I was running errands in Redmond the other day on my lunch break, and I drove by what has to be the most pathetically-named city park in the history of pathetically-named city parks:
(To be fair, there are indeed grass lawns throughout this park.)Coming next month: “Wet Water Lake”. Should be a friggin’ riot.
Theoretically, I won’t be working insane hours after this week… which means I might actually be able to blog again soon! I know you can barely contain your excitement, Imaginary Readers, but do your best. :)
Let’s see if it sticks.
I’ve never been a huge fig person before — not because I don’t like them, per se, but more because I have no idea whether I like them or not. I guess they don’t seem to have a particularly distinctive flavor, at least according to my palate. I know they’re all the rage with foodies, though, and I was feeling hungry, bored and adventurous. And Grant was off at some football thing, so I was left to myself to figure out dinner plans.
Enter Pagliacci. Their current seasonal offering is the Prosciutto Fig Primo, and it made my mouth water when I heard the description over the phone (text doesn’t do it justice):
PROSCIUTTO FIG PRIMO
The thought of a sweet fruit on a pizza is often considered a foreign concept. We pushed the boundaries of pizza making with our Pear Primo and thanks to its continued popularity, we knew figs could be a hit too. We combine figs with prosciutto, basil and fresh mozzarella on an olive oil base for the perfect balance of lightly sweet and salty flavor.
Our usual standard is their Parma Primo, which has prosciutto plus basil, tomato, olive oil, mushrooms, fontina, mozzarella and goat cheese on an olive oil base. So this was close to home while still being adventurous and fun. And I actually think there’s a higher ratio of prosciutto to other stuff with this special.
At the end of the day, the fig primo had definitely won me over, even though it was a bit pricier than our usual (extremely expensive) favorite. The only improvement I would make is to add some tomatoes. It was so very sweet that it seemed like it could use something tangy to balance it all out. Still, it turns out that a) I like figs in some contexts, and b) I’m not yet over the fruity pizza trend. Mmm mmm!
So my most recent Costco run yielded a box of chanterelles, of all things. (I think of Costco as more of a bulk mouthwash and paper towels kinda place, but hey… they were cheap, fresh, wild-harvested, local, and bright orange with gills, so how could I refuse?)
I’d never cooked anything with chanterelles before, so I decided to just sautée them in a bit of butter and chicken broth, and let their natural flavor shine. Ahem, that was LET THEIR NATURAL FLAVOR SHINE. (They didn’t hear me.)
Turns out chanterelles don’t really *have* much of a natural flavor. In fact, I had to drizzle a bit of white truffle oil on them just to make them fun enough to eat!
Lesson learned: while the name may sound all French and elegant compared to, say, oyster mushrooms, the latter is actually much tastier. Now I know!
