Sunday Brunch at Glen Arbor Wines this Summer!

We are excited to be at Glen Arbor Wines this summer serving brunch! On select Sundays throughout the summer, we are posting up in beautiful Glen Arbor from 11am-2pm to feed you a flavorful, locally sourced meal. Our next brunch date is this Sunday, July 2. Check out all of the dates below, and check our Instagram each week for the menu.

Our menu each week varies, but you can expect offerings such as a yummy chorizo egg sandwich, chilaquiles, and of course a breakfast baked good. Plan to enjoy brunch in the backyard or take it with you to the beach for the perfect Sunday afternoon. Glen Arbor Wines offers both indoor and outdoor seating, with a gorgeous backyard featuring bocce ball, racquetball, and more! It’s a great atmosphere for the whole family.

We’ll announce our menu each week via Instagram. Glen Arbor Wines mixes up tasty mimosas to enjoy with your brunch, and we also keep the coffee hot for a midday pick-me-up! We accept cash, venmo, and credit card payments. We’ll see you there!

Catering to Northern Michigan

Highlighting the best of the region with individualized menus

One of our first experiences as business owners in northern Michigan was at a booth at the Asparagus Festival in Empire. It was during the spring of 2018, and we were just beginning to chase our dream of running our own catering business. It only made sense to debut a seasonal menu at our favorite little festival in the region, right in our hometown. 

That first event taught us a lot, and it opened doors into people’s homes. Slowly, we began catering private events, offering menus for families on vacation, and creating unique meals for wedding, birthday, and anniversary celebrations. 

Throughout it all, the progression has felt natural, in sync with the natural rhythms that we find in this community. Friendships have been formed over good food we were hired to prepare in the same way that friendships have been formed while sharing charcuterie with strangers and watching the sunset over Lake Michigan. There is something magic to life here, and connecting with people over food has made more sense than ever while surrounded by amazing local farms and orchards. 

As the summer ramps up, so does our busy season. We are currently preparing to cater multiple events each month, in addition to continuing our weekly meal deliveries. We will travel all over the region to cater weddings and parties, with each event featuring a carefully crafted menu. 

It is our hope that our clients feel their story comes through in the food they offer their guests at the table. Whether that is by preparing a favorite meal or featuring vegetables from their family farm, we aim to personalize the catering experience at every event we serve. 

This year, we will return with a booth to the Empire Asparagus Festival, celebrating a vegetable that means a lot to our little community. We’ll get creative with the recipes, source as much locally as possible (the asparagus will come from Norconk Farms, just a few miles down the road), and we will serve our asparagus-laden food to familiar faces. We can’t wait. 

This returning feels important (especially after two years without the festival). It brings us back to our roots and grounds us in why we started this business in the first place. It has all been for a love of food and a love of the people we get to share it with. Those values are infused into every aspect of our work, and if you hire us to cater your event, you can be sure you’ll feel that care in every part of planning, prepping, and serving your menu. 

We realize that not everyone is looking for a party menu that has this much attention to detail. Some people just want what is cheap. Some people don’t really care that much about the food, and that’s okay. But we know that the folks who are hiring us are looking for something elevated. The folks who hire us are looking for unique flavors, locally-sourced meats and produce, and a menu with a little bit of personality. And, perhaps above all else, they’re looking for the opportunity to come together with their loved ones around a meal. They’re looking for an experience. The Northern Michigan experience. 

For that, you’ve come to the right place. We can’t wait to hear about your plans for your event, and to work together to create the perfect menu for you and your guests.

Holiday Meals to Share with Friends and Family

Special holiday menus create new traditions.

Spring brings the arrival of two of our favorite holidays: Easter and Mother's Day. Our love of these holidays is rooted in the nostalgia inspired by their respective meals: the memories that link Easter Dinner with childhood, flashbacks to working the brunch rush in restaurants on Mother's Day. Part of why we love food is how it infiltrates our memory, the power that a particular scent or flavor has to transport us to moments we have otherwise forgotten.

