A little kitchen action

Our kitchen has been a hive of activity lately...starting with a major pantry overhaul.  I know I know, it's a bit sad how happy having a tidy pantry makes me feel (and sadder still that I feel compelled to blog about it). Ben gave me one of those raised eyebrow expressions when I announced one Saturday evening that I was going to attack the pantry. Who decides to clean out a pantry on a Saturday at 6pm? Me of course!

Here's how the kitchen bench looked when I unloaded everything. Yep, I felt like I'd dug myself a BIG hole at this stage in the project.

Of course there was no turning back from that point. Have you ever started something to only feel regret about 10 minutes later...at which point you have no choice but to keep going?

Ah, but check out the end result...nothing makes me happier than an organised space!

My storage jars don't match, which is a bit of a bug-bare, but jars are hard to come by on Norfolk. I had to work with what I had, which meant raiding Ben's Vacola jar collection, and scouring the local op shop and second-hand store. It's such a pleasure having a pantry where everything has it's place.  Cooking becomes less of a chore (well a little bit less of a chore).

Also keeping me busy lately is our kefir production.  This family can't seem to get enough of the stuff.  Even Ben, who was a little wary when I first started making it, is totally addicted to this tasty miraculous healthy golden beverage. I've been researching and trying out different methods for flavouring our kefir. At the moment we all agree kefir fermented with dried cranberries, apricots and figs is delicious!!!

Look at those happy thriving kefir grains - they multiply before our eyes!

Something else I'm now making on a weekly basis is almond milk. It's easy to make and super nutritious. Fresh cows milk is expensive here as it's flown in weekly from New Zealand.  Making almond milk is proving to be quite economical, plus doesn't have quite the same carbon footprint. Once strained, I use the left over almond meal in baking, milkshakes and pretty much anything. It can even be blended again several times to make more almond milk!

Soaked  blanched almonds in the blender - waiting for the water to be added

Stored in the fridge, almond milk will keep for up to a week!

And once bottled, it looks just like cows milk. Only I think it tastes better (but then I've never liked cows milk anyway).  Give it a try, you won't be disappointed!