Brace yourselves Georgians ... it's looks like we're about to take a dive into a deep freeze this weekend. 🥶 And per usual, as soon as the temperatures were predicted to dip into the low teens, the grocery stores were emptied of emergency provisions. ie. bread, milk and beer. 🤣🥖🥛🍺 If you live in the South - you know exactly what I'm talking about. 😉❄️ Fear not Southerners - if the shelves in your store have been cleared of bread - I got you.😆 Is there any better way to spend this cold weekend than hunkered down in a warm kitchen with a giant loaf of fresh bread baking in the oven? 🍞 Comfort food on a cold day is absolutely essential. And in my world, there's nothing more comforting than a freshly baked loaf of hearty white bread with a crispy crust and a chewy center. Homemade white bread is pure perfection. White Loaf Bread 500 grams bread flour 400 grams water 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 1/4 teaspoon yeast
When bread is this good - you really don't have to do anything fancy to it. Enjoy it with butter or break it apart and dip it in some high quality olive oil. Toast it and slather it with your favorite nut butter. It's hearty enough to make amazing avocado toast or tuna melts too. I'm pretty sure you don't need me to tell you how to eat your bread but for anyone interested - that is exactly how I'll be enjoying mine this weekend. 😅 Ciao!
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Well, we're 10 days into 2024 and my plan to eat more vegetables and incorporate more plant based foods into our diet has already been derailed by an inscrutable desire for comfort food.🤦🏻♀️ Please tell me that I'm not the only person who's healthy eating plan for 2024 has already been derailed - less than 2 weeks into the new year. If you happen to find yourself in a similar predicament, not to worry. We may have veered slightly off track but I have a plan to get us back on the plant based eating bandwagon.😜 Be honest. How many of you just made a face when you read that?🤣 I get it. For me, the phrase plant based eating evokes images of someone wandering though a greenhouse nibbling the leaves of hanging house plants and chewing on the petals of colorful flowers.🪴🌻 Not exactly the picture of culinary decadence. 😅 Maybe I should try and eat like a flexitarian instead and just focus on buying (and eating) more vegetables. 🥒🍆🌽🥦🫑 Full disclosure: I had no idea that a flexitarian diet was even a real thing until I started to google alternative names for plant based diets.😆 Comfort food for me, means all things Italian. Pasta, bread, pizza - give me all the carbs.🍝 🍕🥖 😂 The draw to these cheesy delights is real so I'm trying to mesh my love of comfort food and my desire to fill my stomach with more vegetables.😜 Hello vegetable lasagna. Everything I love about a warm, comforting Italian dish with some healthy produce to boot. And the only person who knows just how many healthy veggies are in this meal is the person who prepares it. #sneakyveggies 😉 Roasted Vegetable Lasagna Marinara 3 Tablespoons olive oil 2 onions, diced 2 carrots, sliced thin 2 celery stalks, sliced thin 8 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 teaspoons fennel 1 bay leaf 4 cans crushed tomatoes 2/3 fresh basil, chopped 1 teaspoon oregano 2 teaspoons sugar salt and pepper Vegetables 1 red bell pepper 1 yellow bell pepper 1 zucchini, cut into 1/4" rounds 4 ounces sliced mushrooms 1 eggplant, peeled and sliced thin 1 red onion, sliced into 1/4" rounds 6 cloves garlic, smashed 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar 1 Tablespoon olive oil 1/2 teaspoon oregano 1/2 teaspoon basil 1/2 teaspoon salt Lasagna 15 ounces ricotta 1/2 cup parmesan cheese 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped 5 cups marinara 1 box no boil lasagna noodles 3 cups shredded mozarella Heat oil in skillet. Add onion, carrot and celery and saute until tender. Add remaining ingredients and simmer 30 minutes - 1 hour. Use an immersion blender to puree if you want a smoother sauce. Discard bay leaf.
Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes at 400. Uncover and bake 10 minutes. Let rest 15 minutes before serving. Is there anything better on a chilly January day than a steaming hot square of lasagna - that's actually good for you? 🤗
Ciao! Blog friends .... I've missed you!!!🤗 It's been nearly 4 months since I've jumped on here to share a recipe or a cafeteria update and I feel like a lot has happened since then that I need to catch you up on. I don't really know where to start so I'll just share my 1 second everyday video from 2023. 😅🤳🏻 2023 was a year of changes and I'll be the first to admit that I'm still learning to roll with life's unexpected twists and turns. It's a process. 😬 Last year I was challenged and stretched to get out of my comfort zone in ways that I never expected. At one point, I started to feel overwhelmed with the cafeteria project and my growing business so I made the decision to take a break from blogging. Switching my focus from the blog allowed me to focus on the other areas of my life that were demanding my attention. Taking a break has made it clear to me just how much this blog means to me. I really missed being able to share my recipes (and my crazy life stories) with you.😆 But most of all - I missed the connection that I have with all of you - my faithful followers - through your comments and emails. During my food blogging hiatus, even though I wasn't posting recipes, I continued to document the things that I was making at home and adding them to my que - in hopes that one day, I could get back to blogging on a regular basis. If I learned anything from 2023, it was to take things as they come and not try to plan too far in advance. (The most challenging of tasks for a type A personality like myself.) So for now, I'm going to try and share once a week on the blog. I'll update the progress on the Grace Community Kitchen so you can follow along with the transformation on that space. And when there is no news to report on the Community Kitchen - I'll share a recipe. I took a deep dive into my recipe que to find one fitting to kick off 2024 in the best way. Maybe it's because I'm dreaming of warm summer days but I felt like S'mores Pie was exactly what I needed on a chilly January day. I made mini S'mores Pies but you could easily make this into one big celebration pie. S'mores Pie Crust 12 whole graham crackers 2 Tablespoons sugar pinch of salt 6 Tablespoons melted butter Brownie 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine 5 Tablespoons canola oil 4 Tablespoons butter 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder 1 cup brown sugar 3 eggs 1 Tablespoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup flour Fudge 4 ounces milk chocolate 1/3 cup heavy cream 2 Tablespoons corn syrup Meringue 3/4 cup sugar 3 egg whites 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar pinch of salt
Pipe meringue over filling. Brown with a butane torch. Full disclosure: I don't love campfire s'mores. I usually deconstruct my s'mores and eat all the ingredients separately - heavy on the chocolate. 🍫🤣 If you share my opinion about s'mores, don't be discouraged. These s'mores pies are far tastier than a campfire s'more - in my opinion.😅 I don't know if it's the chocolate to meringue ratio or the buttery graham cracker crust but these mini pies are almost impossible to resist. They're just that good and ... no campfire needed. 🔥
Ciao! Faithful blog friends... I know that an update on the Monroe community kitchen is long overdue. So many of you have reached out to me with questions about the progress on the space and I want you to know that your curiosity and interest in this project continues to inspire and motivate me. Knowing that you're on this journey along with me, means the world to me. If I'm being honest, I've been hesitant to post an update because I don't have pictures of new windows, repaired doors or a shiny new roof to share with you. 😬 There actually haven't been any modifications or renovations to the space in the last 30 days. Don't let the lack of physical changes fool you into thinking that progress on the kitchen project isn't being made though. Quite the opposite really. There is a ton of work going on behind the scenes - in preparation for the renovation. Like, hours and hours and hours of work. 🤣 I've spent the last month walking through the kitchen building with contractors, roofers, architects, grant writers, church members and adventurous friends willing to brave the super tumultuous space to give me their input.😅 I'm learning about all of the rules and regulations of commercial kitchens, ADA accessibility and window efficiency. I'm learning to make sense of sight plans, decipher surveys and understand architectural drawings. I certainly never expected to add any of this to my list of credentials but here I am drawing up kitchen designs on restaurant napkins.🤣 I'm certainly not an expert at any of it but I'm doing my best to understand it all. I'm also learning to juggle all of my kitchen meetings, phone calls, emails and text messages with my catering responsibilities. It may sound like I'm complaining but honestly, the challenges that have come along with this Community Kitchen have been a welcome addition to my life. In case you were wondering, baking a couple hundred cupcakes in a day is strenuous but not very mentally stimulating.😜🧁 I'm learning to embrace the challenge of exploring new things. This kitchen project has also turned me into a daydreamer.🤔 I find myself imagining all of the cooks and entrepreneurs that will be able to launch and build their businesses in the community kitchen.👨🏽🍳 I'm envisioning all of the community members that will be able to participate in a cooking class in our studio kitchen space. Kids, adults, parents, - everyone.🥘 I dream about the beautiful events and parties that will take place in this amazing space. Even though I'm still sharing all of the before pictures of the building, rest assured that plans are definitely in the works for a brand new Monroe Community Kitchen. My hope is that by sharing the pictures and my thoughts, you too will start to see past the broken glass and boarded up doorways and start to see the vision that I have for this amazing building. I am truly thankful for all of your support and encouragement along the way. Be sure and check back in on the blog from time to time for kitchen updates.
