Fall starts officially this week. This means cooler temperatures, warmer clothes and those heartwarming foods that we all love as the weather, and leaves start to change. Then again, with the garden still producing fresh and tasty produce, we might need to put off that fall fair just a little longer, while we enjoy the freshness.
Sometimes meals come together, almost effortlessly, sometimes we find a theme, or region, other times it’s research. This week though, we kind of put things together that we like. We tested a few ideas and it turned into a meal. Joining our trio this week is Catharin. For the appetizer, Shawn was testing out an eggplant cannelloni. We plated and did a taste test, but it was a bit unbalanced, so he decided to switch for something else. When I went to snack on some of the leftovers, he had thrown the entire batch out. So instead we did a Black Tomato and Bononcini tart with balsamic glaze and olive oil vinaigrette. I think we need a shorter name for this one. The fresh pastry, with our home-grown tomatoes and the crunch of the arugula, was a nice start to the evening, and a pretty good “on the fly” recipe.
For our main, Shawn got inventive again…. He whipped up a roasted Tuscan chicken recipe, to feature our fresh herbs from the garden. This was served on a bed of Shawn’s famous lemon risotto, and sautéed spinach with mustard seeds, a sage vinaigrette and watercress. Steph brought us a Long Dog Bella Reserva Chardonnay to accompany the meal.
With fresh herbs, and spinach from the garden, alongside the zing from the lemon, this dish was really vibrant. The sage-lemon vinaigrette is one of my favorite discoveries of this summer. I don’t know where Shawn comes up with some of these things, but this one is a winner and gives dishes a bright fresh herby finish. OK, I can’t describe it, but it’s so good. The recipe link is as close as we could come to what we put in the bottle.
For dessert, we tried a bourbon-butterscotch pudding, with creme fraiche. I was concerned that this may not stand out, but it ended up having a nice complexity to the flavours. It may be a small thing, but the hand painted bird gratin dishes, that we served the puddings in, added a little something extra to this dish. I just love these dishes!!!
With our dinner and some herbal tea in us, we still had time to chat and catch up on life, then off to rehearsal, for our fall concert. Fall is truly coming, but with the warmth of food and friendship, we may be able to put if off just a little longer. Here’s to fall!!!
Now I don’t normally do this, but while I am writing this post, we have been prepping for the next Monday Night Dining experience, and I have sampled a few of the items….. Just be sure you check back next week, because I think we have come up with something really special.
