Friday: Food, Flowers, and a Good Book

 

Spring, for me, brings a renewed interest in cooking. I crave fresher, lighter meals with lots of fresh vegetables. Asparagus is one I've learned to appreciate. It's not a dish that we had when I was a child, yet alongside the road where I walked on my way to school, an asparagus field flourished and many stalks escaped outside of the fence and were free for the picking. Any asparagus we did eat was usually canned and I found the flavour strong and the texture mushy. 

These days I usually roast asparagus coated with olive oil and sprinkled with coarse salt. Patricia Wells, in her cookbook, Vegetable Harvest, suggests braising it with rosemary and bay leaves, then letting it brown just a bit. I did that recently and was very pleased. 

Roasted carrots with cumin, and roasted broccoli are so good with toasted almonds, a squeeze of lemon juice and some lemon zest on top. Underneath the vegetables is a thin layer of Greek yogurt. No other dressing needed. At room temperature or cold I could make a meal out of this dish. 

Rhubarb is flourishing in my garden. I made a pan of Rhubarb Almond Crumble Squares that tasted delicious. The recipe is found here on the Canadian Living site. Tomorrow I plan to make a Rhubarb Cream Cheese Pie. Do you enjoy rhubarb? What's your favourite way to prepare it? We enjoy it stewed with some yogurt, as well. Simple and delicious.

I finished this book and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It's the story of Mary, the middle sister of those five Bennet girls, told very much in the manner of Jane Austen, but in a more modern style. I thought the author did a wonderful job of evoking Austen's writing without imitating it. 

Beautiful Mountain Cornflower (centaurea montana) is blooming just now. The green foliage is so pretty and I just love the blue and pink flowers. It self seeds and comes up throughout my garden, but is easy to pull up if not wanted. 

We had rain last night and when I went out this morning such freshness filled the air. Birds sang and the last raindrops clung to leaves and flowers. White strawberry blooms show good promise of berries in a few weeks. I netted the plants against the invasion of birds and bunnies. Lilacs are opening. I have a vaseful on the dining room table and their sweet scent floats on the air as I walk by. 

This morning I baked Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies from an old recipe, then went out into the garden to work for a bit. I'm moving a bit slowly today as I received my first C19 vaccination yesterday. A sore arm, body aches, and a headache convinced me that I should just take it easy for a bit after lunch. I watched Escape to the Country, edited some photos, and took a wee nap. By tomorrow I expect I will feel just fine. 

Happy Weekend, my friends.