shoppin at the mideastern store

I took a trip across town to the middle eastern grocery, hoping their new crop of walnuts had arrived - they had and there is no comparison to prepackaged nuts at the average grocery. These are divinely fresh, and when I return from Italy I'll put them to immediate use. I also purchased a lovely, full-bodied olive oil and, from the poultry case, glistening in their ice bath, precious little poussins beckoned - irresistible. The next evening son number two came for dinner and I served the tiny chickens. I roughly cut some parsnips, carrots, shallots and apples, a perfect bed for the birds. I basted them with a combination of hard cider and dry white wine and when they were bronzed and ready to serve I accompanied them with roasted acorn squash sections. We began with a simple salad of baby greens ( there's a thread of infanticide in this blog)  tossed with chevre and dried cranberries. It was a most pleasant evening, I enjoy our conversations.

The leaves are  changing,lots of copper, yellow and orange and all that's left in the vegetable garden is swiss chard - lots of it. I diced some stems rather finely and sauteed them at gentle heat  in olive oil - tasty.

No more cooking for the next ten days, but lots of good eating in Bologna,  Parma, Modena and, briefly, Milan. Arrivederci.