Timing is everything.

I've always looked forward to a grand family get together so that we could all share a traditional meal. What is that, you ask? Turkey at Thanksgiving, prime rib at Christmas, ham at Easter. Mind you, none of these meals were traditional holiday meals where I grew up.
This is what we ate at Easter: a slow cooked stuffed rabbit or stuffed leg of lamb. The rabbit was easier to cook because of its size. Mother could easily stuff it in her big sauce pan and set it on a slow fire in a savory tomato stew that perfumed the house for hours.

Nowadays, if I do get a crowd for a holiday, or any occasion, I try to prepare food that can be cooked in advance:

1. Eggplant parmigiana
2. Mushrooms and spinach strudel
3. Roasted leg of lamb
4. Roasted root vegetables

The timeline is easy: Cook the lamb and the root vegetables ahead, even a day ahead. Prepare the strudel and the eggplant ahead of time as well,  but bake it the day of the meal. Before your guests arrive, an hour ahead, slip the eggplant and the strudel in the oven and cook as recommended. Make a gravy for your lamb and slip the sliced lamb and root vegetables back in the oven for fifteen minutes or so after you pull out the eggplant and strudel. Turn the oven off and let the food rest and wait for the time when you are all hungry.

All of these dishes can be prepared and cooked ahead. You can serve them cold if you want, or slightly warmed. Add a salad of mixed greens, and a dessert, and your celebration dinner is ready. Notice that you have lots of veggies, enough for a vegetarian to feel full.

p.s. search for recipes on the sidebar or use your own recipes

Love what grows in your back yard.

The makings of a great meal are right in your back yard, across the fields, within walking distance. I'm talking about what grows naturally around you.

Here is the list of typical Oregon produce: mushrooms, hazelnuts,  cranberries, berries of all kinds.  Mushrooms and berries are cultivated commercially; the same for hazelnuts and cranberries. 

Most of our fresh mushrooms end up in Japan, in fancy restaurants, before they reach the local markets.  In every town adjacent to forests there is a We-buy-mushrooms-Shed at the end of a major road, seasonal places where crates and crates of mushrooms are brought in by local foragers. Sometimes we hear of a neighbor who went out after a rainstorm to pick mushrooms, and didn't return home. Many are those lost in forests when at the end of the day, too tired, too cold, they cannot find their way out.  Morells, Chanterelles, Lobsters, grow in special places, under certain canopies known to the specialists who search and recognize.

The local college has mushroom recognition lectures and field trips for those hardy enough and curious enough to pursue this passion.

Cranberries end up on every body's table at least once or twice a year. I have a good friend who grows them commercially, sharing tid-bits about the hard work of growing such a fruit.  Here, cranberries grow in bogs, below level, like vines, slowly turning red when the fruit is ripe. Then, the bogs get flooded, to better harvest the fruit, and people go in the bogs with waders, rubber pants and boots all in one, to rake the fruit and collect it for Ocean Spray.   If you have not cooked with cranberries, check out the cranberry board website and get cooking. I keep a few bags in the freezer for days when I want something red and deliciously tart to kick start my mornings.

On Today's menu: Pasta carbonara with fresh mushrooms and peas and fresh greens from the garden; grilled local fish; cranberry-nut dessert.

What local foods are you eating today?