vegetables – Peaceful Reader

Growing memories

{Back door of my grandmother’s home : circa 1999}

I come from a long line of gardeners. My grandmother had an amazing green thumb and had a large square garden in her backyard and grew a variety of plants in and around the house. I remember clearly the Clematis that climbed a trellis right outside her backdoor so as you walked out you were greeted with an airy wall of delicate purple flowers and lovey green leaves. She had a huge hill of rhubarb growing that we would suck on after dipping the end in a cup of sugar she would provide. I remember eating garden produce like sugar snap peas and raspberries right out of our hands as we picked. She didn’t believe in spraying and loved that her garden was clean of chemicals. Oh and the ground cherries-so delicious to pop right out of their paper-like shells and eat immediately except if we were saving up for a pie. Rhubarb-ground cherry pie is still my favorite even though I haven’t had it for years.

{My new garden box with lettuce varieties}

My husband is blessed with a green thumb as well. I can grow things but he has like magical powers and we are amazed at his ability to resurrect plants that look like they are ready for the compost pile. Every year we plant a variety of flowers and vegetables around the house. We don’t have a set spot for either but intermix them together. This year we planted kale, sugar snap peas, cauliflower, broccoli, basil, cilantro, butternut squash, and cucumbers. Plus we watched a master gardener class with Ron Finley and we are rooting and will plant a sweet potato bc he made it look so easy. And then we have a whole variety of flower pots and window boxes that we filled in yesterday. My grandmother loved geraniums and this year I have two varieties planted in pots to remind me of her all summer long. I don’t have an actual photograph of her smiling while gardening but in my mind I have many snapshots.

With our extra amount of together we stumbled upon an Epic Gardening video with Kevin and we learned a lot about ginger and have a large root planted in a shallow pot. Both the sweet potato and ginger pot may need to live inside our house in order to stay warmer if we have an unusually chill fall season. Today we celebrate old memories and new ones we are making together. We will always look back on the 2020 spring/summer pandemic with interesting memories of gardening, good food, good books, extra streaming time, and planting some new adventures. Peace.

Weekly Recipes 16; October

A friend at school gave me a huge grocery bag full of swiss chard and I’ve had fun experimenting with it. I’ve made it only a small handful of times, mostly just wilted in a pan with lemon squeezed. It was less than exciting. But I was very willing to try again. In handing over the swiss chard Kristin gushed about a swiss chard and potato recipe she made and so that very next weekend I googled it and put it together. I found this one from the NYT; Potato and swiss chard gratin.

Mind you it was not something Groovy Girl would stick her spoon into but my husband and I loved the creamy change of pace. After that recipe I still had half a bag of chard but I had other things to cook and forgot about it. I expected to open the bag a few days later, maybe a week, and find wilted, grossness but nope it was still hanging in there. Book club was just around the corner and I felt like a crisp salad. Googling brought this swiss chard recipe from Alexandra’s Kitchen and it was so lemony and delicious. A few days later I was actually craving the crispness of the salad again. So I guess I’ll look forward to the next time I find swiss chard. I’m a fan now.

This weekend we had another family over to hang out around our fire pit. The days are getting nippier and soon it will be too cold. Hopefully this wasn’t our last weekend out there but if it is we certainly had fun. I had some very good brats in my freezer from a local locker that I simmered in two cans of beer and then roasted over the crackling fire.

My friends Marek and Erin recently shared a jar of homemade sauerkraut and we had lots of toppings; spicy mustards, diced red onion, Amy’s ketchup, TJ’s wasabi mayonnaise, feta cheese. We had our salsa and blue chips and a garbanzo bean recipe from BudgetByte’s that I’ve wanted to try. I served the chickpeas over a bed of arugula from last week’s farmers market run. I am a huge fan of garbanzos and I thought this one turned out great; interesting spicy and sweet flavors mixed together. Of course around the campfire we roasted some marshmallows and made s’mores for dessert.

Swiss Chard Salad
Cumin Lime Chickpeas

Even though it’s October I haven’t made one thing with pumpkin in it. I like to look at pumpkins-the color is so vibrant-but I’m not a pumpkin pie fan. I should maybe try a pumpkin soup. On occasion I like a pumpkin spiced latte or chai. Maybe in the next week I can get locate a few more Fall flavors.

