Black Friday dinner, the counterpart to a Thanksgiving feast, featured Sage as the wise choice to bridge both occasions. The Salvia officinalis (from Three Bees Nursery) used in a Brown Butter Sage Sauce was almost sweet, deliciously bathing Monterey Bay Organic Spinach and Cheese Ravioli. But let me digress, this meal began with a wonderful Roasted Squash Soup with Maple-Glazed Bananas, an “autumn in a bowl” recipe from Food & Wine magazine. A LaBrea Bakery Whole Wheat Bread, baked right before our meal, filled the air with the fragrance of its nutty taste, serving as the perfect accompaniment to sop up sauce and eat with soup. Piquant Kalamata Olives from Haig’s Delicacies and Smoked Salmon from Bryan’s Market rounded out our main course. An excellent Klinker Brick Zinfandel brought black magic to the Black Friday celebration, as did a ChezHelvetica favorite dessert – Lemon Squares from the Neiman Marcus cookbook. So here’s to being grateful and thankful, still, for the love of family and all the bounty life has to offer!
