Something Old, Something New

We went to Kaitia the other day. If you don't know where that is, that's cool. It's a quaint little town further north from where we live. It floods every year but it's a beautiful place with amazing buidlings and some of the most interesting people you'll ever meet.
They also have a second hand store. It specialises in small goods but you will find some tables and chairs. The lady who owns it doesn't stock couches or beds anymore because of the damage caused when the town floods. There are some amazing finds there if you have the time to look properly.
We had time.
My father found this free standing shelving unit in a beautiful brown wood that found it's home in our bathroom. It now houses toilet rolls, paperbacks and empty toilet rolls that Kitkat feels entitled to fetch on his own and bat around the lounge.
And I found baking pans!
They're amazing. They're old style, when they were made properly and they're a joy to bake with. I found two square pans and four loaf tins of varying sizes. They were about $2 to $4 each and they came to $22 in total. You can't even buy a new loaf tin for that amount here unless you trek to KMart and that's a 3 hour drive.

Pumpkin and Rolled Oats Bread

Did you know that you can buy soup that's actually not soup?
My friends "persauded" me to go on a low GI Diet, which I have since dropped like a hot potato because it's a load of crap. When shopping for the diet I came across Campbell's Pumpkin Soup and I was so stoked that I could eat it on the diet because it is one of my all time favourite things. The next day I opened the can, filled with excitement to devour my soup but what I found was...puree.
That's right. Condensed Soup means puree. It's so much cheaper than pumpkin puree in the UK and more widely available, but apparently the idea is to add milk and water to create your soup. Definitely something I did not expect.

But you know what?
If you pop that pumpkin condensed soup into a bread mixure, it makes something magical happen.
It makes your friend attempt to eat your arm when trying to reach for the bread. It makes your kitchen smell like Autumn and happiness. It makes you sit down at your kitchen table and eat a whole loaf in one go (that's right Dad, I saw you).

April Round Up

 I'm aware that this is a bit late considering we're already into May but I've been a bit busy lately with the takeaway/bakery and our new kitten!
You may remember I told you that we welcomed KitKat to our home about two weeks ago. Well last Monday we took our gorgeous little girl to the vet to be spayed, have her shots and be microchipped. Well, the vet was so nice about us being there super early, but she did deliver a little bit of shocking news...our little girl is a little boy. We're still delighted to have our little fluffy and my dad is over joyed to have some support in the house.
I've got some videos and photos to upload but they're on all sorts of media devices so it'll have to wait a moment or too...plus, MKR is on and I ain't moving.
He does have an unnatural love for feet, he loves to talk and he pee'd on my mother. This kitten is certainly hard work! He does love our feather duster though and he has a chip box with a ping pong ball in it that provides hours and hours of fun. Overall, he's a lovely (kit)kat. Get it?

The bakery has been going well, even though it's starting to get cold here now. We had 130km winds today and thunder and lightning and it's been freezing cold. But I can't complain because our family has had 12 months of summer so it's actually quite nice to wear my hoodie again.
I've been making more winter recipes and I'll be posting some of those soon. I made a really tasty sweet and spicy chilli jam, a roasted garlic and onion jam and a pumpkin and rolled oats bread.

What Bread Means to Me: Kate Edition

In my house, bread is a diet staple. When I was really little, I remember going to one of my aunts and we made a loaf of bread from scratch. I remember waiting ages for the yeast to go frothy; then helping to knead the dough. It was really hard work for my small hands and arms! 

We proved the dough for what seemed like an eternity - time seemed to go so much more slowly back then... Maybe this is a sign that I'm getting older...

Once the bread had proved, my aunt baked it and I can just remember the wonderful smell that filled the whole house! I got to take some home with me and I can remember how much tastier it was compared to normal bread.

Welcome to The Zoo

RED PANDAS ARE AWESOME.
Yeah that's right, they are. Not gonna lie.
Have you seen The Zoo? The New Zealand version is filmed at Auckand Zoo and my parents and I used to watch it religiously because it is one of the best shows out there. You can really tell the staff love the animals. So we went to see what all the fuss was about.

Firstly, it's located in Western Springs which is beautiful. There's a huge park next to the zoo with a lake and it's a really lovely facility for families. There's also MOTAT (it's a transport museum) which is cheap to go to and you can apparently catch a tram between MOTAT and the The Zoo so that's a lovely little trip for the family.
The Zoo itself is so cheap for what you get, but make sure you go early. We went on a Monday morning (it opens at 9:30m, we got there at 10) and it was packed! There were hardly any parking spaces left and there were people flocking in. It's only $25 per adult which is really amazing compared to other zoos...especially London Zoo, don't bother with that piece of nonsense.

Introducing!

This month officially marks our seventh month in New Zealand which is a little scary! We came to the country with no direction, just VISAs and a hope for a better life. We left behind a comfortable life for new adventures, but more importantly, we left behind Cat.
We've always been a cat family and this was no exception. Cat adopted us three or four years ago while he was living rough and eating mice and slow worms in our courtyard. He spent the first night uninvited on the spare bedroom and never left. That's fine by us. He turned into the biggest softy under the sun with his glossy fur and a very unique personality.
I have missed him every day since we left and I will continue to miss him every day of my life. Dramatic? Yes. Untrue? No.

But this last week I have had the pleasure of meeting a new feline. I love kitty cuddles and she is so good at them!
We first noticed her a week ago. At first, she visited during the evenings so we assumed she belonged to someone who worked nights, but then she turned up during the day too and slept under the bush in front of our takeaway. The weather has been awful lately, we're experiencing the tail end of a cyclone from the islands so there have been gale force winds and heavy downpours but this little bundle of fur must have spent her time in the bus stop opposite the shop or in the bushes. Well last night, we could take it no more and we took her home.

So here she is...introducing....Kitkat!

Cinnamon and Sugar Doughnuts

When I was small, my parents seriously considered buying a doughnut shop in the centre of Cape Town...at the last moment, they didn't. That has not stopped my father from consuming every doughnut in sight since then. Our trip to America was dominated by the need to find a decent doughnut (Dunkin' Donuts sucks by the way) but we found the next best thing. In one of the outlet stores in Florida we found a doughnut cutter where the hole clicks into the middle and you have less work to do. It's a very small cutter though.
Now here in New Zealand, it's really common to go to a takeaway and buy a doughnut. It's normally a small doughnut hole covered in cinnamon and sugar that's been defrosted and thrown in a microwave. It's not pleasant and by that I mean it's like sucking on a sock...a dirty sock. So my father suggested we try making our own doughnuts as it's easy to fry them in the chip fryer.
It didn't take long for me to hunt down a recipe and get going. Over the few weeks that we've been making the doughnuts, I've adapted the recipe to suit me so I've included that recipe instead of the original recipe because I think mine are slightly more appealing. Yeah I just typed that, I'm confident. I took photos wherever possible but I had my hands covered in flour most of the time so I hope these are sufficient.