It was fun to cook the four dinners for the 15 attendees of this year’s PSME’s Plein Air Retreat. Everyone was helpful and appreciative. They cheerfully volunteered to chop veggies or fruit, or to wash dishes, and seemed to enjoy my menu.

I had a budget and I wondered whether I should use a third of it for one ingredient– fresh halibut– and I decided I would. A friend I buy fish from (at Community Shellfish here) had a wholesale contact at Harbor Fish in Portland Maine and arranged for us to pick up a huge (reasonably priced) hunk of halibut on my way north, as I showed in my blog post yesterday. Thank you Bob (who is a fellow blog reader of yours) for making this possible. It really started our festivities off with a bang, and was totally delicious.

Also special was that all the lettuce and herbs came from our garden, and the asparagus was grown by a participant. Another participant brought homegrown eggs too, so I got into making them for breakfast as well, together with the fabulous bread we bought at Standard Baking Co in Portland. Participants also signed up for appetizers or desserts, so I wasn’t responsible for those, which works out well.  I really appreciate everyone’s generosity and community spirit.  We had enough leftovers to have for lunch on Saturday.

The menus I made, complete with blog links to recipes, were as follows:

Wednesday:

Broiled Halibut with a parmesan dill crust (easy but I guess I should blog it?)

Roasted Carrots with Tahini, Pistachios, and Mint

Simple salad with homemade mustard ranch dressing

Thursday:

Tortilla Chip Casserole

with avocado, sour cream, and pear, melon, and apricots

Friday:

(Thai) Peanut Soup

with Garlic Thyme Roasted Shrimp

served on green salad with homemade cashew chive dressing

Saturday:

Creamed Salmon Florentine

Roasted Asparagus

Celery Apple Salad with Gorgonzola

and fresh local strawberries

It was fun to nurture people in this way, and I’m already thinking about what to make next year!