Swiss Chard Jamboree!

{source}

I have a huge bunch of swiss chard thanks to my mom. What do you do with swiss chard? That’s what I asked. I google and checked Pinterest for suggestions. I found bunches of recipe to help me out. One discovery was that I could use the brightly colored stems as well. I made this egg dish and it was delicious (Groovy Girl would not eat it though) but husband and I loved it. I could have added other veggies as well and I like that flexibility.

{From Martha’s website}

Swiss Chard Frittata (Martha Stewart)

1 large egg
10 large egg whites
1/3 cup fresh part-skim ricotta, pressed through a fine sieve
1/2 tsp course sea salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
2 leaves of swiss chard, thin slices of stems and leaves
1/2 large onion, sliced thinly

Preheat oven to 375*. Whisk together egg, whites, ricotta, 1 tsp of salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large oven proof 10-inch skillet over medium high heat. Add swiss chard stalks and onion and cook until onion is tender. Add swiss chard leaves and cook about 2 minutes until leaves are soft. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 tsp of salt. Add egg mixture and stir once or twice to disperse vegetables evenly. Place skillet in oven and bake until eggs are set about 13 minutes. Serve immediately.

Okay, I choose not to run to the grocery store so I did a little substituting. I didn’t do the egg white ratio-I used our delicious farm brown eggs with glee. I did not happen to have ricotta so I used sour cream-close enough, right? Also I did not have an onion (we were just back from vacation) but I did have a red pepper which I used and it added nice matching color with the red stems of swiss chard. Done. I could make it again correctly-I would like to see how the ricotta cheese would taste but no big deal.

Other swiss chard recipes to try:

Swiss Chard pesto from Jeannette’s Healthy living blog
Swiss Chard Vegan rolls from Meet the Shannon’s blog (I am making these this week!)
Gemelli with sausage, swiss chard, and pine nuts from Martha (again)
and a great demonstration from Cooking Light on how to prep swiss chard.

Also I discovered this little doozy of a summer cocktail at Nutmeg Nanny and I love it as much as my rhubarb-basil treat. Yum! Perfect for sipping on the patio at oh, about 5 pm. Lemons and cucumbers are easy ingredients.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Take a look over there and see many other food-related posts.

Weekend Cooking; Kale, Oh so much Kale

{source}

Last week when I had dinner with my mother we did another vegetable exchange. She’d understood from my last post that I wanted more rhubarb. I don’t know what gave her that idea?? Luckily she can read so she transferred over a large bag of rhubarb as well as a garbage-sized bag of kale, and smaller bags of spinach, basil, and several dozen eggs! It is worth the 40 minute drive I tell you.

Kale is very high in beta carotene, Vitamin K, Vitamin C and calcium. A lot like spinach even though it is closer to the cabbage family. I love both of these green leafy plants but can only have them in small doses. The Vitamin K interacts with the blood thinner I am required to take forever. Because I had 4 large bundles (and I gave two away to my friend Patty for juicing purposes) I had to find some way to preserve mine.

Did you know you can freeze kale? Yes, yes you can. How perfect to freeze medium-sized bags of these and then whip them out in the middle of winter to create a yummy soup or a smoothie. Whatever your heart desires! I froze two bundles and made pesto out of the other two. Kale and I are friends again. I’m going to try the same with spinach.

Julie A. Martens shares her tips on freezing kale in this helpful HGTV article. She sounds very smart and garden-happy. I found this kale pesto recipe here at Bon Appetite. It was easy to through together and tasted good. I made two batches and we ate one last night with gluten-free pasta and the rest I’m going to use for a book club recipe. Book club meets at my house on Monday. I should be cleaning ALL weekend long to get my house in shape but I’m not. I’m racing off to Indiana to help my friend Barb out at her bakery for Strawberry Madness.

Post Note: I just finished reading Ashfall by Mike Mullins (good not fantastic) which kale plays a part in so if you want to survive a terrible disaster in the future learn to eat your kale or better yet plant some in your backyard.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads weekend cooking meme. Click her link to find many other food-related posts.

