Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Adventures in Figs

I don't know about you but I never ate much in the way of figs (except in Newton form). However, now that I live in a Mediterranean Clime, I find figs in the local grocery stores, in little green plastic baskets like the kind that hold strawberries.

Aren't they pretty? These are Black Mission.

I had some plums from the CSA, and found a Grown-Up Recipe involving figs and plums in a brandy-sugar reduction, and though maybe I'd pretend to act my age and try it out. It was fairly simple, and very, very good. I am so making that again if I ever host any dinner parties (Ha. That happens about once ever 10 years).

I had some figs leftover after Grown-Up Recipe, and since roasting makes everything better, on another night I brushed them with some olive oil and stuck them in the oven. We had them in a salad with blue cheese and nuts. Mmm so good.


I used to hate salads when I was growing up, and I pretty much still despise crappy lettuce salads. I don't much care for lettuce drowning in some half-assed vinaigrette, and I can really do without the iceberg except in certain specific cases where I'm looking for crunch. I prefer salads that balance all their flavors together. The lettuce is just one of those flavors. Look at me, a salad snob.

We did this last week with peaches (not really roasted as much as just warmed up). Oh WOW. I'm usually not a huge fan of sweet-savory, but these peaches weren't particularly sweet, and with some goat cheese and arugula they were amazing.


In other news, I made a throw pillow. With an invisible zipper, even! I have a new friend, and she is called Invisible Zipper Foot.

2 comments:

kmkat said...

Look at you, doing all that grown-up stuff! I refuse to use iceberg lettuce -- zero nutritional value -- so I'm all about romaine. Smokey actually prefers iceberg, so he buys it for the times when he want a salad as a snack. Your salads sound delish!

Anonymous said...

Just dropping in to say that your Big Ugly quilt (as posted to Yarn-A-Gogo) is just gorgeous! I showed it to a co-worker and he agrees; it's an outstanding design and beautifully executed. (We also agreed that if you really didn't like it, either of us would be only too happy to take it off your hands, but somehow I don't see that happening) LynneW