It’s always fun and easy with Blake and Helen from EAT catering in the kitchen.  They come up with wonderful breakfast specials that are delicious, creative, beautiful and super local.  This time they brought us two brand new Selma Cafe specials.  The first featured a chermoula marinade.  Chermoula you may ask? What is chermoula?  From the land of tangines and other Morroccan influenced dishes, chermoula is a marinade made with a base of olive oil and white wine vinegar, packed full of herbs and spices, including paprika, ground coriander, ground cumin, red pepper, black pepper, cilantro and parsley.  Add a bit of lemon rind, salt and garlic, and there you have it.  Blake and Helen used the chermoula to season grill roasted zucchini, and served it with some perfectly ripe heirloom tomato slices, a lovely poached egg, a generous dollop of yogurt with cucumbers and fresh mint, and a side of crispy bacon.  The kitchen smelled so good during Thursday evening prep that we were going outside just so we could come back into the house and enjoy the aroma all over again.  Here’s how it looked ready to be served:

Their second special started with a plateful of kale dressed with a bacon vinegrette, served with a salt and peppered fried egg and a side of roasted broccoli.  We love kale and eggs for breakfast, and this combination, along with the rich bacon vinegrette totally rocked this dish.  Check it out:

We have big thanks and appreciation this week to Dan Vernia for facilitating prep with Susie Baity Stearns, as well as Jennifer Jensen, Anne West, Megan Zlatos, Codi Sharp, Kristy Smith, Lisa Huntington, Andrew Bozio, and Dave Waterhouse.  Thanks also for all the Friday morning help, including our new expeditor Andrew Bozio, Dan Vernia for training Andrew, Megan Zlatos, Dorran Dihle, Greta Spivey and Joel Panozzo for doing everything that needed doing, including a super clean up job.  Thank you to one and all for stepping up and keeping FM@SELMA going.

I also want to remind you that Sunseed Farm has their weekly CSA pick up in the driveway every Friday, and if you haven’t come by to see what they are growing these days, take a look at some of their goods here, and then be sure to visit their stand some Friday soon.

Finally, I want to give a shout out and some props to all the Slow Food Huron Valley volunteers, including many who also volunteer for RP&F, who made the Pie Lovers Unite event an awesome success this past Saturday evening.

just a few of the 70 (yes 70!) pies.

another view of the selections.

I was thrilled to win an honorable mention for my 3 tiered wedding pie.  The fruit on the ground floor pie was blueberry, the middle layer was sour cherry, and the top layer was home made vanilla pudding with poached apricots and whipped cream.  Everything in each of the pies was sourced locally, and the little figurine of the bride and groom was from my mom’s collection of brides and grooms.  She had over 50 of then, many from the 1940s and 50s.  Making a wedding pie was Jeff’s idea, and I ran with it, since we both really love pie more than cake. Especially with vanilla ice-cream, which was in abundance at PLU.  How fun to consider a pie for a wedding party instead of the usual cake option.  Thanks to Kim Bayer and the rest of the SFHV team for keeping this pie party a yearly tradition.

wedding pie with mugs from Red Shoes holding up the layers.

check out the way cool pie lovers unite tote bag prize I won!

Be sure to come by Friday Mornings@SELMA when it works for you.  We’ve got some great chefs making some fabulous food for us in the coming weeks.  I hope to see you around our kitchen soon!

~Lisa

Remi Holden started volunteering for us in early October last year, and we knew we had struck gold when he became a core Selma Cafe helper.  By the new year, Remi had taken on the challenging and exciting role of Friday Mornings@SELMA expeditor.  The expeditor’s job is to work directly with the chef and the volunteers, and make sure that the food gets on the plates, looks terrific, and gets to the people quickly. Remi has done a terrific job, and I wanted to be sure to interview him for this feature before he leaves town for his latest adventures. Good luck and safe travels Remi!

Remi, please tell us about yourself:

I am an Ann Arbor native.  I went to school in the Selma neighborhood. I have spent many hours running in Eberwhite woods, and it was such a pleasure to discover SELMA in my own back yard where I grew up.  I care a lot about health– my own, and the health of the community. This translates into 2 really big loves of mine: running and food.

What is your role at Selma:

My role at Selma is to make people happy! I want guests and volunteers who come to Selma to have an enjoyable experience. I want them to enjoy local food and to meet interesting people.  I like helping people become invested in the local food systems. So, my role at Selma is expeditor– I get things from the chefs to the plates and out to the guests, and I coordinate with the volunteers so that they feel comfortable in their volunteer roles, learn new skills, and feel that they have contributed to the mission of RP&F.

