lately in the kitchen

soup served in bread bowls (it looks good in pictures but really, each bowl was way too much for us to eat!)


making blueberry-coconut chutney - dried blueberries, soaked 24h (I bought them at the Bulk Barn as a snack for Ambrose, but about 30% tasted strongly of curry - ew! not nice for a snack - delicious in chutney), a handful unsweetened coconut, an onion, some garlic, crushed chilli peppers, salt, and kefir whey to ferment.



hot Italian sausage-stuffed stromboli (with carrot, leek, mushrooms and rosemary, sprinkled with salt and pepper over an egg yolk glaze)... so good...



St. Joseph's day was yesterday! We had minestrone with garlic bread (pictured above) with cream puffs for dessert - basically eclair puffs, but with a filling of ricotta, yogurt, sugar, hazlenuts, grated chocolate, and vanilla instead of vanilla custard folded with whipped cream like normal eclairs have. They were yummy but I prefer the custard, oh well!


My God-son's cracker, celery and garlic bread creation...


canning leftover minestrone in 500 mL portions.


making ginger bug for ginger ale - you can see that the bug (center) is bubbly and frothy, this was taken around day 3. Weirdly, it died after that :( Not sure why this happens sometimes. I will start again tonight and let the water sit overnight - hopefully allowing the chlorine to evaporate will give it an extra healthy edge? The failure really puzzled me, though... it's the same brands and quantities I always use... weird!


Cream cheese and butter with whole wheat pastry flour was the winner! Pictured here in galette-ish form with a vanilla drizzle, stuffed with sour cherry jam, cottage cheese, and fresh green apples. They were da bomb! Recipe forthcoming.