Small stone: Jan. 9

Salads of the season

t's hard to believe it's already more than a couple of weeks since girlfriend Kate came to town and we staycationed for a couple of days. It was lovely, and our time together so looked forward to, and then in a blip (but a very relaxing blip) it was over...

One of our meal outings was to a dinner event that Kate had participated in last year, called Outstanding in the Field. The setting was lovely, the food fresh and local and tasty, and the group of friends that Kate invited for the meal (this was a wee bit belated birthday celebration) entirely lovely.

One of the dishes from the evening that got the most ooohs and ahhs was an apricot fattoush, and I instantly knew that given the state of our apricot tree, I would be making this at home, many times.

For some strange reason, I knew that the herb was mint, but as I went to make it for myself at home, later, all I heard in my head was "dill." And in true Sher fashion, I of course didn't look back at the picture from the dinner, so my ratio of greens to bread is very different as well. But, I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed my take on the salad immensely.

Apricot, arugula and chevre salad
Serves one as a meal or two as an accompaniment
3 cups arugula mixture with some additional greens (in my case, a few basil leaves as well)
1 cup homemade baguette croutons
1 lemon cucumber, peeled, quartered and sliced
6 apricots, pitted and quartered
2 Tbsp dill, very roughly chopped off the stem
1/3 cup thinly sliced Walla Walla Sweet Onions
2 Tbsp light dressing of olive oil, garlic and citrus balsamic
1/2 cup chevre, crumbled (the original salad had feta listed, but it is such a fresh, soft feta, I thought I could get away with chevre, and it was very yummy of course)
Salt and pepper to taste

Toss the greens with the dressing in a medium bowl and makes sure the leaves are well coated. Add the apricots, croutons, cucumber and dill and mix again; add the chevre and toss gently. Turn out onto a serving plate or platter (this would double nicely for a dinner party), and add a bit more chevre to the top, as seems appropriate (when is additional chevre NOT appropriate?).

Enjoy!

Of course, as soon as I was done photographing the salad for the sake of the experiment, out came the figs and I halved up a number of those for on top as well! They went extremely well with all the other ingredients, and added to my overall enjoyment of the salad, definitely.

The following day I felt the need to mix it up a bit further. Same greens, same croutons, but I dressed it in the arugula pesto I've been enjoying, and added blue cheese instead of chevre. Also, I replaced the apricots with nectarines, and kept the figs (of course!).

Quite a heavenly lunch.

Tis the season for salad appreciation, and I am embracing it fully! Hope you enjoy the flavors of the season, too!

A few more photos from the evening, before it fades from memory...

To the left side is the airstream that the crew travels in (and Megan wanted to take home) and to the 

right is the outdoor kitchen.

Isn't that purple fabulous?

I made a friend at the farm.

Kate and her lovelies.

Figs and orzo with goat cheese and basil

igs are a well-documented favorite with me (here, here, here and here, just to get the party started). My goodness, I love that fruit! And it's been with quite a bit of glee that I've watched local merchants bring them to town the past few years... the fruit's popularity has grown, for sure, and with that, thankfully their per-pound price has gone from the "OK, Seth's obviously going to community college to support Mom's habit" to a more reasonable place.

So when I have figs around as well as all my other favorite summer ingredients, I can't help but want to put a few of them together. The past few days I have been caught in a serious basil-tomato-parmesan-pasta loop. Tonight I thought... what if I swap out the tomatoes for figs? And then, because figs and chevre go together so beautifully, a bit of goat cheese found it's way into the bowl too. Heaven.

If figs are your thing, you gotta give this a try. And if they're not, you should still have just a bite... it might convert you.

Figs and orzo
Serves 2 as a side dish
1 cup cooked orzo or other tiny pasta shape
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced finely (optional)
3/4 cup coarsely chopped basil leaves
10 fresh figs, quartered
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
1/3 cup crumbled chevre
Salt and pepper to taste

Place orzo, garlic and olive oil in medium bowl and stir to toss well. If pasta is freshly cooked (ie, warm), this should suffice to wilt the garlic, if you choose to go that route. (I found the garlic helped cut the sweetness of the figs just right. I also felt like a walking garlic clove for a bit, so it's your call.) If you are using leftover pasta (as I was tonight) warm for a minute or two in the microwave. (Room temperature would be great with this dish, but cold-cold is not my preferred state for most dishes.)

