Weekend Delights: Local Food and Craft Fairs

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It was a great to finally have a weekend off with The Husband. We decided to kick things off Saturday with breakfast at The Blackbird. We haven’t been there since a fire destroyed their original location and we weren’t disappointed.

The Husband savored the Earl Gray Tea Forté from Tea Source:

tea time

While I took in the decor:
friends plaque

My breakfast deserves center stage: The Tofu Scramble. I’m glad that I took our server’s advice (especially the addition of red pepper), it was SO GOOD:

tofu scramber
Marinated tofu, broccoli, spinach, hash browns, toast & apricot preserves (vegetarian)

The Husband had the Sweet Potato Biscuits & Gravy with a side of eggs. He had been apprehensive about the biscuits being sweet potato, but his eyes lit up when he took his first bite. He said the sweetness of the biscuit was the perfect combination with the saltiness of the sausage gravy:

bisquits and gravy
The Husband described his breakfast as “a really clever twist on a classic.”

On the way home, we stopped at the Nokomis Community Center for the Nokomis Urban Craft Fair. This is the third time I’ve been, the fifth year that they’ve held it. I love craft fairs, it’s so much fun to see the items people make:

urban craft sale
More than 30 local vendors were selling their wares.

We decided to have a date night (finally for two!) that night and The Husband took me to Blacksheep Pizza, he has been dying to introduce me to “The Sicilian.” The Sicilian is a 16″ square pizza topped with mozzarella, sauce and extra virgin olive oil. They bake all of them first thing in the morning before the oven is too hot, so Sicilians are first come first serve. Fortunately, we got there in time to claim the last half of Sicilian that they had left:

the sicilian pizza
The mighty Sicilian.

The Spinach Blue Cheese Salad was really good too, and I was surprised to really like the dressing. Our server told us that it is Blacksheep’s take on Ranch – made with buttermilk. I’m not a dressing fan at all (yes, I feel it is important to stress that point) but I tell you, I wanted the recipe for this stuff:

salad
We have the perfect marriage. The Husband eats the big blobs of blue cheese and I eat the big blobs of tomatoes.

The Sicilian makes me think of an awesome cheese bread with fresh tomato on top:
pizza-salad

Sunday was less interesting but at least we have a clean house now. I did indulge in some kitchen time and tried a new vegetarian lasagna recipe.* It came together very quick and was a hit, even with The Mom!

lasagna dinner
My “Meals on Wheels” delivery for The Mom. Who wouldn’t feel better with a dinner like this?

And my most important takeaway from the weekend, thanks to The Blackbird Café:
inspirational plaque

* A few notes. I only used half the sauce that the recipe called for, a “Pizzeria” cheese blend, a vegetable peeler on the zucchini and cut the mushrooms very thin – because I’m not a huge fan of the fungus.

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By Heidi Van Heel
Heidi Van Heel

Heidi Van Heel

Writer, freelancer, and believer in magic living in Minneapolis. In my free time, I love reading, exploring the great outdoors, and experimenting in the kitchen.

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