It was a dark and stormy night. The weather approaching Halloween had turned cold, dark and rainy. That means one thing and one thing only at Chez Badass Kitchen…it’s time for comfort foods! And I had developed a hankering for a good ol’ fashioned beef stew in the slow cooker. That I don’t really use a recipe for, as I generally throw things in the pot and hope for the best. I didn’t want to do that this time, so I found this recipe on Ye Olde Interwebs and gave it a whirl with some great veggies that I had picked up at a farmers’ market.
Look at these cool heritage carrots.They look even cooler, peeled and chopped.These are German Butter Potatoes.They look kinda Yukon Gold-ish to me, when sliced open.
The recipe called for some unusual spices for a beef stew, in my opinion. Including smoked paprika, mustard and mynemesis a bay leaf. I tried to remember what I hated so much about bay leaves but I’ve been avoiding them for so long that I kinda forget. I got to thinking this after my last WOYP post, where I dissed this ingredient. I thought it was time to revisit my nemesis the bay leaf.
ATTENTION: A bay leaf has entered the slow cooker. I repeat: A BAY LEAF HAS ENTERED THE SLOW COOKER.Seashell Jesus says “Gurl, you sure about this?” Bettie Page the Kitchen Aid says “No Comment”. Ditto for Alexa (far left). All are crowded around to witness this strange event.
Fast forward to 8 hours later (on low). The stew turned out quite nice, actually. Although I am not sure about the smoked paprika. I think next time I will just add regular paprika. Turns out smoky beef stew is not my jam. And as for my nemesis the bay leaf? I couldn’t pick out what it had contributed to the stew’s flavour so I guess bay leaves are back on the menu (and in the spice cabinet). Who knew?!?!
“I’m ready for my closeup, Ms. Badass.”
As always: please feel free to let my co-host Donna or myself know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments of either Donna’s or my post (or both, if you are so inclined!). Please check out Donna’s post, here. It’s a winner!
Remember: if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tags #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge or #woypbc so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!
Well, the weather outside is not exactly frightful…but it has changed and fall is definitely in the air. At Chez Badass, that means it is that special time of year once again. Oh yeah baby – I’m talking about Soup Weather! I like to make lots of different soups once the weather cools down…and one of my favourites is Lemon Chicken Soup.
This week’s forecasted weather.
I base my soup on this recipe: Yum & Yummer’s Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo but I use rice instead of orzo and spice it differently because I am lazy like that and I hate bay leaves according to my preferences.
Assembling some of the first ingredients needed, and using the actual recipe for guidance.
Chop onion, carrot, garlic (I use the already minced stuff) and celery and sauté in olive oil until onion is soft and translucent. (I don’t measure. I just chop till it looks like enough, to me.)Then add the seasoning. I like Italian seasoning for my soups. I put that shit on everything. Again, I don’t measure. I just shake it on till it seems like enough. I can always add more later.
Season to your preference.
Then I prepare the chicken stock. Since I don’t have a big freezer anymore, I no longer have homemade stock on hand. This is the next best thing, I have found.
I usually make about 6 cups worth of bouillon to go into this soup. Then I get to work on the lemon. Best to have it at room temperature – makes it easier to get the juice out or so I’ve been told.Lemon zested.
Zest BEFORE juicing. I can’t stress this enough. It is so much harder to zest a juiced lemon not that I would know anything about that. This recipe calls for 1/4 cup lemon juice. I managed to get just that amount from my lemon.
Cut zested lemon in half and juice that rascal!
Add lemon juice and zest to the soup. Then I add the rice (1/2 cup). I have used brown and basmati, in the past. This time I used arborio, just for a change. You could add whatever starch you like to this recipe. Barley, noodles, potatoes…anything (or nothing) would be good. Go crazy!
Sometimes (like this time) I add 1/4 teaspoon turmeric for colour.
I had previously cooked and chopped up chicken breasts in the freezer, so that got added to the soup.
I took the chicken out of the bag before adding it to the soup. Just to make that clear. 😉
Let everybody in the soup pot commingle and get to know each other for about 20 minutes or so while things are simmering.
Soup’s on!Let’s eat!Oh boy! I love soup weather!Down the hatch!Did you notice that freshly baked loaf of rustic bread in the table shot? I sure did. I also adjusted the recipe a bit – now I only use 1/4 tsp yeast, add an extra 1/3 cup of flour and let it rise for 18 hours. Even better!That’s some ooo-ey chewy goodness, right there!Happy soup-filled tummy.