Rhubarb, glorious rhubarb

{my cover}

My mom stocked me up with an armful of rhubarb. I can’t seem to get a plant to grow in my yard which is unfortunate because I love the stuff. Did you know it is a vegetable by the way? Yep.

Yesterday I washed and chopped up about 6 cups of the reddish stalks and made 3 containers of rhubarb sauce and used the last 2 cups to make a rhubarb ice tea. I then used the iced tea to create a delicious cocktail after googling basil and rhubarb together.

Both the tea recipe and the sauce recipe are pulled from a lovely little book I pulled from a shelf in a gas station and while I don’t usually buy my books from such convenience stores this one was too good to pass up. The Joy of Rhubarb; the versatile summer delight by Theresa Millang (Adventure Publishing) is packed full of wonderful recipes.

{New and improved cover}

Rhubarb Sauce

(A versatile
sauce…good over ice cream or chicken)

1 1/2 cups
granulated sugar

1 T water

1 T finely
shredded orange peel

6 cups fresh
rhubarb slices 1/4-in thick

1 tsp pure
vanilla extract

Mix sugar, water
and orange peel in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add rhubarb and
stir. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring often, until rhubarb is
tender and mixture is thickened, about 8 minutes. Stir in vanilla.
Cool. Spoon into glass jars; cover and refrigerate for no more than
1 week, or place in plastic containers and freeze.

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I used a mixture of stevia and organic sugar as I’m experimenting with stevia. I let mine simmer for more than 8 minutes as I want it to be mush. I generally use mine as a jam but since I’m trying to be more gluten-free I plan to stir a teaspoonful into my greek yogurt for breakfast. I saved one container out to use and stashed the other two in the freezer to use later. I tried a few spoonfuls and the stevia held up just fine.

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Rhubarb Ice Tea

For flavor variation, add a
cinnamon stick when cooking, and stir in fresh lemon juice when serving.

8 stalks rhubarb, cut into 3-inch
pieces

8 cups water

1/3 cup sugar

Bring rhubarb and water to a boil
in a large saucepan. Reduce heat; simmer
1 hour. Strain; discard the pulp. Stir sugar into the hot liquid until
dissolved. Cool. Serve over ice. Garnish with mint, Lavender sprigs, or lemon
slices. Makes 6 servings.

Again I used stevia and the flavor was great. I poured it over ice and made this rhubarb basil cocktail from Elizabeth at The Kitchn. It was refreshing and perfect for a hot summer day. I took several photos of my rhubarb cooking but have to resort to using her beautiful picture as my husband left the house with our camera this morning. Probably for the best as my picture couldn’t do it justice. Yum!

{The Kitchn}

(Note to mom: I need more rhubarb)

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to find many other food-related posts.

Oscars and Food.

As we get ready to watch the Oscars I wanted to share this interesting animated Short nominee. We’ve had a busy weekend with lots of cooking and fun. Friday night Groovy Girl had a friend sleep over and I cooked a simple pasta dish with red sauce-you just never know what other people’s children are going to eat so this was an easy choice. I took a chance though and whipped up these broccoli bites I found on Maria Rodale’s website. They were a huge hit and it made a full pan so we had enough for two dinners. Now I’d like to change the veggie and see if still entices them in.

{Broccoli Cheese Puffs}

For a sleep over treat we made snow ice cream since we had plenty of fresh snow Thursday and Friday and been graced with a snow day on Friday. The girls went out and scooped up two big bowls of fresh powder and we added sweet and condensed milk (half a can), some vanilla, and we stirred in a little salted caramel sauce for fun. The flavor was good but it had huge ice chunks that we couldn’t stir out. I think the best part was in the making!

We do watch the Oscars at our house even though the are an example of over-indulgence (not peaceful or green) but my husband loves the movies as he is an actor and a director. We’ve watched almost all of the Best Picture nominees including my favorites: Beast of the Southern Wild and Silver Lining Playbook. I also loved Ben Afleck’s Argo. Today we watched Moonrise Kingdom which was quirky and should have been nominated for best cinematography. Denzel Washington and Jennifer Laurence are my choices for individual awards. Do you watch the Oscars? What movies are you rooting for?

