INSPIRATION

I have been cooking/baking for many years, and still, I am filled with delight each day as I contemplate what I have in the larder and what I can prepare for the evening meal.  I must say that I have been influenced by my father, who was an artist as a cook, and now I am being inspired by another artist chef, Luke Zham, owner and chef at the Driftless Cafe in downtown Viroqua, WI.  You can read the menu here,  http://driftlesscafe.com/.  Reading his daily menu, for me, is like reading a really great book, always looking forward to the next chapter.  I love that he is dedicated to buying local/organic, and the way that he includes the local farm's name in his menu descriptions.  Anyway, Luke has a way of presenting his creations in a 'single' manner....not potatoes here, vegetable, here, etc., but in one grand presentation.  I have been inspired to do the same on several occasions.

My home grown, frozen french green beans, seared with garlic in olive oil....

first fast roasting cashews in a cast iron pan, making a sauce with them, (soy sauce, vinegar and garlic), then sauteing organic bok Choi in peanut oil...

...a homemade semolina flour gnocchi...

and then the layering, first the gnocchi, then the bok choi drizzled with plenty of cashew sauce, and finally topped with the seared green beans.  This meal was absolutely delicious!!!!

I find it a wonderful thing in my life to be inspired by a young chef who has, perhaps, been cooking less than a quarter of the years that I have been cooking.  My father would have loved dining at the Driftless Cafe, as do I.  For me, without a doubt, the best restaurant in the mid-west!!!!!