Happy New Year to all my wonderful readers!
I vowed to keep the laptop switched off over the silly season and just enjoy myself, the company of my family and friends, do some gardening and enjoy the outdoors, so apologies for the blogging absence. I so look forward to sharing my delicious recipes and wacky stories throughout 2014 with you. Thanks for joining me on this journey.
So without further ado, I start the New Year with a new addition to the In My Kitchen series, a collection of bloggers around Australia and the world who give you a sneak peak to the contents of their kitchens. It’s all thanks to Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.
In My Kitchen: Was a Christmas Day feast.
We had the family over to our house on the 25th and it was wonderful to sit back, devour good food, and listen to carols in the presence of some truly wonderful people.
The plan was to have a nice BBQ outdoors, but Mother Nature thought over wise drizzling us with rain throughout the day. A hot buffet was planned instead at the last minute.
The menu was one big delicious mismatch! There was Dolma (rice and meat wrapped vine leaves), fried rice, lasagne, chicken wings, kale tabouli, garden salad, and a ‘sausage roll wreath’ inspired by Lorraine at ‘Not Quite Nigella’.
Needless to say the sausage roll wreath was the highlight of the day and I’m quite impressed with how nicely it came out!
In My Kitchen: Blue Eye
I don’t really believe it voodoo, but hey, what’s a Wog house without a ‘Blue Eye’ to fend off the evil thoughts of others. In Armenian, we have a saying ‘Atchket kaknem’ which literally translates to ‘I will shit on your eye’. It means if you ever have a negative thing to say about me or my family, the Blue Eye will protect us from your jealousy/negative thoughts. Hysterical!
In My Kitchen: There is Cognac. Lots of it!
My husband is a ‘Cognac and cigar’ kind of guy. He loves his cognac collection and it grows every year. The Landy bottle with the dog on top was my Wedding present to him 7 years ago.
And there you go, the 1st IMK post for 2014, Short and Sweet. For a recap of my 2013 kitchen contents, please take a moment to view my previous posts.
Gourmet Wog 
Your Christmas food is outstanding! I loved the sausage wreath. Glad you took some time out for yourself. You are very important. Happy New Year, you sweet woman!
Thank you Maureen, YOU sweet woman! xx
Happy new year Lisa! What a feast you had… and how great is that cognac? May 2014 bring good things for you.
Thanks Lizzy! Happy New Year to you too x
G’day and Happy New Year Lisa! May it be the best one ever!
Love your sausage roll wreath and love cognac! Looks like you had a GREAT Christmas feast with family!
Thanks for sharing this month’s in your kitchen view!
Cheers! Joanne
It certainly was a fabulous Christmas Joanne! Thanks for your lovely comments 🙂
i have so many of those blue eyes from europe! they are gorgeous! happy 2014!
You have to Giulia! It’s a must buy when abroad! Happy New Year! x
I’d never heard of blue eye. Happy New Year.
Oh Anne, they’re a must in every Europeans kitchen! We bought this one on our travels through Greece and I don’t know whether or not it works but I think it adds a bit of colour to my dull kitchen!
Happy New Year! May 2014 be a fantastic year for you and your family. Your Christmas day feast looks delicious and I love the wreath too. And as for the blue eye and Armenian saying, as you said, that is hilarious! Looking forward to you making us chuckle and munch our way through 2014 Lisa with your brilliant blog.
A most Happy New Year dear Danielle! Thank you for your lovely comments, they always do brighten up my day dear reader 🙂
Happy New Year and Merry Christmas Lisa!!!!! Hubby and I were lucky enough to taste some of your wonderful food! Thank you!!!!!!! 😛
Happy New Year beautiful!! It was my pleasure to feed you LOL!! xx
Lisa, Happy New Year. JS got really envious when I showed him your husband’s cognac collection. But do tell is this still some of the original cognac in the dog bottle 🙂 Loved the feast especially the wreath. Carina 🙂
Hi Carina, Happy New Year! All original, he drinks it at very special occasions! Or so he tells me!! 😉
Happy new year Lisa! Looks like you kitchen was full of good food over Christmas. The sausage roll wreath is amazing, was it a lot of work to put together?
Hi Sarah! Happy New Year to you lovely! The sausage roll wreath was SO easy!! Just sausage meat filling of your choice and 3 sheets of puff pastry! The red/green is just a big of food dye mixed into the egg wash. So simple and yet impressive 🙂
WOW! Lovely fresh food! Lots of festive cooking! Great In My Kitchen Post! Happy 2014
Hi Jennifer! A Happy New Year to you too! Thanks for the lovely comments 🙂
I just love a world flavoured buffet. Sounds like you had a lovely. Christmas and a well earned break. All the best for 2014
Thanks Tania! I hope you too had a lovely festive season xx
Those dolmades look tasty- I am building up to make a tonne.
