Farm fresh grub, Julia Child style
Y'all, I made the most fabulous dinner the other night.
Before I subject you to vaguely obscene tomatoes and fluorescently lit gratineed potatoes, let me say something up front: much of the foodie world gets on my nerves. I'm a more about spending less time falling into paroxysms of glee over the PERFECTION!! of our GLORIOUS FOOD DISHES!! and more time enjoying good food - sustainably produced! - in good company. It's a free world and all, so you do what you want, but that stuff's not my style. I love food, I love farmers, I spend every working day doing local food systems work professionally. I cook pretty much every day. I rarely blog about it because I'm too busy, well, eating and living it.
But for all my high-horsery, I can be convinced upon occasion to talk about food HERE. See, the other day I heard about a contest. Throw a li'l Julia Child dinner shindig, blog about it, win fabulous prizes. I hereby swallow my indignant grumblings about adjective overuse and terrible indoor photographs and present to you:
Julia Child, Gorge Grown Style
ze menu:
Soupe au pistou (also spotted in the NYTimes and Gourmet this summer - Julia, you were ahead of your time on this one)
Baked cucumbers (wait, you can BAKE cucumbers?)
Gratin dauphinois (classic, reminds me of Paris)
Pork chops braised in fresh tomato sauce (well, I love pork.)
Cherry clafoutis (I do live in a cherry-producing region)
You can get some mighty fine raw ingredients here in the Gorge. To wit:
Pork from Mountain Shadow Natural Meats, Dufur, OR:
Potatoes from Raisin Hill Farm, Lyle, WA:
Carrots, green beans, cucumbers, and zucchini from MY GARDEN:
Cherries from Feeley's Fruit, Hood River, OR:
Slightly suggestive tomatoes from the Stevenson Mobile Farmers' Market:
So here's how it all went down. This is a pretty typical Sunday for me, multi-course dinner aside. I get up, I bust it in the garden, I go for a walk, I make some food, I spend time with good people.
I went out to my garden Sunday morning and tamed some mighty weeds. Got covered in dirt and had a good ol' time. I also harvested some of the goods.
I came back. I did a little PREP.
I took a little walk by the river to get some fresh air. Searing pork makes you smell like pork. A lot.
At this point I realized I had maybe spent a little too much time enjoying the garden and the river and not enough time getting all these courses ready. A triage decision was made to sub in a cold cucumber salad (a la Edna Lewis, so sorry Julia!) for the baked cukes - there was no time! No oven space! Ah!
Someday I will try that crazy baked cuke business.
In the meantime, the peeps arrived. Here are the men, being The Men. I'm pretty amused by this. I mean, really, the garage?
No photo of the ladies in the kitchen. Too busy being busy in the kitchen, of course.
We sat down, at dusk, my pictures are all blurry, but I can assure you we toasted and ate a ton and had a grand old time. Julia, you win. I hereby can happily report my renewed affection for and interest in both French cooking and the redoubtable Mrs. Child.
Yummers!
As promised, fluorescently lit photos of gratineed potatoes, you can thank me in the comments:
