Picnic pie!

I have wanted to make one of these ever since the Picnic Pie finale on The Greak British Bake-Off, so when a friend invited me to a potluck picnic it was an obvious choice! The recipe I used is from Jamie Oliver.

I started early in the morning, when the kitchen was still cool (west-facing windows mean it gets hot in the afternoon). And there was a lot of cooking involved in prep. Eggplants got done on the grill:

... as did the zucchinis. Red peppers and squash and garlic were roasted in the oven.

Once the prep was done, the assembly began. Fresh basil and parmesan:

Zucchini:

Red pepper, wilted spinach, and ricotta:

Caramelised red onions and goat cheese:

And finally the top! Ready for the oven. This was when I realised I'd forgotten to include the squash. Whoops.

Here it is, out of the oven! But I had my doubts about whether it was really done - I translated 180 C to 350 F, but I think I should have put it in at 375 and left it in longer.

Here it is after some dithering and eventually deciding on a second bake:

Still had some structural integrity issues though. Lessons learned for next time!

What I've been up to

Another long break, but it's not because I've been doing nothing.

First off, I spent the winter divided between being deathly ill (pneumonia, pleurisy), taking care of a sick kid, and filming on location in different parts of the province. Oh, the glamour of getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning to drive to Belleville! It hit me too late, "Oh yeah, this is why I stopped working in production," it's just too stressful.

Anyway, I did manage to accomplish a few things in the interim.

I built shelves!

Basically done here, although they still need a final coat of paint. As do the walls, obviously.

I have the paint and rollers and all ready to go, just as soon as I find the time...

I got yarn in my xmas stocking - what a clever Santa, bringing cashmere! - and knit a sweater:

Focussing a camera is not my strong suit. Also returned to a project I'd set aside before, a pair of gloves...

... to match a hat. Also did some baking. No photos of Mary Berry's Cherry Cake from Great British Bake-Off, even though I made it twice (once under-baked, once over-baked), or the Honey Cake from the Mile End Cookbook, but I did manage a blurry snap of the gateau St-Honoré I made for Valentine's Day - a small one, just for the kiddo and me.

And today, I knocked two long-half-finished projects off of the to-do list. I finished recovering the cushions on the porch chair...

... so it matches these porch chairs.

And finally, I finished off a pair of pyjamas. The Fenelon Fair has a category for "Ladies' Sleep Pants" which has unfortunately led to me having three half-pairs of pyjamas waiting for the tops to get done. The bottoms for these were done in 2014! Ah well, better late than never.