Early in the pandemic, the approach of Easter and Mother's Day forced us to really confront what was changing in the world around us. Our traditions were disrupted. We wouldn't have family traveling to Leelanau County to gather for the holidays, and like so many of you, we wondered how to make those days stand out from the blur of weeks spent at home.

Knowing that we couldn't host the events we wished we could, we opted to bring the festivities to individual households around northern Michigan. This was the spark that ignited our first holiday meals, the opportunity to deliver comfort and a sense of holiday spirit during a time that felt uncertain and repetitive.

We hope that our holiday meals offer you new traditions moving forward, whether that be ordering in from now on or using inspiration from our menu to work from for next year. We love the opportunity to give you a break to enjoy the holiday with your loved ones, letting Mel & Fell do the meal preparation while you simply warm the food up in the oven (ideally while sipping a glass of bubbly).

Mother's Day flower DELIVERY

Thank you to all of you who ordered food and flowers from us for Easter! It was a pleasure to be a part of your holiday meals. This year, we will not be delivering a meal for Mother’s Day. We will be taking some time to tend to family matters and spend the time with our own mothers. We hope you are all able to enjoy cherished time with your family members as well.

We are still offering flower deliveries on Mother’s Day weekend! , which are the perfect addition to your Mother’s Day brunch or gift to send a friend or relative from afar. Interested in ordering a bouquet for your mother, grandmother, or friend in Empire, Glen Arbor, or Frankfort? Send us an email and we will deliver them on Saturday, May 7.

Our flower deliveries feature bouquets of locally grown flowers from Leelanau Specialty Cut Flowers. Our friend Michelle offers gorgeous bouquets from her farm throughout the spring and summer, and her first bouquet offerings are breathtaking tulips. Many of you purchased her tulips for your Easter tables, and we are offering the bouquets for Mother’s Day delivery as well. Michelle also has weekly bouquet subscriptions available. You can find out more on her website.

There will be no meal for Mother's Day this year. We will be delivering flowers. Orders must be placed by May 1; delivery will take place on Saturday, May 7.

Extend the Table: Mel & Fell’s Community Fund

We are now entering our third year of meal deliveries, something that makes our heads spin in circles to consider. Where has the time gone? So much has happened since we first offered prepared meals to share with our neighbors. The world has shifted on its axis in many ways; much of the past two+ years was spent reevaluating how we live. We miss much about pre-pandemic life, the ease with which we interacted with people and tried new things. But we also know that every shift offers an opportunity for growth and a chance to reimagine how we live and connect with each other.

We began offering meal deliveries to residents in Empire and Glen Arbor during February of 2020. There was only a faint hint of what was to come, and the needs we were addressing at the time felt simple: rural Leelanau County residents needed better access to healthy, flavorful meals. Within a month of creating an option for our neighbors, that need heightened as having contact-less meal delivery options became necessary. 

At the same time that we were discovering the importance of the service that we offered, we started paying attention to other needs that existed throughout our community. There has been a sense of isolation throughout the pandemic, with many people unable to gather together. This is something we know to be a deep loss, as sharing meals with people is such a grounding ritual across all cultures throughout history. Sure, sharing meals together is convenient as it enables groups of people to share the load of cooking and cleaning, but I think we can all agree it is more than that. There is something spiritual about enjoying a meal with loved ones. The experience of toasting a glass across the table to celebrate a friend’s achievement or the kindness of bringing a casserole to comfort after the loss of a loved one is familiar to us all. We know the importance of sharing meals, of clinking glasses on an important evening, of nourishing those in need. Unfortunately, this ritual became more challenging to practice throughout the pandemic. 

But of course, our neighbors know best. And slowly, throughout the pandemic, we had one or two of our customers buy a meal to send to a friend. We all began to realize that when we couldn’t gather together for a delicious meal, the next best option was to send one to a neighbor. And so, around this time last year, thanks in part to a generous donation, we introduced our Community Fund. 