What work do you do when you aren’t helping out at Selma?

I’ve been an educator for 5 years. I began as a middle and high school teacher. I now work in the field of educational technology.  Most recently I was teaching at the U-M Flint campus where I was working with teachers who are interested in creating new learning technologies, and then implementing those new technologies in their classrooms.  I’ll be teaching and traveling in Europe for the next month, and then I’m off to the University of Wisconsin to begin my PhD. research with the Games, Learning and Society research group.

Tell us 3 things that people don’t generally know about you.

First, I’m a dancer– I grew up in a dancing family, and one of my most meaningful college experiences was choreographing dances for a student produced dance program.  The second things is I really love minor league baseball.  I love attending games and reading about players. I’m inspired by how people pursue the American dream through baseball.  And third, I am a juggler.  I can juggle apples and take a bite out of one while I am juggling.

What is your favorite food and drink?

These days I’ve been experimenting with different types of vegetable dips. So a zucchini and cashew dip served with grilled pita, or a fava bean puree served with raw veggies is really good.  I make my own electrolyte running drink, as a substitute for corporately produced electrolyte drinks. I make it with tart cherry juice, yerba mate tea, local michigan honey and a bit of salt.  It tastes great and it keeps me really hydrated when I run.

What else would you like us to know about you:

I wasn’t expecting to move back to ann arbor a year ago, and when I did, I was so beautifully surprised to find the Selma community, which, when I was growing up, didn’t exist in this self sustaining kind of way.  It’s been so meaningful for me to be part of a community that combines food, friendship, and a commitment to the local economy and local politics.  Selma Cafe builds community, and it supports the livelihood of small business owners and farmers. I know that during times in the past I talked about supporting those things but I wasn’t active in doing so, but through Selma I had the opportunity to do that, and be part of it, and it has been deeply gratifying.

~*~

We are really going to miss Remi.  He has become a good friend as well as an awesome volunteer.  Thanks for everything Remi!

~Lisa

Last week local pastry chef Chris Wick was the sous chef for Nick Roumel, when Nick and his daughter Olivia cooked for FM@SELMA.  It was clear to everyone that she has it goin’ on!   Thanks to Chris’s enthusiastic willingness to come back again this week, the tables were turned.  Chris took the controls, and Nick was her wing man.

These two are a great team, whoever happens to be driving, but this week Chris got a chance to shine in the starring role.  Her two specials were both so good Jeff and I decided to get one of each, and share. Note to self: next time remember Jeff eats way faster than I do.  Needless to say, I went back for seconds.  And it was all incredibly delicious and satisfying.

Let’s start with the crepe.  Made with buckwheat flour from Westwind Mill,  the flavor was rich and toothsome.  Served with a single bright orange yolked egg from Dry Bucket Farm smack in the center, these crepes were beautiful and luscious.  The garden greens from our front yard beds, along with a choice of bacon or sausage rounded out the dish perfectly.

Chris’s second special was fresh sour cherry clafoutis, a wonderful baked dish made up of  eggs, milk, sugar and a bit of flour.  Clafoutis is like a bread pudding without the bread– a creamy, richly luxurious dish that was made even more incredible by the sour cherries.  Served up with a mixed berry sauce made of blueberries, cherries and raspberries, chantilly cream, almond caramel brittle, and a side of bacon or sausage, this lovely offering was a Selma Cafe winner for sure.

This weeks bread pudding was also a celebration of the season.  Peaches from the farmer’s market were layered inside, creating a fabulous sweetness and texture, and to make it even better, it was topped with a raspberry honey sauce, and served with a side of bacon.

Thanks to everyone who helped bring Selma Cafe to life this week.  Thursday evening prep brought record numbers, and we got done in record time.  Thanks to Susie Baity Stearns and Michelle Fortin for facilitating prep and finding jobs for everyone, Dan Vernia for his ability to do everything with ease, and his absolutely spot on cherry sauce for the waffles.  Thanks too, for everyone else who got everything ready for today: Nick and Olivia Roumel, Jennifer Jensen, Amanda Schott, Anne Karle Zenith, Elaine Alexander, Rachel Gooze, Elizabeth and Shane Beers, J.T. Lee, Olivia Molitor, Melissa Roach, Noah Miller, Brittany Brown and Joy Shannon.

Thanks also to our Friday morning crew.  Thank you thank you to Remi Holden and Kelen McGee for expediting, Susie Baity Stearns for hosting, and Michelle Fortin, Jennifer Jensen, Joel Panozzo, Lisa Dugdale, and Dorran Dihle for an awesome (as usual) clean up brigade, plus Rob Caplis, Rachel Gooze, Ellen Maloney, JD and Christine Deucher, Noah Miller, Brittany Brown and Nevon Clark for  doing everything else to make our morning spectacular.

