Happy New Year, my friends! This will be a quickie, as Mr P. and I are heading off down south on a roadtrip in a few days, and we have much to do beforehand. It will be a bit of an art gallery tour, as we plan to visit 6 or 7 on our travels up and down the coast. And we will visit a dear friend who lives in New South Wales, near Sydney.
Did I tell you about a fall I had recently? I was walking in bushland near us, and managed to fall over (in a shallow hole that seemingly had been dug out and covered over) damaging my right foot and left knee rather badly. My foot went black and my knee swelled up! Thank goodness for arnica cream (our doctor told us that research shows it actually does help with bruises).
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| Christmas lunch in hubby's office downstairs, in the air con! |
In My Kitchen:
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| I love a cute melamine plate! And I love Winnie the Pooh ... |
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| I made mango chutney |
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| I went to the Japanese store - look at those Pocky packets! |
I have never seen Pocky packets with photos of (school)girls on them! How bizarre! These are my fave - almond crush.
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| I couldn't resist that sweet little fishy dish, and some Pepe Saya maple butter |
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| I made lemon and lime cordial |
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| I boiled up the chicken corpse from the freezer, and made stock |
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| a dear friend gave me this mixing bowl (and implements) for Christmas |
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| Yes hubby gave me this for Christmas! |
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| gifts from the cuz |
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| and gifts from eldest niece |
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| more gifts from the cuz - she knows I love a whale shark! |
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| and from our Tassie friend! |
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| and the curveball! - a cute resin wombat by Pete Cromer |
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| c. Sherry M. |
Be a part of our friendly IMK community by adding your post here too - everybody welcome! We'd love to have you visit. Tell us about your kitchen (and kitchen garden) happenings over the past month. Dishes you've cooked, preserves you've made, herbs and veg. in your garden, kitchen gadgets, and goings-on. And one curveball is welcome - whatever you fancy; no need to be kitchen-related.
The link is open from the first of the month to midnight on the thirteenth of the month, every month.
Options for adding your post to IMK:
1. Add via the Add Link button at the bottom of this post. Instructions can be found on the sidebar of this page, under the Add your IMK link OR:
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I love that little sardine dish!! Great that arnica cream helps. I actually saw some in one of our local drugstores today...should get one next time. Happy New Year to you and yours, Sherry.
ReplyDeleteyes i love it too :) Amazing about the arnica cream - it really works. Happy new year Angie! x
DeleteMay your kitchen be filled with more interesting goodies in the new year. Have a healthy and happy one (sorry about the fall.) Karen (Back Road Journal)
ReplyDeletethanks Karen. Happy new year. My foot and knee are getting better now.
DeleteHave a wonderful trip and a great year in 2026. Good luck with healing your bruises, and good health to your family this coming year.
ReplyDeletebest… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
thanks Mae. All the best to you.
DeleteHave a great trip! I love that little Sardine plate, so cute.
ReplyDeletethank you. Yes i love it a lot!
DeleteHappy New Year. I hope you have a wonderful trip. All of the things in your December kitchen are fabulous. I am going to look up the Pickled book. I would love to start fermenting a lot more since it is so gut healthy. I also love the basket with some of your jams. I'm sure there were a lot of very happy friends that received one.
ReplyDeleteand to you Lori. I love me a bit of pickling :) We do have some friends who love my mango chutney for sure.
DeleteHappy New Year! I adore that sardine dish and the whale sharks, but that resin wombat is so cute. Enjoy your road trip and sending hope you don't trip in any more shallow holes.
ReplyDeleteand to you Jo. Yes i love the wombat so much. Cute as ... Damn those shallow holes ...
DeleteSo glad you can get relief with the arnica! I use it too.
ReplyDeleteYour kitchen has certainly been busy despite your fall. I am impressed. Lovely gifts!
Wishing you a healthy and joyful new year!
it's good stuff isn't it? Happy new year!
DeleteWhat lovely gifts. Have a safe trip and all the best for a magical 2026!
ReplyDeleteTandy (Lavender and Lime) https://tandysinclair.com
happy new year Tandy!! All the best to you ...
DeleteI am glad you weren’t more badly hurt. I hope you recover quickly and have a great visit!
ReplyDeletethank you Marie. Yes getting much better now. Happy new year.
DeleteLove mango chutney! Happy New Year Sherry :)
ReplyDeletemy chutney is pretty popular with our friends :) Happy new year.
DeleteOh no! So sorry to hear about your fall. You have my sympathy as
ReplyDeleteI had a bad fall just before I left Australia and was out of action for quite some time. Apart from the inconvenience, I hope it's not too ouchy and you're healing well. There's a lot to love here, your homemade gifts look so profesh with your printed labels and the resin wombat is just the cutest! I love it! Hope you have a wonderful trip and a super, smashing, great 2026!
thanks Sammie. Much better now. It's so annoying isn't it? Yep i love that wombat. Happy new year.
DeleteI'm so sorry about your fall, Sherry, and I hope by now things are well healed (I'm a little slow visiting). I would love that cordial and all your things you've made look fabulous! Wishing you a very Happy New Year!
ReplyDeletethanks Jeanie. Much better now. Happy new year to you and yours.
DeleteOh wow, that fall sure was awful! I had no idea Arnica cream is actually proven to be effective. I, being a non-native speaker of English, had to look up cordial. Those gifts you got all sure look amazing! Hope you'll enjoy your trip.
