Wow look at those tomatillos and garlic, you are a wonder Sleevendog.

What’s for breakfast follows...

Continuing with my renewed Chilli crisp interest I made the ubiquitous egg on avocado toast with, what else but Laoganma’s Chilli crisp.

I'm in a rotation of 6 avocados. Every three weeks. Does seem like we have them daily but often a week or two off while they ripen. Like now. Firm on the counter.

Chili crisp has many uses. Not a one trick pony. Such a nice condiment and a background flavor boost.

I made a spagetti al vongole e carciofi. Pasta, clams, roasted artichokes. Pasta tossd in, hello, chili crisp. But lots of veg white miro poix. White wine, yada, yada.

That spaghetti, clams and artichokes looks delicious.

As a quick little Sat lunch and because I had the oven on I cooked what we call Spring Rolls. I made a tiny stir fry with spinach, green onions and bean sprouts with a simple sauce of just soy sauce, pinch of sugar, cornstarch and water to have with them.

Ready made and from frozen these mini rolls cook in about 10-15 in a very hot oven and are are great little snack/ appertiser/ little lunch.

I am interested to hear if you have them in your neck of the woods.

They contain, bean sprouts, carrot, cabbage, onion etc. This is how they are bought. Good value as well. I mean a whole little filled crispy roll for 10 cents... not bad.

Costco has similar.

A favorite Thai restaurant brings a big appetizerpile of them to share along with a bowl of lettuce leaves, basil, cilantro and mint to roll them up in. Various dipping sauces. Freshspring rolls are larger and just cut in half.

Costco has a variety of small bites.

Had the other half of the rack of lamb last night. From the freezer. Full rack is way too much food. Perfect med-rare on the rare side. Another shaved salad. Made extra for tonights ramen bowl.

Couple of meals this weekend. Pasta Puttanesca and ribs.

Very delious looking pasta and then the ribs Jasdip.

Thanks for that information Sleevedog... I just wondered who and where they were available.

Yet another foil wrapped long slow cook of short ribs. Roasted everything else, at appropriate intervals, as well.

Ribs are on the menu plan having a holiday next week. Frost warnings last night not fun. I had to . scramble and cover a few things.

Salmon croquettes with a smoked chipotle creole remoulade sauce. Nice salad.

I picked rhubarb this morning.

And lots in the frig for more desserts.

Dinner was marinated chicken breast then air-fried and put in a pita. Topped with baby spinach, tomatoes, sliced onions and some reserved yogurt marinade.

Oh, Jasdip, that pie looks perfect. I have rhubarb ready to pick and haven't gotten to it yet.

Neely thanks for the picture of the "bush". And what is wattle? Oh, and the chicken and leek pie looks delicious!

Sleevendog, I ordered some of those lamb and hatch chili tamales from Misfits and hadn't made them yet. Elery loved them, which is good because they are all his, LOL. They were WAY too spicy for wussy me!

So much good food I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I've been spending most of my time gardening, planting flowers and watering hoop houses and generally playing in the dirt. Still, we have to eat. Elery has been making eggs most mornings and they all kind of look the same, and we don't usually have lunch, so supper is the only meal left to post!

Elery is getting his other hip replaced, probably in July, it's been 7 years since he had the first one done I think. So, he's wanting to lose some weight again, it makes rehab easier, and so I've been making lots of salads with leaves from the hoop houses. This one was

with steak and some hard boiled eggs.

This meal was the "original", from which the steak for the above salad was used. So, the first meal was steak, corn from last year's garden from a freezer clean out and a garbanzo bean salad with a yogurt dressing.

I made some red lentil pasta with that internet famous feta/cherry tomato sauce. It was....OK. I'd make it again when we have bushels of cherry tomatoes from the garden, but I didn't really care for all the little bits of tomato peel in the sauce.

I did make some 7 layer bars for the election workers and there were none of those left.

Elery and I went to Grand Rapids on our anniversary and made a stop at the Mediterranean Island where I bought this unknown-to-me piece of fruit. It's a Pipino melon, tastes a little like honeydew and has the texture of a cucumber.

I also bought a Yazi pear but I haven't tried that yet. Amanda came over last week and we made "freezer food" including meatballs using the recipe from Rocco DiSpirito, his "Mama's Meatballs".

We also made cabbage rolls for the freezer, so instead of freezing them all, we had some for supper. Pan braised asparagus was the first of the season from the backyard patch, and the braised cabbage was the middle of the head after we removed the outside leaves for the rolls.