As always: please feel free to let my co-host Donna or myself know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments of either Donna’s or my post (or both, if you are so inclined!). Please check out Donna’s post, to read about the delicious dessert she makes for sharing with friends!
Remember: if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tags #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge or #woypbc so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!
This is going to be somewhat of a looong story and a picture-heavy post so I hope you don’t mind. If you do mind, I don’t mind – so feel free to click away. My introduction to this recipe started way back at the beginning of the pandemic, when my good friend gifted me the most delicious loaf of homemade bread you could imagine. Jonathan somehow secured not only flour but yeast (remember those days?) and told me that this bread was not only insanely good, but insanely easy to make. He was 100% correct on both counts. His recipe came from the New York Times, I believe…and there are a bazillion versions of this bread recipe floating around Ye Olde Interwebs. Even recipes for gluten-free doorstops loaves, which I have tried (and failed miserably at).
The loaf that started it all. In my old kitchen, back in Ontario. March 26, 2020
Despite having issues with wheat (not gluten, but something else in bread), I can digest this bread just fine and without pesky heartburn. I think it is the very long rising…something that doesn’t happen in a production bakery. Anywho, here is the recipe (adapted by me from a gluten-free one I found somewhere…) told in pictures for this no-knead rustic bread loaf; pandemic and/or lockdown not required.
Assemble your tools and ingredients!
You will need:
3 cups of flour plus a little extra for dusting
3/4 tsp active quick-rise yeast
2 tsp kosher salt (I don’t see why you couldn’t use regular salt)
1.5 cups room temperature water
measuring cup and spoons
large glass bowl (Why glass? Does yeast hate metal/ceramic/plastic?)
wooden spoon (Don’t ask me why it has to be wood. Aesthetics? The anti-metal thing? I don’t know.)
Dutch oven
tea towel
parchment paper
cooling rack
oven (duh)
Mix dry ingredients together. The wooden spoon does look nice though…Add room temperature water and mix (with pretty wooden spoon) to form the dough. Cover with tea towel and let it do its thing for at least 8 hours (overnight works well). In winter when the air is drier, I make the tea towel damp first so the dough doesn’t dry out too much.Amuse yourself for the next 8 hours. I made and served a blackberry trifle for my son-in-law’s birthday. I think he liked it. 😉 (Completely optional but if you do choose to do this, invite me over 🙂 ).What it looks like after 8 hours of rise time. Finish admiring the magic, and then take a large piece of parchment paper and dust it with flour. Take the dough out of the bowl and mound it up on the flour-dusted parchment paper. I pre-crease the paper to make it a bit easier to fit back into the bowl, and eventually the Dutch oven.I usually put it right back in the bowl again once it’s on the paper…so the dough doesn’t spread itself out over the paper too much over the next hour. You probably don’t have to do this. But it bugs me, OK? There, I said it. Cover and let rest for 1 hour. Meanwhile, pre-heat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. When oven comes to temperature, place the empty Dutch oven (with lid) inside oven to pre-heat for at least 30 minutes.Very carefully place the dough (in parchment) into the extremely hot Dutch oven. Can slash the top of loaf several times with a knife, if you actually remember at the last damn minute. Put the extremely hot lid on it, and put in the whole shebang back into the oven to bake for 30 minutes. The loaf looks like this after 30 minutes covered bake time. Remove the lid (careful!!!!) and let the loaf bake uncovered for the final 15 minutes.Cool the finished loaf on a rack. Resist eating it because you made it to share with friends, for lunch the next day. (Optional, but highly recommended! Your hips will thank you for sharing. 😉 )Next day: Go on glorious hike with friends, on Hornby Island.Take in the views: Helliwell Provincial Park, looking east.Explore tidal pools.Helliwell Provincial Park, looking west. Me, trying to enjoy the view and not think of the tasty food waiting for us back at Ann’s place. Photo by Donna.Finally – Lunch time! Photo by Donna. Ann (between Janis and I) provided us with the most delicious Maui chicken and sides, and I provided the:Homemade bread! And it was mighty tasty. I’ve made this recipe many times now, and it has never failed me except for the gluten-free experiments that we really shouldn’t talk about anymore.
So…enough about me. What’s on your plate this month?
As always: please feel free to let my co-host Donna or myself know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments of either Donna’s or my post (or both, if you are so inclined!). My partner-in-crime Donna has crafted a beautiful post about food and friendship (a theme I have shamelessly incorporated into my own post, in a minor way). Please check out her post, to read more about the many happy hours spent sharing meals with friends over the past month.
