me. And how about that cucumber, I could really enjoy that!
It’s fun discovering all these new things, I was never very adventurous in trying fruits before but I am now!
Now THAT’s a cucumber. I haven’t gone through all the comments and I’m sure someone has mentioend it but did you know that you can smoosh the black sapote and then freeze it so it’s like chocolate icecream? Good luck with the renovations. I’m starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel here. Can’t wait to use an oven again!
I will have to try that with the black sapote next time – I just swirled it through ice cream this time. I look forward to seeing your end result with your reno.
Vicki, thanks for this tropical tour! (Enjoyed your remodeling photos, too — thanks for the link — LOVE what you’ve done/are doing with the place.) Most, if not all, of your IMK offerings this month are unfamiliar to me — exotic looking and sounding, and I appreciate your assessments of same. Oh drat! Between typing that and printing off your scrumptious frittata and fish and Florentines recipes (I’m so easily distracted, LOL) I’ve had to “do over” and hopefully you won’t get duplicate comments. Soooo many good things going on there!
Thanks so much Kim, there certainly is an abundance of exotic looking foods up here and everything seems to be supersized too including the bugs! I hope you like all the meals too. Thanks so much for stopping by
I just went to your about page to see where you have moved to, as geckos, large cucumbers, pineapples and black sapote are all familiar to me. We’re in North Queensland too 🙂 I hope you have an air-con in your new house – we lived with it on in Townsville during summer. Enjoy the mangoes and lychees you’ll have in abundance down there at the moment, I’ve missed them since moving off the coast as they just aren’t the same up here.
Your cakes look delicious as does that fritatta, I think I’ll have to subscribe to your lovely blog!
Sarah x
Thank you Sarah – the air con man was just finishing up fitting the last of the units today – just in time as the humidity is kicking in!
Hi Vicki, your ‘cane toad egg’ melon looks very similar to a piel de sapo melon. All green-ish and lumpy on the outside but beautifully sweet and melony inside. I love the look of the chocolate pudding dessert! sounds like something right out of Willy Wonka 🙂
I was wondering what the real name of melon would be – sounds like the piel de sapo which I’ve also not heard of before!
you will be amazed the tiny spaces a gecko can get thru! they are always everywhere, as is their poo – as you may know by now:) Black sapotes make great icecream; you can whizz them up with spices and put them into icy pole moulds. delish! that frittata is making me very hungry..
They are everywhere and yes have discovered that so is their poo! I’m have to experiment more with the sapotes that sounds great with spices