The very kind chef across the street sent some leftover pasta with her homemade sauce, a couple of their guests cancelled and she said she was not going to eat that much pasta, LOL. It was good with fresh basil and happened to go nicely with the meatballs and a side of brussels sprouts.

Elery was overdue for his weekly bean fix, so I cooked a "mess" of our homegrown cranberry beans in the crockpot and made some "Greek Egg Salad" from a recipe I got from Cuisine at Home. Eggs, of course, and cucumber, red pepper, feta cheese, olives, garlic, mustard, lemon zest. I didn't have a cup of parsley so I used lovage from my front herb garden, I got that started years ago after a gift from Nancy/wizardnm. Elery liked it a LOT and it used up a dozen eggs from the fridge, double bonus there!

OK, I think I'm caught up. Tomorrow I'm going to turn the meat chickens outside, it's getting pretty warm here and going to be in the 80s next week. Too warm for Michigan so early, but weather does what it does. Elery will be tilling the garden so I can plant next week and I'm trying to prune a grapevine and set up a trellis, we'll see if I'm successful.

I've already planted onions, potatoes and peas in the garden and mixed greens and celery in the hoop houses, so on to squash, corn, beans, melons, cucumbers, zucchini and everything else!

Annie

Lovely lot of rhubarb there Jasdip. I recently moved our rhubarb as it wasn’t doing any good ... too much shade. I separated the old root into three clumps and they are each growing well.

Dinner was pork cubes braised in soy sauce and various spices garlic etc then stir fried with snow peas, bean sprouts, coriander and tomato. I know tomato doesn’t really go in this dish but I like it.

Had some leftover pork tenderloin. Kinda tired of hash for leftovers. What to use pork for? Had a dream of split pea soup! So that's what we're having even though it really isn't soup season! Still have enough for a small hash in a couple of days.

I just harvested my first rhubarb. Then ran across a new book about rhubarb--the sweet and the savory. Lost track of the article. One recipe he simmered chunks briefly in lightly sugared water and added to a potato salad. Odd.

I like rhubarb juice with ginger, lemon and mint. I also make a rhubarb bbq sauce--not sweet. Nice in a summer salsa. Making tacos tonight. Adding it to my green sauce.

Always looking for new recipes having so much in my garden.

Very good for you.

Still having lots of noodle bowls. This one was shrimp and dumplings.

Last night was pizza. The usual except for the added eggs. Shared side salad.

-sleeve, : )

I’m sure Annie’s post wasn’t there when I last posted about Jasdip’s rhubarb but now it’s there.

Anyway, to answer Annie, wattle is the name we give to our yellow flowering native trees of which there are dozens of varieties like you have lots of varieties of say, maples. Usually they are a small tree but the photo I put on was of a very small (waist high ) variety with pale yellow flowers which I quite like. We call areas in the country of native plants ‘the bush’ as opposed to suburbia. This was the only photo I could find of the more typical ’wattle’ tree.

What’s for dinner’? Salmon with broccolini and salad.

I missed Annie's post. It must have been on a Houzz 'delay'. Like happens. I've been a planting lunatic. Early crops, succesion planting peas and greens and summer/winter squach. One moment of scary below 32º last week freaked me out after perfect Spring weather for eons.

Thankfully nothing suffered.

Leftover green sauce from taco night on lamb tamales---now always in my freezer for a quick meal. 25 minutes steam from frozen .

i made an arugula pesto for the weekend using the 'down time' while steaming the tamales. Nice change from the floral basil usual.

* I was sent a massive 2 pounds of arugula by mistake i did not pay for. No waste here. i froze a couple 1/2 pints for summer pasta salads. And nice for this weekends pasta salad i'll make tomorrow morning.

Made an easy meal of bison burgers. Wanted to try the arugula pesto before committing to a large batch. Good. Just needs some fresh veg like arugula, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil tossed in. A chilled summer pasta salad.

Some Sundays it’s either a roast or a curry.

DH made us a beef vindaloo curry practically from sratch and it was delicious.

What a treat to be cooked for. DH likes to help out and prep/chop. Always welcome.

First signs of summer, lobster rolls.

-sleeve

That vegetable salad was a biggie, and I finished the rest of it with a breaded pork chop and air-fried potatoes.

Yummy salad with both sausage and pork chop Jasdip. I believe you are the gorgeous lady in the green top... amirite?

Dinners...

soup, a minestrone variation with shaved parmesan

Fish cakes made from a local fish called Whiting. I usually make them Thai style but I didn’t have any lemon grass (in a tube) or fish sauce. Sriracha on top. ’Leaves’ from the garden. Lots of cilantro at this cooler time of the year. We don’t get frosts here in the city by the bay, but get heavy frosts inland at our country cabin.

