Dining in the Great Outdoors!

Although the official start of summer isn’t until June 21st, Memorial Day is considered the “unofficial” kick-off to warmer weather, longer days – and outdoor dining.

Grills will be dragged from garages. Tables and chairs hauled to the deck. Entire outdoor kitchens will be set-up and stocked. All of this so we can enjoy - after a long hard winter stuck inside - with finally being about to eat - outside!

I am in love with outdoor dining. I will brave heat, wind, rain and sometimes bugs just to eat outdoors. I have been know to Google local restaurants just to find one with "outdoor seating". Come summer - even with an entire restaurant full of empty tables, I will still ask - "Do you have anything outside?"

I will happily leave the comfort of a climate-controlled, gently lit indoor restaurant to sit in 90-degree, humid sunshine that forces me to wear sunglasses in order to see my dining companions. Doesn't matter. I am eating outside!

Wind whips my hair into my mouth as I chew - no big deal. I am eating outside! A hike down the deck and through the restaurant to get to the restroom - doesn't matter. I am eating outside! There's just something about eating outdoors that makes everything taste extra delicious.

There is something magical about eating outside that makes it worth the risk. When it doesn’t burn, the sun feels lovely; when it doesn’t gust, the wind feels playful. The night can seem more romantic outside. And eating outdoors is inherently more casual than dining inside. It’s hard to feel too formal while listening to frogs croak or watching squirrels race by.

So join me! Enjoy yourself - find someplace special to plop yourself down in a comfy chair pulled up to a table on an deck somewhere and breathe in the intoxicating air of the great outdoors!

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well,
if one has not dined well." -Virginia Woolf

Wild Harvest . . .

Fiddleheads emerge as miniature dervish dancers covering the forest floor and heralding in Spring like no other woodland plant. Tiny gray-green spirals reaching into the first really warm days. Each of them wearing their own little fur overcoat to protect them when it was chillier weather. Snapped up and eaten by whoever has the sense and taste to do it.

There isn’t anything that says spring as well as fiddleheads.  Just when I have had slightly more than enough of winter, this familiar and much-welcomed spiraled green, novel and tasty morsel appears.

The flavour of fiddleheads has been likened to asparagus, with a slightly nutty taste, and to artichoke and okra. I concur with those who describe the taste of fiddleheads as the taste of spring!

You can pick your own fiddleheads if you know where to look and when to catch them unawares at just the right moment in their growth.

• A tight coil and only an inch or two of stem beyond the coil
• The coil should be one to one and a half inches in diameter
• There may be brown papery chaff around the head. This is okay, much like an onion skin, you will remove it before cooking
• Choose firm, bright-green, tightly-curled fiddleheads; the little brown shells still intact. They should be crisp.
• Fiddleheads are best eaten fresh and don't store well even when refridgerated.

The flavor of fiddleheads goes well with cheeses, tomato sauce and oriental cuisine. Excellent with Hollandaise sauce. And truly delicious when combined with other spring foraged delicacies like wild leeks or morels.

The following is one of my favorite ways to prepare this Spring treat:

Steamed Fiddleheads With Wild Leek Greens

1 pound Fiddleheads cleaned

(CLEANING FIDDLEHEADS: If more than 2 inches of stem remains attached beyond the coiled part of the fiddlehead snap or cut it off. If any of the paper chaff remains on the fiddleheads you may rub it off by hand. Since the chaff is very light, you may want to clean off the chaff outdoors by fanning them or lightly shaking them in an open wire salad basket.

 After the chaff is removed wash the fiddleheads in several changes of cold water to remove any dirt or grit. Drain the fiddleheads completely. Use them fresh, and soon after harvest. They don't store well - only pick what you will eat that day.)

1/2 cup plain yogurt 1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste
3 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard
3 tablespoons finely chopped Wild Leek greens

Steam the fiddleheads over boiling water for 5 minutes,or until they are crisp-tender. Drain, then chill in a bowl of ice and cold water to stop the cooking. When they have cooled transfer to colander to drain.

In a small bowl whisk together the yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard, wild leek greens. Add salt and pepper to taste, whisking until the sauce is smooth. Serve the Fiddleheads topped with the sauce.

Serves 4 to 6

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well,
if one has not dined well."

'A Room of One's Own', Virginia Woolf, English novelist (1882-1941).