Weekend Cooking; Salsa Olympics

Sun-kissed girl and tomatoes

We spent another weekend up at the farm with my mom. She called and said tomatoes were not selling at the farmer’s market any more and we needed to make salsa. She said this with such enthusiasm I couldn’t resist even though I had so much to do at my own home, getting ready for school. I tucked Groovy Girl into the car with the new Kindle Fire and a good book and took off for the wilds of Northeast Iowa.

We’ve prepared this same salsa for the last few years although last year my mom made it herself as we just couldn’t coordinate a time to do it together. This year my cupboard was completely bare of any salsa and I knew I couldn’t make it through the year without this particular staple to my diet.

Groovy Girl collected ALL the tomatoes for our second batch of salsa!

Friends of ours, our minister and his wife, passed this recipe on to us. They also make it every year although I think we’ve changed our version up enough that they do not taste similar anymore.

Salsa

Skin 20 cups of tomatoes. To do this you need to boil a pot of water, place tomatoes into hot water and watch for skins to start “popping.”

1 1/2 cup cornstarch
4 cups onions, chunked up
2 cups green peppers, chunked up
2 banana peppers, chopped
5 large garlic cloves, smashed
1 jalapeno, sliced
2 cups sugar
3 T. cayenne pepper
4 tsp chili powder
2 T. cumin
1 T. coriander
4 T. salt
2 1/2 cups white vinegar

Once the tomato skins have popped scoop them out and run a little cold water over and peel skin back. Cut out the stem and down to get that odd white core out (about 1/4 down). Loosely chop tomatoes and add to food processor. After each batch is processed add it a large pot. (We only processed our tomatoes for about five quick spins-we wanted to it to be medium chunky) Save out two cups of processed tomatoes and add the corn starch in and stir to dissolve. After you finish processing tomatoes and they are cooking in large pot add onions, peppers, and garlic to food processor and quick pulse to combine. Again only a few pulses because you want to see small chunks of greens and yellows. Combine spices, peppers, and garlic into tomato pot. Stir to combine. This is a great time to do a taste test to see if you want to spice it up more. (The original recipe calls for more hot peppers and cayenne but I like it not as spicy because my kids eat it like this. We’ve worked hard to make it kid-friendly without compromising flavor. )
Our pot was so full we had to scoop back and forth to really mix it up. Slowly add the tomato/cornstarch mix and stir well. Cook 20-30 additional minutes.

(My grandmother’s canning pot)

Put in hot sterilized jars and seal. The tops should pop if sealed correctly. What a satisfying sound as you hear them go “pop”, “pop”, “pop” 14 different times! A glorious happy feeling.

This salsa-making session will always be remembered as our Olympics-

1. We made one batch and crazily decided “let’s do it again!”
2. The Olympics played non-stop on my mom’s kitchen television while we (I) chopped, stirred, pulsed, and poured. I’m sure I took home a medal-14 in fact!

Our goal is to include Groovy Girl a little more each year. This year about all she wanted to do was gather the tomatoes but next year she will help a little more. Eventually my mom will have taught me how to do all that fancy canning stuff on my own and Groovy Girl will by my helper. I clearly remember making jam in my grandmother’s kitchen. She sat in her green chair while my mom and I took out samples to her so she could check our progress. The cycle keeps turning.

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to read many other food-related posts.

If I was Queen of the Lunchroom…

My district gives us the gift of Good Friday. I’ve enjoyed this day with all of my heart. I got up a little later than usual and made breakfast in my jammies, The look on my son’s face as he was preparing to leave and noticed I was still in plaid, flannel pants was priceless. After much kissing of daughter she set off on her bike with my husband lagging behind. Usually I walk with them but her riding the bike makes it much less fun. I had a mission in mind anyway. I crawled back between my aubergine sheets and read, The Queen of Kentucky by Alecia Whitaker, and drifted between reading and sleep. I love drowsy.

My husband brought me a bowl of cereal and cuddled with me for a few minutes before he left for work/church and I was able to read 5 more chapters (laughing out loud several times under the covers) before crawling out from the warm covers. I dressed in Saturday clothes (Gap pants with side cargo pockets, Gap oatmeal long sleeve tee and a long cardigan) and took the straightener to my fat hair. Off to the mall to gather some Easter basket treats. I love picking pretty Spring items for my kids. I don’t even bother with the basket now that the kids are bigger. I use baskets from around the house. The Easter bunny has even been know to use clay pots for his treats. I finished at the mall and headed home to grab a snack.

