Made some braised duck leg (and pork belly for my partner who doesn’t eat duck really) today. Ate it with some braised cabbage and sautéed black trumpets and cinnabar chanterelles.
I held it up to show him and he immediately was like “put that away father”
Chicken of the woods parm with basil and mozzarella. Chanterelle and peach pizza with mint. Both on homemade dough. I didn’t forage the chanterelles someone else did and I traded them for some art I made. But I did forage the chicken of the woods.
I absolutely did not plan on doing almost everything homemade but I went to the store and forgot the buns. I was looking at a list the entire time mind you (thanks ADHD 😂) but I’m happy with how everything came out. This will probably be my only
Chanterelle dish of the season unfortunately but I’m glad it was this one I decided on.
Every dish has at least one foraged element. I did a “chicken” piccata with chicken of the woods and milkweed capers, an acorn flour focaccia, and a caesar salad with dock flour crackers. I made a milkweed cordial this year which my partner used to make a milkweed dirty soda. The cream for that also uses a black walnut syrup I made. My partner also made a pineapple weed olive oil cake that uses both pineapple weed milk and an olive oil they infused with the pineapple weed. There’s more to each thing of course but those are the important foraging related things.
I hand embroidered a patch with a brain and some maggots and then stitched it to this tote bag. I also did this (in my opinion) lovely frillback pigeon.
The frame is obviously a repeat as I posted it a couple of days ago but it all looked really cool together so I wanted to include it. I have been stuck in bed with the way the weather has been (chronically ill) so a lot of work being done in general right now
I finally finished the embroidery part of the piece. It took quite a bit of time and my fingers hurt so much (so many stitches through the canvas underneath 🫡) but I think it was worth it. Happy to talk about the theme more with anyone who is curious. Also don’t mind the dachshund lol he doesn’t let me work without being in my space in some way.
Found some wine caps and decided I wanted to do mushroom toast. Sautéed them, made a chestnut (also foraged) and goat cheese whip, threw together a fennel and orange salad, and topped it all with toasted hazelnuts and red clover petals.
My fingers are absolutely sore after this but I think it’s worth it 🫡
Before things start piling up I wanted to clear out my freezer a bit. I had some chestnuts that I foraged last fall and wanted to finally use them. So I made a chestnut filling for cinnamon rolls. I topped them with cream cheese frosting (a bit too much but that’s my personal preference), and some dried magnolia powder I made this year. Overall satisfying!