It’s been FOREVER since I made a post on here…what I can’t explain is my idleness for not updating my dozen of fans… Guess the pandemic and being home has finally gotten the better of me and perhaps I am running out of momentum. It’s also equally likely that I am lazy.

Well anyways, here is a summary of what has been going on at Casa Barchuart (Burns – March – Stuart).

MEATBALL MADNESS

Here I am trying my hand at making small things: small meatballs, small tartlets. I know this picture is deceiving because it’s such a close up. Take a look at the pic below to get a better idea of the scale.

I’ll try to do my best to recall the individual ingredients (besides the pie crust): pancetta, celery, red onions, carrots, potatoes, mini meatballs, and a light beef gravy/stock. Overall not a bad little appetizer prelude to the main course:

MAMA MIA MEATBALL PIZZA

Buckle up food fans because if you are in the market for a blast of meat, this is definitely a heavy hitter. Instead of the usual herb and tomato sauce, we’ve got a spicy marinara. HUGE meatballs and three types of salami are punctuated with fresh mozzarella and tomato. Top it all off with chili flakes and olive oil to amp up the pepper flavour. Literally one of my new favourite pizza combos.

Let’s see what else has been happening…

GALAXY QUEST

I made a fun-filled tie-dyed spiral galaxy, complete with coloured space debris. But wait! There’s more!

Yeah the inside is crazy coloured also. This cake was really fun to make…something about bright colours really cheers up a rainy Nova Scotia day.

A FRUIT BASKET?

I’ve wanted to make a decorative bread centrepiece for a very long time, so I decided now is the time since we are all sitting ducks.

I enlisted Zoey’s help to mix the dough, while Jason and I were outside cutting wood for shelves that we are building. Then I ditched Jason and rejoined Zoey in the kitchen to develop and execute our plan.

Here it is before it went in the oven. (I had to take a before shot just in case the bread rose in a weird direction in the oven, etc.)

So hopefully my vision is coming across clear here: a pineapple-shaped ‘basket’ that is filled with fruit and flowers.

I think the shine of the egg wash reflecting on the camera lens is doing the fruit basket a disservice because it was really awesome looking. And this is something that I will definitely be trying more of because it was really fun rolling and shaping bread dough like I was in Kindergarten.

Hit me up in the comments with some food questions, comments, and requests for recipes and tips!