5 December 2016

In My Kitchen in December

December is always a busy time in the kitchen, there's a lot of cooking and baking going on, and don't forget the eating! I'm trying to think what to cook on actual Christmas, but also cooking loads of seasonal food just because it's nice to eat in this season. I have collected some of my recent purchases here, some of which can also be good Christmas present options. There is quite a strong hedgehog theme going on in this post as well. I'm very excited to see what's going on in your kitchens as well.

Of course we had to have Advent Calendars to have this lovely ritual of opening a door every day. I got a nice animal picture one and also a Mikkeller beer advent calendar for my partner.




I recently spotted these wonderful hedgehog tea towels, candles and tray, which I bought for myself for the kitchen. I have the feeling that they will be seen a lot on the blog, one of the tea towels was already in yesterday's post.





Books are always brilliant Christmas presents, I think, so I've collected here some of my current favourites. I absolutely love Matt Sewell's artwork and his new book A Charm of Goldfinches & Other Collective Nouns. Just look at those beautiful hedgehog depictations!



I'm also a fan of Erin Gleeson. Her cookbooks have simple, but good looking and tasty recipes and her illustrations are a joy to look at. Her new book The Forest Feast Gatherings concentrates on dinner parties for every season with very useful hints and tips.





James Morton's Brew book could be a good present idea for aspiring brewers and beer friends.


On the food side there's also a lot happening. I ordered a proud box full of Hodmedod's beans, peas and quinoa. These products are really excellent and I can't wait to cook more with them. This also reminds me of My Legume Love Affair, a vegan and vegetarian legume-themed cooking challenge that I'm hosting this month. Have a look here and take part with your recipe! 
 




Now 'tis the season for eating loads of nuts, and indeed I have spotted some lovely Christmas nuts in the shops, some of which will be presents and others will be eaten straight away.



This Brittany butter with sea salt crystals has been my favourite cooking butter for a while now, and I think that it's very suitable to use in some Christmas creations.


Christmas is always a good time to donate to charities. Sometimes even by drinking beer you can contribute to a good cause. I bought this tasty Warbler beer supporting Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.


Vecon concentrated vegetable stock has very quickly become one of my cooking favourites. It makes a tasty vegetable stock and adds good savouriness to many dishes. I think that it will be extra handy for some vegetarian Christmas cooking.


I'm sharing this post with the December edition of In My Kitchen hosted by Lizzy from Good Things.

Your VegHog

14 comments:

  1. Hi there. I love the hedgehogs, so sweet! Thank you for the peek into your kitchen and the very kind shout out. Happy December to you and yours xx

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    1. Thank you! Have also a great December and thanks for hosting! :)

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  2. Lots of hedgehog things in your kitchen indeed. h lots of dried beans and pulses, yum. I have seen that Forest Gathering Cookbook at the bookshop is is beautifully photographed. I liked Brittany Butter with sea sat when i went to Brittany and was so pleased ot find some here, but it just never tasted the same - i think some food tastes better when on holiday, like tomatoes in the Med. unless of course you've grown them yourself. PSWe hae a couple of chaffinches in the garden, they are so pretty.

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    1. Yes I suddenly found so many hedgehoggy things again... I would love to have the Brittany butter actually in Brittany, I'm sure it's amazing.

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  3. Your kitchen always has such fun stuff - Sylvia is quite into hedgehogs - wonder if I can find cute hedgehog stuff like yours here. I used to use vecon a bit but now just get lazy and use vegemite but vecon does have more flavours. The box of beans, peas and beans is pretty packaging and I hope you enjoy your advent calendars

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    1. I hope you find some cute hedgehog things for Sylvia. It's great that she likes hedgehogs. :)

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  4. Hedgehogs are so cute and helpless-looking that it's hard to believe the Romans raised them as food and thought they were a delicacy! Times change, don't they?

    my kitchen post is here: http://maefood.blogspot.com/2016/12/december-in-kitchen.html

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  5. Thank-you for sharing all your creative recipes and wee finds and treasures :) I have been following your blog for awhile and love reading your stories. If you don't mind my asking, did you buy the Mikkeller advent calendar in the UK?

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    1. Thank you for your comment and reading my blog! I ordered the Mikkeller advent calendar from their webshop in Denmark, but they ship really quickly to the UK and even the prices are okay.

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  6. So many special treats in your kitchen. Love the hedgehogs...and the books! Our children are opening their advent calendars this year as well and I got my own from a friend!

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  7. The hedgehog tray and towel are absolutely adorable! Your cookbooks look wonderful, the flatbread recipe with zucchini sounds great.

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  8. yum to the salted butter. i am having an absolute thing about hedgehogs at the moment. i am seeing them everywhere. well not in real life cos we don't have them in australia:) but they just keep popping up all over the place. have a marvellous xmas.

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