Fiddleheads, ducks, tablescapes & whatnot

It's spring-for-real now. Evidence: fiddleheads.

Also, ducks. 

Is "tablescape" a real word? And if so, is this one? Well, anyway, close enough, and pretty.

And here's the dinner that went with those candles. The sweet potatoes were roasted with rosemary, fyi.

And yesterday included some planting... 

Oh, wait, there's more

Tofu with asparagus and broccoli and mushrooms.

Just real food: filet, roasted potatoes, vegetables. 

Corn muffins. And tomato soup, which is always easy and enjoyable to make. 

A challenging stove

I like to cook even on vacation. Especially Up North in Michigan.

The cottage was sweetly rustic; the stove... was not.

The oven was about 125 degrees hotter than what the dial indicated. Yep. Took a day or two to sort that out and make adjustments. And the burners—the ones that worked, that is—weren't much better.

Thus, this baked whitefish was a triumph. Fresh from Lake Michigan, of course. Carlson's, of course. Just glad the oven didn't ruin it.

And a simple salad...

Other highlights include these lovely wildflowers: bladder campion (disappointing name), also known as maiden's-tears (better...). I just happened upon them. Isn't that often the way with beauty?

And Lake Michigan was its stunning self, per usual.

That's Sleeping Bear Dunes in the background.

*

Back home, predictable cooking resumed. 

*

Oh, and speaking of beauty: here's Glen Lake, a real beauty, everyone agrees.

October, Sunday, Sewing

It's been unseasonably warm and the leaves seem to have skipped ahead, dropping everywhere with only ok color. Sigh.

And I've skipped ahead too, it seems, baking what I think of as a winter bread: Irish soda bread, one of my favorites. I've posted it here before, probably, but it's especially pretty this time.

For dinner: filet with some mushrooms, lovely baby kale with grilled figs and goat cheese with cranberries, asparagus:

And, sewing. Project #1: placemats. Very satisfying, just like cooking. A tangible result.

Asian pears

... from the WVU organic farm are the star here. With mixed greens and gorgonzola. And a filet. And asparagus. More grilling.

One reason I don't post many recipes

I don't often use them. Or, rather, my cooking is so simple that a recipe would be ridiculous. Baking is another matter, of course. But grilling? Please. Olive oil, pepper, a little salt. That's pretty much what I do. Maybe a squeeze of lemon.

Here are three versions of that "recipe."

Grilled vegetables with a filet. And a gin & tonic, my drink of preference when I was at La Quinta (the name of the resort and the town, in California) and now back at home too.

And... grilled vegetables with lamb chops.

And... salmon with slightly different vegetables (grilled butternut squash---delicious---and sautéed kale with grape tomatoes from my friend Tim's garden). Wine this time.

As for poetry, a topic I said I'd (maybe) post about, now is a good time.

I feel about poetry the same way I feel about cooking: don't make a fuss.