In My Kitchen in October

Lizzy from Good Things has taken over the In My Kitchen blogger challenge from Maureen, so I wanted to warmly welcome her as a new host! Go and pay a visit to her blog and also have a peek into other people's kitchens. I am posting here what's going on in my kitchen in October.

I have been cooking quite a lot with the homegrown produce from my balcony, especially the tomatoes and peppers have been productive and there have also been several good pattypan squashes. I should also dry some of the chillies soon. I have the feeling that there will still be quite a lot to eat from the balcony garden. This has been a very good year for urban gardening.

A cactus theme suddenly filled our home after we had paid a visit to our shopping centre's new Flying Tiger of Copenhagen shop, where I went crazy for this cute cactus design. We got a drinking jug, soft fleece blanket, post cards, gift bags and napkins in the same design, and there still would've been loads of other cute items. How would you find a cactus lamp in my kitchen?

Brewdog opened a new bar in our area in September, so we've obviously been keen customers there ever since. They have such a good craft beer selection themselves and their guest beers are always excellent. We had to buy this growler with which you can buy take out beer. It's such a good idea.

I finally got myself a spiraliser. Can you believe that as a vegetarian food blogger and keen cook, I haven't owned one before! I've been using my cutting knife so far that cuts thin strips, but now a whole new world opened to me with a better, more convenient spiraliser. As you can imagine I've been spiralising a lot of vegetables and my salads have never looked so appealing before. Braise yourselves for more spiralised dishes on the blog.

I have been eating loads of special limited edition grapes lately, like the Funny Fingers variety depicted here and the longish dark Sweet Sapphire variety. First I was a bit taken aback by their looks, but they turned out to be really tasty. They are such good additions to work lunch boxes and something refreshingly new and different.

Every time I see a novelty vegetable in the shop, I have to buy it. When I first detected a sweet sprouting cauliflower, it had to come home with me. I really like its mild flavour and versatility. I've been steaming, frying and roasting it and served it with pasta and potato dishes. It's a nice one for a change, if you're a bit tired of cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli.

This was it for this time. I hope that October will continue crisp and cool to get into the proper autumn feeling. It has still been a bit too warm here in Southern England.

Have a good weekend!

Your VegHog