Asparagus Frittata

Asparagus Frittata made for an easy and really pretty pillow of eggs and vegetables for my Mother's Day brunch. Sprout Sara came out of Boston for the afternoon, bearing a beautiful Austrian Rose wine and beauty products for her Mom. After cups of hot coffee and chatter over making frittata and crusty toast, we sat for a late breakfast and chatted it up. So relaxing! Thanks Sara for making my day!

Lentil and Roasted Tomato Soup

The past few days have been grey and misty. We've actually burnt more wood in the past couple weeks than we did for the entire month of April. The damp, raw chill has put me off a bit. I haven't walked as much as I'd like. The soil isn't warming up, as it should so that we can get to planting. Everything seems to be in a state of suspension, while we wait and wait for Spring to show her colors. Even our daffodils have been cheated this year! The first blooms were snapped off or flattened by that snow storm we had a few weeks ago. The stalwart buds that came after the melt have been slow to develop and less showy without their neighboring blooms.

We are in need of color!

Go Red Sox !!! A Boston Cream Pie for the Boys of Summer

Like all self-respecting Boston Red Sox fans, I keep my hopes for the team under wraps at the beginning of the season. It's always an education to watch the team get their playing style together during the first few home stands and their bull pen sorted out as the season develops.  I love seeing who the new boys are and where they have come from, agonize over the aches and pains of the 'old guard', and root for my personal faves ( Hello, Pedroia ! Hello, Big Papi! Hello JBJ ! Hello Mookie!) The start of this season has been such a pleasant surprise that I decided to celebrate it with a real Boston treat.

DH's Slaw and Stories

Here's a cabbage and apple slaw without all that mayo. Diana Henry presents it as a great healthy side dish in her cook book called A Change of Appetite - Where Healthy Meets Delicious. This crisp and crunchy side nestled up to potato salad and a slow-cooked beef brisket dressed with Bourbon-Peach BBQ Sauce last evening. More on that beef brisket in another post.

Sautéed Chard Arancini

This time of year, the cusp of the new growing season, is always a time that I go hog wild over the fresh greens, the first shoots of asparagus, the new crisp radishes that are showing up, bundles of fresh herbs. It's intoxicating to see these fresh Spring greens after all that orange of squash, white taters, and turnips, and the colors of winter vegetables! This week, when I saw bundles of fresh chard, it was too much for me to resist. I snapped up two bunches - one fresh green chard and the other red rainbow chard. The other evening we had wilted greens, wild rice with asparagus bites and roasted game hens and now, today, this small plate lunch of sautéed chard arancini.  This is a fussy fun dish to make. What a great way to putter around with my morning!

Beef Fillet Crostini with Arugula Pesto - Couch Potato Treat

So. We're hanging on the couch watching Red Sox baseball, sipping wine and eating the easiest, but most expensive open face sammies we've ever had. I'm not crabbin', though! These are wicked good!

Michael Anthony's Pepper Stew

If you were to serve this pepper stew with a bowl of rice, it could be a main  course. We opted to have it along side baked chicken breasts that were stuffed with cheese and ham. So it served as a vegetable side dish. Either way, it was delicious!

Mamushka's Cabbage Rolls

Steamy and packed with a little torpedo of rice and meat, these Holubtsi (read Cabbage Rolls) were a bowl of sweet and savory. Cabbage rolls don't look like much, but they are these wonderful little wrapped packets of wonderful comfort. They involve a concentrated bit of flurried preparation in the kitchen and then ... they get popped in the oven to smell up the place with the best homey aroma! Served piping hot with a cold dollop of dilled sour cream, you will be wishing you had an old kerchiefed Mamushka living with you to tweek your cheek, pour you a nip of vodka, slap a loaf of crusty bread down and holler for you to get to the table.