Remember: if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tags #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge or #woypbc so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!
Happy August, everyone! July went by like a flash, didn’t it? And to cap it all off, I had a birthday last week: #62, and life is still amazing and grand!
Adding another 12 dots to my Precious Life painting. You can read about it: here.
In my honour, my friend and What’s On Your Plate co-host Donna kindly offered to make me a birthday lunch (remember this…it’s important). Here’s what happened…a birthday lunch tale, told in pictures:
I got to choose from several meal kits just delivered to Chez Retirement Reflections from this here food cult Donna belongs to. 😉 I went with the salmon, since my momma didn’t raise no fool.What the finished meal will look like.Donna made sure I read the instructions…hmmm, why? DAH DAH DAAAH! (foreshadowing music).The veggies, herbs, and spices were in the brown bag. The salmon and yogourt were in another container, more suitable for keeping them colder during transport.Next thing I know, I was cutting up potatoes.Then I was cutting up zucchini. Then I was grating cucumber for the tzatziki.Then I was MAKING the damn tzatziki. BTW, don’t my nails look birthday-fabulous?Then I was on to prepping the salmon. Remember when I told you Donna was going to make ME a birthday lunch? Yeah, not so much…Well I guess Donna DID work the oven and stove top. Yet, here I am anxiously watching over stuff cooking because I am all alone in the kitchen and Donna is nowhere to be found. Oh yes! This happened!And here is the delicious finished product, artfully plated by Donna. See, she did do one thing something…Closeup of what’s on my plate!AND THEN after our delicious lunch You’re welcome, Donna, she had the NERVE to ask me to pose as if I was relaxing on the couch the whole time it was being prepared. Seriously! I kid you not. My expression says it all: this is some kinda bullshit right here.MEANWHILE Donna is pretending to be exhausted from making lunch and loading the damn dishwasher. As if! Should you ever get a lunch invitation from this woman, be forewarned! Whoever said there is no such thing as a free lunch was spot on. AND THEN Donna hands me the birthday candles she forgot to use on my cupcake, so I brought them home. Woman, you had one job…Which were put to good use the next day (actual birthday) when my daughter (and fam) brought over Vietnamese food and a homemade trifle for dessert. WHICH I DID NOT HAVE TO MAKE, DONNA…TAKE NOTES!All kidding aside – you know I was kidding, right?!?! – we had such a fun time and were hooting up a storm planning this blog post. (I think I have some pieces of lemon in my eyebrow WHICH A TRUE FRIEND WOULD’VE TOLD ME ABOUT, DONNA.)
So, that’s my tale of woe and foul treatment by Ms Donna, my lovely co-host. 😉
What’s on your plate this month?
As always: please feel free to let my co-host Donna or myself know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments of either Donna’s or my post (or both, if you are so inclined!). Donna has made an amazing dish with great significance for Indigenous people. And she has created beautiful badges for this challenge, should you want to place one on your blog. You can find them here.
Remember: if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tags #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge or #woypbc so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!
In case you weren’t aware, here on the Island (and in Western Canada in general) we have been living under a “heat dome” – a period of extreme heat. Extreme for just about anywhere…and especially deadly for this temperate climate, where almost nobody is prepared to deal with temperatures like these. I was relatively lucky…it only got to 37C (but felt like 42C) where I live, at the peak of the heat event. Still – without air conditioning and only a tower fan – I struggled to find relief. You can read more about it here.
It was so hot I took my first dip in the cold Salish Sea. Commemorated with this selfie. It only took me 13 months of living on my new island home to finally do this. Yes I am a gigantic wuss, spoiled by the warm sea surrounding Barbados. No, my hair is not green (it’s dyed purple actually) – it’s a reflection from the tree I am sheltering under.
As you can imagine, not much cooking was done…or if I did venture into the kitchen, it was at 6 am (when it was a relatively “cool” 26C) to prepare some food to get me through the day. Salads were featured, and here is one of my favourites – I don’t have a name for it other than “watermelon salad”. There is something about the combination of the peppery, nutty arugula with the sweet watermelon and the salty feta, accented by the acidic glaze…I could eat this salad all day.
Watermelon Salad
I don’t really have a recipe for it either, but here goes:
Put cubed seedless watermelon in a salad bowl
Add arugula, as much as you want
Throw in some crumbled feta cheese (I used goat feta, in this picture)
Drizzle with balsamic glaze
Enjoy!