The Community Fund is a way for our customers and neighbors to connect around a meal, even when we cannot share it in person. Starting last February, we began delivering meals to local individuals and families nominated by folks in the community. The intent is to share the love of good food and hopefully to help brighten someone’s week in the process. Whether the recipients need connection, relief from high grocery bills, or maybe need a night off from cooking as they adjust to new parenthood, the Fund offers the opportunity to extend the table from your home into someone else’s. To carry forth the age-old ritual of offering meals as a means of love and support. 

Our Community Fund is fueled by donations from our customers, and you can easily contribute by rounding your meal up to the next dollar. You can also donate directly to the Fund. We are always looking for folks to share the Community Funded meals with, so if you know of a person or family in the community who would benefit from a healthy, home-cooked meal, send us an email. Recipients and donors will remain anonymous, and all donated money will go towards the Community Fund to provide meals to our neighbors. 

Curious to learn more? Send us an email. We can’t wait to share some neighborly meals together.

Photos by Hallie Kohler

Introducing Guest Chef: Jess Ledezma

Never too many hands in the kitchen

This month has involved a wonderful return to our weekly meal deliveries. We are thrilled to have returned to the kitchen and after just one week back on the job, Tim already feels ready to diversify the entree offerings. We are so grateful for the progress we have seen already and for the support from all of you! 

We are also appreciative to have extra hands in the kitchen, helping us with the meal preparation and by providing an additional entree each week. Our friend and cook Jess Ledezma has worked with us occasionally since 2020, and we are excited to have her working more consistently with us now on meal deliveries. 

Since so much of our work emphasizes the importance of community, and because we care deeply about providing for our neighbors, it only makes sense to give you all a formal introduction to Jess. She is an invaluable part of our team, and we are honored to have her cooking with us. So friends & neighbors, meet Jess!

Jess’ Background & Our Connection

Jess grew up in the Traverse City area and always loved cooking. In High School, she attended the TBA career tech center and was enrolled in their culinary program. She worked in restaurants around town, most notably Bistro Amical. It was at Amical that she began to consider becoming a professional chef, and this was also where she met Tim. 

Eventually, Tim left Amical, and Jess did as well, spending some time in Charleston, South Carolina, working at various restaurants in the area. When she returned to her hometown of Traverse City in 2020, we asked for her assistance on a few events. Gradually, she began helping with meal deliveries as well. Soon, she was helping to create or modify recipes for our events and meal deliveries. This winter after Tim’s surgery, she offered holiday meals when we couldn’t. Many of you ordered tamales and salmon cakes from her to add to your holiday tables.

Jess’ Favorite Meals & Kitchen Tips 

About ten years ago, Jess discovered that she was Celiac, which means she is unable to process gluten. Because of this, she cooks gluten-free at home, which has allowed her the opportunity to learn some tricks along the way. She recommends using ¼ cup less of any gluten-free flour or bread crumbs when substituting into a typical recipe. Gluten-free products tend to be drier than their wheat counterparts. When baking, she warns that the batter may look wetter than a typical recipe, but that the added moisture keeps the final product from being too crumbly and dry. 

Jess’ favorite meals to cook are soups, because of how versatile they are. “You can have them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner; hot or cold, sweet or spicy, creamy or brothy, and everything in between,” she says. We agree; we love a good soup! 

Jess says, “My favorite thing about food is the culture behind it and the traditions that everybody has associated with different foods. There is no one specific that I favor over the other, but my personal cooking go-to’s are various Latino, and (I enjoy) splicing different ethnic styles.”

Northern Michigan & Beyond 

Leelanau County’s growing food scene. Even though she hasn’t gotten the chance to check out some of the new restaurants, she thinks that Leelanau’s food culture is getting some things right. “Overall, I think one thing that is very consistent and done well is sticking to seasonality.” She also applauds the emphasis on promoting the agricultural scene throughout the region. 

There are some ways that the region could improve upon food offerings, and she especially notes the lack of diversity of cultures represented in the local cuisine. With the exception of tex-mex and Asian fusion, there aren’t many options outside of typical American fare, and she believes “there’s so much more to explore that…the surrounding areas would benefit from.” 

