Pasta with Spring Vegetables

Last weekend we had a bit of a heat wave followed by a good soaking rain and everything in the garden just exploded. Yesterday all these peas appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. These ones in the photo above are an edible-podded pea called Golden of India. They’re quite striking with their pale yellow pods and magenta flowers. We have sugar snaps and a few varieties of shelling peas coming in too.

Asparagus season is on it’s way out around here. It will probably be gone in a week or two. I was feeling like I hadn’t quite had my fill yet, so today I picked up one last bunch to eat with the first of the peas and a few other garden pickings. The asparagus isn’t quite as sweet and tender as it was a month ago, but the peas more than make up for it. They are like candy. Continue reading →

Popovers!

This weekend meyer lemons appeared in the grocery store, and that means it’s time to make marmalade.

As of Sunday morning there was still a jar or two of last year’s marmalade left in the pantry, so I decided it was time to make a batch of popovers. Steaming hot popovers are the best vehicle I know of for homemade marmalade or jam. Continue reading →

Tamales for Christmas

photo(1) My sister Meg spends her long commute on the subway reading the New York Times on her iphone, and on Wednesdays I can usually expect her to email me a recipe or two from that day’s paper. The week before Christmas it was this story about the Mexican tradition of making tamales for Christmas. We immediately started planning an Boxing Day tamale feast. For one batch we cooked a whole pork shoulder over night in the slow cooker, and then tossed the shredded meat with a New Mexico red chile sauce, based on the recipe in the Times. The second batch was filled with shredded Monterey Jack cheese and pickled jalepeños. We made a big pot of beans and some rice and served it all with a few of the salsas I put up last summer. The meal was a huge success and we all agreed it should become a new Christmas tradition. Continue reading →

Pickled Jalepeños

Last summer I ended up with a glut of jalepeños, and not knowing what to do with them, I decided to pickle them. I’ve never been a big jalepeño eater, and I didn’t really have high expectations for them. I thought they might very well end up as forgotten pickles, but in the end they were quite a hit. When I visited my brother Dave a few months ago, I found him jealously hoarding the brine in the jar long after the last pickle slice had been consumed. My sister Meg has placed a special order for 4 pints this year. We like to put these on tacos, quesadillas, or eggs and grits, or to chop them up and add them to salsas and tomato salads. Continue reading →