This salad is so juicy it provides much needed hydration while satisfying what little appetite you can drum up, in the heat.
Just before the heat dome arrived I decided I would have a signature cocktail for this season, at Chez Badass. No, I did not drink it during the extreme heat. Imbibing alcohol during extreme heat – likewise mixing alcohol with extreme cold – is a terrible idea. But for the days of the summer when temperatures are more moderate, I would like to offer you this:
Pink gin and tonic (Excuse the pathetic past-its-prime lime slice – it was the last lime in the house.)Pink Elephant? I see what you did there.I don’t know what makes the gin pink. I can’t discern a specific flavour either. Just tastes like gin to me. But better because, well…PINK!I do love how the drink has this slightly iridescent pink/blue quality to it. Hard to capture in a photo, but trust me it’s there. It’s like drinking unicorn tears…over ice!
Does anyone actually need a recipe for a gin and tonic? In case you do:
Pour 1 ounce of pink gin over ice into your glass
Top off with tonic water
Add pathetic lime slice (highly optional)
Please sip responsibly, and never in extreme temperature conditions!
The weather has since cooled off, thankfully. And cocktail hour is once again an option at my house. Also, cooking with heat. And the wearing of clothing that hasn’t been drenched in cold water and wrung out, first.
And, as always: please feel free to let my co-host Donna or myself know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments of either Donna’s or my post (or both, if you are so inclined!). Donna has done some amazing research on 4 ways to put the same dish on your plate this month! Remember: if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tag #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!
It’s that time of year when the weather is almost always nice, and that means a whole lot less time is spent indoors. Especially in the kitchen. A wonderful excuse to break out a sheet pan dinner! And luckily I have 2 pans because I needed the other for a crafty thing I was MacGyver-ing in preparation for future camping adventures: homemade fire starters. Very useful to starting fires here on the Wet Coast, where wood and tinder are sometimes too damp to facilitate a quick and satisfying campfire. Hey, those S’mores ain’t gonna roast themselves, ya know?
As usual, I came across something on Ye Olde YouTube that sparked my interest. The video is here:
Try to ignore all the bullet adoration in the intro to this guy’s channel. I did.
I watched the video and gathered my supplies. Then I got to work.
Note my improvised double-boiler, for melting both the petroleum jelly and the candle wax. Will the MacGyvering never end?! 😉Cotton rounds soaked in melted petroleum jelly and ready to go into freezer to quickly solidify, in preparation for the next stage.First dip of rounds in melted wax.Starting the 2nd (and final) dip process.
These fire starters turned out great, and they burn heartily for more than 10 minutes after being lit with a single match.
The same afternoon I made these, I also made a delicious sheet pan dinner, inspired by this YouTube video:
The actual recipe to be printed off can be found here.
I hustled off to my little local grocery store and was disappointed that they didn’t have any fresh green beans in stock. They did however have some delectable-looking bundles of asparagus in the veggie section, so I made that swap. I think it turned out at least as good, if not better.
I also used sambal (Indonesian pepper paste) instead of cayenne pepper because I think it tastes better. Asparagus ready to go into the ovenShrimp tossed in spices and lemon peel.Finished! The sheet pan dinner, almost complete…Now complete! Served on a bed of some deliciously-nutty brown rice.That was mmm-mmm good!
Have you ever made a sheet pan dinner? Chime in, in the Comments below!
And, as always: please feel free to let my co-host Donna (she is dishing up some food for thought, this month!) or myself know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments of either Donna’s or my post. And remember if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tag #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!
Way back in April, I had an entirely different post planned out for the May “What’s On Your Plate Blog Challenge”. Last week however, it dawned on me that this month’s challenge falls on Cinco de Mayo (click on link to see what May 5 is all about and how to celebrate), so I decided my initial idea could keep. This month I am bringing you a Mexican-themed dish instead.
I was hoping to make it something to do with tacos….I do love me some tacos. I even ordered a tortilla press, so I could make my own from scratch (and gluten-free). However, it was not to be as my tortilla press did not come in on time. Es muy malo!
Instead, let me bring you my version of a deconstructed burrito…aka a burrito bowl.
It all started with a pork shoulder that had been taking up valuable freezer real estate for far too long, and now needed to be turned into something, STAT. When I bought it, I had been thinking of pulled pork but that obviously hadn’t happened. I came across this recipe, for carnitas…and with that, I was off to the races.
Finished carnitas, fresh out of the broiler
I wanted to make some of those tasty pickled onions to go with it, and that led me to this recipe. (And you better believe I will return to it for the Barbacoa 😉 ).
Well worth the walk to The Bulk Barn to pick up coriander seed and whole allspice, to make these pickled red onions.
And lastly, I had to find a recipe for Cilantro Lime Rice (my fave!). Here it is, and it turned out wonderfully. This is how it all came together on the plate:
My burrito bowl! With black beans, salsa, sour cream and guacamole added too.Alas, no frosty margarita to accompany it, only a glass of white wine. This dish was delicious!You may have noticed in the above photos that my balcony spruce-up for 2021 is now complete. My privacy screen is now up. And my comfier cushions arrived too! Now all we need is a few more degrees of heat for optimal balcony enjoyment to commence. In the meantime, I just grab a sweater and a comforter. And splash hot sauce all over my burrito bowl. 🙂
Thanks so much to everyone who enjoyed and/or participated in last month’s inaugural blog challenge! My, that was fun! Hope you had as much fun as Donna and I did. Check out Donna’s post for this month, here!
As with last month, please let us know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments of either Donna’s or my post. And remember if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tag #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!
Happy Cinco de Mayo, from my hammock in the woods of Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park!
Okay, okay…technically I don’t have a patio. I have a balcony. But I have it tricked out like the fiercest patio you can imagine…or at least it WILL BE once Jeff Bezos sends me a coupla more items. I came close last year but due to my arrival time on the island and pandemic-induced scarcities, last summer’s effort was lacking a few items that I had deemed necessary for peak enjoyment. And I know it’s only April, but we are very very close, people! Already! (If you’d like to see last year’s balcony, click here.)
I managed to get my hands on a couple of baskets of fuchsia this year…and I got some really great lights, to replace last year’s misguided valiant attempt at solar lighting for my north-facing space. So excited for my new patio lanterns!
I feel ya, Bruce.
I’m still waiting on a privacy screen for the railing, and comfier cushions for my benches, and some plants (impatiens, maybe…) for my railing planter box and then I’ll be done…uh, I think.
Here’s Balcony 2021 so far, with improved lighting! “Those patio lanterns, they were the stars in the sky….”
By the time I got to Vancouver Island and was settled enough to go plant shopping (early June of last year), all the hanging baskets of this shade-loving plant were completely GONZO. I was SOL, for 2020. So I leapt at the chance to pick up these beauties at Ye Olde Superstore this week.
There’s a problem though, with these baskets. Can you see it?
It only took me a day to realize that when it came to watering these babies (I have 2 of them), I would also be watering my bench cushions. EVERY. DAMN. TIME. What to do, what to do? Surely there was a ready made solution out there? Yes gentle readers, there was. In glorious see-through plastic, and in Jeff Bezo’s garage…otherwise known as Amazon. Hmmmm. I thought I might be able to MacGyver something mahself instead. So that is just what I did.
Is it still technically MacGyver-ing if you picked up some shit stuff at Ye Olde Dollarama? Asking for a friend. Astute, long-time readers will notice that I remembered to pack my dick pillows, when I moved to Vancouver Island. Once seen, never to be unseen…Not too shabby, eh? Cheaper AND prettier!Actually it only took the galvanized tins and the large S hooks to create these drip catchers, so I have the other shit stuff handy for any future MacGyver-ing I might be inspired to do.
By now – if you are still reading – you are probably wondering what all this has to do with a tea party so I’ll get to the point. THIS. It’s this:
My first cuppa of 2021 on the patio balcony! Accompanied by a warm banana oatmeal muffin.
I decided that overripe bananas were taking over my limited freezer space so that means only 1 thing around Chez Badass: time to dig out my tattered copy of Muffin Mania and make me some muffins! I used this recipe:
GOOD? Wow. I really waxed rhapsodic over this one, didn’t I? After almost 40 years, this recipe still is GOOD. Oh, and I used butter instead of margarine. And gluten-free flour instead of wheat flour. And quick oats instead of rolled oats. And I forgot to add the baking soda. AND. THEY. WERE. STILL. GOOD.It was only when I started filling the muffin cups that I vaguely remembered that this particular recipe makes way more than a dozen muffins. Eighteen, in fact. You’d think I could have written that down at some point, next to “good”.The final half-dozen, fresh out of the oven.
