This is going to essentially be a photo entry.  Our yard is green and suddenly full of sweet violets and flowering bittercress. 

I've been teaching the girls to eat flowers out of the yard.  It's been fun, and educational... and it keeps some of the bittercress from going to seed. 



These are some photos from the yard, and here's what I've been doing with the plants I've been harvesting:

In our house, we eat leftovers.  We repurpose things for new meals later in the week, we usually have leftovers for lunch, and as you can probably guess, I can't stand wasting anything.

Earlier this week I harvested Garlic Mustard and made Pesto and then a little later I made Easter egg dye out of beets.  And so, sitting in my refridgerator, next to the leftover hardboiled Easter eggs and ham I had a bowl full of vinegar-y chopped up beets, and a ziploc bag full of Garlic Mustard roots.


I, for one, LOVE pickles.   I like to eat them by themselves, or on seasonal green salads and they're really easy to make.

So, while the kids were out of the house today, I put together this "project in wide-mouthed pint jars".  And I can't wait to see how they turn out in a couple of days!



Boil together the Seasalt, vinegar, water, and sugar.  Make sure the ingredients are completely dissolved.  Pour the brine over the veggies in the jars.  Cap tightly and store in the refridgerator.  They should be ready to try in 2-3 days. 

Enjoy!

Here are the things I know about Garlic Mustard.  1)  It's prolific (ok fine, invasive to the point of being an environmental problem) 2) It's delicious and garlic-y in the spring and becomes more pungent (think horseradish) as the season goes on 3) the entire plant is edible and the roots can be used as a substitute for horseradish 4) it's one of the first plants to green up in the springtime around here and it has pretty (edible) flowers later on in the season.


We went for a walk the other day.  Things are still pretty dormant, but the Onion Grass  (wild chives) and Garlic Mustard are growing like mad.  I brought my eldest daughter to help me harvest.  I pulled the Garlic Mustard (root and all) and she picked me a bunch of Onion Grass. 

There was quite a bit... so I made a recipe that used quite a bit.

First I washed and seperated everything.  Then I cut the roots off of the Garlic Mustard, leaving the rosettes intact.


I pickled the roots later in the week.

The leaves, I turned into pesto along with some of the Onion Grass and a few other ingredients that I had on hand... and it turned out lovely!

• 3 cups garlic mustard greens, chopped and packed.
• 6 ounces sunflower seeds (or pinenuts or walnuts)
• 4 tablespoons fresh Onion Grass (or chives), chopped
• 6 ounces virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• add water to desired consistency

If you enjoy the pungent flavor of fresh garlic, simply toss all of the ingredients into a blender and thoroughly blend until you reach your desired consistency.  For a less pungent flavor (for kids, and people like myself) , first saute your garlic mustard greens and onion grass in 2 additional tbsp of olive oil.  Salt to taste, and then add to blender with the rest of the ingredients.








Enjoy!  Over pasta, on potatoes, on veggies, mixed into salad dressing, on eggs...  and freezes well too!

With Easter rapidly approaching, and 2 little kids at home who can't wait to have an Easter Egg hunt tomorrow morning, I absolutely had to dye some eggs.  We just did a dozen this year, but we dyed them the natural way because I really want to eat them, not just look at them.  And, quite frankly, those dye pellets they sell in the store scare me more than a little  bit...

We get our eggs from our butcher.  We usually get a dozen or two gorgeous brown jumbo-sized ones (free-range, collected by the guys that work at the butcher shop).  Today I bought 1 dozen of my usual brown beauties, and 1 dozen white eggs (still local, but from about 1 hour down the road) for dying.  I usually prepare my eggs as a meal by themselves.  No meat needed...  which is how I justify including them in out weekly food budget.

The last few days have had our little family buzzing with outdoor activity. The birds were singing, the flowers were starting to bloom, and the bugs were out in force. We spent most of our time outdoors, and even met our new neighbors.  But then, BANG!  Today hit and the snow is flying again. 

Here's a hearty soup to keep us all warm (eventhough my eldest daughter is wearing shorts over her leggings today):

SPRING'S HERE!    Or, at least, it's above freezing and the ice is out of the pond. While it isn't quite grilling weather yet (BARELY above freezing), I'm still wanting dinners to be a little lighter.  Less sauce, less fat, more flavor and color and texture.

One of my family's favorites is pasta with peas.  We usually make it with a lot of garlic and shrimp and the kids love the little pieces that they can pick out one at a time to eat.