January 2025 and missing in action!
Having been a part of In My Kitchen since its inception, I felt I had let myself down by not posting at the beginning of January 2025. But, it is what it is. I had planned on doing an hour’s work each day on my laptop. But I ran out of steam! And I ran out of enthusiasm when an entire recipe was not saved, and I had thrown away my notes! This month has not been much better, as we have been chasing our tails at work, playing catch up on a continuous basis. I am usually so organized that I can do my #IMK post well before the time. And this month I am only a few days ahead of myself. So, let’s take a look back at the recipes I shared.
First, the December recipes
I made a rose hip cold infusion while perfecting a recipe for a friend. For Saturday lunch I made Dave and I green eggs and ham, and a pickled onion focaccia. For the foccacia I first had to make quick pickled red onions. I also made a salted lime hummus which made for a great dip, and date choc nut bars to see me through the madness that is December at work. Dinner one night was black garlic pasta with a light tomato sauce.
Moving on to January
Every day should be dessert day in my opinion! Sadly, my waist line and the scale do not agree with me. But, for treats this month we had blueberry marshmallow mousse, mint rocky road, and cardamom ice cream served with souskluitjies. The final concoction for my friend was the rose infusion which she loved. Dave and I enjoyed aubergine curry one night, and venison rubbed with spiced salt and served with a coriander compound butter, on another evening.
Changes coming
I have run out of disc space on my blog! This means going back and checking that each photograph is only uploaded once. The duplicates of which there are probably plenty, have to be deleted. And, I stopped compressing my images a while back and so all of those need to be deleted, compressed and uploaded again. Plus, I just cannot have two photographs per post. So, a lot of editing has to be done. Hopefully all my editing works. But, if you stumble upon a post with a funny symbol for a missing photo, you know why. I will also change my posting date of the #IMK post to be within the first week of the month. So, I will be sharing one less recipe each month, as long as I have something to review. And if not, then the recipe count will stay the same.
One new thing in my kitchen in January 2025
I had a plastic sieve from when I first moved into a home alone in 1994. Last year, while making pasta for Hannah, I melted part of it. Clearly gas burners and plastic are not friends. I decided to replace it, and bought a nesting pair of sieves. One was to be used to make Hannah pasta, but sadly I doubt that will ever happen again! Her mother ghosted me, and then told a lie to her husband, saying I had posted something on Facebook that I had not posted. The result is that Hannah has not been to visit us for nearly a year. And my heart is so sore. But, this is not the place for being unhappy, and the sieves have been used for baking, which always brings joy.

This is my February submission to the #IMK series hosted by Sherry. Each month bloggers around the world gather to share what is new in their kitchens.
See the links below for blog posts I published on February 1:
- 2024: January 2024 Showcasing In My Kitchen
- 2023: January 2023 Showcasing In My Kitchen
- 2021: Butterscotch Soft Serve
- 2019: Vegan Ice Cream
- 2017: January 2017 Showcasing In My Kitchen
- 2016: Mandy’s Salad Dressing
- 2013: January and February 2013 In My Kitchen
- 2012: February 2012 Showcasing In My Kitchen
- 2011: Scallop Pizza
I have those metal sieves too…don’t like plastic stuff at all. P.S how can you blog if your blog disc space is running out? Do you have to pay for it?
I pay for my blog each month and the amount of disc space was increased and costs more 🙂
For some reason I too have not gotten it together for Dec and Jan to participate in IMK which I usually join in. I hoping possibly to still be able to join for Feb. I also had a few post planned that the recipes did not work out to my satisfaction, so I never posted them. Your desserts look delicious.
I see you managed to join in this month! And thanks for the compliment 🙂
Hi Tandy. That’s a lovely sieve. I’m sorry to hear about Hannah. Why didn’t the father check FB. It’s easy enough to do?
He is not my friend on FB! And for sure he trusted what he was told because it suited him 🙂
Written sipping early morning coffee – read this last night and felt I had nought ‘useful’ or ‘helpful’ to say! Tho’ I meant to be such 🙂 ! A fair few hassles to be sorted out and decided upon and fixed . . . am certain that with your abilities you will slowly get all done!!! Awkward about on-line relationships misconstrued – have been ‘there’ on a couple of occasions myself 🙁 ! Have to laugh – we two agree on SO many things – but not on desserts! As long as I had a multitude of savoury first courses I would not care if I never saw anything sweet again . . . oh well . . . and, unfortunately, I don’t like stepping on the scales all the same . . .
I often decide my starter and main course by what is on the dessert menu 😉
I’m sorry to hear about Hannah, that sounds really difficult ♥ I hope that she will be back to enjoy your new metal strainers one day. I was thinking of you yesterday when I was contemplating a mug cake (didn’t manage it in the end but I will try again today!) I’m intrigued by your pickled onion foccaccia this month – I wonder how the texture comes out
Thank you for your kind thoughts! I loved the texture of the focaccia, but even more important, Dave loved it, and onions are not his favourite 🙂
sorry to hear about you being ghosted Tandy. It is not pleasant. Thanks for joining in this month. I appreciate you (as the young ones say). I seem to have a sugar addiction at the moment and my waistline is suffering as a result. Gotta stop eating sweets! I tell myself yes tomorrow … anyways have a great month.
cheers
sherry
and I see you baked today 😉
Being ghosted is not pleasant, and even worse when the person tells other people that it is my fault!
That Rose Hip drink looks intriguing! Years ago I made rose hip jelly from wild hips gathered from a hiking trail. It did not have a flowery flavor for which I was grateful, as I do not tend to enjoy floral in my food. It rather tasted of honey, even though made with sugar. I wish you better days ahead, troubles that divide a family should be illegal! Boy was I surprised to read of your space and cost issues with blogging, you do have a lot of editing….best of luck.
Thank you so much for the kind words! And yes, having an independant blog means paying for the space 🙂