Add the figs, pine nuts, basil and parmesan and toss again. Add the chevre last and toss gently with salt and pepper to coat the rest of the ingredients. Serve immediately!

Oh yum. I will be making that dish again. Soon.

Wordless Wednesday: Sing a happy song for the last figs of the season!

Fresh fig ice cream

y adoration for fresh figs is well documented. I've waxed on about it many times (I did a "fig" search and found more than 10 entries mentioning the joy that is figs) in the past here on the blog, and am always looking for ways to eat them while they are ever-so-briefly in season. I like them in salads and sandwiches, as well as appetizers and desserts; but truly, most times I am content to eat them just as they are--straight from whatever box they came home in.

But when you have aging, leftover figs, it makes sense to use them up in something baked or cooked. And so when I happened upon this recipe and knew we had some rather close-to-retirement figs in the house, it just made sense to whip it up, quick-like.

Fresh Fig Ice Cream Recipe
From David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop

2 lbs fresh figs (about 20)
½ cup of water
1 lemon, preferably unsprayed
¾ cup of sugar
1 cup of heavy cream
½ teaspoon of freshly squeezed, lemon juice, or more to taste

Remove the hard stem ends from the figs, then cut each fig into 8 pieces. Put the figs in a medium, nonreactive sauce pan with the water, and zest the lemon directly into the saucepan. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 8-10 minutes until the figs are tender.

Remove the lid, add the sugar and continue to cook until it reaches a jam-like consistency. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Blend together with cream and lemon juice, chill in the fridge and then put in your ice cream maker per the manufacturer’s instructions.

Ma and I halved the recipe, since our fig supply was low; a trip to town tomorrow will fix that! And another amendment we made was that I ran the cooked mixture through the food processor really quick--even though it was jammy, I thought a quick mix would make for a smoother blend and I think that was a smart move.

While fresh and uncooked will always be my favorite way to enjoy figs, I can't argue with this option. Wouldn't dream of it. In fact, I'm already dreaming of variations... balsamic reduction added? With goat cheese? Maybe a little creme fraiche? A smidge of chocolate? Or how about some hazelnuts... I like to get as many of my food obsessions as possible in one bowl. Efficient, no?

And on a completely side note, Seth and Ma and I went for a walk today and saw a group of alpacas hanging out by the fence down the road. I think they are just the cutest. I was informed how expensive they are as pets (given that you can't ride them or make $$ off them other than breeding, I suppose, and they're rather large to take for a walk), and they got substantially less cute after that! Still, such sweet and gentle creatures. I guess these guys had been trimmed recently of their fur (hair?), and they looked quite spiff and cool in the sunshine.

Robby the alpaca, with Buttercup behind him.

Just pieces of Rudy in the front--he was moving too fast for my iPhone, with
Shogun and Buttercup and Robby.

Fig alert! The season is NOT over!

You know the saying about laying down your life for a friend? That works, I suppose, but how often does it really come up? But alerting a friend to the nearest location for figs? Oh yes. I have such friends, and they are dear to my heart.

On my phone this very afternoon: "Fig alert! I'm standing in front of figs. Do you want me to get them for you?"

I happened to be nearby so zoomed on over and picked myself up four little pints of the sweetest and loveliest figs I've had this year. They were picked "closer to ripe" than the flats at Costco, so while they are more fragile, they are definitely more flavorful.

I ran right home and whipped up a late lunch salad of arugula, figs, chevre and pumpkin seeds (a nod to fall, of course), with a balsamic reduction. It was heaven. I cut the figs in half and sauteed them cut-side down in a pan with some balsamic reduction and then laid them over the arugula and sprinkled the goat cheese, pumpkin seeds and little more of the reduction over the top. Very lovely.


Tonight I made a panini with figs, pesto and fresh mozzarella, which was also it's own slice of bliss.