ReplyDeleteyes the arnica cream really helped. Hubby loves my cordial! Happy new year.
DeleteUgh. Falling is terrible. Glad you’re “okay.” Great goodies, as always. The sardine dish is adorable!
ReplyDeleteHTTP://www.chefmimiblog.com
thanks Mimi. Happy new year to you.
DeleteI am sorry for your fall. They hurt me a lot worse than when I fell as a younger person.
ReplyDeleteI love all of your Christmas edible gifts!
thanks Anne. Yes the old bones ain't what they used to be ...
DeleteHappy (happier?) New Year! I hope your foot and knee are healing well. For a quick turn, you sure had a lot of nice goodies, my fav being the sardine plate! And all that mango chutney!! Take care and happy travels! ~ David (C&L)
ReplyDeleteand to you David. Yes getting better thanks. Happy new year.
DeleteHappy New Year Sherry! OH no, sorry to hear about your fall. Wishing you a speedy recovery! I love the sardine plate :)
ReplyDeletethanks Lorraine. My foot and knee are so much better now, helped by the arnica cream! Yep me too - i love any ceramics or whatever with fishy motifs!
DeleteI love all your photos and want every item you have taken photos of for my own kitchen! ;) Not that my kitchen has the natural light or any of the design that yours has that makes it so charming, but maybe I could be a copycat and replicate at least some of the charm???
ReplyDeleteYou're an inspiration! Your cordial looks lovely! I made some cantaloupe liqueur a few months ago with the last of the summer fruit but it was cloudy and I was afraid to drink it after a week or so.
I didn't know you would have maple butter in Australia! To me, maple syrup is a New England and Canadian specialty.
I'm glad you're recovering well from your fall. Sounds like you might have stepped into an animal's hideaway, or maybe just a peculiar thing with the soil in that spot? Not something you could have avoided, unfortunately!
Thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog so faithfully in 2025, and Happy 2026 to you and your other blog readers!
thanks so much Laurie for your kind words. Yes this is the only brand of maple butter i've ever seen! It was definitely a dip made by animals or naughty boys! Very many good wishes for 2026 to you. cheers Sherry
DeleteI bruise all the time, so I shall look for arnica cream. I have a post to add to the linkup, too. Yay!
ReplyDeleteYes the arnica cream really helped my bruises. Thanks for linking up!
DeleteSherry I hope you are in much better shape now than you were when you wrote your post. You never cease to amaze me with how many beautiful new things you acquire for your kitchen and beautiful home. Love it all. I hope your road trip is going really well, a road trip is so good for the soul, and can be quite inspirational. Stay safe and healthy for 2026. I must get some arnica cream to have on hand.
ReplyDeleteyes thanks Pauline. All good now. That arnica cream is so good! We have been working hard since getting home; you know how it is catching up after a holiday :=)
DeleteOh no - I'm sorry to hear about that fall. It sounds like quite a doozy - but hopefully it's getting better now! You're probably off on your roadtrip, so I hope that is going well. :-) And, yes, the photos on those Pocky packets are rather...odd...haha. Cheers to 2026, my friend!
ReplyDeleteThanks David. Much better now thanks. Yes road trip going well.
DeleteCheers
Sherry
Happy new year sherry and mr p - have a wonderful trip down the coast - am sure you will look out for curveballs - that little wombat is adorable. Lots of lovely gifts here - though I had to look carefully for a wooden spoon in the photos :-) Those pokky packages are fun but also a bit weird. The sardine dish and the fish bowls are gorgeous. That pickling book is perfect for you - you are amazing with preserving.
ReplyDeleteHope you have a great 2026 full of curiosity, good food, good health and good cheer. And thank you for continuing to hold this event - it always brings such joy to me so I hope there will be many more!
thank you! yes we had a fab trip - hot and busy and a lot of fun! Hehehe - i think i'll add a wooden spoon every IMK post, like a Where's Wally ... Yep those photos on the Pocky packs are so odd! Have a great 2026!!! and thanks for being here every month.
DeleteSherry, I loved this peek into your January kitchen, it feels so warm, personal, and full of little treasures. That sardine dish and the wombat absolutely stole the show for me, and your homemade chutney and cordial look fantastic.
ReplyDeletethanks Raymund. I do like a bit of treasure :=) Yep i really love that wombat! Happy new year.
DeleteHappy New Year Sherry! I hope your trussing from your fall is healing quickly and is not keeping you from enjoying your getaway. As always, your kitchen is filled with lovely things. Looking forward to all your posts in this new year.
ReplyDeleteVelva
P.S.. I know you are having an issue leaving your url link on my blog. I have added the link to your comment. I don't know how to fix the issue as it just your link-but, I promise when I see your comment I will manually add your url link.
thanks Velva. and to you! Thanks muchly for adding my URL.
Deletecheers
sherry
Enjoy your trip. All your food looks good. The whale plates are so cute!
ReplyDeletethank you Hena. They are indeed cute :)
DeleteI do hope you're feeling better, Sherry. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeletethanks Frank. All good. Happy new year to you!
DeleteOh dear sorry to hear about your fall! Hope you are all good now. so many goodies as usual, love those whale plates :)
ReplyDeleteyes thanks feeling fine :) Gotta love a whale plate ...
Delete