Cherry-Lavender Soda

So dreary outside! But it's a sunny party in our kitchen with these sodas, made with fresh and local cherries. I also wanted an excuse to use these pink and white paper straws -- aren't they cute?

First, at least a day before you want to make the soda, make some lavender syrup. This is handy to have around for cocktails and lemonade, too. Bring 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Transfer this to a charming glass jar and add a bunch of backyard French lavender blossoms -- as many as possible. Seal the jar and let those fragrant flowers infuse the syrup.

Pit and puree the cherries, and simmer the puree on the stove until it reduces by half. Let it cool. Into a tall glass goes about 1/4 cup cherry reduction. Top with club soda, and add strained lavender syrup to taste. Then a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream for that nostaglic, creamy, bubbly A&W/Dairy Queen-style sensation.   

Picnic in Discovery Park

Early Sunday evening we took a picnic to Discovery Park. Dara the husband, Calvin the baby, Chloe the dog and I hiked out to the big meadow, where we smooshed down some long grass with a blanket and watched the sun set over Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. We packed a hearty salad of fresh vegetables from the farmers market -- shaved asparagus and radishes, and little shelled peas, dressed in lemon Parmesan vinaigrette. On the side, some crusty bread and sliced yellow tomatoes.

Then we assembled strawberry shortcakes -- with local berries, warm buttermilk biscuits and vanilla ice cream topped with crispy bacon and maple syrup. It finally started to feel like summer. Especially when I started sneezing uncontrollably and my eyes swelled shut! The secret ingredient for next time is Claritin. It was still a romantic picnic, though, :-)

Last of the Fiddleheads

Fiddlehead ferns were another fun find this week at the Ballard farmers market. They must have a later season here in the Northwest, or perhaps it's cold this year...I feel like they were an early May item back in Chicago. I first tasted them as part of a New Zealand wine dinner and associate them with the other super-springy items served that night, like roasted wild boar with a savory rhubarb and ramp sauce.

Tightly coiled and tasting a bit like asparagus and okra, fiddleheads are lovely paired with brown butter and a citrusy Chenin Blanc. In this case, I sauteed some Campagne-style sausage from Sea Breeze Farm on Vashon Island...it's a pork sausage with flavors of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, mace and maple. Then I sauteed the fiddleheads in the same pan, tossing them with some chicken stock, fettuccine and shaved Parmesan. Yummy Monday night dinner.

Weird But Good: Grilled, Bacon-Wrapped Beef Spleen with Steamed Sea Beans

 

Ah, the adventures we have at the Ballard farmers market...as evidenced by this meal. First we came across foraged sea beans, also known as samphires or sea pickles, which we remembered from the "Top Chef" episode in which contestant Richard Blais paired them with corn puree and seared bone marrow. Sea beans grow along the coast and are tender and crisp like green beans, but salty like the ocean. I steamed them just for a few minutes to brighten their color and flavor, and tossed them with some olive oil...no need for salt. And the perfect pairing? A beef spleen, which we bought as an amusing experiment, thinking that for $3, we could feed it to Chloe the dog if it was terrible. Turns out it tastes like liver but has a firmer texture. I happen to like the flavor of liver but not the mushy texture. I unfurled the spleen and laid strips of bacon on it, then rolled it back up like a cinnamon roll, pierced it with a metal skewer, and grilled it for quite a long time, like a half hour, until it had a good seared crust and both it and the bacon were cooked through. A local IPA, some crusty bread and coarse mustard were the finishing touches for a rustic early summer meal.