Ciao! All I have to say right now is ... WOW! Okay, that's not ALL I have to say but I am overwhelmed by all the love and support that has followed my announcement about the Monroe Community Kitchen. You certainly know how to make a girl feel loved.😌 I've read each and every one of your comments, text messages and emails - most them, more than once.😅 I've listened to your voicemails and treasured each and every encouraging word that you have passed along. And although I haven't been able to respond to each of you individually, please know that your reassurance and positive feedback has meant a lot and given me the inspiration that I needed to continue on this journey. I feel like my initial blog post really only scratched the surface when it came to identifying the intended purposes for this amazing space. I have so many BIG plans for the community kitchen that it may actually take a couple of blog posts for me to accurately describe all of the ways that I want to use it.😅 For those of you who don't already know, I own a cottage food business. I enjoy all different kinds of cooking but the fact that I buy 60 pounds of butter at a time should give you an indication of the type of food that I make most often. 🧈🍰😅 Baking is my stress relief --- most of the time.😂 And it's been the avenue that's allowed me to meet so many wonderful people in our community. I truly consider it an honor and a privilege to be able to share the food that I make with my community. 😅 As much as I love baking and as rewarding it is to see the smile on the face of a child when they see their birthday cake for the first time, I've always felt like my there was a piece of my business that was missing.🍰 And it really wasn't until I took on this community kitchen project that I fully realized what that was. It wasn't that I needed to add more recipes to my repertoire - it was a desire to share my knowledge of food with others. I don't want to just bake cake and cookies for people - I want to educate people about the importance and value of quality, nutritious food. And yes, I realize that this sounds pretty hypocritical coming from someone who earns their living as a baker, but I feel like my experience in the food industry have given me valuable insight that I can pass along to others. We can all agree and food is a necessary component to life and it's intricately connected to our health and well being which is why I'm so excited about the prospect of having a space in Monroe to educate people about the importance of quality food. My dream would be for everyone in my community to be able to join us in the community kitchen. Children who are learning how to properly use kitchen equipment and young adults who are preparing to move away from home for the first time. Young families who want to learn how to meal prep in large quantities, people who want to safely prepare and reheat small meals for themselves and community members who may not have access to any other kitchen. I want to invite people who want to learn how to make charcuterie boards and those who want to sit back, sip a lemonade and watch me prepare a charcuterie board. 🤣🍱 I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. The goal is to make our community kitchen available to as many people as possible. We're still at the very beginning stages of this massive project and I feel like there are mountains to climb so for now, I'm trying to focus on taking one baby step at a time.😅 On that note, there are several pieces of kitchen equipment in the space now (see photos above) that are not going to be used in the remodeled kitchen so if you're interested in purchasing any (or all) of them - please reach out to me. We will need to clear out the existing equipment to make room for the studio kitchen. Also, anyone out there in desperate need of a boiler?🤣 😬
I honestly feel like I can't ever thank you enough for supporting me and my dream of creating a community kitchen. Having a community of support is critical and I'm thankful for everyone of you that has reached out to me and those that have prayed over this project. Whether you know it or not, you are all helping to advance the Grace Community Kitchen. Ciao! |
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