Sunday, January 11, 2009

My trip to bountiful

It is prime harvest season here in South Florida, and those of us who don't take advantage of that while the wind and ice socks in the north? Well, we are not smart it we don't. It is far and away one of the BEST things about living down here...That and the winters.

So yesterday, I found myself in Homestead. First for a meeting of Les Dames d'Escoffier at Schnebly Winery--Les Dames (say "daahm." It's French, after all) is a group of wonderful women in the culinary field whose mission is to encourage culinary education among young women locally here...Anyway, the host was Denisse Schnebly and it was a wonderful day to be in Homestead. We finished with a lunch of "pupusas," a cornmeal/bean pancake (for want of a better word) topped with cabbage and light tomato sauce/salsa...muy latino. And muy delicioso...I fell in love with a salad of greens, Florida avocado and papaya, lightly dressed..a passion fruit-macadamia nut tart (from Cooking with Les Dames d'Escoffier. If you want a copy, buy it from me! It has recipes from the greats: Julia, Alice Waters, Lidia Bastianich and more, as well as from my friend, Jen Karetnik).....all washed down with Avocado wine..yep, that is what I said and it was fun, if very different.But I was only about 5 miles from Robert is Here, home of all fruits great and small. I pulled up and it was PACKED. I really wanted a milkshake, but the line was long...instead, I wandered around, listened to live music, snapped some photos and bought some deliciousness home with me...
This afternoon for lunch, I am enjoying a salad of mixed greens, my own balsamic, sliced Florida strawberries, some almonds and some pecorino staggionato (aged Tuscan pecorino. Don't check my spelling.) That's a photo of my salad up top.

It's yummy. Go hunt down some Florida strawberries and treat yourself right.

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