On the rare days I’ve had off and she doesn’t Groovy Girl and I love to have lunch together in her cafeteria. She’s brings her lunch 98% of the time. She’s a picky eater and not much on the lunch menu appeals to her. I’m not happy that she is such a picky eater but I’m glad she chooses our lunch over what the school has to offer. Today sitting at the small round table with a gaggle of giggly girls I (again) am mortified as to what is served to our children. Well, not my child, but most of the kids in the cafeteria were eating school lunch.

Today’s fare was either a huge slice of greasy pizza or 2 huge cheese bread sticks and a cup of vanilla ice cream. The bread stick in the photo actually has more cheese than the ones I saw today and they truly didn’t look done. On several of the platters there was a large scoop of formerly frozen strawberries, which is at least a fruit or had been, but not one plate had any veggies. The bread stick kids had a small container, fast food style, of marinara sauce for dunking-was that supposed to be a veggie?

Not only was the food not healthy but this is how the kids ate it: the ice cream cup was opened and eaten first. A few that had the strawberry mix added that to ice cream cup and stirred. Hurrah-they accidentally got one serving of a fruit that was also probably sugar-laced! One girl at our table poured some of her chocolate milk into her ice cream. All the 4th grade girls at our table had the bread sticks; not the pizza, and they ate some of the heavily-breaded sticks after downing the ice cream.

If I was queen of the lunchroom I’d make a mandate that you’d have to bring up your almost empty tray to get an ice cream cup. If I was queen of the lunchroom though they’d have a delicious tray of food, filled with veggies and bright colors. While I can’t blame the kids for eating the ice cream first-who am I too judge dessert first-but I find it appalling as to what the “experts” call nutritious for an afternoon of learning.

Not to brag but here’s what Groovy Girl’s frog lunch bag contained; a turkey sandwich on whole grain bread, a small container of grapes, a small container of baby carrots, a clementine, and an organic juice box. I could tell she was a little green with envy as she watched her friends scarf down vanilla ice cream, or chocolate /strawberry-infused ice cream but she quickly turned her attention back to her own lunch. We shared the clementine and the small handful of blue chips with flax that I love. One bonus was that she (and the other “brown baggers”) get to sit first while the other students wait in line for their lunch-her sandwich was mostly gone before the lunch trays were sliding across our table. She only had to nibble at her other healthy food choices as she conversed with her friends.

I don’t have a cool phone or I would have snapped an amazing photo of this lunch adventure instead I borrowed my photo from this blogger, Eat Hoboken, who wrote about school lunches back in 2010. Click the link to check it out. Too bad she’s not still chronicling her journey.

I don’t know if Groovy Girl’s school and my school have the same lunches but I constantly look at what the kids at my school are eating (esp. book club days) and am sad that no vegetarian option is available. Public schools need to find funding for better food choices for our children. Hyping them up on sugar and carbs is no way to learn. Have you ever read about what professional sports teams eat and now even college-level players? They are working hard to make sure their players are eating well for best performances. Why can’t we get that for our youngest generation?

On reading; I finished and loved The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich. What took me so long to pick this book up, I’ll never know but it was wonderful to read.

Blessing on this Good Friday.

Weekend Cooking; Ribbons of Kale

Last week I wrote about my Farmer’s Market shopping spree and through the week I’ve made a few recipes with my produce. I discovered two new recipes for kale and I made my children eat beet greens (they didn’t eat a lot but they ate some). I researched kale and found 9 reasons to eat kale and if you click the link you can read them also. Loads of fiber, antioxidants and vitamin K.

