Summer Weekend Tale: Stew, brownies, liqueur & rice pudding.

When the loneliness sets in on some weekends, I make trips to coffee shops I've been wanting to try, farmer's and flea markets, the bookstore, I treat myself to pizza and pastries. I try to go to the places I'd go to with friends, not wanting to deprive myself of the things I want to do because it's just me. I usually end up talking to and getting smiles from strangers. (LA can be a very friendly place when it wants to be.) I stock up on self-reflection and me-time. 

                      

And of course, I get to cooking.
Stew, brownies, bacon, scuppernong liqueur and coconut rice pudding made it onto the cooking agenda. An odd mix, for sure. The stew was nothing special, the brownies were very chocolatey, the bacon, well it's bacon, the liqueur is sure to be a hit and the pudding was coconuty-creamy. 

Here are the links to the recipes I used:

Hearty Chicken Stew and Butternut Squash & Quinoa (I used rice instead of quinoa. I also added kale)

Coconut Rice Pudding with Ginger Lemongrass Syrup (I didn't make the syrup, I simply sprinkled with cinnamon. I also halved it.)

This is Malcolm's blog. Not sure how old he is - no more than 12? 13? He's Clemence Gossett's son of Gourmandise:

Brownies

Scuppernong Liqueur is simple:

Take a bunch of scuppernong grapes and put in a glass jar, cover with vodka, add 1/4-1/2 cup sugar. Leave it alone for at least 2 months.