Salad Days

Today the CSA (community supported agriculture) box came. The first of the season. It felt so good walking to the pick-up spot, only about half a block. (I’m pretty lucky in that regard) I took my reusable shopping bag with me to haul home my stash.  Wow…as usual, it’s amazing! Pristine organic vegetables, picked yesterday, washed to perfection.Two Onion Farms is our source.  Two wonderful and detail oriented farmers, Chris and Juli, grow the best I’ve ever seen.  Spring is the best time for salads.

Tortilla Espanol

One of my favorite Spanish tapas is the tortilla espanol. I’ve found many versions of the recipe; all the same ingredients, but different proportions and techniques. This is one that works for me. I don’t use as much oil as many traditional methods do, so maybe I’m missing out on some of the flavor, but I’m also missing out on a few hundred calories. When we have the Totally Tapas class at The Great Galena Cookery, this is always the favorite dish.

Potato Project II

Wow… only two weeks and the potatoes are bursting at the seams (of the barrel). They have been growing by leaps and bounds.  I keep adding soil as they do. I’ve only got about another inch to go and then they are on their own to fill up my larder with tubers. If all goes as planned, in a few weeks I should be digging my fist into the upper crust to pull out a handful of tiny newbies. They are the best, steamed for a few minutes with cream and chives. Until that happens, I’m stuck with potatoes I find at the market.

Ahhh….. Souffles, Lighter than Air

Somewhere between food and a dream. It’s really very easy–just takes some attention to detail; eggs at room temperature, careful folding, hot oven, and eager and ready guests.

This “puffed up” egg creation was developed in the French kitchen in the late 18th century. It starts with a base. For savory editions, usually a béchamel sauce to which you add the flavors: vegetables, ham, cheese, or whatever suits your fancy.

It’s a Tradition… Spring Rhubarb

Walking the streets of Galena in spring is always a joy. Everyone takes pride in our little historic city and keep their yards so beautiful. This year has been one of the best. It’s been cool enough for the blossoms to linger on the trees and bushes for more days than we could ever have hoped for.

A bastion of spring is rhubarb. It seems everyone has one or two plants, and sometimes a whole row. My mother always had rhubarb in the garden. It’s still there on the farm.

Green Goodness

The first time I had spinach served this way was at Rose Pistola’s in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. I was amazed at how sensational spinach could taste. It was spring, and the leaves were the freshest possible, lightly sautéed with fruity olive oil, garlic, and finished with a squeeze of lemon. So simple and yet so amazing.

I had lived my life hating spinach. Crazy…isn’t it? The big problem was grade school. Almost weekly we were greeted with “that smell” as the lunch ladies opened giant cans of overly cooked slime that they passed off as being good for us…just like Popeye ate. My mom didn’t even try to get us to eat it. I suspect she didn’t much like canned spinach either.

The Potato Project

I don’t have a very sunny yard, nor do I have much space, but I really wanted to grow some of our own food this year. In researching potatoes for a little booklet I was writing for Learn Great Food,  I learned how potatoes grow. Now, I’ve raised potatoes before, when living in larger sunnier locations and loved harvesting them. It’s the best! After the tops die down and it looks like all is lost, you start digging. Nuggets of gold appear! You keep digging and shaking off the dirt, laying the spuds on top of the soil. It’s just amazing and fun. Left to cure for a day or two, you can