Oh Francesca, it feels a bit like that after you roll your 200th isn’t it?!!
I will shit on your eye! Love it! I saw the blue eyes on sale at the Turkish shop recently and wondered what they were for! 🙂 What a feast your prepared, and your wreaths look beautiful! All the best for a fabulous 2014, Lisa! xx
LOL Celia, yes they are incredibly common throughout the Europe! We bought our Blue Eye in Athens on our travels many years ago and they sold them on every single corner. Grocery stores, petrol stations, souvenir stores, even some take away stands had blue eyes for sale. Seems there are a lot of superstitious people out there! I quite like the striking blue colour it adds to my kitchen 🙂
Happy New Year Celia! xx
Aww Lisa I’m so honoured that you made the wreath for your Christmas Day! 😀 It looks wonderful!! And I’ve got to giggle, I’ve got that same blue eye hanging in my kitchen!!! Bahaha a friend bought it for me for when I was having a difficult time with some people and it has helped enormously! 😛 God I hope it shat in their eyes 😉
LOL Lorraine! Glad to hear the Blue Eye is working to keep the evil thoughts away from your house! xx
It’s certainly taking your husband a while to get through the cognac. In seven years he’s barely made a dent! I love the look of your Christmas feast and yes, we were caught out by the rain as well xx
Yep, but he does have an ‘every day cognac’ that gets consumed much more regularly!!
Hope 2014 brings you all that you need and most of what you want! Methinks most of us are madly trying to take a sabbatical whether we have snow up to the window sills or 40C temperatures slowing us down by midday. Lovely Christmas fare and I really have to look for one of those Blue Eyes . . . hmph, might help with some matters 😉 !
Oh I’m sure the Blue Eye will certainly eradicate those matters!! Happy New Year Eha!! x
Welcome back Lisa and Happy New Year! The feast looks great. And if I remember you are also a Cognac fan?
THanks love, YEP, you know me too well! xx
Lisa, your Christmas spread looks brilliant and yes I think the wreath is the star of the show!
I never knew the significance the blue eye, just thought it was decorative, now I want one.
cheers
Jason
Thanks Jason! Oh any Middle Eastern or European specialty store/deli will definitely stock the Blue Eye! Keep the bad thoughts away!!
Your Christmas feast looks great! Happy New Year and enjoy getting through that cognac 😉
Thanks Kari! Happy New Year to you too! x
Hi Lisa. I love your sausage roll wreath, I even called Maus in to come and have a look at it. Fabulous!! Your hubby’s Cognac collection is very impressive. A bottle would not last 7 years in our house.
Thanks Glenda! It was so easy to make and so yum too! Who doesn’t love a good sausage roll?!
Ahh I have to admit, hubby has his cheaper brandy in the cupboards and drinks that very regularly. The Landy is only drunk on very special occasions, anniversaries, birth of our daughter etc 🙂
Reaching in to grab one of the dolmades from that lovely feast.
If only technology could allow that Sally!! xx
Your Christmas feast looks fantastic!! I like that blue eye, too. Wonderful. 🙂
Thanks so much Misky! Happy New Year to you 🙂
Lisa, I loved the “international-ness” of your Christmas dinner! (A snifter of Remy Martin sounds good right about now, too.) Happy New Year!
International it certainly was Kim!! Thanks so much 🙂
I always thought the blue eye was to ward off evil, but I much prefer the old “I will shit on your eye” explanation. Look at you looking so glamorous on Christmas Day! Happy New Year and here’s so more colourful stories from your kitchen.
LOL Nancy, yep, it sounds so good to say it doesn’t it?!! I will shit on your eye! LOL
Thanks so much and a most Happy New Year to you too!! xx
Well you’re a bit of a show off with that sausage roll wreath aren’t you!? Looks yum and fun – something for everyone. The greyhound (?) on the congnac looks very woggy – the sort of thing that would still be in Nonna’s glass display cabinet, well after the good stuff was finished. Cheers! I look forward to reading more IMK adventures in 2014.
LOL I was doing my best Nigella impersonation 😉
Oh yeah, the cognac is certainly woggy, lol love it! xx
Mmm- the sausage roll is definitely a looker- but the dolma had my eyes on it!
I’ve never heard or seen a blue eye before- but I have a couple of kitchen fairies hanging in my kitchen for whimsical and good thoughts.
Thanks for sharing- it was great to see you in some of the pictures!
The dolma was pretty damn good! Disappeared not long after the photo was taken!
I’m sure the fairies will do the job very well!!
Your wreath is so impressive and festive! I’m sure it took some time to create the beauty. Happy New Year to and yours and I will be looking forward to reading more of your entertaining posts.
Wish I could have been in your kitchen! Everything looks wonderful Lisa!
What an amazing Christmas feast Lisa, looks delicious! A very Happy New Year to you.