Another catch-up post, and I’m a week behind on posts! Getting caught up (again) though – it’s crazy how summer can just fly by like this. Husband is away and I decided to try out a few new things. I know he’s not a big fan of fennel or farro (really, wheat berries in this case), so I decided to go crazy and combine the two! I found this recipe (Roasted Fennel & Farro Salad) and went for it. The wheat berries came from North Star Orchard and we’ve had them hanging around in the freezer for a while. They do take a while to cook, but the results are absolutely worth it. Combined with the fennel and peppers, it made for a dish that was great warm or cold. The simple cucumber and tomato salad was a recurring theme for the rest of the week too. Drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar, it made for a great afternoon snack, and there’s just something about fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. The cucumber is an Armenian cucumber and something I’ve never had before. It has a soft fuzz on the outside that I scrubbed off with a vegetable scrubber brush, and I found it a little more crisp and less acidic than a regular cucumber.
Also on the plate are peaches with blue cheese, another summer favorite, and beet chips which didn’t come out all that well. My slices weren’t uniform, so they were too crisp on one half and just barely baked on the other. That didn’t stop me from eating the whole beet though, and I really like how they taste when roasted. One final piece of the plate was another new recipe I tried called gougères – it’s a fancy french savory puff pastry made mostly with flour, butter, eggs, and cheese. The recipe was part of the Birchrun Hills Kickstarter campaign rewards and I was really psyched to try something new. It was easier than I thought and I sort of felt like a super hero having produced results that tasty and perfect on the first try!
Altogether a delightful dinner and really rather filling!
Ingredients:
Peaches – North Star Orchard
Cheese – Birchrun Hills, Blue and Equinox
Beets – Jack’s Farm
Wheat Berries – North Star Orchard
Fennel – Jack’s Farm
Eggs – Canter Hill Farm
Peppers – Clover Hill Farm
Cucumber – Full Circle CSA
Tomatoes – Full Circle CSA
Butter – Handmade by Abby
Honey – Baues’ Busy Bees
Flour – Mill at Anslema, Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
Non Local – Balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper