Lollygagging in Lisa's Larder- May

May was a busy month and I feel like I did not get to spend as much time in the kitchen as I typically do.  Pat & I spent a lot of time prepping the garden, yard, grass, and all things growing. But I was able to cook a few fun things so here is a short recap.

"A" is for Asparagus

and we ate a lot of it in May. We bought it most weeks at the farmer's market as ours is in the first season and have to wait until next year to harvest.  I made a quiche and a frittata. The quiche was better than the frittata. The quiche had swiss cheese and ham added to it while the frittata was just asparagus.  Of course both had the fresh eggs in them.

I made Pat's favorite granola bars this month......

 I had not made them since we had moved in so he was very appreciative of my efforts that night. These are made with a variety of dried fruit and nuts and a sprinkling of chocolate chips. We seemed to live on these last summer as we worked late at night here as the house was under construction. He also takes one to the lake each week and as that work program started up again this past week I felt the need to fill the box for him. Yum. 

May is the season for both strawberries and rhubarb so  I made some jam.

 As we try to avoid eating desserts on a regular basis I held off on the strawberry-rhubarb pie. So the jars of jam will come in handy .  I make a great chicken dish with some of the rhubarb but since it looks unappealing I did not take a picture of it.



Hummus is another summertime staple in this house.

 As I pressure can the garbonzo beans in the winter I have plenty to blend into hummus in the summer.  This is made with garlic from the garden and some roasted red pepper I bought at the grocery store. Along with crackers, this is a great item to grab in a hurry.

Uncle jack and Aunt Kathy brought me some lemon curd when they  visited this past winter. Aunt Kathy  has lemon trees in her yard in California and has to find ways to preserve them and one way is the lemon curd she makes.  It was delicious!!!!  So when I came across this recipe for rhubarb curd I was excited to try it. I struggle with ways to use the rhubarb from our yard. Rhubarb comes in two color varieties: green with red streaks and totally red. From the color of the jars or rhubarb curd you can summize that I have the green variety. They taste exactly the same. Most rhubarb recipes use red food coloring to enhance the looks but I try not to use food coloring in my kitchen. This stuff may look strange but let me tell you it is delicious--think creamy custard . I did not can it, just put it in these jars for the fridge and freezer. I've been  mixing it in yogurt.

Goat's milk yogurt.....

There is a lady in town who sells pasteurized goat's milk. Her goat's have passed health tests from the health dept so I feel confident purchasing it from her. Yogurt is really simple to make in the crock pot.Of course it can be made from regular milk from the grocery store but goat's milk has some different nutrition properties and is easier to digest.   It takes a bit of time to make but virtually none of it is hands on. After it cultures in the crock pot and then chills in the fridge I strained out the whey and ended up with 2 quarts of thick and creamy yogurt.  The chickens got the whey. I have been sweetening it with the jams I make, the rhubarb curd or just some honey and vanilla. It is really creamy and the thickness is determined by the length of time you strain out the whey. 

Stir-fry..........

The first of many to come this summer. A variety of items came from the farmer's market. But a few of the items were from our reserves and then I threw in a few of our dried cherry tomatoes. Summertime usually lends itself to stir-fry once a week, using  what is in season. 

And last but not least our 29th anniversary dinner .......

What a nice day. Pat and I got up early as usual and worked in the yard a bit.  Then when it was too hot to be outside I got to come into the house and spend a bit of time in the kitchen. Pat loves this roasted 3-seed bread so I made 2 loaves; one a traditional loaf so we can make sandwiches and then the more free-form loaf you see here. I served it with salmon that had a butter, lemon, dill sauce on it.  I served the salmon over a mixed bed of swiss chard and kale.  The lemon dill sauce flavored the greens nicely. On the side was some more of that locally grown rice we purchase at the farmer's market.  And of course there is always a salad at our table. This picture does not show it well since it is on a green plate. However, it did look pretty on the table.  Our lettuce bed in the garden is so full now we could be a restaurant supplier. I know it is such a short lived season so we enjoy it as long as we can before it bolts and becomes bitter. Of course no celebration is complete without a special dessert.  

I took pictures two ways so you could see what we had. I made dark chocolate, raspberry friands served with a cream custard. Now let me explain. Friands are a French tea cake made with egg whites that are very popular in Australia and New Zealand.  This particular recipe also included finely ground almonds. They are similar to a cupcake only very light in texture. Seeing as dark chocolate and raspberries are two of Pat's favorite I thought this would be an appropriate combo for our anniversary meal. The cream custard is like the stuff that goes in boston cream pie. It uses the egg yolks that are leftover from the friands.  I gave you two pictures so you could see how I served it and then what they look like on the inside. The recipe said it would make 6 but I ended up dividing the batter into 8. I was afraid to put too much batter in the tins after last months cupcake disaster so actually the friands could have been a bit taller; next time I will know how much they will rise. Pat said the recipe was a keeper. They smelled wonderful coming out of the oven. 

This dinner celebration was also unique in that we celebrated it with our new house guest.  Liz arrived on Sunday afternoon so she was able to join us in our dinner celebration. She seems to be a delightful young lady and we look forward to her visit over the next several weeks.