I made a resolution to photograph more as I cook, and serve -I'm just not sure what to call an end-of-April resolution. It's not New Year's, it's not really solstice or even first quarter - maybe a post-taxtime resolution?
Anyways, I served a brunch today, and did a lot of the cooking yesterday - and tried hard to take pictures. It was a lovely spring menu -
Asparagus & mushroom puff pastry tarts
Scandinavian Flower Egg Salad
Rhubarb coffee cake
Dark Sticky Ginger Cake
My piece of ginger cake, bitten
It poured rain yesterday, but I did try to get as much as I could at our local Farmers' market, in between the showers and the Crazy Legs Run (which I walked as part of a librarian team). The local asparagus is not in yet, and Matt Smith didn't have any Shitakes - but I got eggs (Pecatonica), potatoes (Driftless Organics), Gruyere (Forgotten Valley) and mushrooms (button and cremini) and lettuce.
The tarts were really fun - all I had to do was cut the packaged puff paste into squares, and score a border - in the morning, I spooned in the filling and baked them. The puff paste puffed up around the filling and made a nest for it. The filling was seasoned with fresh thyme and lemon zest, and the vegetables were bound together with creme fraiche and grated Gruyere - it turned out ot be one of those combos where you could taste everything, but they blended perfectly.
The potatoes on the bottom of the salad were incredibly good - there is just enough left for my lunch tomorrow.
I went to CostCo for fruit - and it was the usual CostCo overabundance - I got a case of oranges and 4 pounds of strawberries, which I know we will eat, and I think I'll even find uses for the 8 Asian pears - (6 left), but some of the 4-lb. clamshell of kiwis that are still rock hard and I am sure will all be ripe at the same time may end up in the compost.
I made a web album of the pictures.
3 comments:
The tartlets and the ginger cake look amazing!
Are you willing to share any recipes (esp. the ginger cake)?
Sure, the tarts are basically from the April Bon Appetit. I can never decide which is my favorite ginger cake - Mollie Katzen or Regan Daley. I make small variations in both; Mollie wants you to use fresh ginger and I usually use crystallized & replace some of the honey with brown sugar; Regan wants you to use blackstrap molasses, and I use Grandma's - much lighter!
Deb - the food was so delicious this morning! I am still thinking of how perfect the coffee cake was. I can't wait to come again. I was really happy that every thing was vegetarian, too!
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