Another Random Salad

I just thought this was the prettiest salad. First of the cucumbers with local crumbled feta, and local black raspberries macerated with some sugar and white balsamic vinegar.

Garden Greens and a Pickled Egg

It's so exciting to eat fresh, green things from your own garden again. I feel so rich when I sit down to a plate that looks like this. And it all came from thinning my seedlings. I hate pulling seedings, unless I know that I'm going to eat them. These are from a mixed asian greens, arugula, and little baby radishes. There are slices of non-local fennel that I couldn't resist putting in, there-by sullying my hyper-local fare. It's okay by me. The sweet anise went well with the spicy bite of the rest of the greens. Topped with extra-virgin olive oil (I'm a little heavy-handed on that), salt, pepper and a pickled egg (courtesy of my chickens, and pickled in my carrot daikon brine). It was pouring while I ate it, and now the sun has broken out and the sort of crummy mood I was in is now lifting. Thank you sun!

And how's this for a mood-lifter? My first bunch of rhubarb laying amidst the passel of herbs I have waiting to go in a bed. This is from last week and is already steeping in what will become rhubarb liqueur. Sort of crazy that I didn't make jam from it, but that liqueur had me dazzled! I can't wait to pull more because there are tons of rhubarb-y things to make!

N.B. Those stumpy things are scallions that I stuck in some dirt. I've read about this in a bunch of places, but I finally did it with inspiration from Brooklyn Forager. It's amazing how fast these guys grow! And you just need a pot of dirt, really. It's a great gardening experiment for kids as you can see results daily. (Though, I'd warrant that adults like to see daily results, too.)

Savoy Cabbage and Beet Salad

I've been eating my vegetables, really! But sometimes it gets hard to be inspired. After about a week of a bare cupboard (due to a bit of interstate traveling) I finally went shopping and felt re-invigorated. I was thinking some kind of winter salad. I bought this huge beet, which was a challenge to grate. My food processor wouldn't really budge on it. So, I did what I knew I should have done in the first place: use my old school Mouli grater. I love this thing.

Then, after lightly toasting them, I went old school on the walnuts.

While doing so, I imbibed: kitchen gin with grapefruit syrup and seltzer.

And then I sat down to this:

After slicing the cabbage, I blanched it and put it aside. After grating the beet, I tossed it with olive oil and pomegranate balsamic, salt and pepper. Put the beets on the cabbage (I kept them separate because you know how beets are) and topped with feta and walnuts. There were other things I was envisioning, but I just didn't have the time. Between teething and a looming bedtime, having a cocktail while making this was all I could do. But you know what? That's pretty good, all in all.