Let’s just all be escapists and take a break to peek into some kitchens with some friends.
Honestly, I’ve got no new gadgets or new unique culinary ingredients for February’s post. Nada.
I can update you on the greenhouse veggies…
The greens, radishes, and carrots are slowly growing and I should harvest some of that chard soon. The chard may overtake every thing. 
It is nice to go harvest cilantro when I need it.
cilantro with a bit of lettuce
It shouldn’t be too much longer and we will have to transplant tomato seedlings.
I can share some new recipes…
I decided to try to bake my way out of the February blues one weekend. It was somewhat successful.
I had some pears that were getting almost beyond use so I made some pear donuts. The recipe can be found here. They were supposed to have a crumb topping which I decided to omit because of laziness. I would absolutely recommend the topping. These needed some more sweetness. Or, I would use a sweetened yogurt in the recipe, not plain.
Apparently, I have enough frozen pumpkin puree in the freezer to last an eternity. So, on this same weekend I decided to make some pumpkin brownies. There’s a million recipes out there but I tried this one. This was another almost fail. As I poured the chocolate batter into the pan to layer with the pumpkin mixture, I thought it looked so silky. As soon as I popped them in the oven (and actually, they were in the oven for about 6 minutes), I noticed that the flour mixture was still on the cabinet. I quickly pulled them out, dumped all of the contents into a bowl, and mixed in the flour. As I am writing this, they are baking. We shall see.
These were more cake like than brownie like. You can tell by the crumbles.
So, they came out delicious but crumbly. More R&D is needed. (The Hubs loved these though.)
I can share some new foodie reads…
Now to share some upcoming foodie reads….Cook the Books has announced the next four selections:
- April/May 2022: Taste by Stanley Tucci (hosted by Deb at Kahakai Kitchen)
- June/July 2022: A Cook’s Tour by Anthony Bourdain (hosted by Claudia at Honey from Rock)
-
August/September 2022: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (hosted by me)
-
October/November 2022: Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson (hosted by Simona at briciole)
You can read more about these selections here.
Otherwise, I wish you all peace, blessings, health, and happiness.
“In My Kitchen” is hosted by Sherry’s Pickings. Pop on over to her site to see what’s new in kitchens around the world.
If you have some great sweet or savory pumpkin recipes, please share. I need to start using my surplus.
“Alice” is a wonderful food-book choice — EAT ME! DRINK ME! Also, I really enjoyed the Stanley Tucci book.
All my savory pumpkin recipes use cubes of pumpkin, not puree, so I can’t help you, and I assume you have all the pumpkin soup recipes you can handle. I like it with hot spice from the Caribbean or not-too-hot curry flavor. Last night I made a pumpkin/squash stew (orange squash and pumpkin are interchangeable in recipes) — I used an Ethiopian recipe, which was fun.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Those pear donuts sound really interesting. I actually have a sweetened yoghurt sitting in the fridge as no one wants it because for 100g of yoghurt, 13 g of sugar is just ridiculous. Might turn it into some baked donuts or muffins. Your greenhouse veggies look awesome, Deb.
Wow, nice greenhouse contents! I need to plant my tomato seeds soon. I’d recommend the audiobook for taste. it is narrated by Stanley Tucci himself and is wonderful! Ciao, Cristina
how lovely to have fresh coriander growing. ours just bolts in the brissie sun so not much point. I loved stanley’s book. He is a wonderful actor, and great husband by the sound of it! I’ve been messing up this week; I was meant to melt butter and chocolate for my cake but put the sugar in the pan instead! Eek. had to strain out the butter and try it again 🙂 Thanks for joining in IMK. Hope to see your post link up on the blog soon…
I can never get cilantro to grow in our garden! Weird. And I’ve made a lot of drinks with Fernet Branca, but have never cooked with it. Will be interested to see all recipes you guys come up with. 🙂
I have done the same with brownies before – but because the method in the recipe I was using forgot to mention the eggs – and I forgot to put them in. Glad you rescued them. I might have to try the pear donuts at some stage. You have a lot of tomatoes to plant – I hope you reap your rewards from all of them 🙂
Your garden startings look so healthy. I’m envious. Wish I had space to start seeds. Pear donuts – now those look good. I could easily eat a couple of those for breakfast. Have really been wanting to check out the Stanley Tucci book. I love his show.
I have an ancient copy of Alice in Wonderland and I can;t wait to revisit it. I left a comment on CtB about the Stanley Tucci book as I ahve just finished it but would like to join in. Will see what the hosts there say.
Now I do have a question about the greenhouse and growing veggies – you have colder weather than I do in North Florida so I am wondering if I get things growing in the greenhouse, will I be able t leave them grow there during the hot weather? Or do you think it will cook the plants with too much heat?
I think it would cook the plants. We clean everything out of the greenhouse as soon as the last frost is past, include my enormous collection of cacti.
Also, as a co-host for CTB, I can say that you can jump in whenever you want. Read one book and not the other. If you’re like me, I would write the post now while it’s fresh in you memory and schedule it to post during the month of June or July. (Then set a reminder to leave a message at the CTB site to tell us you posted. Hope that makes sense. Hope you do join for Alice in Wonderland.
Thanks so much for the greenhouse advice. I want a greenhouse so much but not sure if we’d get great use of it. Believe it or not, north Florida gets very cold and so it’s hard to figure when to plant tomatoes. This week we will see lows of 25 and 32!
I reviewed the Taste book on my book blog (Turn the Page) already but I do indeed plan to hook up with CtB. As a matter of fact, I am reading Red Sparrow right now so maybe I can get it together for that link up.
I appreciate your advice and I apologize for all those misspellings! That will teach me to use my phone to comment 🙂
I love how escapist this post is and your veggies look like they are doing really well. I planted quite a few things this summer but with all the slugs, bugs, caterpillars, snails, and whatever else most of it was eaten while I was away in France.. never mind! this is the nature of nature 🙂