We agree, Jess, and we are excited to see all that you bring to the local food scene. Not just in what you offer to our clientele, but to the whole region. Glad to have you on our team!

Jess Ledezma currently cooks at Red Spire Brunch House full time. She assists us at Mel & Fell as needed, and this summer will be working with Smoke and Porter at some of their events. You can follow along with her work on her Instagram at /northerngf_chefjess.

Meal Delivery Returns February 2

Meal delivery returns next week!

As many of you know, we have been on medical leave since mid-October, as Tim recovers from emergency brain surgery due to bleeding on his brain. We are grateful for the support we have received during this challenging time. Your encouraging words, meals, and financial support have meant the world. 

Tim came home from the hospital in November and for the next month, we were at therapy appointments in Traverse City nearly every day of the week. Throughout his recovery, his therapists have helped build back the skills necessary to navigate the kitchen. We've spent many hours working on cooking exercises. It turns out being in his favorite place has helped Tim's healing process immensely. Over the past couple of weeks, we've been meal prepping and delivering to a few neighbors to get back into the swing of things, and we are ready to offer meals to our whole community. We are grateful to be able to cook for you all again!

Our first meal delivery of 2022 will be on Wednesday, February 2. We will send the menu out via email on Friday, January 28. Not on our mailing list yet? Be sure to sign up today! 

While Tim is back to making delicious meals, we will be easing back slowly into our meal delivery service, offering a limited menu and some changes to our delivery route. We anticipate gradually adding options to the menu, and we plan to provide additional pickup options soon. You can read more about the changes below!

Limited Menu

As we return to the kitchen, we will start things off with a limited menu. We want to offer the best quality and service while prioritizing Tim's continued recovery. For the month of February, each menu will include one entree, one soup, and one salad. Our friend and associate Jess Ledezma will also prepare an additional entree each week as a guest chef. We are excited about this collaboration and having her alongside us in the kitchen! She worked with us last summer helping with meal preparation, so you have already enjoyed her cooking. Jess is a talented chef specializing in gluten-free options, and she will provide a delicious entree each week. 

Delivery Route Changes

Part of Tim's current healing involves his peripheral eyesight, which unfortunately has impacted his ability to drive a car. Because of this, we are altering our delivery route to allow us to deliver meals in a timely fashion.

For the first few weeks of meal delivery, our route will include all of Empire and a limited drop-off in Glen Arbor. Drop-offs in Glen Arbor will consist of the M-22 corridor between Empire and downtown Glen Arbor, as well as M-109. We will not deliver outside of this region during February, but we plan to offer additional pickup locations in the coming weeks. Stay tuned! 

If you are interested in receiving a meal but we do not deliver to you currently, please send us an email and let us know that you are interested in a pickup location. With enough interest, we'll begin offering these in March.

As always, thank you!

We have said it countless times, but thank you for all of your love and support over the past months. It has been exhausting to navigate the recovery process, but having a community encouraging us has made all the difference. Throughout the last few months, our desire to return to the kitchen and our weekly meal deliveries has clarified more than ever that we are doing what we are meant to do. 

We look forward to once again providing you with healthy, locally-sourced meals to supplement your life. Whether our meals offer assistance in a busy schedule or simply add some flavor to your week, we are so excited to return our food to its spot on your table. 

Have any questions for us? Feel free to send us an email! 

Eat fresh, eat local, eat delicious. And let Mel&Fell do the cooking. 

Our Catering Services

Over the past year, our business has expanded in many ways, with many of our clients finding us because of our meal subscription service. This service offers individuals the opportunity to enjoy healthy, home-cooked meals that they didn't have to cook or leave the house for.

Our services extend beyond this, however, and we offer a wide variety of catering options to fit every type of celebration. Whether looking for an allergy-friendly menu for a small dinner party or full-service wedding catering, we are pleased to offer it all!

