Spring into Flavors

We’ve done it! We’ve tipped our pints to St. Paddy’s Day, suffered through the Ides of March and landed squarely into Spring. Camille has once again developed a severe case of Spring fever, which drives her to sit at the back door and meow endlessly to go out and sit in the garden - the unplanted garden mind you. 

Perhaps she is psychic and senses the bounty that will come later this year or perhaps she just likes sitting in the dirt. Either way in her current aged state she seems happiest there and even though I get annoyed I find it hard to deny her this pleasure. 

I spent last weekend visiting my Dad and his wife in Fargo, we had a nice visit and I got caught up on the latest happenings and events. On my way home I stopped at a little cheese shop and purchased a wine soaked goat cheese, which I’ve been sampling since I got home - it is delicious. I even made myself a small sandwich on an earthy piece of stout bread, with a dab of merlot mustard (from the mustard museum in Madison, WI) and the cheese - it was heaven - actually I’ve been thinking another one of those for dessert would be perfect.

Our crisper was bare when I returned (why is it husbands cannot look in the refrigerator to see what you need?) so I headed off to the grocery store. I purchased onions, carrots, spinach, cucumbers, green beans, zucchini, broccoli and cauliflower, much of which found it’s way into our salad bowl. I enlisted Dan Dan the sauté man to cook up some mushrooms, onions and Quorn in olive oil and a wee bit of garlic and we put that on top of a quinoa pilaf (kale, peppers, chickpeas, salt and pepper). 

If you’ve never tried or heard of Quorn it’s a fungus based mycoprotein, which was popular  in the UK for more than a decade before it made its way to the US. It has the consistency of chicken (kind of) and easily absorbs the flavors it is exposed to (i.e garlic, ginger, etc.). We don’t eat a lot of it but it is a nice change of pace. 

We added a spinach salad to the mix that included peppers, cucumbers, celery, tomatoes, olives, and blueberries. I topped it with a pomegranate vinaigrette, which was a nice change from my standard balsamic vinaigrette and truth be told there were no leftovers.

I’ve started my squash seeds and am looking forward to tending garden 2017. Each year I try an experiment or two - this year will be Japanese eggplant and fava beans - wish me luck!