We have this a lot in the cooler months, Shepherds Pie. We say ’shepherds’ pie even if it’s made with beef. Tradition. I guess it’s quite bland tasting but again that’s how we grew up with it. A little worchestershire sauce in the mixture does wonders.

What is the saying ... when life gives you avocados make avocado mousse. I’ve seen this recipe around on the net and thought I’d try, so easy and quite good, very rich. Only 3 ingredients, avocado, raw cacao and maple syrup whizzed up with a stick blender till silky smooth.

We would like that desert. I've come across recipes but forget when we have ripe avocadoes.

We have had so many good meals recently.

Cod cakes with a creole remoulade. Shaved salad--fennel, celery, white carrots. Over arugula and flagolet beans.

-sleeve

Shrimp and dumplings. Noodle bowls still in the weekly rotation. My Dashi has much improved since watching AlexFrenchGuy's recent ramem series.

-sleeve

Last weeks Taco Tuesday.

I used flank steak. Local farm share. We had our doubts. Often shoe leather tough. Used a ATK recipe. 3-4 hour marinade, then into the oven at low temp---recipe 225ºF but i used 210º as my oven runs hot. Until interior reached 150º. A rest and into the fridge on an ice pack with a dry brine. ---dinner a few hours away. Good sear in a cast iron. It was excellent. Tender and med-rare on the rare side.

I've been making fresh green sauces based on a Peruvian recipe. (healthy full crisper drawer)

This was second day flank. The other half. Day before was with NJ asparagus. Flank steak over polenta.

The basic core order from the farm share is their choice. I did grumble at frist but now up to the challenge of trying new-to-me cuts of proteins. (i can select many add-ons not problem). Like stock bones, chicken backs, necks, and feets.

-sleeve

The flank steak looks delicious and I appreciate you telling the method of cooking which was kind of different to anything would have done. Noodle bowls equals = yum.

More soup. The buttered bread made a meal of it.

Chicken thigh pounded flat (ish) for lemon piccata with orzo and corn. Broccoli and a tomato, cucumber and avocado salad as extra sides.

Insane weather. 2.pm yesterday no exageration. So sorry for those suffering much more than our air quality. Fortunately we all have good masks and are used to wearing them. NY state handed out a few million for those that had to go out and got caught in the worst of it. Most schools closed today. Nice weather at 70ºF so no heat or AC needed.

We roasted a good size chicken last Sunday and had it with fresh NJ asparagus over polenta. Made a small stock with the frame, handful of feet, package of chicken necks, and a couple beef neck slices. Vegetables and aromatics. 6 pints. One pint into a noodle/dumpling bowl. With white miso/ginger.

DH has had such a big appetite the past few weeks. lol...his bowl...

Another taco Tuesday using the last of the chicken. Chili crisp rubbed corn tortillas.

Mies en place. And another Peruvian style green sauce.

-sleeve

Last night sirloin with a shaved fennel, celery, cucumber, radish salad.

-sleeve

Always fresh looking, tasty meals, Sleeve.

Neely, your chicken piccata looks so good, and I see you're still eating orzo. I still love that stuff! LOL

Uh, Neely, I'm the 'other' gorgeous lady!! 🤣🤣

I was out with girlfriends last night to our usual dance; today I spent time with another friend and her horses. Dinner was something I wanted quick and easy, so nachos to the rescue.

SWMBO wanted a “pasta“ dish using spiralized veg. I wanted linguine a la vongole, but the seafood stalls at the farmers farmer’s market were out of clams and mussels. We had lots of random stuff to use up. So I made a roasted pepper and oyster cream sauce with spiralized carrot ”pasta”.

This is carmelized onion, garlic, scallion heads, roasted red and yellow peppers, and jarred oysters, diced and wok-sauteed with red pepper flake, with plenty of butter and heavy cream, on the carrot ”pasta”.

I was worried that the spiciness of the roasted pepper and red pepper wouldn’t work with the mild butter and cream, but it did. The carrot ”pasta” makes it Healthy.

Sleeve, is the air better now in NYC?

I’m hoping we don’t have another smoky summer here in the PNW. But the odds are not good.

Air quality is much improved. I've been checking AirNow.gov a few times a day. Masking really helps but eyes burning is uncomfortable. We have good, somewhat, form fitting safety glasses but not prescription.

