Babaganoodle...

Hanging out with my 4 year old godson Davis over spring break, I was quickly sucked into the vortex of silliness that is his life! His latest thing was making up new names for whatever food we ate each day --- for example – he invited me to have “twidges” for dinner (pasta and greens with chorizo) and “babaganoodle” (waffles with peanut butter) for breakfast with him. Babaganoodle sounds to me like a strange middle eastern/Chinese fusion dish of creamy eggplant topped noodles… however, I think I'm being too literal. The point is that he still approaches food with fun and finds fun in pretty much everything.

I'm trying to keep that in mind while I get through this next busy spell. A great work opportunity came up at a very inopportune time. Trudging in the door tonight after class, dinner was about the last thing I wanted to think about. Then I remembered that I had treated myself to some wild harvested fiddlehead ferns at the market yesterday. I imagined that eating a bowl of something called fiddleheads would have to lighten me up a bit.


Fiddlehead Saute

Olive oil
garlic cloves
1/2 lb of fiddlehead ferns, brown stems trimmed (leave them no longer than 2 inches)
white wine
lemon thyme
salt and pepper

I washed them well in a few changes of water, then blanched them by dunking them into a pot of boiling water for about 2 minutes, draining them and running them under the sink in cold water until they were cool. Next I heated the oil in a big cast iron frying pan over medium-high heat and added the garlic and fiddleheads together (garlic burns easily and I was not in the mood to be watching over garlic). I let them cook a while... I've only cooked them once before and haven't eaten them many more, so after a little internet perusing, I just kept tasting until there was no longer a bitter undertone and the texture was like a perfect green bean. Everything I've read about them says not to overcook them! At the end, I splashed in a little white wine and added salt and pepper, stirring while I let the wine cook off a bit. Then I lay some on a bowl of pasta with some leftover roasted yams and tucked in.

I am definitely feeling a little lighter about everything on the to-do list now... fiddle dee dee.