Fruit of My Labor

While today's lunch was a delightful one, it did involve deseeding individual grapes and was, therefore, rather tedious in it's preparation. I'll be honest - it tried my patience at first, but I had a freshly charged ipod, some time on my hands, and a big bowl of Concords and Niagaras. Armed with a super sharp paring knife, I forged ahead. It became quite therapeutic, actually, focusing on one tiny task with such diligence. After each grape was carefully sliced, I coaxed the seeds out of the fruit using the tip of the knife... a tricky maneuver, indeed, but the payoff was well worth the effort. I roasted the grapes with leeks, olive oil, and salt and served them on a bed of quinoa, topped with crumbles of goat cheese. Obviously, it would have been easier to use seedless grapes, but the result would have lacked the deep, rich flavor. In this case, the juice was definitely worth the squeeze.