Easter Brunch

Happy Easter!

Easter has never been a holiday that I have formally celebrated.  I did hunt for eggs as a child and attended a few church services.  We always had a nice dinner.  But, it has also been a holiday that I've skipped without remorse; it's not "big" in my mind.  

Despite this, I do love the symbolism of Easter and it's associations with spring and renewal.  Plus, there are flowers, pastel colours and chocolate.  All delightful things!

This year, I decided to have an Easter brunch in place of an Easter dinner.  I was not feeling inspired to cook a roasted meat of any kind and the sweet sunniness of brunch seems to suit the holiday perfectly.

My Easter table.

I even found a second hand pink tablecloth last week.  It is a bit "much" next to my blue walls, but I couldn't resist.  I love the collection of second hand finds that I am gathering.  There are so many at this table!

Brunch was crepes with a bevy of delicious toppings: bananas, chocolate, whipped cream, raspberries, strawberries, coconut yogurt, maple syrup, lemon and sugar.  There was even some local bacon on the side!

A delicious new tradition has been born!

The Peaches are Coming! The Peaches are Coming!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! My favourite food (well, third favourite after fresh baked bread and chocolate) has arrived in season! Rejoice!

Rasberries!

Strawberry season has ended on the island (at least the "real" strawberry season) and raspberry season is nearing it's end as well. It has been short and sweet!

My box of beauties

Bath time

Reincarnation

A blissful lunch of raspberries on Greek God's yogurt and freshly made jam on brioche

Devine

Summer

Ahhhhh . . . .

My renovations are almost complete, I've unpacked all of my boxes and I have returned from a lovely, but exhausting, adventure on the East Coast. I feel like I am starting to breathe again after the chaos of the last few months. To celebrate this, and the arrival of summer, I have decided to eat as many berries as I can over the next few months. For what signals lazy times more than the preparation and munching of little juicy morsels of bliss?

My berry extravaganza begins with strawberries!

I bought a whole flat of beautiful June berries grown right here on the island.

Then I made jam. Mmmmmm.

My goal is to make 12 jars so that I can have one per month throughout the year. I've made 6 and already polished off one. I am not quite sure how my plan will work out!

Next, I made Strawberry Shortcake. The real kind. Not the spongy weird stuff from the grocery store.

So, so good.

And, of course, I had to make crepes. For what is life without crepes?

And, lastly, I finished the strawberry festivities off with some scoops of vanilla bean ice cream, my strawberry jam and some freshly chopped strawberries. What could be better?

I went through more than a flat of strawberries in less than a week and will be headed back out to the berry farm to pick up some more tomorrow.

The Food Box Chronicles: The Week of the Broccoli Failure

It was another successful week in the land of the food box. My daily vegetable quota is on the rise and I almost think I could handle weekly deliveries of fruit and veggies as I have already plowed through my last box, which was delivered 1 week ago today.

This box (being carefully inspected by my food inspector, Oliver Twist) contained kale, blueberries, broccoli, potatoes, pea shoots, tomatoes, lemons, lettuce, hazelnuts, apples and kiwis.

I had my first big food box failure with this set of veggies when I attempted to make my favourite broccoli soup using broccoli and potatoes. It turns out that vegetable stock (which I was out of) is not something you can easily omit - blech. So, in order to make up for this, I bought some yams and used the food box tomatoes to make my favourite African Yam and Peanut soup. Mmmm. So good.

The next item I used was the kale. From this I made some Balsamic Roasted Kale (not chard) and had this as a side dish to some left over veggie chili that I had made a few weeks ago and frozen.

I made several salads with the lettuce, pea shoots and hazelnuts. Delicious. There is nothing better than a good salad and I am glad to be heading back in to salad season!

I used the kiwis to top some Sticky Thai Coconut Rice. However, I do have to say that I am not a huge kiwi fan and this rice is better with pretty much any other fruit! I will be adding kiwis to my food box "never send" list.

I cooked up my blueberries to make a blueberry sauce.

And I used this sauce to serve with crepes. I love crepes and will eat them for any meal of the day. My favourite toppings are either nutella or a fresh strawberry/butter/syrup combo, but this combo of blueberry sauce and greek yogurt was good too!

I even used some of my left over blueberry sauce to top my Sticky Thai Coconut Rice the next morning for breakfast. Much better than kiwi!

Last night, I picked up a few more potatoes and combined this with my food box apples to make Potato and Apple Soup, a new recipe I just stumbled across in an old magazine. It was delicious and creamy and packed with goodness.

Lastly, I have been sick with laryngitis and have been using my food box lemons for my favourite sickie beverage - hot water with the juice of half a lemon and a teaspoon of honey.

So, the week of the broccoli failure started badly, but ended well. I can't wait for the next box!