Kurth Kitchen Bread

The original K U R T H  K I T C H E N Bread.

There is a story behind this bread recipe is close to all our hearts here at Kurth Kitchen. A loaf of bread is the first thing Mr Kurth gifted me before we even started dating. Yes, a loaf of bread! No flowers or box of chocolates from this romantic — bread was a quick way to my heart! You can see why we hit it off straight away. The original recipe is still on a little recipe card tucked away in his mother’s recipe card box in the back of the antique kitchen cupboard.

BBQ Pork Ribs

“Heidi, can you bring the coleslaw?” – this is the go-to answer if I ask the question of what can I bring to a weekend BBQ with our friends, BUT I know that after tasting these amazing ribs – next time it will be ‘Heidi, can you pleeeaaase bring those ribs?” followed by “and make sure you double, or TRIPLE the recipe!!!!”

I know you can buy those already pre-marinated ones from the shop, cut open the packet and – boom – they are ready to cook. But there’s no fun in that!! Plus, I’m not a big fan of any preservatives, artificial flavours, blah blah blah. If I can make it myself, I normally will.  Plus, because these cook in the slow cooker – there’s not much too it. These finger licking ribs will have everyone coming back asking for more!

Sweet Potato Waffles

So, sweet but savory and full of yummy deliciousness. Sweet potato waffles… mmmm. The new year needed a new breakfast sandwich. Non negotiable.

The new year is a time for a fresh start, big dreams and a new story to be written. One of my new 2018 goals is to create weekly opportunities for meaningful time as a family.  We’re now at the end of January when most people fall off the band wagon with goals, but I’m just getting started! This family time goal might sound a bit wafty to some but as a family of two working parents, weekends full of chores, grocery shopping, birthday parties and more work with a second job, I have found that we have just been dragging ourselves sleep deprived and overworked from one year to the next, and [blink] — rinse and repeat.

We can’t wish for more time, time is finite. We can however control what we do with our time and whether we are really present and mindful, or just ‘there’ in body with mobile phone attached to our hand. It’s all about the BIG rocks, right? (Steven Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People!) Work will always be there, but the kids won’t. I read somewhere that there are only 936 weekends between the time your child is born and the time they leave for college (or Uni in Australia!). According to my rough calculations, we are already down 376 weekends, and the last 260 weekends will be teenage years spent probably wishing not to not be seen in the same room as their parents, so that leaves 300 weekends left to make dreams, memories …. AND WAFFLES that we will all look back on fondly — kids included!

Welcome 2018

Happy New Year all.

It’s all about big goals this year – in 2018 you can expect more regular recipe posts, more recipes that integrate into family life and a more interactive blog! 2018 is about working with different communities and bringing healthy cooking to more people. I’m taking it live and making it real 🙂 Make sure you SIGN UP (over on the right side there) if you want to hear about these live events and be the first to know. Forgive the lack of technology with embedded link to sign up, (ahem) that is also one of the 2018 goals!!

Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one. Bye 2017, Hello 2018! I’m ready – are you?

Reply below with any recipes, tips or topics you’d like me to cover this year. As usual, it’s about #cookingwithkids #cookingforkids #busymums #healthyfood.

From our kitchen to yours, Happy New Year all. xx

 

Chocolate donuts cure the world!

My heart always skips a beat when I see the school number light up on my phone. Today it was the school nurse calling to say that one of my girls has fallen flat on her face. Oh dear! Cancel afternoon activities. Cancel school pick up arrangements. Cancel a productive day in the office before the weekend. Cancel afternoon exercise me-time.

So… HELLO chocolate covered pumpkin donuts! Isn’t it funny how something as simple and cute as a mini donut can forgive and forget, washing away the day’s troubles and ‘cure’ a 6 year old with a fat upper lip.

You are my Sunshine…

…my only sunshine, 

you make me happy,

when times are grey. 

You’ll never know dear,

how much I love you.

Please don’t take,

my sunshine away!

The simple things like “mummy can we pick some carrots” and then breaking into song when she wants to wash them and eat them … it, well, makes my heart sing. 

  
This year has been our first year planting carrots in our garden, and low and behold they actually grew edible viable fruits of our labour! Our home garden has been a bid to get our children to learn where food comes from and appreciate the time and effort to produce it, as well as supplement our growing grocery bills as the kids keep growing. It’s been an enjoyment for all of us as well as a lesson in life, time and patience. 

I recently shared a carrot soup recipe and talked about 101 ways with carrots. What is your favorite carrot recipe? 

From our kitchen garden to yours. Xx

The Urban Gardener

I call out from the kitchen window “Evelyn, show Daddy where the big eggplants are in the garden so he can help you pick one. I need it in the kitchen now for dinner!“. The deep purple skin is so firm, fresh and shiny it blows my mind that it grew in my own garden and it’s still warm from being on the plant enjoying the last of the day’s sunshine. I slice it, dress it with no more than a drizzle of olive oil, ground sea salt and a little black pepper, then just before placing it on the grill I decide that a sprinkle of fresh thyme from the garden that will finish it off nicely. Bliss… I’m in my happy place. It was the sweetest most tender eggplant I think I have ever eaten, but it my judgement may be clouded by the serene picture of my little girl running to the garden bed where the eggplants are and pointing out the purple beauties that have grown with little more than water and a bit of sunshine in our own backyard! I wear a smile ear to ear watching the kids jump off the garden edging, as they navigate the meandering sweet potato shoots now breaking the boundaries of the garden beds and watch them swoop down to pick a bean and munch on it straight from the garden, or pull our a carrot and run inside to wash it for immediate eating.

So, where does food come from?

Happy National Ice-Cream Day!

Only in the US would we be celebrating something called National Ice-Cream day and blueberry ice-cream was the order of today! We look forward to handfuls of fresh blueberries every year served with a good dose of antioxidants, together with spoonful of fresh air and a spot of the phonomonim witnessed today which was water falling from the sky (rain) that we don’t see year to year. My little chefling spotted a picture of ‘purple ice cream’ on pinterest the other day which she has been badgering me to make, so today we got to it.  Doesn’t eating ice-cream just make you feel like a kid again?!?

Chocolate Banana Protein Pancakes

Quick snack idea needed. Kids are hungry. Bananas are sitting in the fruit bowl getting browner by the minute. Everyone has turning their nose up at the soft brown fruit for one day too long. “Eww squishy mummy”! Any of this sound familiar?

Enter Chocolate Banana Protein Pancake experiment! Now, I’ve seen all those recipes for 2 ingredient breakfast what-evers and 3 ingredient miracle cakes, and don’t get me wrong they are all great ideas and perfect if you only have a few ingredients on hand (or you are stuck on a desert island with little more than a banana tree and a chicken laying eggs). I’ve tried a few of them and I inevitably end up adding a handful of other ingredients to make the recipe actually tasty or palatable enough for one patient husband and two trusting children to try. Our 2 ingredient breakfast banana pancakes normally turn into 12 ingredient pancakes by the time I add

Paleo Chocolate Brownies

At least it includes a vegetable! That’s right … vegetable. You read that right! Oh and of course these brownies are super trendy at the moment as they are paleo – wink wink. That’s my selling point to my new self anyway when baking them with my kids.