Friday Night Dinners

Blackberry Sauce

Yep, there's those tomatoes again.  We are completely addicted.  There is probably no limit to what I would pay for a tomato this delicious.  If you want them, they can be obtained at my dealer.

Our family friend Larry, brilliant gardener and top notch accordion player originally from Ireland, always brings my parents a big sack of his new potatoes.  Then if I play my cards right, I get my own smaller sack out of their stash.  My favourite ones are the teeny tiny ones you can eat in one bite.  Those never make it to the plate though! 

Kurt suggested some sort of savoury blackberry sauce be poured over our dinner this particular evening.  Too lazy to look up a recipe, I boiled about 20 blackberries in some red wine until they broke down, added some butter, salt, pepper and honey and threw it in the blender.  Pretty good if you don't mind chomping on the seeds, which I don't.  This got poured over potatoes which I had boiled and then browned in the cast iron with some onions and pieces of a apple and sage field roast sausage, which I like because they are not processed like so many other meat substitutes.  Also, asparagus.

Fiddlehead Ferns

 I finally got my hands on some fiddle head ferns and they don't keep for long, so they became the focus of this particular Friday night dinner.  Saute them like you would green beans with olive oil and a little garlic.  I put them on a bed of GOC style whole wheat fettucine and served those with hummus on crusty whole wheat and kale tomato salad.  Yummy. 

Lasagna with atypical sides

Spinach and ricotta whole wheat lasagna, roasted cauliflower, microgreen and shitake salad.  More detail on the salad in a later post.

Individual Lasagnas

I bought these large ramekins for serving cassoulet, but when we were redoing the kitchen, and I was forced to get creative with the microwave and rice cooker, I did something very strange and made these individual lasagnas......in the microwave.  Pretty good considering, but nowhere as good as baked.  But, without that experiment, I may not have ever come up with this use for these dishes.  It's a great way to get your lasagna fix without having tons of leftovers.  Served here with a simple salad and crusty bread.