It's all about making it personal

We approach a catering gig as we would a meal for one of our friends. We know that everyone loves food and has a connection to it, and it is our goal to tie that connection into the planning of your special celebration. Rather than showing up with a standard menu, we work with you to offer unique, flavorful meals that you and your guests will enjoy.

Our process

While we offer preset menus to give you an idea of what we offer, we like to chat back and forth to create a personalized menu for you. We typically do this via email. If there is an honored guest, we like to start with their favorite meals to begin planning your menu. We offer creative solutions to food allergies and dietary restrictions, making sure that every guest is taken care of.

Our niche

While we have catered events up to 100 guests or with as few as 8 guests, our favorite meals to share are with 30-40 guests. We love combining different textures, flavors, and styles to create a meal experience that is truly unique. We work with northern Michigan farmers to fill our menus with local produce when we can, and love to present meals made up of multiple courses.

Interested in talking about the menu for your next event? Contact us at melandfellg@gmail.com and let's get the conversation started!

Meal Subscription: Frequently Asked Questions

Meal Subscription FAQs

Here are a few answers to some of the most frequent questions we hear about our meal subscription service. Have a question that we haven’t addressed? Send us an email! 

How do I get this week’s menu? Our menus are emailed to our mailing list on Fridays for delivery the following Wednesday. You can also view the current menu here.

What payments do you accept? Cash, check made out to ‘Mel and Fell’, or using the app Venmo

What time is the food delivered?  Delivery is typically between 2-5 pm on Wednesdays. 

What if we are not home during the delivery time? We have a couple of ideas! Set out a cooler with ice or leave the garage unlocked if you have a fridge there. If that doesn’t work for you, let us know when you order and we can brainstorm some other options. 

What if I have a food allergy or dietary restriction? Please let us know if you have any food allergies or dietary restrictions. We will do our best to accommodate and prepare foods in a manner to prevent cross-contamination. 

How do I order? Simply reply to the menu email with your selections for the week, or contact us directly at melandfellg@gmail.com. Orders must be placed by Sunday the week of delivery.

What to expect from your meal delivery

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Mother's Day Gift Ideas

Locally sourced gifts & meals to celebrate the northern Michigan moms in your life.

Mother's Day is quickly approaching, and this year is going to look different from years past. Our families won't be visiting us from downstate, our favorite restaurants will be closed for Mother's Day brunch. While it is easy to focus on all the disappointments of the current situation, we hope to offer some joy in the midst of it!

We have already loved being the bearers of good food and flower surprises to our neighbors, delivering gifts from friends and family who live out of the area. Why not extend the gift-giving spirit as a way to celebrate moms?

We have teamed up with some fantastic local artisans to create a selection of gift offerings to be delivered with our Mother's Day menu. If you live out of the area but your mom, or a mom you'd like to celebrate, lives in northern Michigan, let us help you shower them with love! Mother's Day food purchases will include a $5 discount if this is your first order.

To order a gift, send us an email at melandfellg (at) gmail.com, or sign up for the newsletter on our website. We will then send you the Mother's Day menu, including the pricing for locally sourced gifts. Food & gift items will be delivered on Saturday, May 9. You'll need to have the gift recipient's address and ensure they'll be home (or have a cooler or refrigerator accessible to us for food drop-off). Our delivery area is within a fifteen-mile radius of Empire.

The Mother's Day menu will feature Melanie's amazing Earl Grey Scones, quiche, and more! You can place an order just to receive a meal, or you can add any of the offered gift items to your delivery. The menu will include an option to add-on a wine pairing from Amoritas Vineyard, based in Lake Leelanau.

We are partnering with Grocer's Daughter Chocolates to provide gift boxes and chocolate bars as sweet additions to your delivery. We have sourced beautiful candle collections from In the Stars Candles, and cards from Wander Gather in Cedar. Spring bouquets will be available from our friend Michelle of Leelanau Specialty Cut Flowers.

Are you a local mom who would love to receive the meal delivery as a gift? Send us an email with the email or phone number of someone you love and we can plant some ideas in their head by sharing our Mother's Day menu. Or, simply forward the email onto someone who may need an idea of what to gift you this Mother's Day. Interested in treating yourself to the goods? We highly support that decision.