My last spiral was a big white carrot and fat diakon radish from a local farm share in a dashi. Ramen egg and avocado for some protein. A meatless meal.

Made a nice shrimp and swordfish chowder last night. With proscuitto crisps. And ongiri sticky rice balls.

Ongiri testing for an lgbtq event next month. I can get 18 out of a cup of rice. Making various colors with natural dyes. Some vegan, some shrimp/salmon.

That onigiri is very interesting!

What are good natural food dyes?

Sticky rice balls were the hit of my holiday cooking for my family. I wish i had traveled with two 2lb bags.

This brand launched last year. 4Sisters. Louisana grown.

With hijiki, wakame, furikake it smells like the ocean.

And a little nutty with the seeds.

Spirilina, (green and blue), turmeric, macha, beet root powder, red cabbage/baking soda, blendered greens, ...last night i googled 'rainbow sushi' and found lots of ideas that did not exist 5-10 years ago.

Easy-ish do-ahead and traveling in a bamboo steamer stack. Inside out sushi. And i have a big sleeve of nori snack bags for some wrapping.

Initially i was getting too complicated planning mini lobster rolls and baby cod cakes.

I don't have a gluten-free option but i can't please all. Though i could make polenta/falafel ball.

First time using my cataplana in a while! Making a carrot rice with chicken and mussels.

In one side, saute diced chicken and mussels. In the other, rice with butter, oil, stock, shallots, grated carrot, garlic, herbs, and curry powder.

Combine then close to steam

Open and garnish to serve.

Cataplana---i had to look that up.

I'm breaking in a new wok so an egg and chicken thigh fried rice in on the menu.

A link to RainbowSushi

"I didn’t want to use any artificial food colouring, but chose to go for all natural food colourings, such as:

• Spirulina powder to make green, you can also use matcha powder
• Turmeric to make the yellow (if you combine a bit of turmeric with spirulina you get a light greenish colour)
• Beet powder (or juice) to create a red colour (and combining this with a bit of turmeric makes orange)
• Gochujang although red makes a nice orange if u use a little
• Purple cabbage make a nice purple and adding baking soda to the purple cabbage water turns it blue."

Cashew, egg, and chicken fried rice. Lots of ginger and vegetables.

-sleeve

Interesting cooking container there John Liu and a delicious looking meal as a result of using it.

Many delicious looking meals cooked by Sleeve.

A friend gave me a meal bag from her Fresh food delivery which I followed as per the instructions as I wanted to see how people are cooking with these complete meals and instructions. Turned out quite tasty although I did blacken the outside of the fish too much but it wasn’t overcooked and tasted pretty good. The only ingredient that wasn’t included was a tablespoon of olive oil which I guess the company figures that everyone has olive oil in their pantry.

As usual, I'm far behind. I've been busy gardening here, lots of hoeing and weeding and sprinkling. I replanted a row of green beans that never came up at all but everything else is doing well. We have three new calves and we've had a couple of 90F days already, I don't like that at all. Ugh.

Sleevendog, I was seeing that smoke on the news from the wildfires. I'm glad it's cleared up a bit for you. And those lobster rolls, yum!

Neely, thanks for the picture of the "wattle". It's very pretty, especially those yellow trees with the purple flowers in that picture. As for whiting, I've had that. Elery and I caught some when we were in Texas and I cooked it at the rental we stayed in. It's inexpensive at the local grocery stores if you buy it frozen, but the fresh stuff was so much better.

Here we're eating lots of asparagus and I just picked the first strawberries and cut the garlic scapes. No pictures of the berries, but I cut these scapes, my chef/neighbor wanted some for mashed potatoes for some guests. I was happy to give them to her, I haven't found anything to do with them that we really like very much.

Elery's oldest granddaughter graduated from high school and had a "dessert only" open house. I made brownies and 7 layer bars, and her favorite cookie, craftyrn's Cucciadati. Since Jamison went to Italy a couple of summers ago and ate them there, she's happy when I make them.

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, on May 30, and so I made myself a caramel cake. I always bake my own cake so I can try new recipes every year, LOL. This was a favorite of several family members and I'll definitely make it again.

Oh, real food? A couple of days ago I roasted a chicken:

Since I've been picking lots of lettuce/spinach/mizuna from the hoophouses, tonight for supper we had big salads made of various leaves and some of the leftover chicken. This was Elery's, I added some feta to his:

We had burgers yesterday from our grassfed beef and some brioche buns. Added some leaves, of course.

Because I have lots of eggs, I made a breakfast for supper kind of egg casserole with mushrooms, sausage, onions and the end of a couple of pieces of cheese in the cheese drawer.