Next week we look forward to Tammy Coxen coming back into our kitchen to whip us up some terrific breakfast specials.  Be sure to stop by next Friday morning to enjoy breakfast with us, and if you’d like a chance to come help us out for Thursday prep or Friday service, please sign up here.

Until then, enjoy everything summer in the mitten has to offer, and I look forward to seeing you in our kitchen sometime soon,

~Lisa

Eric and Ines Storhok are back for a return Selma Cafe visit, and they have a couple of breakfast goodies for us based on Ernst Farm fresh ground cornmeal:

• Stone Ground Cornmeal Pancakes with Seasonal Fruit Compote and side of bacon or sausage – raspberries, blueberries and strawberries from our neighboring farms
• Baked Mushroom & Kale Polenta with Roasted Tomato Salsa and Zucchini with a side of fresh greens – lacinato kale and oyster and shitake mushrooms from Tantre Farm

Don’t forget our fruit seasonal regular breakfast choices: Waffles with gingered apples or strawberries and Lisa’s bread pudding (cherry this week, and sweetened with honey until Michigan figures out how to grow some non-GMO sugar!)

Come on by!

~Lisa

Can we talk troll dolls for a minute?  These puppies showed up, in the dark of night, about a year ago.  They were all around the garden, near the fish pond, next to chicken coop 1.0,  and every other possible place where they could be underfoot.  Hidden lately by greenery, I gathered a few of ‘em up and have them chillin’ by the front door.  Though we aren’t 100% sure just where they came from, we have our theories.  With that in mind, let me remind you to go here and buy yourself a ticket to attend the next Bona Sera Supper Club Bluegrass BBQ extravaganza.  And I do mean extravaganza.  Let me spell it out for you: P-I-G R-O-A-S-T.  Yeah, a whole pig.  ‘Cause honey child,  that is how they roll.  We’ve been lucky enough to have Wonder Woman and Bad Fairy (the brains and beauty behind BSSC) as our special guest chefs for Selma Cafe several times now, and they cook it up right.  When they throw a dinner party, it is not to be missed. Jeff and I will be there waiting tables and refilling your wine glass.  Be sure to purchase your tickets soon–Bona Sera sells out fast.

It was a colorful morning at Selma Cafe this week.  Baby carrots thinned from our Tessmer Farm hoop house made a lovely garnish to each of Linda Diane Feldt’s specials.

There was a beautiful bowl of delicate, edible flowers to sweeten up each plate.

This salsa included fresh, local, juicy tomatoes from the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market, along with green onions and cilantro from our front yard garden.  The salsa was served with Linda Diane’s huevos rancheros special.

This special included Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory tortillas, Needle Lane Farm scrambled eggs, salad greens from Sunseed Farm, and Jeff’s homemade chorizo from some local ground pork.

Linda also offered a wild greens and veggie soup, with miso and a mandala of egg swirled into the broth, served with service berry corn bread.

Tomm Becker of Sunseed Farm was here to deliver his CSA shares and add even more color to our Friday morning routine. He also had a wonderful selection of kale, garlic scapes, basil and salad mix.  Be sure to check out his produce every Friday morning!

We had a whole lot of help this week, both Thursday evening and Friday morning to make our Friday Morning@SELMA a happen’ thing.  We’re sending big thanks straight from the heart to the awesome volunteers who work so hard: Kendal Kuneman, Dave Waterhouse, Carol Milstein, Mary Gallagher, Sarah Juster, Judith and Sarah Rontal, Greta Spivey, Megan Zlatos, Remi Holden, Michelle Fortin, Nevon Clark, Patrick, Simone and Charles Racine, Dorran Dihle, Ed Weymouth, Kevin Hawkins, Joan Martin, Cassie Peabody, Jen Jensen, Nevon Clark and Sarah Grek.

And, last but not least, I have some exciting news to share.  I am pleased to let you know that a Selma Cafe cook book is in the works.  Our guest chefs have cooked up some delicious, creative and beautiful specials over the last 16 months, and they have graciously agreed to share their recipes with you!  I’m in the process of collecting the recipes, and my plan is to pull the book together this summer.  Do you have a favorite special that you would like to make at home? Let me know what it is and who made it, and I’ll see what I can do.  In the meantime, please sign up here to volunteer and keep Selma Cafe sustainable, or come by and share some breakfast with us some Friday morning soon.

Either way, I’m looking forward to seeing you in our kitchen,

~Lisa