April 27th, 2011

April showers bring May flowers AND May vegetables (but that doesn’t rhyme…).  In mid March I put in the onion and potato sets, lettuce seeds, and green pea seeds and waited.

Green peas are blooming.  I tried 2 kinds of peas, ones that require a trellis and ones that can just go crazy trellis free.  The trellis free plants are by far winning.

My first broccoli.  This is actually a vegetable the girls will eat, so I’m thrilled it’s taking off.

The lettuce.

This Italian girl loves her some arugula (and apparently some pesky bug too)!

I plan to harvest the potatoes when my father in law is in town.  They are one of his favorite home grown treats.

Last year I had a disappointing onion production and am hoping to redeem myself in 2011.

The girls are loving that garden season is back.  Their favorite thing is to run back and forth on this stone path by the garden and play.  Today was playing Wizard of Oz.  One of them was Dorothy and the other the Wicked Witch and they ran from each other.  Very intricate. 

For dinner I decided to do an oven meal, which means I put a protein, vegetables, and starch I have on hand in the oven and roast it.  Hopefully I can figure out a way it goes together on a plate in a non manic way.

I also had a PERFECT avocado and wanted to use it before it went south on me.  So I made my southwest salad.  I normally use (roasted) corn, avocado, broken up tortilla chips, chives, cilantro, and dressing of equal parts bbq sauce and ranch.  If I don’t have an avocado, I’ll put canned black beans in it instead.  I served that with southwest roasted chicken and crostini.  For the chicken I put the skinless breasts on a baking sheet with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, chili powder, and cumin.  All easy and all yummy.  Now I need to use up all my store bought mixed greens so I can harvest lettuce in the garden.  ‘Tis the season!