by Karsi Grego
Greetings from the Prairie Berry Kitchen Mouse*! Now wait a minute, I hear you saying, Prairie Berry has mice? No, of course not. We actually received 100% on our last health inspection, a fact we’re proud to share. So a real mouse, I am not. I do however have the vantage point of a mouse in the Prairie Berry Kitchen. I observe, learn from, and even assist our wonderful Chefs, Maija and Heidi. They’re the Big Cheeses in this kitchen. I hear their collaborations, get to input some ideas of my own, and even score a nibble when they pair our wines with a new menu item. So think of me as the mouse in the corner, scampering around the kitchen and collecting bits of information to share with you. This month’s topic-Recipes!
From the steady stream of emails and phone calls we receive from our faithful guests, one thing is abundantly clear: you really like our food! There is no better measure of our success than the positive feedback we continually hear from you. Thank you! Our passion for creating the best food we can, and in pairing it with the excellent wine our winemaker produces, drives us to always work towards improvement and to continually try new things. We get a lot of recipe requests, a compliment for certain, but a challenge as well. You see, we don’t actually have very many recipes. That may seem odd to some, but for anyone who has had the pleasure to prepare meals with the kind of ingredients we source from our local growers such as Gregson Gardens, or local meat producers such as Wild Idea Buffalo, amongst others, you know the “recipe” simply celebrates the ingredients on hand.
Our soups may reflect this better than anything else. A perennial favorite Tomato Basil starts with a heap of fresh tomatoes, drizzled in olive oil, sprinkled with coarse salt and pepper and slow roasted in the oven until sweet and melt in your mouth soft. Onions and garlic simmer while the tomatoes roast. Once blended together, stock, a touch of cream, and handfuls of fresh basil finish the soup. Taste and adjust. Done! In fact all of our food is approached in this way. Start with the best ingredients we can find (local, organic if possible.) Prepare. Mix in flavors to compliment. Taste. Adjust seasoning. Serve!
Because we cook this way, sharing all of our recipes is not something we’re able to do, but we do offer some of our favorites whenever we can. One way of receiving recipes is to join our fabulous wine club. There is no charge. You simply pay for the wine and shipping fee and in addition to that you receive a generous discount, invitations to member only events and a newsletter that features a few recipes each time. Every time the newsletter comes out, we dust off our measuring cups and spoons and try to figure out just how much of each ingredient we actually use to make our creations. The usual kitchen response to “how much _____ (ingredient) do I add?” is “enough.” And “how long does it cook?” “Until it’s done.” Unless you always cook this way, it can seem impossible, but it seems to work for us.
This blog will be a second way to receive our recipes. Respond to this post with your favorite Prairie Berry menu item. At the end of the month, we’ll tally them up and the most popular item will be featured. We’ll have our measuring spoons ready and waiting! Thanks for coming to eat and drink with us! Hope to see you again soon- TKM (The Kitchen Mouse)
* No actual mice were involved in, nor harmed in the creation of this blog. Any resemblance to a real mouse, dead or alive, is purely coincidental. The use of a mouse as the writer’s voice is simply our attempt at being cute, clever and funny. Please attempt to be amused. Ratatouille has nothing on us.
