What did YOU have for dinner?

My friend, Mariann, texted me this afternoon:  "Im bored." (And no, she didn't use an apostrophe.  I seriously question our friendship sometimes.)  "Tell me something funny/interesting."

My response:  "I'm making fiddlehead ferns for dinner tonight."  I love it when I actually have something fun/interesting to respond with.

Here's the background:  A few months ago, Nathan was reading one of the cooking magazines that he loves.  There was an article about fiddlehead ferns.  He immediately went into I've Got To Try That mode (which, for those of you who know him, is not at all surprising), begging his receptionist, Trista, to see if she could figure out how to buy them.

Nathan soon forgot all about it, but sweet Trista didn't.  She searched and searched the internet, only to discover that fiddlehead ferns are very seasonal and only available in the spring.  So when spring came, she got back online, found a company on the east coast that sells them, and ordered some for Nathan.  (Seriously, how lucky are we to have Trista?!?  She's the best!)  They arrived today.  But they had to be eaten within two days or they would go bad.  Sooooo . . .

Nathan brought them home on his lunch hour and started cleaning them.  I did some google research and discovered fiddlehead ferns can be toxic if they are not well-cleaned and fully cooked.  

The cleaning took forever.  They come with a bunch of tiny leaves all around this spirally head, and we had to very carefully unroll it, clean out any gunk, and try not to break it in pieces, then roll it back up.

At the end, I had a bowl of beautiful fiddleheads.  I soaked/drained/soaked/drained/soaked for about an hour.  Then I boiled them for about 20 mins to kill off any potential toxins.  (Sound appetizing yet?)

Once they were boiled & softened, we sautéed them.  We tried two different recipes.

The fiddleheads in the blue bowl were sautéed with leeks in butter, then sprinkled with lemon juice & parmesan.  The ones in the red bowl were sautéed with leeks in bacon grease, with bacon bits.
They were both YUMMY!

Here's our awesome Trista!  She's such a fun friend.  What a great surprise dinner!