With the end of the school year only two half days away time is flying quicker than I’m willing to admit. The boys will be with me ALL THE TIME in a matter of days. How shall I ever survive the summer?! We had a preschool graduation last week and today I had two elementary school awards programs. Then I looked at the calendar and noticed it’s June! Could we please slow down time.

Seeing as how it is a new month it’s time for another In My Kitchen post. Swing on by Orgasmic Chef to find links to everyone else posting for this monthly roundup. It’s always fun to sneak a look into other people’s kitchens!

Last month was a whirlwind of a month.  Of course so much of the mad baking and cooking sessions didn’t even get photographed.  Life gets in the way of keeping up with snapping pictures.  Here are a few things I did manage to capture the past month.

For Mother’s Day I got this wonderful hammered copper tray.  It’s great for carrying cocktails to the porch.  Of course it’s getting too hot for that.  So it’s also ideal for holding candles on the dining room table.  Or vases of flowers.  Or maybe I’ll finally get the boys trained to bring me breakfast in bed!

I also spent some time using these cookbooks.  If you recall from the last In My Kitchen post I canned quite a bit of strawberry jam in April.  I used a couple recipes from these books.  I’m looking forward to even more fun jams and preserves this summer.  It’s just about blueberry picking time…

The garden is finally starting to produce a little as well.  The cherry tomatoes are still green, but I’ve picked beets, kohlrabi, zucchini and cucumbers.  Sean also enjoys eating radishes right out of the ground, dirt and all!

The kohlrabi got pickled.  It’s the first time I tried doing that and it is quite tasty, especially with the crushed red pepper kick.  I also pickled some cauliflower I got at the market since mine doesn’t seem to want to grow.  Summer seems to be ideal for freshly pickled veggies, they make a nice addition to a cheese plate too.

I let Sean pick a cake for his preschool graduation which meant a new cake pan.  You know, because who wouldn’t want a castle cake?!  So now I’m the proud owner of this castle bundt cake pan.  I’ll have to start making more bundt cakes I guess.  Sand castle cakes this summer maybe!  I made the coconut pound cake recipe that came with the pan with a couple changes and it was quite tasty.  It was really good leftover soaked in alcohol and fruit!

That about sums up what I was able to capture in my kitchen this past month.  Remember to swing on by Orgasmic Chef to see what is happening in kitchens across the globe.  Our lovely host Maureen is taking a break for several months to recover from surgery to sneak a peek now while you can.