I spent some time tonight writing out 4 menu options for an upcoming dinner this Friday. And it got me wondering…. If you had these 4 choices what would you choose? And a bit of mixing and matching is allowed. I hope that I will be able to get out to the woods early that day and dig up a few ramps, wild leeks. I hope to incorporate that fresh, foraged spring food into the menu. And what a great excuse for a walk in the woods! If this sounds so good you just have to have some…. You can always schedule a dinner here at Hillside. I just need a little advance notice to get your group reserved for a date and the price is $50 per person plus tax and gratuity.
What a typical dinner looks like at Hillside homestead
Menu Option 1
• Pork chops, raised right here at hillside, oven roasted with sage and served….
• On a bed of my own homemade sauerkraut and seasoned with caraway seed
• Mashed potatoes, whipped up light and served with homemade butter
• A fresh pot of apple sauce made with apples from the neighborhood
Menu Option 2
• Slow roasted venison tenderloin, from the neighborhood and not ‘gamey’ served with currant jelly sauce
• Potatoes in jackets, much like modern twice baked potatoes
• Old style baked beans, slow cooked with all sorts of seasonsings and bit of salt pork
• Baked parsnips, sweet and very flavorful
Menu option 3
• Black bean soup with home cured ham as a first course
• Local Whitefish very lightly breaded and served with butter sauce
• Fried potatoes and ramps. (wild leeks if they are big enough to dig up in the woods)
• Deviled Eggs, the chickens are producing some wonderful eggs this time of year
Menu Option 4
• White bean soup with ham as a first course
• Miss Parloa’s creamy chicken. A very delicately stewed chicken and flavorful cream sauce made with my own homemade chicken stock…
• Served on mashed potatoes beaten to a nicety
• Baked Rhode Island Greening apples, a small variety that has kept well all winter
Bread – choose 1
• Yeast risen dinner rolls with homemade butter, apricot jam and apple butter
• Corn bread, with homemade butter, local honey and apple butter
Dinner rolls enough for a big dinner! and pie to boot!
Maggie’s perfect cornbread. She made this the day the Martha Steward Mag People were at my house.
Dinner will also include rummage pickle as a relish.
Dessert – Choose 1
• Cream pie- a current favorite with my customers, good local cream, my hen’s eggs, sugar, nutmeg…
• Apple butter filled bread pudding, classic bread pudding spread with a not too thick layer of my homemade apple butter
• Pound cake with Lemon sauce
• Custard pie
• Spice cake with Lemon sauce. A recipe I worked on this winter a local historic recipe made with cardamom, very nice.
• Pumpkin pie – the last one I can make this season
dont know about anyone else but i would have to stay AT LEAST 4 days!!! i wouldnt change ANYTHING about any of the menu’s (except the saurkraut – sorry) each sounds amazing as is.. such a wonderful variety. LOVE pork – have only had venison once but willing to try again love fish and chicken… so how would one pick?? same goes for the desserts…. sigh.. if you do that every night i would have to stay a year at least and would end up over 500 pounds.. hmmm maybe its a good thing i am out west 🙂 lol!
The venison dinner sounds wonderful,but so does the pork…I’d love to meet you one day ..You are living one of my dreams…God bless you in all that you do..MA
I would choose menu 4 with deviled eggs, yeast roll and pound cake with lemon sauce. Wow!
oh my, Dinner 3, but change out soup for apple sauce, cornbread and spice cake please for me! Mark says Dinner 1 with yeast rolls and pound cake. Of course you know whenever we eat out, we always have to have wee bit of “swapsies” LOL!
swapsies… that is cute. Only problem is at my place the whole group has to pick one menu! it is served family style. It does present itself as a problem sometimes.
And the winner is…. Menu 3 with dinner rolls and custard pie! That is what Friday night’s group has chosen.
Do you have fiddle head ferns where you live? They are probably my favorite seasonal, local “foraged” veggie ever. I was torn between Menu #3 & #4 🙂
I think we do have some fiddle heads. but there are lots of ramps! I do struggle sometimes with foraged foods because I’m not sure how historically accurate they are to the time and place of my farm. I try real hard to create authentic experiences, so I struggle with documentation. I have not seen much documentation at all for foraged foods, but I do cook the ramps! sigh