Last night’s dinner was a huge bummer— bland, boring, overcooked, expensive. It happens, even to me, a person who has been cooking since I could stand and writing recipes for about 13 years.
I’d love to preach that you should always have a neutral attitude about failure and allow the sensation of it leave as quickly as it arrived— sometimes I do!— but I don’t know y’all, occasionally it’s fun to be dramatic and cry on the floor of your mother-in-law’s kitchen because you feel you used the wrong kind of chocolate in cookies for your neice’s birthday. Permission to contain multitudes!
I ended up practicing neutrality last night, if only because the meat high was too good to complain. Still, tonight I’m going to lean on the insurance of a really reliable formula: broiled fruit and feta salad.
This morning I put about 1/8” olive oil in my 1 quart au gratin dish, followed by a 5-ish ounce slab of Greek feta, plus as many Thomcord grapes and yard figs would fit around it. A light drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of sumac on top, then under the broiler for 5-8 minutes, until the fruit was blistered and the cheese a little caramelized. The beauty of this is it’s self-saucing; you don’t have to make dressing, only wait for the juicy liquid cool. The feta seasons it, the honey sweetens it, the sumac adds a sour punch. Add extra olive oil at the end if you’re feeling rich, I guess.
Later I’ll crumble the cheese and toss everything with blanched green beans, mint and romaine hearts. Some seedy crackers on top for crunch. I’ll also dust steamed sweet potato wedges (yay Sunday prep) with cornstarch and get them hot n crispy in a skillet. Maybe a little lemony yogurt dip on the side. Maximum texture, many vegetables, can’t lose!
Gosh - the fruit sounds so good! Life has come at me hard this week, and it sounds so soothing. I’m betting my muscadines and scuppernongs would be perfect for it!☺️