This meal had a couple of inspirations. The first was the salad: sliced spring salad with Avocado and Feta, from Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life, my most recent favorite book. It features radishes, radicchio, endive, cilantro, and of course avocado and French feta. I had never tried French feta before, wow! It is so creamy and has less bite than Greek feta. This salad is truly a miracle. It's crunchy, creamy, sweet and tangy. The dressing is a simple one, made with Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, olive oil and salt.
Wizenberg recommended serving it with a few roasted potatoes, so I did! We got some French fingerling potatoes in our weekly produce delivery, so I roasted them with olive oil, sea salt and some rosemary from our windowsill.
We also got a lovely acorn squash in our delivery, from Klesick Family Farm in Stanwood. In their delightful newsletter, they suggested a simple preparation: put honey, melted butter (or vegan nonhydrogenated margaine, in my case), cinnamon, ginger and salt in the squash halves and roast at 375 degrees for about an hour. Honestly, I do not usually like squash by itself or cinnamon in dinner food, but this was amazing! It was like a dessert, and Ben said it tasted like pancakes.
We also finished off our bottle of Twisted Zin, made better by the instant aerator to the left of the bottle. We love our Vinturi (on the right).
I think this meal may become a tradition, although it was way too much food. We couldn't finish it all. I'll have to figure out how to cut down the portions.
If you want the recipe for the salad (and you should), buy Molly's book!
