Green Egg

Miss Sue's birds are on a tear this summer, providing us with the most plentiful and delicious eggs we've ever had. Miss Sue always saves the green ones for us, and today we got the doozy you see. They are normally very beautiful shades of pastel green; check out this one's artichoke color!

Marie Antoinette (2006)

I owe Sofia Coppola an apology. I didn't see this in the theater, as, apparently, did almost no one else. That was a mistake; this is a terrific movie. Coppola called it "an emotional biography" or "a biography of feeling," or something. She was responding to questions about its deliberate anachronisms, but the best answer (as she no doubt knew) is simply the movie itself, which works wonderfully. It's beautiful to look at, with the costumes and the countryside and the Versailles, and it is thoughtful too, making one empathize with its titular child bride thrust into a life of immense privilege as well as restriction, and pilloried for it. This is a subject one imagines Coppola knows a thing or two about. For example, people like me saying: "she's young and attractive and wealthy and famous and I simply can't stand it if she's really talented too so I'm not seeing her movie." My loss.

Swiss Chard

In the vegetable kingdom, what beats swiss chard stalks for sheer prettiness? Not much. I used to throw them away until I tried cooking them and realized they're delicious; we had them sauteed with spring onions and the greens. Also brown rice, and lamb chops marinated in garlic and rosemary, then broiled.

First Harvest

The garden is brimming with edible, or pre-edible, delight. Carrots, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, squash, asparagus, persimmons, many herbs--much is promised this season. Last night we had our first turnips. I know what you're saying to yourself: "Why is Heather always on about the turnips? Everyone knows turnips are terrible. Maybe she read an article about how good they are for you or something." But really, honestly, the variety we grow give turnips a good, totally non-bitter name. And they are never more not bitter than in early spring, when, as we found last night, they are sweet and delicately flavored and wonderful. We had them with chicken in tarragon sauce, and sauteed their greens with leftover brown rice.

Red Cardigan

This pattern is called "Lush and Lacy" and is one of those delightful patterns that is both easy and fast to knit, while still being flattering to wear and interesting to work on. This took less than two weeks!

Frittata

Telling you about last night's dinner allows me to catch up, because it was a frittata of leftovers: pork steak, rice, and roasted vegetables. The main point is that the vegetables were terrific: fennel, kohlrabi, carrots, shiitakes. When they were new we had them with spinach/feta sausage, and quinoa.

Pork Steak

broiled, with sauteed (I first typed "suteed," which seems weirdly plausible given how deeply I browned them) apples and sage. Also quinoa and salad. You know what pork steak is, besides incredibly delicious? An awesome spondee.

Impromptu Salad

This was Friday night. I put together a salad of barley, diced fennel, roasted beets, salata cheese, toasted walnuts, and olive oil. It was delicious, though only really came alive when I added white wine vinegar. We had it with chicken and apple sausage. Sunday night was my spring onion and cilantro sauced chicken again, with barley and salad. And we made cookies! Perhaps nowhere else than in my cookies are my various health-food obsessions more clearly showcased. The peanut butter cookies we made, for example, contain coconut oil, half the sugar called for in the recipe, and a combination of whole wheat and kamut flours. Mmmm good.

Thai Chicken Ginger Sausage

with brown rice and shredded, sauteed brussels sprouts.

Chicken

Friends, this one was a winner. I browned chicken thighs, then sauteed spring onions and cilantro in the drippings, then deglazed the whole thing with vegetable stock and poured over the chicken. Seriously, I didn't have any idea how good it would be (mainly because I was just throwing together things as I saw them). We had it with quinoa and fresh sugar snap peas. Once I start on the sugar snap peas I can't stop until they're all gone, so it's just as well the CSA sent us a modest load this week.

Grilled Snapper

with baked sweet potatoes and salad mix. This was among other things a very pretty meal, as any meal with sweet potatoes and greens tends to be.

The Number 23 (2007)

I hate to pollute The Enthusiast with disses, so let's just say, the reviewers were right about this one. My favorite review can be found here.

Roast Pork Leftovers

I'll tell you what we had for dinner on the understanding that sometimes bare reporting totally under-represents the actual deliciousness of what we ate: leftover roast pork with sauteed apples, roasted potatoes, and roasted cauliflower. The last was particularly beautiful pre-roasting, all snowy white on top and lovely purple underneath.

Periwinkle Sylph Cardigan

My favorite knit object so far. This lovely and intricate pattern worked out, for once in my knitting life, just as I'd hoped. It fits, it's flattering, it was fun to make. Even my technique was up to par, with only a few minor uglinesses that I won't point out, and will, perhaps, in time, forget myself. Finishing a wool (well, alpaca and silk) cardigan just as summer is getting into gear is perhaps a little ill-timed, but on the other hand, I won't really be the right size for it until next winter anyway.

Pork Roast

with apples, brown rice, salad mix.

Leftover Ribs

with baked sweet potatoes, and sauteed Swiss chard and beet greens. Mmm.

Lamb Chops

quinoa, roasted vegetables. This is meal planning by Madlibs, I know.

Knitting Basket

By happy chance the projects in my knitting basket make a pleasing color palette, I think (though as always the picture is less saturated than the real thing). The basket itself, by the way, is awesome: the Reisenthel market tote. Reisenthel is a German company specializing in light, sturdy, ergonomic containers of various kinds, and they really hit it with this one.

Leftoverpalooza

Refried ribs, reheated rice, and roasted vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, and turnips).

Meal in a Bowl

What's better than protein, complex carb, and vegetable side by side on a plate? Why, mixed all together, of course. Last night we had a melange of brown rice, leftover ribs, mei quing cabbage, and spring garlic. Very delicious. We live at the epicenter of good barbecue and always have too much when we get it; I discovered early on that it is just as good, if not better, chopped up later and re-fried.

When the Cat's Away, Pt. II

Toasted wild-yeast sourdough with stilton, an apple, a leftover chicken-ginger sausage, and leftover roasted vegetables. Nothing could be finer.

Pork Chops

with brown rice and roasted vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, and asparagus. That last is surprisingly amenable to roasting).