what a week.

holy crow how is this march?

sunshine, tank tops, sleeping with the windows open, waking to the sound of birds. it's unreal!

unfortunately this has also been the busiest week in the history of little red kitsch'n, but i did manage to sneak out to chebucto head for a hike on monday.

but otherwise it has been cooking, baking, delivering & running back and forth to the grocery stores and market all week. so far this week, there have been two caterings and a large restaurant order, but my main worry is the dinner for 25 that i have right after the market tomorrow... 

thankfully i've got a pretty good handle on my prep for the market already.

there are two new flavours of strata on the menu this week. for those of you who aren't familiar with them, a strata is a savoury bread pudding with lots of eggs & deliciousness. they can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner (or cold out of the fridge if you're me) but should be paired with a light salad or other veg to make them a complete meal. both flavours start with a base of caramelized onions and foxhill parmesan cheese but one option has roselane smoked bacon & the other is vegetarian with broccoli & cauliflower florets.

small $7.5  large $15

i also made two new batches of soup this week. the first is a roasted red pepper, sweet potato, tomato & chipotle. it's one of my favourite flavours of soup & i toned down the spice level this time so it has a broader appeal. there's lots of southwestern flavours, like cumin, cilantro & lime, in this one too. the second, is a hearty beef stew. i had planned on making a small batch, but there's just something about making stew... needless to say, it grew to epic proportions and i needed to stand on my stepping stool to stir it! it started off with lots of getaway farm grass fed beef, and then got loaded up with onions, celery, turnips, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, brussels sprouts, peas and herbs.

as usual all soups & stews are $7

oh yeah, i almost forgot, i made a new batch of chicken & chickpea curry this week too. it's a smidgen different than the last batch - i added cauliflower and didn't use black rice. i just spaced out last week & didn't package any smalls so this entire batch was made into smalls ($10) so that's back on the menu.

there are also three salads - $5 each:

quinoa - cucumbers, tomatoes, kalamata olives, red peppers, oregano, arugula, herbs, lemon, garlic, dijon

red rice - roasted butternut squash, sunflower seeds, pecans, red onion, dried cranberries, sage, arugula, maple, apple cider vinegar

broccoli - bacon, toasted almonds, red onion, raisins, garlic, creamy dressing (not vegan, or vegetarian for that matter, but i had a request...)

which leaves the baking. the snickers brownies won't be making an appearance this week, instead they will be the 'chocolate bars' that i had around valentine's day, comme ca:

butter tarts will also be back, along with the usual suspects: cranberry, oatmeal, white chocolate chip cookies, mint-oreo cheesecakes, macaroons, lemon meringue tarts, hello dolly's, and cupcakes galore.

ok time to get crack-a-lackin', see you this weekend!