Chives

Springtime and the very first gift of the garden is chives.

Chicken breasts in chive cream
Baked potatoes with sour cream and chives
Chive Oil on just about everything
Gnocchi with chive butter
Chive Dumplings
Goat Cheese and Chives
Smoked Salmon on dark bread with farmer's cheese and chives


The sweet leaf is always the first to push through the snow and remind us that in a few short months the herb garden will be back in bloom. Two years ago I put in some garlic chives too, a very different taste with beautiful white flowers. The chive plant also had beautiful lavendar flowers and can be grown quite successfully in a sunny window year round.

Shrimp with Soy, Garlic, Ginger, and Lemon

Another favorite from one of my favorite cookbooks..The Frog Commissary Cookbook-this book was published in 1985 but it's one I find myself recommending over and over again. The authors were working chefs and caterers when published and so the recipes work, unlike many cookbooks also published in the '80's from "celebrity chefs".
Although there aren't any photo's the illustrations are wonderful and the recipes are unique. The commissary carrot cake recipe alone is definately worth the price of the book.

A simple marinade of soy, fresh ginger, lemon juice, garlic, pepper and sherry becomes the sauce when mixed with water and thickened with cornstarch. Shrimp only take about 1 hour to marinate.

Saute the marinated shrimp with more garlic and ginger and fresh red pepper strips, I also add bean sprouts and sugar snap peas. Then add the marinade back to the pan and let cook for 1 minute. Add fresh watercress at the last moment. Spinach works too. Served over brown rice or rice noodles, this is fast, fresh and really simple.

Banana Pecan Muffins

I am a sucker for buying bananas anytime they are on sale, and then they sit on the counter looking pretty for about a week until I then throw them out. After doing a search for quick banana muffins I came up with this recipe from Cat can cook.I only had 2 bananas so I halved the recipe and it turned out great. I added a 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon and about the same of vanilla and added pecans. They took about 5 minutes to make and 20 minutes to bake. Since I'm not a huge baking fan, this one was simple enough even for me. Thanks Cat!

Celebrating An Early Spring

Fresh Grilled Halibut with tarragon butter
Steamed Asparagus
New Potatoes with chives

Now that almost all produce is available year round, we can get spoiled and forget to eat seasonally. Asparagus is one vegetable that I chose not to eat except in the spring. Tender, young shoots replace the woody stalks of winter asparagus and with 70 degree weather in Colorado yesterday, it really felt like spring. This time of year the garden seems to wake up and although traditionally there will be another freeze, it's almost time to plant sweet peas (flowers) and sweet peas (vegetable). One of my favorite ways to eat asparagus is simply grilled with olive oil or oven roasted with sweet butter.

Wow it's March!

I missed the whole month of February and haven't done much in the way of cooking; it's hard to feel creative in the kitchen when most of the food I want to eat is too high in calories, too high in fat and usually doesn't fit in to the rest of my healthy eating plan. In March I'm going to try to find a happy medium, good food that's fairly healthy, I've been looking at lots of different cookbooks and magazines for ideas. I just got Tasty by Roy Finamore; its subtitle is Get Great Food On The Table Every Day. I'm going to try for 3 days this week...what was I thinking with 5 days! I think I set myself up for failure.