another busy week

last friday, when i was finished all my market prep, i decorated 150 wedding cupcakes. the only stipulation was that they be in shades of purple. i made lots of different flavours & tinted them all purple. then i thought it wasn't quite cohesive enough, so i went back & piped a tiny 3 coloured flower on top of each - even the minis! i was pretty much cross-eyed by the end but i was pretty pleased with the end result.

then after saturday at the market, i was back in the kitchen baking pies for my village's annual lobster supper. i went with streusel topped apple-berry pies to send over to the church hall. i don't bake a lot of pies so it's always pretty stressful!

then on sunday at the market, i was a judge in the halifax connections food bloggers cooking competition as part of sausage fest. it was nice sitting in the sun, meeting some new people & sampling some tasty grub. sorry if you were waiting for a cupcake while i was outside, but i took my responsibilities quite seriously;)

the winning dish was skillet baked eggs in a tasty ratinaud chorizo sauce with cilantro, green onion & goat feta made by kathy jollimore, the writer of eathalifax. 

then it was back to the grind. my menu was definitely lacking in the poultry department so i made two new chicken main courses this week with shain's farm chicken. they both ended up being gluten-free as well.

the first was chipotle-lime smoked chicken.

it's served up with a side of black bean & corn succotash, tomatoes, lime, cilantro & cheezy mashed sweet potatoes. there's a bit of kick to the chicken but the potatoes should provide nice balance.

small $10  large $20

the next main was something completely brand new - jamaican jerk chicken! it's something i've been thinking about for a long time & i'm pretty pleased with the results. i marinated the chicken overnight in a homemade jerk marinade with lots of warm spices & chillies. i was really worried that it would turn out blazing hot but it's actually less spicy than the chipotle chicken.

the meat is tossed with a grilled pineapple salsa - grilled red onions, bell peppers, jalapenos, cherry tomatoes & cilantro. it's served up alongside black beans & rice with green onions & a touch of the jerk marinade.

small $10  large $20

then i was busy with all the baking. the full lineup will be back this weekend:

snickers brownies

spicy chocolate brownies

hello dolly's

maple walnut shortbreads

lemon shortbreads

breakfast cookies

cupcakes

goat's milk fudge

i can smell the maple walnuts right now, they must be ready to come out of the oven. i still have a special order lemon-blueberry birthday cake to assemble & decorate too.

and then it's on to salads. this week i'm skipping the quinoa. i've had a few requests for regular potato salad so i'll be making a vegan version of that with lots of mustard, dill and radishes & green beans from my garden.

ok dokee back to work. hope to see you all over the weekend :)