I had every intention of posting right after breakfast clean up last week…but the ethereal call from Holler Fest was too strong, so instead of finishing up things here, Jeff and I packed up the car with left over bread pudding and blintz, camping gear, Almar Orchard’s organic hard cider and Roos Roast coffee and headed out to a wonderful weekend of amazing music, delicious meals, generally perfect weather, hanging with Selma friends, late night dancing, cozy tent sleeping, early morning yoga, and lots of love and sweet remembrances of Ken King, the late patriarch of the King family and Frog Holler Organic Farm. FM @Selma donated breakfast on Saturday morning–granola and raw milk yogurt, and it was the largest batch of both I have made so far–70 cups of each, which I was glad to see had been finished by Sunday lunch. Please check out their website, and visit the King’s at the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market if you haven’t already had the pleasure of connecting with them.
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We are so excited when Olivia decides to chef for Selma–she is a creative and inventive chef, making fabulous food while remaining thoughtful about diner’s food restrictions, and her up beat attitude and positive energy are contagious. Plus, she has the cutest apron collection! Olivia, along with her hard working, inspirational, calm and steady sous chef Kate Matthews, made two specials that fit the bill–a sweet peach and ginger topped ricotta cheese blintz that reminded me of the deep comfort that only a perfectly made blintz can provide. There was a lot of sighing among those who chose the blintz special.
The second special was a savory herb tofu “ricotta” stuffed buckwheat crepe topped with ratatouille that was toothsome and satisfying. I loved the deep flavor of the buckwheat together with the smooth and creamy tofu filling. The ratatouille balanced out the richness of the filling beautifully with just the right amount of spicey flavor. Although Olivia is back to working her real job on Friday mornings again, maybe, just maybe, if we are lucky and ask very, very nicely, we could possibly have the pleasure of her cooking some time in the future. Hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?
Along with Olivia’s specials we offered the recently added weekly special of bread pudding ala me. Although I’m whipping up the pudding, you can thank Jeff for this latest dish that is now a regular special–who knew a little bread pudding with fruit could make my husband so happy??
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A big thank you to Dave Myers and Kate Olson for serving up Mighty Good Coffee for us this week!! It was a real treat to have you in the house.
Lots more big thanks to all who helped at Thursday night prep: Susie Baity Stearns for organizing and facilitating, Emily Stearns, Brad Wicklund, Riva Jewell Vitale, Krysta Stone and Nevon Clark for putting it all together under Olivia’s direction. Lots of appreciation to one and all for all you do to get us ready for Friday!
And even more big thanks to Friday morning volunteers: Jennifer Haines for waffles, Nevon Clark, Janis Appleton, Matt McLean and Laura Kowal for clearing tables, washing dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. As anyone who was here already knows, we were short on volunteer servers this week, and tried out a new system that included each person writing out their own breakfast ticket. It worked, but we sure like to have enough volunteers each week to keep things running smoothly with table service. We can’t do it without you! If you like Selma, and want it sustainable, please consider volunteering to help–we’d love to have you.
Hope to see you soon around the kitchen! ~Lisa
