Local Entertainment

We did a little local entertaining this weekend. My friends Kristin and Brooks and their son Soren have just relocated to the Pacific Northwest from Texas. They've actually re-relocated. We all lived in Portland in another life. My pre-baby life. A life that seems like a thousand light-years away from here. A life that seems like it must have belonged to someone else. But that's a different subject for a different blog. I'm here to talk about feeding guests on an all-local feeding plan.

About a week prior to the visit I started to think about what to feed these dear people. I began with what I already know about them. I know that Kristin is a health-conscious person. We ran the Portland Marathon together a couple of years ago. But I decided that she would probably be willing to accept some butter-laden meals and her heart health wouldn't suffer too much. I also know that the family is vegetarian and has been for many many years. I certainly wasn't prepared to ask them to compromise on that front. And I know that they have been following this blog. So I wanted to go all Oregon, nothing from the cupboard from our pre-Lenten days. Only local stuff. I surmised that I needed three or four vegetarian meals that are fairly healthy. And fairly tasty. After all, I like these people and I want them to come back.

I went to Gathering Together Farms to assess my options. This farm has a fabulous cafe attached to their farm stand which serves some amazing food made with ingredients primarily from local farms and their own fields. The farm stand just re-opened a couple of weeks ago (they had closed for the winter) and I thought this would be my best bet. I pulled into the muddy parking area all full of hope. Hope that was squashed down into the mucky mud by a quick glance at the available produce. The stand was filled with California. Carrots, spinach, beets, parsnips, lemons, blood oranges. And they had no squash. I repeat, no squash. The woman behind the counter said that all their remaining squash was tossed into the compost. I didn't realize that squash could go bad. I bought leeks, shallots, onions, rutabaga and greens. I found some hard goat cheese and some wildflower honey as well.

I resigned myself to the fact that the meals I would serve my friends would be regular, not fancy. The menu shaped up to be something like this: dinner of frittata with goat cheese, roasted root vegetables, and greens; breakfast of oatmeal, blueberries and yogurt with honey; lunch was potato/leek soup. I made an extra loaf of bread for snacking. No one went hungry and they kindly complimented my efforts. I had a grand time visiting with them and meeting 15-month-old Soren. This weekend was not about the food. It was about the friends.