Strawberries are one of the foods that those of us who are unable to enjoy local foods year-round wait with bated breath for them to arrive in our local farms. We despair when there’s too much rain pre-season for fear we’ll never go berry picking or shop at farm stands.
Shortcake, tarts, smoothies, jam, margaritas and daiquiris, crumbles, pies, cobblers and crisps, muffins, toppings for cheesecake or pancakes or waffles or French toast, salads, ice cream, Eton Mess!
There are so many lovely ways to use fresh, sweet, local strawberries. Enjoy them after you fire up the grill for your start-of-summer dinner!
We’ve been lucky that local strawberries have been available since we arrived in early May. Apparently, the weather just up until our arrival was fabulous
Of course, June is also still heavy white asparagus season around these parts, and the first chanterelles have made an appearance this weekend at a few FM stands — will buy/eat my weight in them when we return from Sicily
Well, most of today ended up being sunny, but we spent it at home anyway: trying a workout — the first one since The Arm Day Incident, rewarding ourselves with another lavish Berlin breakfast, followed by a nap (my PIC) / doing research (moi) & laundry in preparation for our upcoming trip to SE Sicily, plus coordinating plans with more friends/visitors during the final weeks of our stay (both of us).
Dinner was in belated celebration of my mom’s life, who passed 2 years ago yesterday, i.e. my ‘unofficial’ Mother’s Day this year. Belated, as I didn’t deem last night’s dinner of leftovers worthy of her memory.
Tonight’s meal, OTOH, was definitely one of her (and many a hot-blooded German’s) favorites. White asparagus from Brandenburg, Annabelle* potatoes, Serrano ham, and TPSTOB (that would be parsley butter, sillies, not peanut butter )
ChristinaM
(Hungry in Asheville, NC (still plenty to offer tourists post Hurricane))
4
I blew all my energy for food prep on the kiddo’s big birthday party today. He set most of the menu:
Veggie tray with hummus and French onion dip
Fruit platters with strawberries, clementines, and blueberries
Ruffle potato chips
Nacho cheese Doritos
Ranch veggie straws
Smartfood cheddar popcorn
Cut watermelon
Cucumber-mint water
TJ’s peach juice blend and unfiltered apple juice
LaCroix summer seltzers
Juice boxes
Pizzas - cheese, sausage, pepperoni, spinach-mushroom and GF cheese (from the venue)
Étouffée of sole fillets with rice. Cooked the base with a ham bone for a while before adding the fish. Liquids going into the broth were beer and some pork stock I made as a byproduct of braising pig tails for Christmas Eve. Really pleased with this!
Scallops over corn salad. Charred corn, onion, bacon, mini bells, asparagus, avocado, parsley with a squeeze of lemon. Toasted baguette with garlic butter and parsley. Sangria.
Peruvian tonight. I made aji panca chicken thighs, marinated and then braised until super tender, parboiled/fried taters, the BF’s leftover mex-rice, and the Best Sauce in the World - Aji Verde! I made it right before we ate so it didn’t have time to thicken up in the fridge the way it usually does, but it was still deelicious, as always. Too long since i’d made it. it will appear on other things this week.
A thick seafood soup, more like a stew: Yukon golds, sausage, shrimp, calamari, cod chunks (that mostly disintegrated–I should have added them later), homemade chicken stock, thickened with avgolemono.
I have to hand it to y’all… the variety of foods you make ans the plating are top notch!
I still like cooking, but Im usually out here, realizing I havent eaten because Ive been busy with some project or other, so I whip up something goblin-style.
Last night was a quick fried rice (literally 5 minutes)…tasty and healthy-ish, but not worth the pixels to show off!
Another Canuck friend of ours arrived in Berlin yesterday, via Oxford, Copenhagen, and Cairo, and wanted to catch up. It’s been a year
Despite dark & gloomy clouds ALL day
& a brief thunderstorm, the sun came out just in time for a late afternoon/early eve beer garden visit (which is so typical for Berlin weather it’s a cliché),
and since the one near us also has brats & other sundry items to munch on, that’s where we ended up.
My PIC and I each got one of them brats, which came with grilled flatbread, plus a potato salad that had an annoying amount of apple in it. I’d have preferred more pickles instead.
Early night tonight since we gotta get up at the crack of Dawn to catch our flight to Catania. Looking forward to sun, beach time, excursions…. and the FOOD, of course
)
with the last of the fennel salami and Maiweide cheese.