The thing is, banana is not my favourite flavour in baked goods. But somehow this recipe works for me. I think the oatmeal tones down balances the banana flavour a bit. And using gluten-free flour gave these muffins a delicious cake-like texture that I don’t remember from when I made them with regular flour.
So if you came to my house in April we’d be sitting out on my balcony under the new patio lanterns, drinking tea and eating banana oatmeal muffins. And singing this song:
Yes, I would make you sing it along with me. Start practicing, because I got my first dose of Covid-19 vaccine this week. (Whoop whoop!)
Rock on,
The WB
P.S. Thanking the lovely hostess of the Virtual Tea Party, Su…go check out her blog and see what she is serving this month!
What’s on MY plate for April – Chicken pot pie with gluten-free biscuits
In my part of the world, it’s jacket-weather yet. This means comfort food is still on the table…my table, anyways. It’s hard to think of anything more comforting than chicken pot pie (with a gluten-free biscuit topping). Except maybe that viral feta pasta dish, which I may have made a time or twelve since I posted about it here.
Feel free to make this chicken dish using your own favourite biscuit recipe. Wheat gives me heartburn, hence the gluten-free slant to a lot of my recipes. For those of you who might want to try these GF biscuits, I have to say that they turned out mighty fine!
Biscuits made and put on top. Ready for the oven!
If you have turkey or chicken leftovers from Easter weekend, this recipe (courtesy of Zen Belly) would make great use of them. I had half a bag of mixed veggies in the freezer to use up, which I used instead of the vegetables the recipe called for. I also forgot to add the optional dairy…I didn’t have any heavy cream lying around but I was thinking of adding some milk or maybe Greek yogurt. Turns out it’s just fine without any of that.
Hot out of the oven. I wish you could smell this!
For spices, I was pretty liberal with my homemade chicken seasoning blend, recipe given to me by my dear cousin-in-law, Hetty. Here is her recipe for Kip Kruiden (Dutch for “chicken spices”):
2.5 tsp salt
1.5 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
0.75 tsp savoury powder
0.25 tsp coriander
0.75 tsp garlic powder
0.5 tsp black pepper
0.5 tsp thyme
0.5 tsp basil
I usually double the recipe to make a big enough batch to last me a while…I do love my chicken! This spice blend is great on pork or on oven-roasted potatoes, as well. I think I put a good teaspoon of the blend into this dish.
The moment of truth. Truth be told, this recipe is DELICIOUS!
Right after I made the pot pie, I chowed down on it. SO. GOOD. Then put the leftovers in the fridge until the rest of my “bubble” could come over and enjoy it with me. It reheated beautifully a couple of days later (the biscuits were still fluffy and tender!), and was very well received. The dish was scraped clean. My daughter said, “It smells like Thanksgiving in your house!” Thank you, Zen Belly and Kip Kruiden. 🙂
Now it’s your turn! Let me and/or Donna (my lovely co-host, who is posting about a delightful vegetarian dish) know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments. And remember if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tag #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!
Better late than never, they say…whoever “they are. At any rate, here I am with my offering for this month’s Virtual Tea Party, held by our ever gracious hosts Su and Del (go check out their blogs, please!) A day (or two) late, and a dollar short, through no fault of my own! This week marked the end (at least I hope so) of a long story for me involving esophageal spasms, acid reflux, gastritis, the reveal of a hiatal hernia, and not one but two gastroscopies. Let’s blame it all on the hospital-administered sedation! Anyhoodle, here I am: hale and hearty (and sober) again and wanting to share with you a delicious, substantial blueberry lemon oatmeal muffin cup recipe, from the Clean and Delicious blog site.
This recipe rings all the bells for me. Easy to whip up, contains my favourite flavours, powers me through to lunch, easy to sub in other things if need be, and contains no wheat (a trigger for my acid reflux). I need a quick and easy brekkie these days as I find myself running down to the beach while it is still dark if there is even a hint of a pretty sunrise to come. And those runs sometimes pay off. Behold:
By the time the sun has fully risen and I’ve made my way back to my place, I can just about chew my arm off. My poor stomach thinks my throat has been cut. My belly button can touch my backbone. Cue all the hunger idioms you can think of….I need victuals, STAT! These muffin cups come to my rescue so I make sure to always have some in the freezer.
Fresh out of the oven. Good with Greek yogurt and raspberries.Also with cottage cheese and blueberries.Cinnamon on top is a nice addition.
These would make a fine addition to any tea table, in my decidedly-biased opinion. 😉
Do you have a go-to quick breakfast? Do tell, and…
