Eating Sunday: Summer Bonum

Foolishness is apt. The original plan was for a meal that encompassed allergen-free eating, dairy-free, gluten-free, egg-free, etc. I quickly became distracted and went in a completely different direction. A walk through the farmer’s market with friends the other day pushed me down that other path. Usually the farmer’s market is so clogged with strollers, untended children, people not looking where they are going and tourists in a mixture that drives me looney and wishing I had brought along a cattle prod. But there sometimes is a romance to being surrounded by the rich abundance of produce, cheese, charcuterie, breads, and flowers; tasting this, sampling that, and the heady smell of peaches in late summer.

So coming for dinner from a late summer farmer’s market…

Apparently everyone knows about these but me. Called both a ground cherry and a pineapple tomatillo, they are actually related to gooseberries. And totally addictive…

Ground Cherries

Ground Cherries and Orange Grape Tomatoes

Ground cherries and tomatoes made a perfect salad when dressed with a little grated parmesan.

Parmesan

Then I made buckwheat polenta. I like buckwheat pancakes and love soba noodles, so why would buckwheat polenta not be awesome?

Buckwheat Polenta

Cold, this stuff has the precise look and feel of that rubber stuff that is stapled down under cheap carpeting. Fried until crisp is another matter. From a photographic point of view, at least it is “sculptural”.

Spiced Pork

Buckwheat polenta is a Slovenian dish commonly served with spiced pork. I rolled the pork in paprika, tumeric, and oregano, as well as salt and pepper.

All those lovely farmer’s market veggies went into a goulash…

Hungarian Pepper

Miatake Mushrooms

Miatake

Eggplant

Eggplant Skin

Fried Buckwheat Polenta with Eggplant Goulash

The finished dinner…

Dinner

Saturday, I went on a very long 23-mile bike ride punctuated by a swim in the Columbia and a flop on the beach. To undo all of that saintly, healthy, sporty behavior, I whipped up this…

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

Homemade ice cream! I just learned how to do this with a food processor. This is muhallabia ice cream, heavy in cardamom and cinnamon, squished between crispy oatmeal coconut cookies. Summer bonum.

Summum Bonum

All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee:

All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem:

In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea:

Breath and bloom, shade and shine, wonder, wealth, and how far above them-

Truth, that’s brighter than gem,

Trust, that’s purer than pearl,

Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe,

All were for me

in the kiss of one girl.

-Robert Browning