Figs and Wedding Fun

I want to back up a bit.

About three weeks ago, to a dinner that followed a trip to our Wednesday market, where we procured an interesting veg I had never tried - Wild Asparagus. These thin little grass-like greens can be blanched to perfection in about 1 minute's time. We made a pretty yummy meal - one which was more clandestine than considered.

So here it is:

I started out with some green onions and a little bit of oil in a medium sized/medium warm pan and added some fresh figs, which I had cut into coins. I let this caramelize, adding some really yummy looking fresh mushrooms and spinach towards the end. I also added some lemon-thyme and some sage from our little terrace garden. I let these cook down a little while longer, while I went to town prepping the fu...when I say prepping I mean pressing and slicing almost in half (more like an incision, which left the thick steaks with a book-like appearance). I stuffed the fig/onion/spinach mixture inside the steaks and popped them in the oven to bake at about 375 for 40 minutes.

I reserved some of the fig sauce for the top, which I added with about 10 minutes left in the bake time. Yummmy.

The asparagus was thrown in a pot of boiling water for one minute and served as a side.

Wedding plans are tripping along wonderfully - we just sent out our Save The Date Cards...is that pretentious? I don't think so....we work with so many folks that travel, and we don't want any one taking off before they get to join us for the vegan wedding of the century. Plus, with folks coming from Canada and the U.K. we want to be able to give people the chance to get in on early flights etc. It was so nice to get so many kind responses from our co-workers.....congrats and such.

We made the cards ourselves and were really happy with the end results. We think we might do the same for the actual invites....and replies...and thank yous. Saved paper, saved shipping and saved me from the consumer wedding dragon, which, I am trying to avoid at all costs.

One can leave a giant not-so-eco footprint with weddings...jesus. We have tried to be aware of that by securing vegan options where ever possible, and staying as eco as we can. There are some great websites out there, many of them from the U.K., such as Eco Wedding and PortoVert, which I quite prefer. We did manage to book Tan for our wedding supper and have booked a vegan caterer for the buffet dinner that we will have later that night at the chateau. The land that we are having the reception on is as eco as possible for Brussels, and I hope to find an earth friendly way to buy the dress of my dreams. Things are coming along with no hitches so far...which makes me worry that all the hiccups will happen on April 11th 2009.

Oh, one last bit of news. It looks like this vegan cowgirl will be whipping up her creations in the most fantastic kitchen she has ever laid eyes on. We got the apartment we wanted so badly....2 bed, backyard, right next to a huge park, still in biking distance to work and the whole kitchen is kitted out in WOOD....it is gorgeous. The best part: the hallway is fitted with its own bookshelves. How amazing is that, this little nerd can NOT wait to get in there.