Saturday, May 2, 2009

Celebrating Spring!






My food world seems to have exploded lately! Mid April we celebrated Greek Easter with a fabulous home cooked feast. After cooking for nine straight hours, guests arrived and the party began. We started our party with roasted apricot ginger lamb sausage made by our butcher Cole. Large Greek Kalamata Olives and Vermont Sheep's Milk Feta Cheese drizzled with spicy Greek Olive Oil. The evening rolled on with smiles and laughter.
Traditional festive Grecian music was playing in our ears, as we filled our plates with Vermont raised Leg of Lamb, Spanakopita, stewed Green Beans, Meat balls with traditional Red Sauce with a hint of Cinnamon, Grape leaves stuffed with Beef and Rice served with fluffy and light Avgolemono Sauce, Greek Salad, and finishing off with Ouzo and Melamakarona Cookies (honey and walnut olive oil cookies)! What a day to remember.



Greek Salad:


Romaine lettuce
Red Onion, sliced
Large Kalamata Olives
Cucumber, sliced
Tomatoes (use only when in season and ripe)
Feta (buy the best feta you can find, feta cheese should be bought in a milky liquid)
Dried Oregano
Red Wine Vinegar
Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Black Pepper

Assemble your vegetables, cheese, and olives. Sprinkle with oregano and pepper. Drizzle generously (because later you will want to dip your bread into this flavorful liquid) with vinegar and then olive oil. More Olive oil then vinegar. Let sit for 15-20 minutes. Add sea salt and enjoy. Serve with sesame seed crusted bread.



Fiddle heads, ramps (wild onions), wild greens, asparagus and dandelions are here to celebrate spring with us. This is a time of rebirth and cleansing the body with these astringent foods. We foraged what we could eat and left the rest for nature to play its course. Ramps grow in large patches and are dug up using a small digger. The whole onion is edible. We have been adding them to omelets, soups, and have plans for grilled pizza with ramps and Vermont cheeses. Yum!