Thank you so so much for subscribing to my newsletter! If you are receiving this, you are probably a friend or family member, but just in case you don't know me, I'm Christine. I live in Cleveland, TN with my dog Copper who is my little shadow, my cat Cher, and my six backyard chickens. I run First Bloom Coffee and Bakery here in town, and I am also a singer, gardener, baker, cook, and reader.
I have come to prefer subscribing and reading newsletters from friends or other writers that come to my email inbox instead of scrolling Facebook or Instagram. There are fewer ads, less clutter, no algorithms to outsmart, and I think that longer-form writing is such a great practice for anyone. If you have a newsletter that I'm not subscribed to yet, let me know. I would love to read your work!
I say I'm a baker, but in reality I have SO much to learn about baking. I am very intimidated by yeast breads, pastry, tempering chocolate (so scary) and more. One way that I want to learn more is to bake through a few of the best baking books out there. I'm planning to start with Claire Saffitz's Dessert Person since I have already made many recipes from it with great success. She organizes the recipes by difficulty from easy to advanced, so it makes sense to just start from the beginning and learn as I go. I hope this can be a place where I can keep a record of my bakes and share photos with you all. If you're local, you can most likely come to First Bloom to try the things I am making!
I plan on sharing upcoming events at the coffee shop, new offerings as they come (lunch menus, seasonal menus, etc.), and any holiday pre-orders through this newsletter as well.
I've also heard from friends my age that they want inspiration for recipes to make during the week just to keep ourselves fed while we are working on having social lives. I have to admit that I eat out way too much for those exact reasons! I get a weekly CSA box from a local farm for fresh produce, and I want to save money, so I try my best to use those veggies to meal prep and cook at home whenever I can. To that end I would love to share the easiest meal I think I've ever made.
Instant Pot Bolognese from Julia Turshen
I highly recommend Julia Turshen's books. She makes the most comforting recipes and has a lot of great thoughts on body image and what it means to be healthy. She has a newsletter and a podcast that I love. I made this pasta recipe of hers this week and served it with pre-chopped salad mix from the store - the kind with about 2 pieces of red cabbage and carrots mixed in. Sometimes the thought of washing and chopping a salad is too much, so I usually keep some of this in the fridge. I had cucumbers and bell peppers from my CSA box, so I added some of those and dressed it with gold old Hidden Valley Ranch. It was very nostalgic and there's no point messing with perfection. I went to Trader Joe's earlier this week and got a bottle of blood orange soda, so I drank some of that out of a wine glass which was very fun. It was a comforting and delicious meal, and I had plenty of leftovers.
First I browned a pound of Italian pork sausage, you could use any ground meat for this but you may want to add some seasonings. Italian sausage is so great because it's already seasoned! Once that was browned, I deglazed the pot with a splash of wine and then added a 24oz jar of marinara sauce + the jar full of water (about 3 cups). You could probably use any type of pasta sauce for this and it would come out delicious. I added a 12oz box of Jovial Foods einkorn rotini noodles, any kind of whole wheat short pasta would work. I cooked it on high pressure for 5 minutes, let it natural release for 5 minutes, then released the rest of the steam. I had a huge bag of spinach from my CSA box, so I added lots of that which wilted into the sauce right away. The secret ingredient is about a quarter cup of sour cream stirred in at the end. I topped with parmesan cheese. Yum!
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