Thursday, May 19, 2011

In The Kitchen: Shaved Asparagus Salad with Truffle Salt & Wildflower Honey

Foodzie.com is a fantastic site for food lovers, filled with prepared foods, snacks, coffee/tea, chocolate, sauces & condiments, etc., all from small companies and artisan makers. I've often wanted to try their tasting box program; for $19.99 (including shipping) they will send you a small box every month filled with products to give you a "taste" of whats available on the site...so when an email arrived in my inbox a few weeks ago with a promotion offering your first tasting box free of charge I couldn't sign up fast enough! My first box arrived this week, and I already can't wait for the June box...


Among the cookies, tea and snacks in the box were flavored salts from an artisan salt company, and the Black Truffle and Fresh Thyme Herb Sea Salt seemed like the perfect mate for the giant bag of fresh asparagus a friend gave me from their garden. 

The asparagus salad was delicious, and the salt gave the perfect herb-truffle hint to each bite. In fact that salt was so good I've been putting it on everything from buttered toast to roasted potatoes this week, and I'm going to look into carrying it in the store!



Shaved Asparagus Salad with Truffle Salt & Wildflower Honey
  

  • 12 whole Stalks Fresh Asparagus
  • ⅛ whole Red Onion
  • ½ ounces, fluid Lemon Juice
  • ½ ounces, fluid Champagne Vinegar
  • 1 ounce, fluid Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 teaspoon Truffle Thyme Salt
  • 4 teaspoons Wildflower Honey

Trim the heads off your asparagus spears, if they are very thick, cut the heads in half. Place the asparagus heads in a large bowl. Using a vegetable peeler or mandoline slicer, shave your asparagus spears and red onion into the bowl.

In another bowl whisk the lemon juice, vinegar and olive oil together. Pour this mixture over the asparagus & onion mixture and toss to coat.

Separate the asparagus salad into four bowls and top each serving with a pinch or two of truffle salt* and a drizzle of honey (the measurements in the ingredients list for the salt and honey are just estimates, use as much or as little as you please).

Friday, May 13, 2011

Headed Home

I love antiquing, truly I do, but after a month and a half on the road I am ready to head back to Charleston and stay put for a while. I have two full cars worth of antique & vintage goodness for the new store, some of it, like the no surfing sign and the watch maker's chest are available in our etsy shop already...


...but other pieces, like these long framed group photos (which I am doing an entire wall of in the store) and the polished brass lamps, will be available in store only for a while. Making their way online eventually, maybe...


These antique c. 1910 polished brass ship lamps were one of my favorite finds of the entire trip! I picked up 1 for myself and 3 for the shop, I can't wait to get them wired and mounted on the wall in the store. I'm thinking they will be a great way to light the old wooden table-top cases I bought for displaying jewelry and small sterling trophies!


Once I am back home next week I'll be back to my regular blogging schedule, posing some photos of the finished store interior (yay!) and some recipes I've been saving too. I'll also share more photos of the treasures I am returning home with, and some exciting news about the start of my vintage event rentals business!