A special meal for mom and dad…

Posted on by derryX

This past weekend, my parents came up to visit for the day. They brought their two cute puppies, Bonnie and Clyde, so I figured it would be most appropriate to cook them a nice meal because it wasn’t feasible to leave the puppies anywhere.

The preparation for the meal was far from complicated.

I had a wheel of R&G Cheese’s Pollenbert that I had picked up at Adventure in Food Trading sitting in my fridge. I had no appropriate application for it until I came across some  fresh black figs at Gade Farm.I figured the deep flavor of the goats milk camenbert, along with the subtle and exotic spice of the fennel pollen running through the cheese would work great with the figs. The figs aren’t in the height of the season, so I rounded the dish out with a nice drizzle of Lloyd Spears wildflower honey.

So I sliced a small wedge of the cheese and nestled it into the sliced fig. Then, I drizzled with the honey. It was delicious, but the cheese is definitely the strongest I’ve had from R&G Cheesemakers.

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For the main course, I picked up some beautiful red-skinned potatoes and garlic scapes at the Troy Farmers Market. I think it was from Denison farms stand, but I could be mistaken. I roasted the potatoes and garlic scapes with some olive oil, salt, and pepper.

At the farmers market, I also found some beautiful carrots. I quickly blanched the carrots and then lightly sauteed them in some butter along with some salt and pepper.

The protein I used was filet mignon that I found at BJ’s. I figured a quick stint on the cast iron skillet with some salt and pepper would cook these nicely to medium rare. Unfortunately, one piece, the piece I served my dad, didn’t cook right and was more raw. I had to recook it. The others came out just as I had planned (but may have been a little rare for mom.).

Over the filet, I spooned a small amount of a beef stock and balsamic vinegar reduction that I infused with some shallots and garlic.

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I really enjoyed the meal, and I hope that my parents weren’t just being nice when they said they did too.

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3 thoughts on “A special meal for mom and dad…”

  • Evan

    My girlfriend and I received some garlic scapes a few weeks ago after her mom had gone to a farmer’s market but sadly we didn’t know what to do with them. We asked a friend who is from a farming family and she didn’t have any suggestions, and didn’t find any recipes online so unfortunately they went to waste. Here, you mention that you roasted them. Can you give me any details or suggest other possible applications in case we come across them again? Thanks.


    • derryX

      This is a great question! Garlic scapes are ingredients I have a lot of passion for. I’m currently away from a computer and unable to type a fully useful response, but I intend on responding as soon as I get back!


  • derryX

    Garlic Scapes

    In my very novice experience with them, I’ve found a multitude of uses. They taste very much like garlic, but are much more mild. One thing I like to do with them is eat them in salads. I just cut them into 1 inch segments and add those to a mixture of greens, tomatoes, onions, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.

    They’re great diced into scrambled eggs, but don’t get too carried away because they can overpower the eggs if you overuse them.

    I had great luck roasting them with my potatoes. Instead of adding garlic to the potatoes (which I always do), I added a bunch of garlic scapes. As they roasted, they softened and sweetened significantly.

    Because of that, another day, I made a quick sautee of carrots and garlic scapes in butter with a little salt and pepper. AMAZING! (this was my favorite application)

    You can use scapes in pesto instead of garlic. There are lots of things you can do with them!


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