My nice little harvest turned out to be eight pounds, not four. I started eating the berries as fast as I could. I don’t bake, actually, and I don’t even have a muffin recipe to turn to. What was I thinking? That, and dinner time was quick approaching. Here, boyfriend, I thought. Have some blueberries for dinner after a hard day at work.

I’d picked a head of lacey green leaf lettuce from the garden earlier in the day, and glanced around the kitchen for inspiration. A bag of almonds for snacking on at work, a chunk of wild caught smoked salmon, and ooh, a gold beet from the farmer’s market. Hmm, sounds like a night for fancy salad!

blueberry vinaigrette

• 1/2 cup of blueberries
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 drizzle (precise!) honey
• 1 splash lemon juice

Blend well and let sit.

honey-cumin toasted almonds

• generous handful almonds, chopped roughly
• approximately 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 drizzle (a teaspoon or so) of honey
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Melt butter in frying pan or skillet on medium heat. If butter browns, it will be too hot when you add the honey!

Saute almonds, stirring until evenly covered in buttery goodness. Drizzle honey as evenly as possible over almonds, stirring quickly. Add cumin, stirring constantly, and turn off heat. Stir every minute or so until the pan is cool, and then let almonds cool. BE PATIENT. Hot honey will hurt your mouth. It will not be worth it! I promise.

salad

• lots of lettuce. half a head? a whole head? whatever you can eat, really.
• one medium sized beet
• about 1/2 cup smoked salmon
• toasted almonds
• blueberry vinaigrette

Wash, shred, and pat dry lettuce.

Scrub beet (peel if desired — I don’t bother, especially with smallish spring beets) and chop into thin, bite size pieces.

Chop or shred salmon, watching out for bones.

prettiest thing you'll eat all day

Assemble all ingredients, sprinkling almonds and a generous helping of dressing over the top. Enjoy with crackers and a nice white wine.

Drizzle olive oil (extra virgin, first cold pressing; yes I am an olive oil snob) over asparagus. This, as most of this recipe, is done to taste. If you really love the flavor of olive oil, put more in. I’ve had it both ways, I prefer more of a drizzle than a bath, if that makes sense.

Add chopped fresh garlic. I typically use one peeled/chopped clove, and scatter the pieces around in the pan. Add salt and pepper.

Bake in the middle of the oven from 12-20 minutes. I know it’s a huge time range, but it really depends a lot on the size of the asparagus, and the desired firmness. I’m not a fan of squishy, but I prefer a bit softer than crunchy. Smaller sized asparagus I typically bake around 15 minutes. Larger stalks I’ve left in for 20.

This can be done with a variety of vegetables as well. It’s especially good with broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, potatoes. The only concern with mixing veggies is that they tend to cook at different times, so it’s a bit of trial and error, for me anyway. I’ll cook potato pieces a good 12 minutes or more before I add the asparagus and broccoli, which in turn need to cook a lot longer than the zucchini and yellow squash.

This is especially good next to a beautiful steak, but can make a dinner in and of itself.

notes:

• wherever possible, ingredients are organic and local. they are a little more expensive that way (very little, really, during farmer’s market season!), but taste oh-so-much better.
• 99% of measurements are approximate — but we rarely make things that are hurt by eyeballing.

on to the foods!

nettle pesto, asparagus, and ravioli

it was my day off, and I promised to make something yummy for dinner. it’s one of my favorite things, when I have the time, to have something delicious ready (or close to it) when Simon gets home from work. we love cooking together, but I work until close to eleven five nights a week — so it’s especially fun to share good food with him at the end of the day.

I’m crazy about nettles right now — yeah, the stuff you snagged yourself on when you were a kid. cooked, even briefly, nettles lose their sting and are high in iron and tons of vitamins, as well as helpful with seasonal allergies. you can steam or sautee them as you would any green, or pour boiling water on them for a nice spring tea (local honey boosts the anti-allergy factor).

I ended up spending the bulk of the day working on my novel and visiting with a friend. I started this pesto about a half hour before he got home, but it was still ready in time. it takes a tiny bit of prep, but it tastes way fancier than it is and is always popular.

the pesto

this is my basic pesto, plus nettles. they add a nice subtlety and lots of nutrition without making it taste un-pesto-ey or otherwise weird.

(let me remind you: nothing is measured, but you can’t go too far wrong with pesto. it will always taste amazing.)

also, you’ll have leftovers. I’m planning on doing a pesto sauce for pizza later this week.

• equal parts basil and fresh, young stinging nettle (a medium-large  bunch of each) *use gloves when handling raw nettles!*
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts
• a handful of grated parmesan
• garlic (*to your liking* – I use 4-5 cloves and I use ‘em raw, but I like the heat they give, as well as the immune-boosting properties. 1-2 cloves raw or roasted would be more appropriate for milder tastes.)
• extra virgin olive oil (to your liking — I use a couple tablespoons, but you can increase it for a richer sauce or decrease it for a lower fat sauce. some would add butter here, but I like to keep it simple.)

pluck the nettle leaves from the stock, rinse, and drop into a pot of boiling water for a few seconds, until they turn bright green.

chop all ingredients finely (or throw them in a food processor!) and blend well.

ta da! amazing pesto. people will think you are a skilled chef, and also adventurous. and it only took like five minutes. (ok, a little more if you don’t have a food processor.)

(food processor tangent: later editions will follow on homemade salsa and hummus, and how great it is that you never have to buy those things again if you have a food processor and, seriously, five minutes to make something awesome that people will request again and again.)

the meal

drop several handfuls of pasta (product placement! Rising Moon Organics makes amazing ravioli and tortellini — we used the feta, hazelnut, and butternut squash flavor tonight: so good.) into boiling water and cook until done.

break or chop off the ends of about half a pound of asparagus, rinse, and chop into bite-size pieces. sautee in a drizzle of olive oil and a splash of red wine until tender.

add cooked pasta to the pan with asparagus, and spoon delicious pesto over it all. stir until everything is covered in wonderful bright green beauty.

garnish with a little more parmesan, pine nuts, and black pepper.

dinner is served!