June 12 - Vegetable Garden Week 11

This is belated, but last weekend we had snap peas and lots of lettuce!

A salad with super freshly picked lettuce is just so much better and tastier and crunchier. It's the best. The adorable container up there with the snap peas is ceramic and from my friend Kara and will get so much use this summer for snap peas, grape tomatoes, and other little garden items. Thanks, Kara!

Rhubarb Galette

I had a little pie crust left over from making strawberry rhubarb pie last weekend, so I made a little galette. Galettes are great when you either don't have a pie tin/plate, you only have a little pie dough, or you want something a little more rustic You also get a little extra crust, which is always tasty. This one was great. It's a little sweet, tart, and the dough with the cornmeal makes such a flaky crust. I served it with some fresh strawberry ice cream and is was an amazing, summery dessert. 

May 31 - Vegetable Garden Week 9

The garden is great. The snap peas are about 2 feet high, the tomatoes are growing well, and we actually have some strawberries growing. The mulch is keeping the weeds down and it looks nicer. We're still getting radishes, but I'm looking forward to snap peas and all the other good veggies. 

Grilled Lobster

This is such a great way to do lobster. The cutting them down the middle while they're alive is a little awful/creepy/terrifying. I had Jamie do it, but I think you can ask a fishmonger to do it for you, too. The combination of the herb butter and the smoke of the grill gives the meat an excellent flavor and seems to concentrate the flavor, too. Definitely want to make this again!

May 16 - Vegetable Garden Week 7

Everything is growing! It's so nice to have radishes because we've already gotten to harvest a few and eat them. This is great because most things (tomatoes, beans, eggplants, cucumbers, etc) won't be ready for a few months. We put down mulch to try to keep down weeds and hold in moisture (we didn't do it last year) so hopefully that will make life easier in the long run.

Summer Rolls

These are the best summer rolls I've made. They were so fresh and flavorful and crunchy. I did use this and this for inspiration and sort of merged them. Yum!

Makes 8 summer rolls

Ingredients:

1/2 lb shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1/2 tsp grated ginger

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tbsp canola or vegetable oil

2 carrots, peeled and shredded 

1/2 cucumber, cut into matchsticks

Snap peas

3 scallions, cut into matchsticks

1 handful cilantro, chopped

1 handful mint leaves

Red leaf lettuce, ripped into pieces

Handful of peanuts, roughly chopped

8 rice paper rounds

Grilled Rack of Lamb

These lamb chops are fantastic! The flavors are so great, and it's really simple. I took the ingredients from this lamb rib recipe and converted it for a rack of lamb (basically just changing the cooking time/method). Can't wait to make it again. The vinegar baste adds a great tang, and I love pomegranate molasses with lamb for a sour sweetness. The sugar in the rub adds a crispy, flavorful crust when charred. It only needs an hour at room temperature to marinate in the spice rub, so it's a great weeknight dinner or pretty easy weekend dinner party meal. 

Ingredients:

1 rack lamb chops

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp ground coriander

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp kosher salt

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar 

1 tbsp pomegranate molasses