great dinner, even better dessert

No, seriously.

Menu

• roasted salmon with mustard and maple syrup glaze
• mashed potatoes with ramps
• blanched asparagus with butter, lemon juice and shaved parmiggiano reggiano
• roasted mushrooms, carrots, and onions

What are those yellow things on that plate on the far right, you ask? Well, that's sliced pineapple. But what is the pineapple for? Why, it's for THE BEST DESSERT OF ALL TIME.

• grilled pineapple with molasses, mint, lime zest and mascarpone

This was actually surprisingly easy to prepare in a short amount of time because 1) madison helped me with the prep work 2) the prep work wasn't difficult 3) cooking these things simultaneously and/or in quick succession is neither confusing nor overwhelming.

First I boiled water to blanch the asparagus, because I like my asparagus at room temperature so I wanted to give it time to cool down after cooking. While that was boiling, I preheated the oven to 375 and tossed some mushrooms, chopped onion, and carrots with olive oil, salt and pepper. I threw those in the oven, and by that time the water was boiling and madison had rinsed the asparagus and trimmed the ends so I threw those in the pot and removed them after they had turned bright green and were flexible but would still snap if stressed. I drained them, put them on a plate, and spread some unsalted butter over the hot asparagus, then sprinkled some lemon juice, salt and pepper on top. I shaved parmiggiano over that and set it aside-- done.

Madison had rinsed, partly peeled, and cubed the potatoes at this point so I threw them in a deep saucepan, covered them with water, and brought that to a boil. In the meantime I trimmed the roots off the ramps and chopped the stems, setting the leaves aside. Madison seasoned the salmon with salt and pepper and spread spicy grain mustard and maple syrup over it. By this time the vegetables were done roasting so I put them on a plate-- done.

We kept the oven at 375 and started to roast the salmon. I then sauteed the chopped ramp stems in a bit of olive oil and salted them as they cooked. The potatoes had been boiling for a few minutes at this point, so I drained them, put them back in the hot pot, and added milk, butter, a bit of sour cream, the sauteed ramp stemps, and the ramp leaves (uncooked, roughly chopped). I even shaved a bit of Jasper Hill cheddar in there. Good god were these some delicious mashed potatoes!!! The smell of the ramps was intoxicating. I had the pot over low heat while I mashed the potatoes so that it would thicken and the ramp flavor could permeate. I then put the potatoes in a big bowl and drank a bit of beer while waiting for the salmon to finish (it was a big piece of salmon--it took nearly 20 minutes to cook).

We enjoyed our meal and then set to work on dessert. Madison had already peeled, sliced, and cored the pineapple, so I just put my grill pan over medium-high heat until it was really hot, then grilled the slices until they were softened and had nice grill marks. I grated some lime zest, made a quick lil' chiffonade of fresh mint, and sprinkled those over the grilled pineapple. I drizzled a bit of molasses over this and added a dollop of mascarpone. We literally FREAKED OUT at how good it tasted. Just imagine it: sweet and warm pineapple, with the intense flavor of molasses, softened with rich mascarpone and brightened by lime and mint. Make this NOW. Just do it. I could eat this every day for the rest of my life. And did you know molasses is actually pretty good for you? It has tons of calcium, iron, and potassium! It is not good for you, however, when it spills out of a giant storage facility.