Here I thought fig season had passed. Apparently not. Stay tuned. Two pints down, two to go. (No judgment on how fast or how many I eat, please.)

Fig season is upon us!

When Seth and I went on our little NYC adventure the spring of 2005, we quickly established a fun routine of heading out in the morning to Starbucks, picking up a pint of fresh figs from the fruit vendor just outside of Starbucks, and wandering to whatever we had in store for the day. We called it heaven, and it was. Well, it was for me. He was happy enough to sip his hot chocolate, eat whatever Starbucks goody was passing for breakfast, and watch me inhale the figs.

Of course he remembered that when, last week, grinning, I practically floated out of the produce cooler at the Kelowna Costco. Both he and husband instantly knew that I had indeed found fresh figs! This is one fruit I wait for all year and cannot get enough of when it's around (it joins a long list of such fruits, but is well and truly queen of said list).

We got enough to share, and MJ nabbed Bobbi's little balsamic reduction bottle, and away we went for supper. And breakfast, and snacks between. Heaven!

If you don't happen to have a little balsamic reduction lying about, you can easily make it yourself. Be forewarned: smells up the house somethin' fierce. But it's not a bad smell and it won't last for long. It's just powerful in the moment.

Expect many fig posts in the coming weeks... though I was horrified to see that CANADA had Californian figs before Washington state. What's up with that? Somebody needs to talk to somebody else about that... pronto.

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Do I look a little piggy with my chevre portions? No judgement! It was heaven, I tell you, heaven!

I find this troubling

It's been quite the week. Pretty quite on the blog-front. What with the whole daylight-savings-dark-morning funk, too much to do on all fronts and not enough verve or pep (yes, I know, normal people just call it "energy") to get it all done, I've been a little undone. Being around me hasn't exactly been a thrill-a-minute...

Not to mention we've been eating down the pantry (but the boys haven't noticed!), so what fun is there in blogging about that? (You wouldn't believe some of the slapped together meals that have been taking place around here. Today for lunch I had some leftover fried grits and a yogurt. Whoo-hoo. But tomorrow there WILL be grocery shopping. I need my coffee creamer! And cheese. And apples. And bananas. The list will be long.)

Well, to top it off, apparently figs are an abomination and doom nations. I might as well just end it now. I am quite curious where exactly a flier like this would get handed out? But I'll leave that to your fertile minds... (click here for a more readable version complete with chapter and verse!)

And wish me luck on that gratitude list this week. I'm sensing a short one...

Mom gives a fig about me

Here's a sketch my mom did for me last fall... I just got it from her now and had to share immediately. I love it! How'd you guess?

Did he write it just for me?

This week Amazon picked their top 10 books for 2008.

This makes me a little sad for those authors with books still releasing between now and the actual end of 2008. Is it just common knowledge that books published in the last two months of the year aren't any good? I get that there needs to be a cut-off date (like for the Oscars, of course!), but... just sayin', if I had a book coming out right now, I'd be a little peeved... I might get over it if books published Nov/Dec 2008 get included in 2009's picks. Might. See, rich fanasy life. No book, no publisher, yet peeved I haven't been picked.

So of course, there's a separate category for the top 10 cookbooks, oh yeah! And number one, yep, it's got figs written all over it! It looks like a good one--anyone who has cooked with Alice Waters is worth a read. In my humble opinion, of course.

And check out No. 7 on the list as well (I think someone's ripping me off!).

I know that Sweet Tea and Sunshine sounds incredibly southern, and have been told so repeatedly. However, for me, it's a twist on "Sweet Pea." Who wants to read a blog--or visit a cafe--that was why I originally thought up the name--called Sweet Pea and Sunshine? No thanks--I'll leave the visual images to your fertile imaginations. And, it's also a tip of the hat to Canadian iced tea, which is always served sweet, like the south. I do forget that sometimes when I order it north of the border and that first sip is like, WHAT? And then I remember and relax and don't have to add sweetener!

Both these cookbooks will have to go on my Amazon wishlist. I'll even write reviews if (when) I get them for Christmas!