Well hello there! It’s been ever such a long time since we checked in with each other, so here I am hoping you and yours are all OK, and that you are staying in and keeping safe. What strange times. Everything that we’ve come to rely on in our lives for comfort, security, and well-being has been upended as we navigate the murky waters that is life with coronavirus. So many of us no longer have jobs or are working from home and separated from friends and family, or dealing with just the opposite… life confined indoors with the kids 😱!

Life here at the Circle B Kitchen hasn’t changed all that much. The Husband and I are homebodies and our home here is very accommodating to the quarantine life. So we’re fine and managing to amuse ourselves as days stretch into weeks and probably into months. I do miss grocery shopping. Pantry staples are mostly ordered online. Those of you who know me well, also know that on an average day, my pantries, refrigerators and freezers are stocked as if the apocalypse is nigh, so we’re not going hungry.

I believe I mentioned in a previous post that I was embarking on this blogging hiatus in part to see what might develop in terms of a recipe collection/book, and I’m happy to report that this project is ongoing and in full swing. I am joyfully rediscovering recipes that I have cooked through the years and lost track of, so this has been an invaluable and rather fun project. I can’t really tell, but I think I might be about halfway through the collecting/organizing part of this and I honestly have no idea how many recipes I’ve collected, but for sure it’s in the hundreds.

Once I have this part of the project completed, I will begin recipe testing and making decisions on who stays and who goes and what format I would like this to take. I’ll keep you posted when I get closer to that point.

One thing I haven’t mentioned here before is that about a year and half ago I discovered Einkorn flour and much of my baking this last year has been learning how to work with it and adapting recipes to using it. If you haven’t heard of Einkorn flour, it is the original wheat grown on this earth thousands of years ago. It is the only wheat today that has never been hybridized. It’s chock full of nutrients and contains a gluten that is highly digestible, even for those who cannot easily digest wheat gluten, with the exception of those with celiac’s disease.

If you’d like to read more about Einkorn flour and the company (Jovial Foods) which has been growing this wheat in Italy and making it available to us here in the states, here’s the link to their website. They also have the BEST gluten free pasta on the planet! The company was founded by Carla Bertolucci and her husband. My daughter and I were all signed up to go to Italy this June to attend a workshop at their estate in Tuscany when the world blew up and we had to cancel our plans. Hopefully we’ll get there next year, but in the meantime, we’re baking Einkorn sourdough bread, einkorn muffins, biscuits, pancakes, cookies, tortillas, and so loving this flour.

My most recent loaf of einkorn sourdough

So that’s the rundown on what’s been happening here in the Circle B Kitchen. Right now I’m making a pot of pinto beans which I will turn into refried beans which I’ll turn into enfrijoladas for dinner tonight.

If you’re looking for a fun kitchen project, might I suggest making a big batch of our amazing enchilada sauce. I order the chiles online (Amazon carries the guajillo, pasilla and New Mexico chiles) and keep them on hand for enchilada emergencies. I have a pressure canner so I also can the sauce, but you can freeze it, although I’ve found that it tends to separate when frozen. It’ll last in your fridge for a couple of weeks. Once you’ve got this sauce made, your enchiladas will be that much better. And if you haven’t yet made enfrijoladas, might I suggest you get on that quickly like? If you’re not up for making your own sauce and you have a can or two of enchilada sauce in the larder, that will work just fine… they’ll still be unbelievably good.

I guess that’s all from the World Headquarters of The Circle B Kitchen. I wish you all safety, good health and happy cooking!