Rose and Chocolate Cake Donuts
You know sometimes, you just need to hunker down and eat donuts. Because… well, just because! :)
This past week has been amazing with the sunny weather and warming outside. The daffodils are starting to peep out and all is chirpy and joyous! The robins are back and even though we chopped down the bush that they built their nest last year, I spied them making a new home a little away from the house, in a bush along the driveway. I love the sound of their chirps as they flit across and if you listen closely on a quiet morning you can hear the voice of their fluttering wings. It is a beautiful thing. Spring is almost here!! Yay!
Oxtail Stout Pot Pies
Many of the books I read as a child were by the British author Enid Blyton - Famous Five and Secret Seven series. I loved them! These kids were having so much fun and solving mysteries to boot! I lived vicariously through their fictitious adventures. But, sprinkled liberally in these books were mentions of British foods! Pies, jams, puddings, teas .. so much more. I fell in love with these delights, without an inkling of what they were or ever having sighted most of them!
Since then, I have developed a lifelong reverence of pies - sweet at first. But, as I grew older and got into more classics and Victorian/Edwardian fiction, the savory kinds. Bakewell tarts, Spotted dicks, cherry pies, steak and kidney pies, stout pies …
Because life is not discrete, but a continuum ...
I have been thinking a lot about life.. Mine in particular. About the lives I have led, the lives I have cast aside, the lives I chose thinking they would be better, the lives I got wrong, the lives I did right but did not realize because I could not articulate or perhaps, because of hubris. But, mostly, of how amazingly lucky I have been to have lived and be living!
Sometimes though, things stay with you through all of those lives, despite you; indeed, without conscious thought. Like that thread of connection or perhaps and safe comfort of acceptance and acceptable. For me, through all the changes, ups and downs of my life - one thing has stayed constant - from birth to now ….
Seeded Oat Loaf {Redux}
When the original “Life Changing Bread” made the headlines, I gladly jumped on the bandwagon and adopted it, as I was in the painful throes of bread withdrawal. Suddenly this wheat free version would bring the simple civility of toast back into my life and I no longer felt renegaded as a vestige of third world-ism. I jest of course. But, not really. To an avid bread enthusiast, the diagnosis of intolerance of refined carbs was a fatal blow. I reeled for years from it. I made do with weekend cheat treats and genuine substitutes such as this loaf. I suppose if it did not save my life, yet it did save my joy!
Vegetable Cutlets In Dijon Mushroom Sauce + A Giveaway
What condiments are staples in your fridge? I always have mayonnaise(atleast 2 types, original and some spicy version) and mustard. Three kinds of mustard, grainy, some fancy local version and Dijon mustard. ALWAYS Dijon Mustard! I love the smoothness of it and spice kick in the nose that is beautifully balanced.
Mustard and Mayo - together, and just the two of them, they make the best spreads for sandwiches!