Good Eats: Vegetarian & Locally Sourced

My friends, Lynne and Gary invited me to join them for a Sunday dinner. Lynne always goes to local Farmer's Markets on the weekend when she can, for fresh and beautiful produce. This time she got quite a few of great looking vegetables, and it was a nice relaxing day -- so they decided to spend quality time cooking together. Lucky me, I got to enjoy that lovely dinner with them!

Mediterranean Panzanella (bread) Salad

Lynne made this Martha Stewart's recipe using Zingerman's bread -- together with fennel, local green beans, fresh mozzarella, calamata olives, red onion, dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar. This dish is a wonderful summer salad. Absolutely enjoyed it. It was fantastico!!

Three Beet Caviar with Endive and Goat Cheese

This is such a beautifully-presented dish. Lynne made the dish using Chioggia beets, red beets, and golden beets -- served with local goat cheese. The tri-color caviar of beets got mixed together with creamy goat cheese right before we ate them. Adapted from Deborah Madison cookbook, Lynne & Gary's vegetarian guru.

Risotto with Kale and Gremolata

This was made of kale, arborio rice, and Gremolata -- which is a mixture of lemon peel, garlic and parsley. Gary cooked them for only 5 min. in the pressure cooker, and it turned out just perfect! The best risotto I've had so far...

It was a really nice dinner with my besties.

Loving this cheese grater :)

We finished our meal with a Thai dessert I brought over. I quicky made this --Sticky Rice Pudding with longan & young coconut, and topted with coconut milk -- from what I had in my pantry. With a nice cup of coffee, it was a great ending.

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Good time! We should do this more often :)