To all of the moms and mother-figures out there, we celebrate all that you do! We can't wait to bring you some tasty treats on behalf of those who are grateful to you.

Citrus Roasted Vegetable Salad

We love the availability of different citrus during the winter months. Blood oranges offer a stunning color to dishes. We have found Cara Cara oranges, tangerines, Clementine’s are everyone’s favorite, and even Meyer lemons can easily be found and would add a fresh tang to this dressing.

Roasting vegetables is a wonderful way to caramelize them and enhance their sweetness and flavor. Mel is a self-proclaimed #1 fan of carrots. So they were absolutely going to be added to this salad. Cauliflower is readily available and stored this time of year and is really delicious when roasted.

Pumpkin seeds are an excellent source of protein for vegetarians and provide a great crunch to this salad.

We served a big platter of this for Mel’s birthday dinner this year. While the main course was a favorite stuffed pasta shells, this hearty salad was a huge hit. Cooked French lentils would be a delicious addition and would add more substance and protein. We wrote in an earlier blog about cooking more vegetarian dishes these days. Beans and lentils are our go to’s to bulk up any dish.

We certainly don’t feel like we missed out on anything with this salad and had happy full bellies.

Citrus and Roasted Vegetable Salad Recipe

Serves: 6 Time: 30-45 minutes

Set oven to 375 degrees

Salad Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets

3 large carrots, peeled and large cut

2 Tb olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 blood oranges, segmented

2 navel oranges, segmented

5 ounce container mixed greens (any greens you like will work here)

½ cup Pumpkin seeds

Dressing ingredients:

½ cup Maple syrup

1 Garlic clove, minced

1/3 cup Dijon mustard

1 cup Olive oil/vegetable oil

Juice of 2 oranges

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Place carrots and cauliflower on a sheet tray, toss with 2 Tb olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Roast in oven, stirring or turning vegetables a couple times for 20 minutes or until caramelized and slightly tender.

When 5 minutes remain, toast pumpkin seeds in the oven on a sheet tray, giving a shake at least once.

In a blender combine mustard, maple syrup, garlic, and citrus juices. Drizzle in oil until emulsified, adding salt and pepper to taste. Add water to thin out, if necessary.

In a large mixing bowl, toss the greens, adding dressing to the sides of the bowl, to incorporate evenly.

Start assembling the salad on a platter or individual dishes. Greens on the bottom, layer on the roasted vegetables, citrus segments and pumpkin seeds. Drizzle more dressing on top and a few cracks of black pepper.

Seed obsessed

Hello my name is Melanie and I have something to fess up, I am a seedaholic.

If there is a seed pod perfectly dried, full of seed, ready for the picking, I just cannot help myself.

I pop it off and most often stick it in my pocket, or my glove compartment. Hopefully I find an envelope so I can write down what it is while I still remember. I have countless envelopes labeled with what I believe the plant is and where/who’s garden I plucked it from. The favorites in my collection are the ones that my partner in crime my mother in law Pat, or I have no clue what the plant is. These packages are labeled ‘tall yellow flower from Pat’. Many treasures have come from the Omena U-pick flower farm like Tithonia, Mexican Sunflower; Traverse City community garden, is where dill, fennel and whole sunflower heads full of seed have been found. No garden is safe from me, most of my neighbors gardens, or walks in the woods have all added to my collection. Moonflower from Cheryl’s, woodland Columbine from the Treat farm trail, to name a few.

I have even been known to make mental notes to return in a week or more after seeing a brilliant colored poppy at the Iris farm on M72.

Poppy!

I love the sound of a ripe poppy seed head, rattling like a maraca when the seeds are ready.

Sunflowers are one of the easiest, I pick a few to save then I attach the whole head to my shepherds hook. We then watch birds and chipmunks harvest the richly nutrient seeds.

