 Blog Fam --- I've finally got some news to share about our community kitchen! I know that it's been more than 2 months since my last update on the kitchen and I'm sorry that I've been off the grid - so to speak. Needless to say, I'm super excited to share what's been going on - behind the scenes - during these last couple of months. We selected a talented and brave architecture firm who wasn't intimidated by the monumental task of taking all of my crazy ideas for this abandoned building and turning the dream into an efficient, practical and beautiful space that will serve the needs of both the church and the community. This was no easy job and I'm so thankful for a patient architect who was willing to walk a novice like myself through the whole process.  It's hard to put into words the feelings that I experienced when I first saw these drawings. It was like all of my hopes and vision for the space suddenly became a reality. These initial drawings are still very much a work in progress as we try to design the best possible space for future use. Any commercial kitchen designers out there who want to help me out? 😅  I've been tackling all kinds of new projects lately - some projects bigger than others. 😅 And while we're years away from the completion of the kitchen project, mastering a new recipe is a project with more immediate results. Making homemade flour tortillas is something that I learned from sweet family friends while living in Texas 25 years ago but it's not a skill that I've kept up with. This summer I decided that it was time to revisit the art of homemade tortillas. They were so delicious that now I'm kind of upset with myself for not making them for so long. Flour Tortillas 2 cups flour 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 5 Tablespoons lard 2/3 cup warm water
Combine flour and salt in large bowl. Rub in lard with fingers until coarse.  Stir in water.
Transfer dough to countertop and knead into a ball. Divide dough into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.  Roll each ball between your hands and transfer to a plate. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes - 2 days.  Roll each dough into a 6 inch round. Stack between sheets of parchment. Heat 12" cast iron skillet for 5 minutes.
Place 1 round at a time in skillet and cook 1 minute or until bottom is spotty brown. Flip and cook 1 minute on second side.  Transfer cooked tortillas to plate and cover with a dish towel. Serve warm.
Turns out - homemade flour tortillas are amazing - way better than packaged tortillas that you buy in the supermarket. We filled them with chicken and steak for dinner than then ate the leftovers with eggs and sausage for breakfast. 🍗🥩🥚 Ciao!
1 Comment
 I love fresh blueberries and all summer I've been (not so) patiently watching and waiting for the fruit on my solitary blueberry bush to ripen.🫐😅 I take my blueberry farming very personally. I've dedicated myself to faithfully watering this blueberry bush for months and I'm ready to enjoy some of the fruits of my labor - pun intended - but unfortunately, all of my berries are still an inedible shade of green. 😒 So I've been buying grocery store blueberries and even though they're way less gratifying than growing my own fruit - they're still tasty AND I don't have to share my supermarket berries with the birds and the deer. 🐦⬛🦌  My favorite ways to enjoy summer blueberries is on my morning yogurt, in a muffin or in a decadent summer dessert like pie, cobbler or tart. 🥧 I had never even tried a blueberry biscuit when I came across this recipe but I couldn't resist the temptation give them a try. The vanilla drizzle and juicy fruit gives the biscuits more of a scone-like quality and I'm a fan. It's a delicious way to highlight the delicious summer blueberry crop.  Blueberry Biscuits 2 cups flour 2 Tablespoons sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt Zest of 1 lemon 1 cup cold buttermilk 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries Glaze 1 cup powdered sugar 2 Tablespoons lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
 Drizzle glaze over cooled biscuits.
Ciao!  We've had a lot of rain in middle Georgia this Spring which means everything is growing... FAST! 😅🌻🌦️ In my yard, it's mostly the weeds that are growing but I'll pull all the weeds if it means a good watering for my garden.🪴 I have a smallish garden this year with mostly fruits and herbs. Given my love of gardening, it will probably come as no surprise that I also have a plan in place to implement a community garden space just outside the Bold Springs Kitchen. The structure below is currently located on the South side of the building and I can't help but imagine that at one point - this might have served as an herb garden for the school cafeteria. Unfortunately, because it's located in the middle of a parking lot, it's not a very practical place for a garden. 👩🏻🌾  The good news is that there is a nearly perfect space to create a tiered garden on the opposite side of the BSK. A beautifully sunny plot of land, sandwiched between two buildings, that I envision being turned into rentable garden plots. How cool would it be to be able offer a garden plot to members of the community who would like to grow their own food and then bring it into the Bold Springs Kitchen to cook it? 🍅🫛🥒🌶️🧅 The dream is big and the list of things that need to be done to transform this space into a garden is long but when I look at this picture - I can see the BSK tiered garden plots overflowing with plants, vegetables and flowers. 
Like I said earlier - the garden at my house is mostly herbs and fruits this year.🍉🍋🍓🍅 Most of the fruit isn't ripe yet but I do have an abundance of basil which has made for some super tasty summer meals already.🌿 One of my favorites was this sheet pan ratatouille flatbread.  If you're a fan of roasted vegetables or if you have an overabundance of peppers, zucchini or eggplant in your garden - you need to try this recipe. By the way - this will work with almost any vegetables that you happen to have on hand so feel free to swap out my vegetables with your own favorites.  Spiralized Sheet Pan Ratatouille Flatbread 1 eggplant, cup into sticks 2 cups cherry tomatoes 1 onion, cut into 1/2" edges 1 bell pepper, cut into 1/2" strips 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 Tablespoons olive oil 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 3 zucchini, spiralized 1 flatbread dough, baked 4 ounces fresh mozzarella 1/4 cup fresh basil balsamic glaze
 Reduce heat to 350 and roast 10 more minutes.  Brush dough with oil and top with ratatouille and mozzarella.  Bake 15 minutes at 450. Sprinkle with basil and drizzle with balsamic glaze.  Ciao!
