"Last time: minestrone and vegetable tart-roast asparagus and carrots on feta creamed with a clove of garlic on crisp baked pastry. Dessert? Those thin and crunchy gingersnaps with oats and buckwheat? What else? Cold outside in mid-March, so not ice cream. Not rice pudding cake. Also not dried figs cooked in sherry. A year ago it was D who cracked the blown glass bowl, although it could have been any of us. Figs and bowl thrown into the trash."
"But this dinner: maybe chard, pine nut, and white bean filo strudel (chard stems add crunch, miso adds umami) with red pepper coulis followed by those small Japanese cheesecakes that never fail and I'll have leftovers for breakfast. Or with the same amount of work and more luxury: coconut (organic, no guar gum) crème caramels with star anise, cardamon, grains of paradise. Inverted on a plate, a tenuousness I aspire to. Soft wobble with spice."
Plans for a dinner with A and D revolve around seasonal, vegetable-forward dishes and remembered mishaps. Last meal included minestrone, vegetable tart, and roasted asparagus and carrots on feta creamed with a clove of garlic atop crisp baked pastry, with gingersnaps for dessert. Cold mid-March weather rules out ice cream and other chilled sweets. A past mishap broke a blown glass bowl while cutting figs; both figs and bowl were discarded. Proposed menus include chard, pine nut, and white bean filo strudel with red pepper coulis followed by small Japanese cheesecakes, or coconut crèmes caramels spiced with star anise, cardamom, and grains of paradise.
Read at High Country News
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