I’ll usually let one lettuce, parsley or basil plants go to seed in my garden, just to see if I can grow it next year.

Maybe what’s at the core of this is that I’m cheap. Let’s just say thrifty. Did you notice how many envelopes, I re-purposed?

It is extremely rewarding though to grow something from a seed. To see it through its life cycle. To see that sunflower bloom, eat the lettuce or tomato that you grew.

I’m ready for the growing season to begin, are you?

Happy garden planning, Mel

Middle Eastern Butternut Squash dip

This recipe is inspired by the Turkish muhammarri dip, traditionally made with roasted peppers.

We love the fragrant spices of this region, adding flavor and heat to familiar ingredients.

We used butternut squash, basically because it was available and it’s in season. We originally made this for a holiday party in December, when we have vegan and vegetarian friends coming and wanted to make something delicious they could enjoy. Too often, they are left with salad or bread as an afterthought or condiment sandwich. The walnuts in this dip provide protein and taking the time to toast them adds depth of flavor. We served this with crostini, crudites, and crackers. It’s best warm but gets tastier over the next few days.

We really like how the spices enhance the natural sweetness of the squash. By now in winter we have been eating butternut, acorn and delicata squashes for months. As a soup, roasted on salad and filled with various grains. We needed to reinvent it.

Two of the spices in this dish, we just can not get enough of lately. Za’atar which is a middle eastern spice blend of sesame, woody herbs and sumac. Sumac itself is a dried berry with citrus-like flavor and brilliant red color that you’ll want to top off the dip with more.

In the last few years, we have experimented with some different food trends. Tim felt it was important as a chef to understand what people are eating and why. Cauliflower pizza crust or “rice” is totally delicious. We have made several different veggie burgers, some with lentils, some with beans or nuts as their base. Since moving to Empire last year we have been cooking more for vegetarian friends. It has provided an unknown challenge as a chef and a cook, making interesting food, without meat. It’s also important to make sure we get balanced nutrition and protein from beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds, not from just cheese. Believe us, we have never met a cheese we didn’t like.

Most of us can say that after eating a cheesy pizza loaded with pepperoni and or a burger and fries that you feel ready for a nap, have heartburn or indigestion. Isn’t getting older just the best? Sometimes when the busy season is upon us we both can be working 10 or more hour shifts. We joke that if they made people food in a can we would eat better than our cat for once. Sometimes you are just so hungry you can’t think and just need sustenance. Luna and Clif bars are life savers but that gets boring pretty fast. When we eat a meal prepared ahead of time when we have our head together, we are fueled for the day, we are not weighed down by it and we’re happy with the choices we’ve made.

We look forward to sharing some of our favorite recipes for healthy filling meals. We hope you enjoy our first installment

Yield: 4 cups Time:1 hour 10 minutes (30 minutes active)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

1 1b butternut squash, cut in half lengthwise, seeds removed

8 ounces walnut pieces

1 ½ tsp Za’atar

1 tsp sumac, plus more for garnish

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

2 Tb olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

¼ cup Fustini’s pomegranate balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Roast butternut squash, skin on in a roasting pan, cut side down. Add a splash of water to the pan, cover with foil. You want the squash to soften to be easily puree, not caramelize.

With 10 minutes of cooking time left, toast the walnuts on a sheet pan in the oven. Give the pan a shake or stir once.

Remove the squash when knife tender, a knife should effortlessly pierce through. Allow squash to cool slightly. Remove nuts when slightly brown and fragrant, allow to cool on the pan a moment.

In a food processor pulse the walnuts until roughly chopped, remove half the nuts, reserve for garnish. Continuing to puree walnuts, add squash and olive oil, pureed till combined and smooth. Add all spices through lemon juice to the processor and mix. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with reserved nuts, sumac and the balsamic vinegar on top.

Empire Asparagus Festival!

Mel&Fell made a great appearance this year at the Empire Asparagus Festival with their very own vegan asparagus pho. 

Mel's cucumber-gimlet gets featured on The Chew!

https://abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/cucumber-gimlet