Lovage Me Tender

DINNER IN THE MEADOW

My first pop-up dinner of the summer.  My friend’s Caitlin’s parents live upstate and they volunteered their meadow for the dinner.  With the hot sun coming down we decided to nestle in the shade of the trees at the edge of the meadow.  We started with blueberry basil punch - blueberry simple syrup made with blueberries from Samascott Orchards, vodka shaken with basil from Maxwell’s Farm, lime and seltzer.   Once we sat down we started with the cheese - Tumbleweed from Pennsylvania, fresh chevre from Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery with Tremblay Apiaries honey, Consider Bardwell’s Pawlet and Chatham camembert.  I made three pickles for the dinner - baby fennel with orange zest and pink peppercorns, garlic scapes and yellow wax beans with garlic and dill.  And we had a smattering of breads from Hot Bread Kitchen.

For dinner: panzanella with brandywines and sungolds from Maxwell’s Farm and sesame bread from Grandaisy; fregola with corn, scallions, pecorino rosselino and almonds, a simple coleslaw with parsley, onions and hungarian hot wax peppers and shoulder steaks from Dickson’s Farmstand with Manodori balsamic and garlic.  For dessert I marinated peaches from Kernan Farms with lemon verbena from Berried Treasures and grilled them.  We ate them with whipped cream from Ronnybrook.