Lentil Soup with Ribbons of Kale
(adapted from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson)

Slow Cooker size: 4-6 qts
Cook Time: 8 hours
Setting: Low

1 T. olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/4 cups dried brown lentils, picked over and rinsed
6 cups vegetable stock or water
1 T. tamari or other soy sauce
Sprinkles of Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 to 5 large kale leaves, tough stems removed

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, carrot and garlic, cover and cook until softened, 8-10 minutes
2. Transfer the cooked vegetables to a 4- to 6- qt slow cooker, add the lentils, stock, and tamari; cover and cook on Low for 8 hours. (this is where I completely veered off recipe and made the entire thing in the same large saute skillet-apparently I LOVE heating up my kitchen in the heat of the summer) Season with salt and pepper.
3. Meanwhile, or beforehand, tightly roll the kale leaves up like a cigar and cut them crosswise into thin ribbons. Cook the kale in a pot of boiling salted water, about 5 minutes, and add to the soup when ready to serve.
I served ours over brown rice and I didn’t boil the kale down. I just popped it into the lentil mix about 10 minutes before eating and it wilted enough for us. It was yummy!

Second kale recipe:

Tuscan Kale with White Beans and Garlic
(The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook by Andrea Chesman)

1 cup dried cannellini (white kidney) or great Northern beans (I had garbanzos on hand-used them instead)
6 cups water
1 onion, halved (I like onion so I diced it and kept it in the bean mix)
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 pounds of kale, stems removed and leaves chopped, 16 cups lightly packed)
8 ozs smoked turkey or ham, diced (optional)
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 T. olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

1. Saok the beans for at least 8 hours in plenty of water to cover. Drain the beans.
2. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, combine the beans with the water, onion, thyme and bay leaves. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer partially covered, until the beans are tender, approximately 1 1/2 hours.
3. Remove and discard the onion, sprigs of thyme and bay leaves. At this point beans could be refrigerated for up to 1 day before continuing the recipe. Bring the beans and their liquid to a boil. Add the kale and the salt and pepper to taste. Simmer, stirring down the kale every few minutes, until the kale is tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the meat, if using.
4. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a small heavy skillet over very low heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant and soft, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes. Do not let garlic brown. Mash the garlic with a fork. Add the hot pepper flakes, if using.
5. Pour the hot oil mix over the beans and greens and serve immediately.

I mentioned that our dinner had kale leaves in it and he said…oh, hmmm, that sounds good-I’ve heard kale is really healthy! Wow. Needless to say everyone ate both recipes and I went ahead and bought more kale at the market today. Also we had some ham from a local farmer so I did cube that up, heated it, and put the bowl on the table for our occasional meat eaters to add to the own plates.

My own garden has baby eggplants growing, okra (we’ve already eaten 5 pods from our two plants), tomatoes, basil, two kinds of peppers. This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme; anyone can play along with a food-related post. Click her link to see her review of Danyelle Freeman’s new book Try This.

I've been to the market…

(Beet Greens, Broccoli, basil leaves and Kale peeking
out of my pink market basket)

and at the market I smelled in the beautiful earthy smells of vegetables and dirt. I watched loads of smiling people swirl around all the market stands, picking and choosing food for the week. I love to listen to the questions others ask; “what is this?”, “what do I do with this?”, and “how do I cook this?” I listen to the farmer’s answers, learning myself and sometimes I answer…I love the sense of community a farmer’s market creates.

Myself, I picked a bouquet of kale, a bundle of beets, a small forest of “trees” (broccoli, in our family), and a bag of basil. I plan to roast the beets and steam the head of broccoli for a nice veggie dinner tonight. We also have okra growing in our own garden and I will use my mother-in-law’s recipe for okra mixed with potato to add to our meal.

I look forward to paging through some of my recipe books to figure out something new to do with these beautiful kale leaves. I’ve yet to hit upon a stunning recipe for this healthy vegetable. Any suggestions?

I do have basil growing in our garden but it is not at the BIG leaf stage, which is just how I like it sprinkled on my pasta, sandwich or grains. We planted late after our vacation and I hope to have basil well into September when I can heap it into the food processor and make jars and bags of pesto to help me through the winter season.

What’s selling at your local market? Have you been yet? I encourage everyone to find their local Farmer’s Market and shop their at least once a week. There’s a handy website to locate a market near you: Local Harvest offers lots of information.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Anyone with a food-related post can play along; click on her link to see her review of Gloria Whelan’s book, The Boy Who Wanted To Cook.