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