[Insert Exciting Title Here]

Ok, so that's not the best name for my first ever post but it's the best I can do being a complete left-brainer.

Welcome to SomethingByKate. Since I'm about to move into my new house with two ovens (I can't say that without a massive smile) and many people just don't seem to understand, I thought I'd share how great it really is with other food nerds out there.

Well I don't have my two ovens yet, but this weekend I found evidence as to why I need at least one new one - half my meringue kisses were crunchy and half were chewy. Which is great, I like both, but was certainly not my intention! I had real trouble keeping my oven at a constant low temperature, it's almost 20 years old, gas and tends to go out if you keep it too low. Although, a contributing factor may have been my inability to pay attention and adding twice as much sugar as I needed for the number of egg whites. I couldn't work out why the sugar just would NOT dissolve and then I realised that I'd only used 2 egg whites, but 1 cup of caster sugar, so I needed to add more beaten egg whites. For everyone's reference - 1 egg white needs 1/4 cup of caster sugar. 1/2 cup is just too much!

What prompted my meringue massacre? A Sunday visit to the Yarra Valley Farmers' Market at Yering Station produced a jar of tangy and smooth 'Unforgettable' passionfruit curd. Unforgettable products suggested purchasing their mini meringues to use to sandwich the curd, but given I have far too many egg whites in my freezer, I thought I'd make my own.


See my stash? And I was very restrained, there were many, many delicious things.



I do love vegetables that taste like vegetables, and not moist cardboard. The gentleman manning the stall told me that the light purple and white eggplant is a variety called Angelina, although Google was unable to confirm this for me. It's a delicately flavoured eggplant, which when roasted was very creamy.

Ricci's Bikkie's cinnamon sugar turkish bread crisps were awesome - they were the first thing I tried when I walked in, but didn't want to crush them by having them at the bottom of my bag, and it was so good I remembered to go back and buy them! I also appreciate the Ricci's Bikkies' stall holder pointing me in the direction of the coffee stall - it was 9am on Sunday after an hours drive to get there! The chilli and parmesan sables' had a bit too much kick for me for that time of the day, but they were very good according to my companion, with a chilli hit afterwards.

Well, long first post. I intend to keep blogging, maybe I can bribe myself - if I can go 12 months and average one post a week, do I deserve a KitchenAid benchtop mixer?

Tell me, what do you do to to reward (read bribe) yourself when you've achieved something?

To find a farmers market near you visit the Victorian Farmers Market Association website.

Yarra Valley Regional Food Group Farmers Market
Unforgettable Products (website under construction)
Ricci's Bikkies