Tomorrow it is forecast we will be 70f's lets hope so.
We have rain promised mid week, but we will have to see as the forecasters often get the rain forecasts wrong.
Today at the market I found some great ripe blackberries, not often do we get good flavored blackberries, yes they are large and colorful but usually very tart.
I remember as a child going out with buckets and picking blackberries that grew wild among the hedgerows.
We children always came back purple messes, covered head to foot in their juice, as we ate as much as we placed in the bucket..often shirts and shorts would be purple stained for many months to come.
But at least they were wild and very sweet, often we were battling against wasps and bees too.
Here in Los Angeles, being on the outskirts of the Mojave Desert we don't have hedgerows, nor wild blackberries, but I still have my memories
For Monday March 4th I am preparing:
A carrot and asparagus soup..(in the old days,in Britain, asparagus was only eaten by either country folk or the very wealthy, as it is a type of fern, with a very small harvesting window);now it is farmed under glass and we have it for months, but it is not very well flavored.
I teamed my thin asparagus up with potatoes and carrots, and finished it with coconut milk.
This is a very lightly flavored soup so I did not add any fresh parsley as it would overpower the asparagus.
A bean and garlic soup..to be served with cheese.
This has a tomato base and is full of vegetables, beans and split peas with barley, a very hearty soup. This I finished with own grown flat leafed parsley
The entrees are:
Vegetable enchiladas...
Mild ones with a tomato based sauce, with bell peppers.
A spicy one with a green chili & Chipotle (smoked Jalapeno) sauce
Corn tortillas
The filling for both will be mustard greens, potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, zucchini, white corn, cumin, oregano, tomatoes and cheeses.
Served with smokey red beans and steamed brown rice.
These will be baked at the client's home
Eggplant Parmesan..made with grilled eggplants, not fried. In a fresh marinara sauce and cheeses..again baked at client's home
A wilted spinach salad with Portobello Mushrooms..this will be made at the client's home in either of the following ways:
1) heat the sliced mushrooms in the lemon-olive oil Dijon mustard dressing, add the washed fresh spinach and wilt for 2 mins.
Serve with grated Parmesan and walnuts & dried cranberries
OR
2) Heat the mushrooms in the dressing and pour over the spinach and wilt in the serving bowl/plate, top with cheese and walnuts & cranberries
either way, very delicious
Desserts/Breads:
Dried apple and raisin oatmeal cookies
Individual Caramel Apple and Blackberry Upside Down Cornmeal Cakes
Whole wheat sour dough bread with barley malt and faro berries ( a type of wheat)..makes a sort of Granary Bread.
This menu is sort of an early Spring celebration of dishes from my childhood and my favorite places..the American South West...Here is today's prep. so far...also making ahead allows the dishes and sauces to "bloom" under refrigeration.
