Dinner for One

Michael stayed in the city this weekend for the Audio Engineers' Society convention. Poor Michael. It's been a classic fall day with sunshine, glorious foliage, and the smell of hay-scented ferns filling the air.

When I'm by myself I usually eat simply. I'll make a quiche to last the whole weekend or open a jar of home made ratatouille. But today was the last Barryville Farmers Market and I decided to celebrate.

First, I opened a bottle of turnip wine. What? That doesn't sound delicious to you? Trust me, it doesn't taste like turnip. I made it last fall because I had way too many turnips, and I'm not crazy about the taste so I didn't want to eat them. Even though the wine is still young, I thought I should taste it now to see if it was worth making again this year. It is.

Inspired by my home brew, I roasted quail (from Penny, the egg and poultry lady) with olive oil, pepper, garlic, and sage. Five minutes before the end I added a glaze of my tomato-ginger-lemon preserve. With the quail I served (myself) acorn squash with maple syrup and butter, and a salad of fresh arugula (from the potato man), homegrown tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella.

And the pièce de résistance...plum torte, my favorite fall dessert. The recipe is from the NY Times and couldn't be simpler:

Cream 1 stick unsalted butter w/1 cup sugar.
Add 1 cup self-rising flour (or 1 cup all-purpose flour + 1 tsp. baking powder), a pinch of salt, and 2 eggs. This makes a very thick batter. Spoon it into a 9" spring form pan, spreading the batter out to the edges.
Slice plums in half, remove the pits, and place them cut side down, one next to the other around the edge of the pan. Fill in the center with as many more plums as you can fit.
Sprinkle with lemon juice, cinnamon, and sugar, and bake at 350 F for 50-60 minutes.

You can't go wrong. And there's no better way to use the last plums of the season. Bye-bye Barryville Farmers Market. See you in the spring.