ed here! hello from dublin again. it’s been a whirlwind month. i took a solo trip at the beginning of the month which i am so grateful for, getting to reconnect with friends and see some sunshine has done wonders for my mind. immediately after that LD and i took the newborn to the uk for a wedding, followed by a funeral a few days later. what this has meant is, cooking has been at an all time minimal in the house.
that being said pizza friday holds strong. i was gifted anna jones new cookbook ‘easy wins’ earlier in the year for my birthday and her weeknight pizza recipe is fast becoming our go to pizza recipe. it’s sort of a topped foccacia, sort of deep dish chicago. we’ve been enjoying it with salami and hot honey (trendy). if you don’t own any of anna’s books already, this one is worth picking up for the pizza recipe alone.
outside of pizza fridays we’ve got the usuals on rotation: pesto pasta, traybake dinners, dumplings, sweet potato and rice, variations on a one pot pasta and the trustworthy sausage. one item to note, thanks to pizza fridays rowan now eats salami! he truly is following the stereotypical path of an irish boy.
the zine is still on the shelves down at lilliput stores in dublin, as well as another story in toronto. and if you’re not in any of those locations, you can order online. we’re hoping to get our act together and publish a second issue later in the summer! stay tuned for that.
hello! it’s me katie, in toronto! i’m writing this from the only place i want to be for the rest of my days: my hammock, in the sunshine. am i getting a burn on my right forearm and left calf? yes. do i care? you know i don’t give a TOOT!
cooking has also been at an ATL (all time low) here, too. it’s outdoor season for my kiddos - t-ball and soccer and tennis and LOTS of games of tag with pals at the park. we always have somewhere to be, or have spent too much time outside playing to think about dinner until everyone is STARVING, so we have been relying on: takeout/dine-in, PB&J, eggs for dinner, one pot pastas (always), pizza (allllways) and snack plates. if i get my shit together we’ll do a BBQ (i just got one and i’m so happy), or try to cook something new, but that’s been a pretty rare occurrence since late april. this is why our instagram has been kinda crickets lately. can’t post food if you’re not cookin’!
one thing i did make recently, which only happened because my lovely neighbour got 2x the ingredients so gifted me a FULL MEAL’s worth of food (shoutout to greg, what a legend) was this sheet pan gnocchi. one of my kids is not a mushroom fan, so he avoided those, but i was so surprised that nobody gave me more shit for the spinach of it all. i will be making this, or another version of this again very soon because it was so easy and SO good.
it wouldn’t be a proper newsletter without a recipe, and this one has absolutely nothing to do with anything we’ve written about today, but it’s rhubarb season baby! so we’ll leave you with something super delish that you can do with rhubarb that you’re gonna love - perfect for lunchboxes or picnics or desserts or breakfast too, tbh.
next month we get to hang out IRL (woooo hooooo!) so june’s newsletter is gonna be a good one. until then!
xoxo
kt & ed
rhubarb crumble bars
makes 1 8x8 tin
equipment
8x8 baking tin, parchment paper, cutting board, knife, medium pot, 2x wooden spoons, mixing bowls, measuring cups & spoons, regular spoon.
ingredients
4 stalks of rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1/2-3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
the juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cups melted butter
~1.5s cup rhubarb compote (alternative: use any jam)
optional, but encouraged: 4 big spoonfuls of strawberry jam, if you’re doing rhubarb
method
make your rhubarb compote. chop your rhubarb, put that into a pot over medium-low (emphasis on low) heat with your sugar, lemon juice, salt, vanilla and water. stir, and cook until the rhubarb is completely broken down, the liquid has evaporated and everything is jammy, stirring occasionally. taste and adjust sweetness if you want. this will take about 8-10 minutes.
preheat your oven to 350 F/170 C.
while the compote is cooking, make your crumble. mix the flour, oats, sugars, salt, baking soda and melted butter all together until everything is combined. you want to be able to form a solid mass of crumble, but also still be able to crumble it up.
line the baking tin with parchment. press 2/3 of the crumble mixture into the bottom of your pan - this will be the base of your bars.
spread all of your compote on top, and swirl in the optional strawberry jam. or, just add whatever jam you’re using and spread it out on top of the crumble base.
crumble the remaining…crumble mixture over top of the jam and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the top is golden.
let cool completely before slicing OR go in for some molten hot jam bars and serve with ice cream or heavy cream or custard?!?! omg yum there are many options.
enjoyyyyyyyyy!
THANK YOU bc i literally have this recipe in my phone as a series of screenshots from your insta. it's so good!