 Time for another update on the Bold Springs Kitchen. Did you catch the new name? 😅 I realize that over the last year, the building that we're renovating into a community kitchen for our town has been through an identity crisis. I've referred to it as the old school cafeteria, the church kitchen, a community kitchen, a shared kitchen space and a commercial kitchen. The fact is that it's all of those things but now we have an official name ... Bold Springs Kitchen. I'm excited to report that the BSK project is moving forward. We've hired an extremely talented architect to take all of our crazy dreams and lofty ideas about the space and turn it into something realistic, practical and fantastic. I cant wait to see the new ideas that the architect will bring to the table. I'm also anxious to find out which of my plans the engineers decide are actually possible because I'm really good at dreaming big but I tend to disregard things like load bearing walls. 💁🏻♀️🤣  Don't forget to keep connected to the blog for updates on the Bold Springs Kitchen. I can hardly wait to see the architects drawings so you know I'll be sharing as soon as I can. In the meantime - I'll be enjoying and embracing everything that this glorious summer has to offer. 😎 Coastal Georgia Paella is the perfect summer meal for 2. This delicious dish can be made outside over a grill or inside on the stove. I'm such a fan of all things seafood and I think I fell in love with seafood paella when I had my first taste.🐠🍤🍚 I've made several different versions of paella at home and I've eaten it in Valencia which is considered to be the birthplace paella and to be honest --- I think I prefer my homemade version to the original.😬 I think it's because I can customize my seafood and adjust the salt and seasonings to my own preferences at home.  Coastal Georgia Paella Shrimp Stock 6 1/2 cups water 1 pound shrimp, peeled 1/2 onion, halved 1 garlic head, halved 1 Tablespoon turmeric 2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons paprika 1 teaspoon peppercorns 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1/2 lemon Paella 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/4 cup olive oil 1 red bell pepper 1 onion, sliced thin 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 1/2 cups long grain rice 12 littleneck clams 1 Tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
 Remove from heat and let sit 5 minutes.  Garnish with parsley and lemon wedges. Drizzle with extra olive oil.
Obviously, I substituted mussels for clams in this recipe. It wasn't because I don't like clams - I simply couldn't find any when I wanted to make this recipe. It was mighty good with the mussels and I'm sure that it would be equally good with clams. Ciao!  I've got big news... after more than 10 months of (very impatiently😬) waiting - our 501c3 has been accepted and the Bold Springs Kitchen is an official non-profit entity!!! I'm not sure if you can tell from my overuse of exclamation points but I'm over the moon excited about the doors that this will open up for the community kitchen. 🤗 I feel like I owe you a brief recap of the Bold Springs Kitchen since it's been a while since I've blogged about this former school cafeteria building, located on the Grace Monroe church campus that we're planning to renovate into a community kitchen. * One of the goals for this project is to create a shared kitchen space for members of our community who want to either launch or expand their food based business. We believe that providing an affordable, rentable, licensed commercial kitchen space that is accessible to entrepreneurs will help generate economic growth and development throughout our community. * We also want to create a space where we can educate our community about food preparation through culinary classes. We have an amazing studio kitchen planned with the most incredible 19 foot kitchen island organized into individual cooking stations. We want to invite members of the community to gather here and take a cooking classes or use the space to work as a group to prepare food to share with members of our community who might be struggling with food insecurities. * The expansive space is also going to be used for community events. The large open room will be the perfect place to host church events, community groups, small gatherings and private parties.  I'm just so excited by this project and all of the possibilities and potential that it has to make a positive impact on this community. I have a big vision for the space but I also have to keep in mind that the reality is that the building is in desperate need of ... well, everything. 😅 New flooring, walls, roof, windows, doors, bathrooms, heating and air conditioning systems, electric, plumbing, appliances and kitchen equipment for starters.😬 The list of things to be done in this building seems to grow longer everyday but for now I'm celebrating the fact that we've achieved the the first step to getting all of these things accomplished, which was to get our 501c3 approved. If I've learned anything from going through the process of trying to organize the renovation of an abandoned 1950's school building into a community kitchen, it's that patience is vital. A trait that I've not been particularly good at exhibiting in my life.🤪 Even my bread baking and cake decorating would probably benefit from having a little more patience in my life.  Today I wanted to share a special shortbread recipe. Mine features a sprinkling of mini chocolate chips but you could easily swap out the chocolate for nuts, dried fruits or sprinkles. Or just enjoy the sweet buttery cookies without any mix ins at all. Just a simple, crispy treat without all the fuss. 😋  Chocolate Chip Shortbread 1 cup butter, room temperature 2/3 cup sugar 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 cups flour 1/4 cup cornstarch 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips coarse sparkling sugar
 Cool 15 minutes in pan. Remove using parchment paper and cut into 8 wedges.
 Ciao!
|