Another meal was some breaded shrimp done in the oven with a salad of wilted lettuce and some roasted asparagus.

I made soup from some of my dried bean mix from last year's garden, added lots of vegetables and some brown rice, I was happy with it as a "vegetarian" meal.

Just so I didn't get too healthy, I made some cornbread and I ate mine with butter. The hot sauce is definitely not mine, LOL.

I also helped Amanda do some more "freezer" cooking. We made lots of meatballs, pattied out some seasoned ground beef for quick burgers, made calzones and some chicken cordon bleu rolled in potato chip crumbs to make it gluten free.

I baked bread for breakfast toast too.

I roasted some salmon with more asparagus last week and I made a rhubarb pie as well as some oatmeal cookies for the people working at the Township clean up weekend. We have asparagus in the fridge for tomorrow's supper too, I don't want to freeze any more and we take full advantage of that patch of asparagus while it's available.

And here is a "baby picture", just for fun. Isn't he just cute and fuzzy?

Annie

Neely, your plating is so much more appetizing than the recipe card. I think of jerk seasoning dark like yours.

So busy Annie. In the kitchen and out on the farm. What a cutie calf.

I have forgotten about potato chips for a crust. I keep wanting to try pork rinds but i . always eat them before i get the chance. A local empanada shop (hand pies) sweet and savory, has one that uses a cornmeal crust. A bit thick for my likes, but i bet a fine cornmeal or mixed with another GF flour would work in a tortilla press.

DH thought my strawberries were weeds. But my blueberries are big shrubs and the new ones i put in last year are looking good, (and well marked)

For some reason i've been avoiding anything fussy, rolly, stuffed, pleated. But this was easy. I just made four quick sushi rolls. Used the last of the sticky rice.

-sleeve

Your DH pulled your strawberries? Oh geez. Well, at least they grow fast and are relatively inexpensive. The plants, not the berries...

Neely, I've never had barramundi and have never seen it for sale here. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Tonight for supper we had roasted asparagus, roasted turkey thighs and some corn on the cob. Not local but it was still pretty good. I took the remaining two ears and mixed it with salsa and black beans for Elery to eat with tortillas.

Annie

So good to see all your photos and hear all your news Annie... that burger looks perfect.

I could just pop one of those sushi into my mouth Sleeve.

Below...bowl full of goodness

Ramen noodle bowl

Yum. Just made a pot of black beans for the weekend.

I've recently watched a few MarkWeins videos. He is in Australia at the moment. Beautiful. Just watched his travels on theGreatOceanRoad. Amazing seafood.

Beef tamales. Another Peruvian green sauce. Cleaned the blender jar with vinegar, olive oil, half an avocado, spoon of yogurt, for a green goddess salad dressing. Oaxacan black beans.

-sleeve

Mr Sleeves birthday week so i've been making all his favorite meals. Last night BoSaam, (pulled pork) tacos. Green sauce at the table for dipping. He could drink that stuff. Loves it.

Proof I’m influencd by this thread... Annie’s burger looked so good, I had to make one and the reference to potato chips sent me to buy some and have as a side

We are having bison burgers tonight. : )

Last night i made a big batch of chili crisp and a jar of furikaki.while prepping dinner. Similar ingredients but furikaki has a snack-pack of ground nori. A dry spice blend.

Made birthday boy shrimp rolls and loaded potato salad. Similar recipe, no-mayo potato salad

Shrimp Rolls

When the up-coming event was 8-10 i wanted to make a starter. Mini shrimp rolls, small scoop of potato salad one end, a quarter round of corn on the other end. Ordered these cute wooden boats. Now that we are up to 18-20 people i'm shifting to small bites---8 sushi rolls is easy.-- 48 pieces. A couple vegan/vegetarian. The rest will be vegan onigiri rice balls. Easy travel in my stacked bamboo steamers.

Potato salad prep. Made enough for tonights burgers.

Goodness Sleeve... you just catered for 18-20 people???? and with all that yummy food. I would have been running in circles. Those little boats are very cute. Happy birthday to Mr Sleeve.

OK last Spring post...perhaps!!

I fished some frozen flourless orange cake out of the freezer and was pleased it had frozen just fine. Had it after dinner.

Feeling like summer here for sure.

I'm not hosting or catering. Just offered to make a 'small bite' appetizer. The head count keeps changing so i scrapped the shrimp or lobster rolls. If i prep the rice and veg ingredients the night before, it should take about an hour morning of.