Winter Spaetzle

You know when you're shopping for groceries and you just feel an intuitive gut pull towards an ingredient? Today it was brussel sprouts. They're green, cute, and in season. I built a meal around them. I decided on baked salmon and baked squash. I had a kuri in the back porch which I operated on and put into the oven. Brussel sprouts have a bacon fetish, so I obliged them by baking some until crisp in the oven and chopping it up into bite-sized pieces. I sweated some onions and garlic, added the bacon and halved brussel sprouts and then braised them in a cup of chicken stock with a tablespoon of agave nectar mixed with about a teaspoon of sherry vinegar. Add a bit of lemon juice to preserve the green color of the sprouts. I fried up some homemade spaetzle I had in the fridge with more bacon and more onions. Then I toasted some lovely local walnuts, gave them a whizz in the old food processor and there's your garnish.

We had a 2005 Poplar Grove's "The Legacy" which is a rich, rounded mouthful of bliss. And for dessert, some of my own milky way sesame chocolate bark. A nice way to mellow into a Friday night deep into January.

Summer Spaetzle

For some reason I felt nostalgic for Austria this morning, so after Ules and I went shoe shopping and had lunch at Sophie's Cosmic Café we went to Xoxolat and bought three Zotter chocolate bars. I had the Honig Trio, Ules chose Mango In and Out and then he we should buy an Apricot In and Out for Peter. The apricot won the day, with its thick fruity layer of condensed fruit paste.

Tonight I made spaetzle for dinner and sliced up Anakana's zucchini which I sautéd in butter and olive oil along with a few amaranth leaves from our garden. I ate my noodles with the greens on top covered with pepper and a bit of cheddar. (Gouda would have been better.) We also had some raw peas from the garden. They are finished now, so I've pulled them up.

J and I did a hive check on Thursday and things are looking a lot better. There is capped brood and larvae and we saw the queen. The bees were making lots of comb as well, which means her majesty will have a place to lay her eggs and there will be room to store honey and pollen for the fall. Let's just cross our fingers for continued good weather.

The marigolds and mallow are starting to go to seed, so we are just passing the peak of summer into seed-saving time. The forecast is for a 40% chance of rain on Sunday, so we'll see what happens. We could really use some rain.